What happens if requirements change

Experienced project managers will tell you that one of the most common reasons why projects fail is due to the failure of controlling project requirements. Development projects, such as software or marketing, are more prone to this problem compared to tangible projects such as construction or manufacturing of a specific product.

Tangible projects, generally receive much more attention during the planning phase than development projects and tend to be more controlled throughout the project lifecycle. Compare building a house vs. Development projects begin with an objective and specific goals in mind.

But as project sponsors and stakeholders add onto the list of project requirements, the project end-goal begins to resemble less than what was originally conceived. While changes are an important part of a successful project, it is crucial for project stakeholders to have a clear vision and an understanding of project goals and objectives in order to avoid feature creep. Changes are inevitable. As a project manager, it is important for you to establish a formal process for submitting, evaluating, and approving changes and their resulting impact on the project.

If changes are not managed properly from the start, you can expect your project to experience schedule slips, cost overruns, and, as a result, decreased project quality. Before computers became affordable, projects were managed with a sharpened pencil and some paper.

Today, project management software is an extremely effective way of managing and tracking your projects. One of the biggest advantages of using project management software is it allows you to organize and manage your project tasks, feature requests, and bug reports.

When a project sponsor or stakeholder requests a new feature, you must treat it separately from your on-going project activities. This enables you to maintain the scope of your project and ensure that it stays within schedule and budget.

If the requirements are changing continuously but the changes are communicated well in advance and enough time is given to testing the application then it is not a problem at all. But if the requirement change in late stage of SDLC then cost to fix is very high. In this article I am explaining few necessary things which need to consider when the requirement changes continuously.

In the early stage work with the management and end user to understand how requirements might change, so based on that you should prepare for alternate test strategy and test plan in advance. If same issue still exists then figure out why these requirements are not aligned with realism. You have to re-factor the software development process followed in your organization. So follow Agile Development process might be the GOOD option to go with because it allows you change in requirements in late in Software Development process as well, it is intended for that.

Have you ever worked on such project where requirements were frequently changed, so please feel free to share your experience in comments below that will help for beginners to understand things better. Either is fine, but make sure the review process is fair and repeatable.

Either choice is fine. Provide feedback as necessary to the requestor and the team so everyone has the same expectation of what happens next. Make sure that project stakeholders and in particular, your Sponsor, understand and agree to the change control process that you will be using from now on. Tip: Document the decision in the change log. You could also use a decision log as a way to record any related decisions that drop out of the conversations about this change. If you enjoyed this chapter, buy the book!

Ross and contains contributions from a broad range of project management experts. She helps managers juggle their projects and ditch the overwhelm, making tools and techniques work in the real world. She's also the author of several books including Engaging Stakeholders on Projects: How to harness people power. Risk management is the most important of your project controls.

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