Changes requested by IT will be logged by the “Managed Service Provider” analyst. An impact analysis is done and a change request form is be submitted to the Application Team’s change review board or the Application Team Project Manager, whoever is designated for approval. All change requests that are approved are attached to the project contract. Major changes would also have a financial impact on the project. To minimize impact on the project schedule, “Managed Service Provider” recommends that the change review and approvals happen in an agreed upon time frame (which could typically be a week at maximum) to ensure that the deadlines are not severely impacted. On approval of the effort, cost and time estimates, the change request is incorporated into the project plan.

Requirement changes may occur at any point during the project execution stage. It is important to identify a process for requirements change management. The following diagram depicts the actions that are normally performed during change requests.

1. Submit a change request
2. Close/Defer CR and inform submitter
3. Close/Defer CR and inform submitter
4. Inform submitter of proposed action plan
5. Review the CR
6. Review IA report
7. Impact Analysis and generate IA report
8. Incorporate in project plan and change project schedule
9. Log
10. the CR
11. Is valid?
12. Decision?
13. IT Team
14. Change control Board
15. “Managed Service Provider” Team

Change Request Process

Service Provider requirements are to analyze the impact of a change. All change requests will be classified as major and minor, as per an agreed upon definition.

Major change requests typically involve addition of new programs, tables and modification to existing system components. Therefore it will go through all life cycle stages including full testing activities like unit testing, integration testing and regression testing.

A minor change request will have minimal impact on the system functionality. These requests result in modification of a program or a set of programs or new programs for simple database changes. For a minor change, it may be decided not to perform certain tests based on change effort and severity impact.

Typically, the same processes as major or minor enhancement are followed for major or minor change requests. However this can be agreed upon during the start of the project.

All change requests raised will be maintained in a change request log and each entry in the log will contain a change request number, the description of the change, the impact of the change, the status of the change request and key dates. Each change request can have, at any point of time, one of the 5 following states:

1. Pending,
2. Approved,
3. Rejected,
4. Work in Progress
5. Completed.

The change requests are reviewed by Change control board on regular basis.

For projects that require quick ramp-up and ramp-down, quarterly planning is done both by the “Managed Service Provider” and client teams. “Managed Service Provider” believes in operating like a true strategic partner of the client and adapting itself to the changing landscape within a client’s business and industry.