Impact Analysis Checklist for Requirements Changes
Implications of the Proposed Change
o Identify any existing requirements in the baseline that conflict with the proposed change.
o Identify any other pending requirement changes that conflict with the proposed change.
o What are the consequences of not making the change?
o What are possible adverse side effects or other risks of making the proposed change?
o Will the proposed change adversely affect performance requirements or other quality attributes?
o Will the change affect any system component that affects critical properties such as safety and security, or involve a product change that triggers recertification of any kind?
o Is the proposed change feasible within known technical constraints and current staff skills?
o Will the proposed change place unacceptable demands on any computer resources required for the development, test, or operating environments?
o Must any tools be acquired to implement and test the change?
o How will the proposed change affect the sequence, dependencies, effort, or duration of any tasks currently in the project plan?
o Will prototyping or other user input be required to verify the proposed change?
o How much effort that has already been invested in the project will be lost if this change is accepted?
o Will the proposed change cause an increase in product unit cost, such as by increasing third-party product licensing fees?
o Will the change affect any marketing, manufacturing, training, or customer support plans?
System Elements Affected by the Proposed Change
o Identify any user interface changes, additions, or deletions required.
o Identify any changes, additions, or deletions required in reports, databases, or data files.
o Identify the design components that must be created, modified, or deleted.
o Identify hardware components that must be added, altered, or deleted.
o Identify the source code files that must be created, modified, or deleted.
o Identify any changes required in build files.
o Identify existing unit, integration, system, and acceptance test cases that must be modified or deleted.
o Estimate the number of new unit, integration, system, and acceptance test cases that will be required.
o Identify any help screens, user manuals, training materials, or other documentation that must be created or modified.
o Identify any other systems, applications, libraries, or hardware components affected by the change.
o Identify any third party software that must be purchased.
o Identify any impact the proposed change will have on the projects software project management plan, software quality assurance plan, software configuration management plan, or other plans.
o Quantify any effects the proposed change will have on budgets of scarce resources, such as memory, processing power, network bandwidth, real-time schedule.
o Identify any impact the proposed change will have on fielded systems if the affected component is not perfectly backward compatible.
Effort Estimation for a Requirements Change
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Effort |
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Update the
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Develop and
evaluate prototype
|
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Create new
design components
|
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Modify
existing design components
|
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Develop new
user interface components
|
|
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Modify
existing user interface components
|
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Develop new
user publications and help screens
|
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Modify existing
user publications and help screens
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Develop new
source code
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Modify
existing source code
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Purchase
and integrate third party software
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|
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Identify,
purchase, and integrate hardware components; qualify vendor
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|
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Modify
build files
|
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Develop new
unit and integration tests
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Modify
existing unit and integration tests
|
|
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Perform
unit and integration testing after implementation
|
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Write new
system and acceptance test cases
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Modify
existing system and acceptance test cases
|
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Modify
automated test drivers
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Perform
regression testing at unit, integration, and system levels
|
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Develop new
reports
|
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Modify
existing reports
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Develop new
database elements
|
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Modify
existing database elements
|
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Develop new
data files
|
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Modify
existing data files
|
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Modify
various project plans
|
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Update
other documentation
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Update
requirements traceability matrix
|
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Review
modified work products
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Perform
rework following reviews and testing
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Recertify product as being
safe, secure, and compliant with standards.
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Other
additional tasks
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TOTAL ESTIMATED EFFORT
|
Procedure:
1. Identify the subset of the
above tasks that will have to be done.
2. Allocate resources to tasks.
3. Estimate effort required for
pertinent tasks listed above, based on assigned resources.
4. Total the effort estimates.
5. Sequence tasks and identify
predecessors.
6. Determine whether change is
on the projects critical path.
7. Estimate schedule and cost
impact.
Impact Analysis Report Template
Change Request ID: ______________
Title: ______________________________________________________
Description: ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Analyst: __________________________
Date Prepared: __________________________
Prioritization Estimates:
Relative Benefit:
(1-9)
Relative Penalty:
(1-9)
Relative Cost:
(1-9)
Relative Risk: (1-9)
Calculated Priority: (relative to other pending requirements)
Estimated total effort: ___________ labor hours
Estimated lost effort: ___________ labor hours (from discarded work)
Estimated schedule impact: ___________ days
Additional cost impact: ___________ dollars
Quality impact: _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________
Other requirements affected: ____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
Other tasks affected: ____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
Integration issues: ____________________________________________________
Life cycle cost issues: ____________________________________________________
Other components to examine ____________________________________________________
for possible changes: ____________________________________________________

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