Task: Manage Changing Requirements
Maintain consistency between requirements and corresponding project modules as changes occur over time.
Disciplines: Requirements
Purpose
  • To identify changes needed to requirements
  • To update requirements in accordance with approved change requests
  • To maintain validity and consistency of requirements and other project work products
  • To understand the impact of requirement changes
Relationships
RolesPrimary Performer: Additional Performers:
InputsMandatory:
    Optional:
    • None
    Outputs
      Main Description

      This task describes how requirements changes are managed over time.

      Changes might cause you to add, edit, or remove requirements. In order to keep a complete change history, you must remove requirements by marking them as obsolete in the project, rather than physically deleting the requirements. Transaction information is captured in the requirement repository for further reference. After the change, it is necessary to re-assess the traceability, and ensure the validity and consistency across the project.

      Steps
      Identify changes

      Monitor changing needs and request changes as appropriate.

      Over the lifetime of a project, requirements can change to address the changing needs of stakeholders, and to reflect improved understanding as the project progresses.  Also new requirements can be derived as a result of technology and implementation decisions.

      In less formal organizations, there will be some focal coordinating role that is responsible for ensuring that changes are approved. In organizations that apply rigorous change management practices, approved change requests will come from a Change Control Board (CCB).

      Analyze change impact

      Support the change approval process by analyzing the impact of requested changes, as needed.  This may be an in-depth specification of changes to the wording of requirements, as well as assessing traceability and impact on other requirements and other work products.

      Specify changes

      Identify how approved change requests need to be reflected in the requirements, the attributes, and traceability.


      Record and update the changes

      Add, update, or remove requirement text based on the approved changes. Update the revision number of the requirement, and describe the changes made.

      If you must delete a requirement, mark it as "obsolete" instead. This will preserve the change history of the requirement for reference.

      Update affected requirements and work products

      Examine the traceability links going to and from modified requirements to see if the changes made to the requirement affect other requirements or work products. When the reassessment of traceability reveals that a change impacts other requirements or other work products, communicate the change to the parties responsible for them. When there is automated support for the reassessment, it is often possible to configure it to automatically generate notification.

      The result of assessing the impact is that other requirements need to be changed as well. Those requirements must be assessed in turn.

      More Information