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Change Management

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Overview

Specs are living documents that evolve as understanding deepens. This guide covers strategies for managing changes while maintaining traceability and quality.

Change Types

1. Clarification Changes

  • What: Minor clarifications that don't affect scope
  • Examples: Typo fixes, formatting improvements, clearer wording
  • Process: Direct edit with commit message noting clarification

2. Scope Changes

  • What: New requirements or modified existing ones
  • Examples: Additional user stories, changed business rules
  • Process: Full change impact assessment required

3. Implementation Discoveries

  • What: Technical constraints discovered during coding
  • Examples: API limitations, performance bottlenecks, security requirements
  • Process: Update design phase, potentially requirements

Change Decision Framework

flowchart TD
    A[Change Request] --> B{Change Type?}
    B -->|Clarification| C[Direct Edit]
    B -->|Scope Change| D[Impact Assessment]
    B -->|Implementation Discovery| E[Technical Review]

    D --> F{Impact > 20% effort?}
    F -->|Yes| G[Stakeholder Approval]
    F -->|No| H[Update Spec]

    E --> I{Affects Requirements?}
    I -->|Yes| J[Update Requirements]
    I -->|No| K[Update Design Only]

    G --> L[Major Version Update]
    H --> M[Minor Version Update]
    J --> N[Requirements Review]
    K --> O[Design Review]

Change Impact Assessment

Questions to Ask

  1. Requirements Impact
  2. Does this change existing user stories?
  3. Are new acceptance criteria needed?
  4. Do any requirements become obsolete?
  5. Design Impact
  6. What components are affected?
  7. Are new dependencies introduced?
  8. Does the architecture need revision?
  9. Implementation Impact
  10. How many tasks need updating?
  11. What's the estimated effort change?
  12. Are there new risks or blockers?

Impact Scoring

  • Low (1-2 points): Clarifications, minor additions
  • Medium (3-5 points): New features, moderate design changes
  • High (6-8 points): Major scope changes, architecture revisions
  • Critical (9-10 points): Fundamental requirement changes

Change Workflow

1. Change Request Creation

## Change Request: [Brief Description]

**Type:** [Clarification/Scope/Implementation Discovery]
**Requestor:** [Name/Role]
**Date:** [YYYY-MM-DD]

### Current State
[What exists now]

### Proposed Change
[What should change]

### Justification
[Why this change is needed]

### Impact Assessment

- Requirements: [None/Minor/Major]
- Design: [None/Minor/Major]
- Implementation: [None/Minor/Major]
- Effort Change: [+/- X hours/days]

### Approval Required

- [ ] Product Owner (for scope changes)
- [ ] Tech Lead (for design changes)
- [ ] Stakeholders (for major changes)

2. Review Process

  1. Technical Review: Assess implementation feasibility
  2. Business Review: Validate business value and priority
  3. Impact Analysis: Calculate effort and timeline changes
  4. Approval Decision: Go/No-go based on impact and value

3. Implementation

  1. Update Spec: Modify affected sections
  2. Version Bump: Update version according to change type
  3. Traceability: Link changes to original requirements
  4. Communication: Notify stakeholders of changes

Related Content

Prerequisites

Templates

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