---
title: "Change management plan in the ACMP Standard: design it, get it approved"
url: https://leanova-academy.com/acmp-standard-change-management-plan/
author: "Marc-André Rochefort"
date_published: 2026-10-16T11:00:00+02:00
date_modified: 2026-10-16T20:34:36+02:00
categories: ["Organizational Change"]
image: https://leanova-academy.com/uploads/2026/10/acmp-standard-change-management-plan.webp
description: "The change management plan of the ACMP Standard (group 5.3) turns strategy into eight component plans, aligns them with the project plan, wins approval…"
site: "Leanova Academy"
license: "© Académie Leanova inc. Short quotations with a link to the source are welcome; full reproduction requires written permission."
---

# Change management plan in the ACMP Standard: design it, get it approved

> The change management plan of the ACMP Standard (group 5.3) turns strategy into eight component plans, aligns them with the project plan, wins approval from project leadership and sets up the feedback that keeps it honest.

This site follows Leanova Academy, an official ACMP® QEP™, and this article covers the third process group of the ACMP Standard for Change Management, second edition (2025): how to turn a strategy into a plan that people can run, and how to get that plan approved.

Section 5.3 is short compared with the groups around it, yet it is where a change effort becomes a schedule, a budget and a set of named owners. If you are new to the structure, [the overview of the Standard](https://leanova-academy.com/acmp-standard-for-change-management-explained/) shows where this group sits among the five.

## What is the change management plan in the ACMP Standard?

It is the document set that records what must be done, when, and with which resources to deliver the change, and the Standard describes it as the “how” that follows the strategy.

Section 5.3 of the Standard separates two ideas that people often blend. The strategy of group 5.2 sets direction: what the effort intends to achieve and which levers it will use. The plan fixes the detail: who does what, by when, with which resources, and how progress will be watched. The Standard calls the whole a series of component plans, scaled to the complexity and risk of the change, so a small process tweak and a company-wide platform migration should not produce plans of the same weight.

The Standard also lists what a plan should reflect: the goals and intended outcomes from 5.1, the steps and their owners, how the effort will be facilitated, transitioned and sustained, the dependencies between activities, and the assumptions, issues and risks. It adds a few questions worth asking early, such as how the workforce will gain the skills it needs and how you will know that behaviors have really been adopted.

  **Strategy versus plan**

Strategy answers why and what; the plan answers how, who and when. The Standard expects the level of detail to follow complexity and risk, not a fixed template.

## Which processes make up group 5.3?

Four processes: 5.3.1 develop the comprehensive plan, 5.3.2 integrate it with the project plan, 5.3.3 review and approve it with project leadership, and 5.3.4 build feedback mechanisms.

One quirk is worth knowing. The table of contents of the second edition lists only three processes for 5.3 and leaves out the integration step, so the numbering of review and feedback shifts by one there. The body of the text and Annex B both carry four, and this series follows the body. If you quote a section number in an exam answer or a project document, use the body numbering and you will match the text.

As with the rest of Section 5, the Standard does not impose a sequence. You can draft the component plans in parallel, loop back after a new assessment, and repeat any process. The order below simply reflects how the inputs depend on one another.

## What goes into the eight component plans?

Section 5.3.1 defines eight plans, one for each strategy of group 5.2: resource, sponsorship, stakeholder engagement, communication, readiness, learning and development, measurement and benefit realization, and sustainability.

The table below gives each plan’s section number, the decision it records and the output the Standard names. The wording is a paraphrase, not a copy of the text.

| Section | Plan | What it settles | Named output |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 5.3.1.1 | Resource Plan | Financial, human, information and physical resources, how to obtain them and when they are used | Resource Plan |
| 5.3.1.2 | Communication Plan | Audiences, messages, senders, channels, frequency, timing, cost and feedback | Communication Plan |
| 5.3.1.3 | Sponsorship Plan | What each leader is responsible for, their agreement to it, and how their sponsor skills will grow | Sponsorship Plan |
| 5.3.1.4 | Stakeholder Engagement Plan | Activities and metrics that close the gap between each group’s current and future state | Stakeholder Engagement Plan |
| 5.3.1.5 | Readiness Plan | Readiness criteria per stakeholder group, measures and reporting of progress | Readiness Plan |
| 5.3.1.6 | Learning and Development Plan | Learning groups, curriculum, skills gaps, job aids, delivery and evaluation | Learning and Development Plan |
| 5.3.1.7 | Measurement and Benefit Realization Plan | Baselines, measurement schedule, report template and who owns each metric | Measurement and Benefit Realization Plan |
| 5.3.1.8 | Sustainability Plan | How the change is anchored: reinforcement, ownership, metrics and continuous improvement | Sustainability Plan |

Each plan starts from the matching strategy, which is why [the article on the eight strategies](https://leanova-academy.com/acmp-standard-change-management-strategy/) is a useful companion. The assessments of group 5.1, covered in [the article on impact and readiness](https://leanova-academy.com/acmp-standard-evaluate-change-impact-readiness/), feed the plans as well, notably the stakeholder analysis, the sponsor assessment and the change risks assessment.

