COEPD – Center of Excellence for Professional Development Happy Learning
Change is an inevitable part of life and requirements in Software projects are no exception. Firstly what is a requirement change in a software project?
Anything that is not scoped as part of the original requirements constitutes a change. This change could be in the form of adding a new requirement or change the functionality in the existing requirement. Since changes are inevitable, we have to accept the fact and live with them. These change requests can come in any phase of the project. The success of the project depends on how these changes are effectively managed (support a change while minimising the associated risks due to the change) in the project. Business Analyst who is the IT face to the client, plays an important role in handling the change requests along with the Project Manager. The steps involved in handling a change request are as follows:
The business user initiates the change request and sends it to the Project Manager/Business Analyst.
Business Analyst will log the change request for tracking purpose.
Business Analyst will do a quick analysis to ascertain the impact on the system.
If it is a minor change, the BA will inform the Project Manager accordingly.
The Change request will be prioritised with the business user and fitted into the project.
If the Business Analyst requires more time to analyse further, He /She will inform the Project Manager and upon his/her approval, the BA will proceed with further analysis.
Where required, the BA will work with the technical team also, analyse the impact to the project in terms of timeline, resources and budget. If required the team will conduct a feasibility study on the change request.
The BA will document the impact analysis and along with the project manager will help the stakeholders to understand the impact of the change request on the project in terms of timelines, resources and budget.
If the change has a huge impact on the Project, it will be discussed and if possible pushed to the next phase without affecting the project schedule.
If the change is a must and have to be accommodated, the timelines and budget will be negotiated by the Project Manager with the business team. Once approved the change will be taken up for implementation and tracked till closure.
