Requirements Change Management - Requirements Engineering and Management for Software Development Projects - page 119

3. Situational implementation:
a. If the component which is affected by the CR is yet to be constructed or is
being constructed, then implement the CR when the impacted component is
under construction.
b. If the construction of the component, which is affected by the CR, is
completed, keep the CR pending and retrofit it into the component at the end
or at a convenient time.
c. If the construction of the component is completed but not implementing the
current CR would render the component a bottleneck for other components,
it would be implemented immediately.
Once the analysis and strategy for CR implementation are decided, the CR
would be implemented in line with the analysis and implementation strategy
decided by the CCB or the PM.
Changes can cause disruption to the flow of project execution regardless of
whether it begins as a smooth flow or a chaotic path. When a CR is received, in
many cases, it would impact an artifact that is already completed. This causes
severe impact. In rare circumstances the impact would be on an artifact that is yet
to be completed. If the impact is only to the current artifact, the impact will tend to
be less severe. Regardless of the scenario, artifacts like requirement documents,
design documents and others will have to be reviewed and may have to be revised
which will impact the project execution flow.
The phase of development at which the CR is received also determines the
severity of the impact. For example, a CR is received just after the requirements
phase will tend to cause the least severe impact as compared to a CR for the same
item received when the project is in the system testing phase.
Table 8.2 summarizes the severity of the impact of CRs on project execution
flow. But one thing is certain; CR does impacts project execution flow.
The timing when a change request is received can influence the implementation
of CRs as much as the strategy. Table 8.3 shows the impact on a set of typical
artifacts based on the phase during which the CR is received and the possible
strategies for implementing the CR.
8.5 CR Implementation
First let us look at scenario where a project is using the most used situational
approach to implement accepted CRs. The following are the steps generally fol-
lowed for implementing the CRs under this strategy:
1. Is the activity impacted by the CR completed? If the activity is not completed
and is yet to be started, the CR would be incorporated into the requirements and
design (as required) documents.