## In what order should the eight plans be written?

Start with the Resource Plan and the Measurement and Benefit Realization Plan, because several other plans list them as inputs.

Reading the input lists in the Standard shows the dependencies. The Resource Plan is an input to the communication, stakeholder engagement, learning and development, and sustainability plans. The sustainability plan also draws on the measurement plan, and the stakeholder engagement plan should stay consistent with the sponsorship plan, since the Standard notes that leaders and influential stakeholders should deliver aligned messages. The readiness plan draws on four strategies (readiness, learning, measurement and sustainability).

A practical order follows from this: resources and measurement first, then sponsorship and stakeholder engagement together, then communication and learning, then readiness, and finally sustainability. The diagram below shows each of the eight threads running from strategy to plan to execution, so you can see where one plan hands over to the next group.

![Eight themes, each followed from strategy (5.2) to plan (5.3.1) to execution (5.4.1).](https://leanova-academy.com/uploads/2026/10/acmp-standard-fil-en.svg)
*How the eight themes run through groups 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4.*

  **A useful test for each plan**

Can someone who did not attend the planning workshop read the plan and tell who does what next week? If not, the plan is still a strategy.

## How do you integrate the change plan with the project plan?

You agree, early, how change management and project management relate, then align roles, method, tools, objectives and risks, so that the two plans become one schedule of work.

Process 5.3.2 recommends defining the relationship when the governance structure is set up. The Standard names two common patterns: change and project professionals as peers who align their activities, or change management as a workstream inside the project team. It then lists five dimensions of integration.

- **Roles and responsibilities:** how the change team relates to the project team, and who owns what.
- **Methodology and plan:** a structured approach that fits the project method, with change work starting at project initiation.
- **Tools and resources:** shared instruments such as the communication plan, risk plans and resource plans.
- **Objectives and outcomes:** adoption and usage objectives written into the project’s own objectives.
- **Risks:** stakeholder-related risks, such as resistance, with an owner agreed from the start.

The outputs are updated change management plans and an updated project plan. The Standard also allows the change lead to keep monitoring the change plans separately, so that alignment can be checked and updates passed on. For the wider relationship between the two disciplines, section 4.4 of the Standard is the place to start.

## How are the plans reviewed and approved?

Process 5.3.3 has you review the plans with project leadership so that they are folded into the project plan, and its output is a set of approved change management plans.

The purpose is shared awareness. Project leaders should know the milestones of the change plan, see how they fit with project activities, and agree to them. The Standard says this collaboration avoids duplicated effort, aligns work plans and raises stakeholder awareness. It does not prescribe a meeting format, a committee or a sign-off form, so you choose what suits your governance.

A fictional example: Northgate Health, a regional hospital group, is replacing its rota software. The change lead brings the eight draft plans to the project steering group in a single session. The communication timetable collides with a payroll cut-over planned for the same fortnight, so the group moves the cut-over, and the approved version of the Communication Plan records the new dates. Nothing in the Standard demanded that exact outcome; it shows why the review is a negotiation and not a presentation.

  **What “approved” gives you**

An approved plan is a baseline. Without one, 5.4 has nothing to monitor against, and 5.4.2 has nothing to modify. Keep the approval date and the version on record.

## What are feedback mechanisms for, and which plans do they update?

They collect and analyze data on progress against planned objectives and milestones, so you can adjust the plans; the Standard lists four plans as outputs of 5.3.4.

Process 5.3.4 sits inside the planning group on purpose: you design the way you will learn that the plan is failing before you launch it. The Standard mentions informal sources such as conversations, email replies and information-sharing forums, and formal mechanisms that let the team respond and judge whether the plans work. Feedback should be gathered often, at set intervals so that results can be compared, then shared with the project leadership and used in future planning.

