What was intended to be a minor change to services may, if not properly implemented, compromise the delivery of the services as a whole. For example, if a private party provides communications services, a poorly implemented upgrade to the communications hardware used to provide those services may cause the hardware to cease functioning. The implementation of changes should be carefully controlled and, where appropriate, changes should go through a rigorous testing process before being fully implemented. Any control and testing process specified in the project deed (or associated project contracts) should be highlighted in the contract administration manual.
For major change processes, including transfer of the project assets back to the government party at the end of the contract term (as detailed in Chapter 17), the parties should jointly develop and agree on a detailed implementation plan for the change (in some circumstances referred to as a transition plan). Developing the plan should commence well in advance of implementation.
Suitable testing processes will depend on the nature of the services concerned. Any acceptance testing procedure used for commissioning the project may be a useful guide. For change control processes within the project deed (or associated project contracts), the process should specify the appropriate testing process.