Chapter 10 – Change Management

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses various aspects of change management including change urgency, class of change, change revision drafting, and change impacts. Slow change process delays the release, adds costs, confusion, and pain and may create competitive edge. Companies sometimes classify changes based on the interchangeability definitions. Each hardware fix tends to have a most logical and economical point of incorporation for each product affected. Desired changes or additions to product software code are normally processed by some kind of change request process. The forms typically used are identified with various unique names. The software engineers decide which requests are valid and which are not. The package must include all new design documents required to define the change and a precise description of the changes to existing design documents. Some companies have flag notes on the documents which are small symbols that contain the new revision level. Flag notes are placed on the document near the points where changes were made. The customers of the document can compare the two revision levels and identify where the changes occurred.