The updated outputs named in 5.3.4 are the Communication Plan, the Stakeholder Engagement Plan, the Learning and Development Plan and the Measurement and Benefit Realization Plan. These are the four plans most sensitive to how people respond. What happens when the data arrives is the subject of [the article on executing the plan](https://leanova-academy.com/acmp-standard-execute-change-management-plan/).

## What mistakes weaken a change management plan?

The most common are writing the plan once and filing it, treating the eight plans as separate documents, and skipping the link to the project schedule.

- **Plan-as-ritual:** the Standard says the plan is shared with key stakeholders and kept under watch and update, so a static document misses its intent.
- **Eight silos:** a communication calendar that ignores the training calendar sends people messages about a tool they cannot yet use.
- **Detail without ownership:** a metric with no named owner will not trigger action when it drifts.
- **Parallel schedules:** a change plan that lives outside the project plan loses the argument for time and budget.

For a broader look at how to build capability across a year rather than one project, the Leanova Academy blog has [a twelve-month change capability roadmap for teams](https://www.leanovaacademy.com/blog/twelve-month-change-capability-roadmap), which complements the single-effort view taken here.

## How does this group relate to the CCMP exam?

The ACMP builds the CCMP from the Standard and its job task analysis, so planning, integration and approval are part of what a candidate should be able to reason about.

The exam has been based on the second edition since 1 April 2026. The ACMP does not publish a weighting for each process group in the Standard, so there is no basis for saying how many questions concern 5.3. The sensible preparation is to know the eight plans, their purposes, and the four processes by number and name, then practice applying them to scenarios; our [six-week study plan](https://leanova-academy.com/ccmp-study-plan-six-weeks/) shows one way to organize that. A 21-hour course from a Qualified Education Provider is one of the ACMP’s requirements, and [the self-paced CCMP course at Leanova Academy](https://www.leanovaacademy.com/link/MVR50Q?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.leanovaacademy.com%2Fcourse%2Fmastering-ccmp-exam-acmp-qep-training) is built on the Standard. The Standard itself is available from the ACMP at [the ACMP Standard page](https://www.acmpglobal.org/page/ACMPStandard).

## Frequently asked questions

### Is the change management plan the same as the strategy?

No. The strategy in 5.2 gives direction and the plan in 5.3 gives detail: actions, timelines, resources and owners. The plan is made of eight component plans, one for each strategy theme.

### Do I have to produce all eight plans?

The Standard says the practitioner chooses the processes that are needed and that the level of detail should reflect complexity and risk. A small change may fold several plans into one page; a large one may need each in full.

### Who approves the plan?

Process 5.3.3 has the plans reviewed and approved in collaboration with project leadership. The Standard does not name a single approver, so your governance structure decides who signs.

### Why does the table of contents show three processes for 5.3?

The table of contents of the second edition omits the integration process 5.3.2, while the body of the text and Annex B list four. Follow the body when you cite section numbers.

### Where do I read the full text?

The ACMP publishes the Standard and the Code of Ethics. Use the ACMP page linked above, and read section 5.3 alongside this summary, which paraphrases and does not replace it.

  **Further reading on Leanova Academy’s blog**

- [A Twelve-Month Change Capability Roadmap for Teams](https://www.leanovaacademy.com/link/MVR50Q?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.leanovaacademy.com%2Fblog%2Ftwelve-month-change-capability-roadmap)
- [Change Communication Plans That People Actually Read](https://www.leanovaacademy.com/link/MVR50Q?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.leanovaacademy.com%2Fblog%2Fchange-communication-plan)
- [The Sponsor Roadmap: Getting Executives to Do the Work](https://www.leanovaacademy.com/link/MVR50Q?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.leanovaacademy.com%2Fblog%2Fsponsor-roadmap)

   **Course mentioned in this article**

[CCMP® Exam Prep, 21-hour self-paced ACMP® QEP™ course](https://www.leanovaacademy.com/link/MVR50Q?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.leanovaacademy.com%2Fcourse%2Fmastering-ccmp-exam-acmp-qep-training) at Leanova Academy, official ACMP® QEP™. Prices as displayed on 7 October 2026. [All courses at Leanova](https://www.leanovaacademy.com/link/MVR50Q).

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## À propos de l'auteur

**Marc-André Rochefort** — Marc-André Rochefort, Eng., MBA, CCMP®, MCMP™, Prosci® certified, is the founder and president of Leanova Academy, an official ACMP® Qualified Education Provider™ (QEP™) whose change management courses are followed in more than 50 countries. He writes the guides of this site from the ACMP® Standard for Change Management© and the providers’ public pages, and dates every price he quotes.