How big is that change request, really?
Inadequate impact analysis of change requests can lead to surprises. Software surprises are rarely good news.
Two developers estimated that it would take one month to add a requested major enhancement to one of their information systems. The customer approved the estimate, and the developers set to work.
After two months, the enhancement was only about half done. The customer lost patience. They said, “If I’d known how long this was really going to take and how much it was going to cost, I wouldn’t have approved it. Forget the whole thing!” The developers hadn’t done enough impact analysis to develop a reliable estimate that would let the customer make an appropriate business decision. Consequently, this company wasted considerable effort that they just threw away, uncompleted.
All changes great and small
The need for performing impact analysis is obvious for major changes in requirements. However, unexpected complications can lurk below the surface of even minor change requests. A consulting client of mine once had to change the text of an error message. What could be simpler? The product had both English and German language versions. There were no problems in English, but in German the new message exceeded…
