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I am working on a project in which almost everyday we get new requirements that need to be done ASAP. Probably, this is what the client wants. I am curious to know if this is call "Agile" project.

In these kinds of projects, which documents need to be prepared and how do I maintain change requests and issues in existing applications?

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  • Could you clarify if you're asking as a developer on the project who is frustrated with this process & wants to offer solutions, or as someone who is in the PM role and wants to do "the right thing"? – jcmeloni Jan 18 '12 at 14:30
  • @jcmeloni I do collect all requirement from clients and also code (sometimes). So, eventually I rank myself in both Business Analyst role and software engg. role. – Zerotoinfinity Jan 18 '12 at 14:43
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    Your comment to @Mark shows that you are on the way to knowing what you could try and be aligned with best practices. He's also right, of course, that this isn't Agile. It's almost the opposite! I would just try to set a good example in your position through formalized process of any kind, especially if you're not at the top of the management chain in this situation. – jcmeloni Jan 18 '12 at 14:58
  • @jcmeloni I would appreciate your inputs. Thanks +1 – Zerotoinfinity Jan 18 '12 at 15:04
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Agile Manifesto says that you should value Responding to Change over Following a Plan, however it doesn't mean that you should include every Change Request demanded by Client ASAP.

Look at Scrum - you have Iterations and when you decide upon stories that would be acomplished during the Iteration the scope is frozen and you can prioritize tasks for the next Iteration.

Look at Kanban - you are trying to limit Work-In-Progress, so if you have started a task, you try to finish it before starting another one (newer, more important) and another (even more important). Customer can change priorities of the features that haven't been started yet.

If you have a lot of new requirements and this is a problem for you maybe you could find a person responsible for managing the change and showing the Client that if requirements are changing so rapidly maybe he should rethink the big purpose for the system.

As to documents we estimate every task that is done and wasn't estimated before and charge customer for it and we keep a track of such items in a spreadsheet. We also maintain a big document which contains all the requirements, we update it in review mode and we send to the Client for approval.

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This is not "agile" project management. This is either a service department doing work as needed (e.g. an IT group supporting an existing application or legal department fielding questions on an as-come basis) or; this is a project without control and structure.

The best way to maintain change requests is to formalize a submission/approval/status process. It can be through paper documents or a simple online utility like a wiki or message board for the project.

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    Philips I have done PMP training and that's why I afraid because PMP says that when there is any functional change occurs we need to follow change process and modify necessary documents. – Zerotoinfinity Jan 18 '12 at 14:45
  • Yep, and in this case the 'necessary documents' is the backlog: product backlog, not the ongoing sprint backlog. go ahead, each time you get a CR, modify the backlog, so that it's ready for the next planning session. if there's something that conflicts with what's being done, include the updated version into the product backlog and notify the team that one of their current stories is no longer needed/valid. – moonfly Mar 6 '13 at 21:40

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