Requirements Change Management: Why are current change request forms inadequate?
Bee Bee Chua, June M. Verner · 2008
Poor estimates of effort and schedule are frequently responsible for software project failure. Accordingly, there is a need to investigate and better understand the impact of requirement changes (RC) on software development projects in terms of effort. Requirements changes are unavoidable and unpredictable during the development of most software projects. Regardless of software development team size or the size of the project, every RC must be dealt carefully to ensure that every team member understands what the RC is, how the change is to be implemented, and the amount of time needed to correct or to modify the software. To estimate accurately the effort required for rework for any RC is a difficult task for many experienced cost and schedule estimators. This is because there is normally not enough data available on which to base a model, and there is no useful categorisation of the various requirements types for estimating the amount of effort. IT change request (CR) forms designed by industrial practitioners are not based on any theoretical framework that categorises RC in a logical, economical and structured manner. Practitioners often design CR forms based on the types of requirements outlined in the project without a real understanding of the requirement’s actual characteristics and attributes. Until now, there has been no standard method for categorising RC able to provide an understanding (both analytical and theoretical) that will enable IT practitioners to categorise RC at both the project level and the requirements level. We provide such a categorisation and use this as the basis of a rework effort estimation model. This research presents a framework of attributes present on CR forms. These attributes must be understandable so that IT practitioners are able to categorise RC clearly. This will enable them to consider using this information as input into a cost estimation model. This framework will benefit IT practitioners by providing them with a method for better effort estimation. The added contribution is that it can help mitigate project risks early.