Task: Manage Changing Requirements
Maintain consistency between requirements and corresponding project modules as changes occur over time.
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: Additional: Assisting:
InputsMandatory: Optional:
  • None
External:
  • 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
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.

Properties
Multiple Occurrences
Event Driven
OngoingYes
Optional
Planned
Repeatable
More Information