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Software Project Management

Notes  An enhancement request arising from a new idea from the customer during work on the
project.
 A mistake found in the integration test.

 A wish to expand or enhance the finished product, arising once the product is in operation.
 An inquiry to a helpdesk about a problem in connection with usage of a system.
 A change required in the code because of an upgrade to a new version of the middleware
supporting the system, which may not be backward compatible.
An event should be documented in an event registration, which is the input to the change
control activity. Some changes, such as those due to a review, can be foreseen and planned, while
those due to, for instance, a new customer request cannot.

Outputs

The result of change control is documented events and change requests derived from these
events. Both should be securely maintained, as in a database, so that relationships between
change requests and configuration items can be reliably maintained. Event registration and
change requests may be put under configuration management, but this happens rarely, except
where configuration management has to be very formal.
12.4.1 Change Control Activities

A change process is a miniature development project in itself. An event registration should have
a written and controlled life cycle, consisting roughly of the phases described in Table 12.2. Each
phase should be described in detail, stating the responsibility and specific actions in the company.
It may be necessary for a company to describe different kinds of life cycles, depending on the
types of events to be handled.
Table 12.2: Overview of Change Control Phases

Phase Description
Creation of the event registration. The event registration is created, and the event is described.
Analysis of the event registration. Configuration item(s) affected by possible changes are
determined, and the extensiveness of these changes is estimated.
Rejection or acceptance of the If the event registration is accepted, a change request is created
event registration. for each configuration item affected.
The change request initiates a A new configuration item is identified and created, and the
new configuration item. change is implemented. In the course of accepting the new item
and placing it in storage, feedback is given to the configuration
control board.
Closing of the change request. The change request can be closed when the change has been
implemented and accepted.
Closing of the event registration. The event registration can be closed when all corresponding
change requests are closed.

Quite often the change request is joined with the event registration, so no independent change
requests are created.

Notes This is not a very good idea, unless it remains possible to extract statistics and status
information on individual change requests as well as on the event. This is especially true
if an event causes changes in several configuration items, which is often the case.

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