What is change request management tool?

Question

Can anyone please tell what is change request management tool and what is involved when a change request is submitted to this tool?

Answer 1

It's similar or identical to a bug-tracking tool. Things that might happen include:

• Someone looks at the request (the "someone" might be a product manager, project manager, and/or development team leader) and decides whether to consider it further

• If the request isn't immediately rejected then it's passed to someone (maybe the architect or the development team lead), who will assess its feasability and say what the effort/schedule/resources required to implement it would be

• If the expected benefit exceeds the expected cost etc then it will be approved and added to the development schedule, and eventually assigned to an available developer

• As it goes through these various stages and is considered by various people, the people will add their opinions, and/or additional details and documentation: for example by the time it finally reaches the QA person who tests the developed implementation of the requested change, the QA erson will see not only the original request, but also comments from the project manager, the architect, the developer, etc.

Answer 2

A change request management tool is for users to request changes in the software.

When the software development process begins, there is an agreement between the development team and the users (or their department) about what the software will do. This is called the requirements. Once everybody agrees on the requirements, preferably in writing, development begins.

If the users discover that they need to change the requirements at any point during development, they make a change request. Those requests are logged into the change request management tool. The development team reviews the request and negotiates with the users over the change -- how much additional time or money it will take -- until they reach an agreement.

Once the software has been deployed, there may be additional changes identified by the users. They record their requests in the change request management tool. Periodically, the development team reviews the new change requests and makes an agreement with the users about which of those requests will be included in the next release of the software.

Using the change request management tool help to manage "scope creep". It helps both sides to assess the additional work needed on the software, and keeps the whole process organized.

If done correctly, there will be a record of the changes requested, the changes made, and the changes currently in process. Software improvements will be prioritized.

Answer 3

It's basically a database that helps keep all your 'todo' items from falling off the table.

And also as a fringe benefit, provides a means of assessing how well your development team is executing their process.

Answer 4

you can use an issue management tool (bug tracker) as a change request tool

or you can go lo-fi and use a protocol instead (i.e. just a procedure written down in a word document)

what i use with my clients is a combination of sla (service level agreement) and change request protocol: 'Maintenance Blocks' - Managing Change Requests

--LM