Change Request Tracker Program (CRTrak) ------------------------- Program Features

1. What is a Change Request (CR)?
2. What is CR tracking?
3. What does CRTrak do to enhance CR tracking?
4. CRTrak Change History

1. Main display page (with selected project status).
2. Change Request Form, page 1 (new submission data).
3. Change Request Form, page 2 (analysis & disposition data).
4. Change Request Form, page 3 (implementation & close-out data).
5. CR Report Generator, showing report selection options.

• To prevent unauthorized changes that arbitrarily add or remove capabilities from the software product, or otherwise change the manner in which the software will operate. Such changes would totally invalidate the results of the reviews that approved the work product.

• To ensure that changes have sufficient visibility that they will not appear as surprises to other elements of the project. For example, if a change affects information that flows across an interface or the timing of the data transfer, it is critical that both ends of the interface implement the change in a timely and compatible manner.

• To provide the project manager with a means to manage the project cost and schedule. Changes normally add to both the development time and cost of the project resources (personnel, equipment, facilities, etc.). Unauthorized changes unnecessarily add to both cost and schedule and can lead to a project's failure.

• To allow the project managers to schedule the implementation of changes to minimize the impact on the overall schedule. Related changes are often best done together and it is not unusual to delay the implementation of some changes to allow certain critical activities to complete before the changes are introduced.

The Change Request (or CR) is a common name given to the form by which a change to a controlled work product is requested. A change may be requested either to correct a defect or to add a new feature to the system. Some development organizations use a different form for each of these purposes, although these forms usually look very similar to one another.

• CR Creation: Normally, anyone with any association with the project can request a change by submitting a CR to the project's configuration manager. This could come from either the client or developer organization and come from anyone in a management, engineering, or user group.

• CR Analysis: After a CR has been submitted, a member of the development team, often a senior developer, is assigned the task of analyzing the request to determine the extent to which specific work products must be changed to satisfy the provisions of the requested change. This usually involves identifying functions in specific code modules, sections of documents, etc. and describing the manner in which these must be changed. Often an estimate of the effort required to make the changes is included as a product of this analysis.

• CR Disposition: Once the impact of the change is understood, a decision must be made as to whether or not the requested change will be implemented. This may be done by a Change Control Board, the program manager, or another individual or group empowered to make such changes for that project.

• CR Implementation: If the decision is made to proceed with implementing the requested change, then one or more people are assigned the responsibility for making those changes. The implementation phase of change processing includes all testing necessary to affirm that the change was correctly made and, if code is involved, no undesirable side effects resulted from the change.

• CR Close-Out: When the change implementation is completed, including all associated testing, key project personnel examine appropriate evidence to approve the change with respect to their role on the project.

Without a system for tracking the CR as it moves through this process, it would be easy for CRs to be misinterpreted or lost. Traditionally this was done on paper forms with the configuration manager handling the paper to assure proper flow. Today computer database programs make this process much easier and more reliable.

The retiSoft Change Request Tracking Program (CRTrak) is a special purpose database system that automates the process for submitting change requests and tracking their progress through the change processing mechanism of a development (or maintenance) organization.

Some of the key features of CRTrak:

• Support for multiple concurrent projects. CRs are automatically numbered sequentially within each project. Reports can be generated for an individual project or across all projects.

• Full Change Processing support for Configuration Management on small to medium sized software development projects:
  
  
  • Integrated personnel database with up to eight possible project roles for each user: (1) Product User, (2) Program Manager, (3) Analyst, (4) Software Engineer, (5) Test Engineer, (6) Configuration Manager, (7) Quality Manager, and (8) Administrator.
    
  • Support for a three state change processing cycle: (1) Open (new) CR, (2) Analysis, and (3) Resolution. Transition to the next state freezes the previous phase information from further changes. The figure to the right illustrates the basic CR processing flow supported by CRTrak.

  • Verification that only personnel with the appropriate project role (as specified in the database) can change a CR's state.

  • Support for up to five discipline approvers for CR close-out: (1) Engineering, (2) Test Engineering, (3) Configuration Management, (4) Quality Management, and (5) Program Management.

• Complete, easy, and accurate change data entry:
  
  
  • Liberal use of memo fields to allow entry of arbitrary textual descriptive information pertinent to each change processing phase.

  • Supports standard Windows^® edit function shortcuts for copy (ctrl-c), cut (ctrl-x), and paste (ctrl-v) to allow easy entry of error message text, file names, code snippets, etc. into memo fields.

  • Fields to explicitly pick and list code and document files that require changes (on the analysis page) using common Windows^® open dialog box.

• Automatic display of project level CR summary data on the main window any time a project has been selected. Use this information to decide for which CRs you need to generate printed reports.
  
  
  
  
• Optional (selectable by project) automatic e-mail notification of CR state changes:
  
  
  • Project-by-project selection of optional e-mail notification at each CR state change.

  • WAN, LAN, or Internet message generation using SMTP. All that is required is user access to a SMTP server by host name (e.g., mail.earthlink.net) or IP address.

  • Designation of personnel to receive CR state change notification from among: (1) Submitter, (2) Test Manager, (3) Configuration Manager, (4) Quality Manager, and (5) Program Manager.

• CR and report Printing features:
  
  
  • Uses the standard Windows^® printer services, so it can output to any printer or pseudo-printer installed on your system. This includes fax programs and Adobe^® Acrobat^® (to create PDF files for electronic archives and distribution).

  • CR print function that allows the open CR to be sent to the printer with a single button click.

  • CR print utility that allows CR printout selection based on any combination of project, CR process state, CR priority, CR disposition, or assigned submitter, analyst, or implementer (by name). Printout can be either complete CR information or shorter summary information.

  • CR information printed in either complete form (with all displayed fields) or summary form (with key identification and status information only). Summary reports also include all project-level database information (personnel assigned to key roles, e-mail notification data, etc.).

• Comprehensive, hyperlinked on-line help system.
  
  
  • Hierarchical table of contents makes it easy to find full coverage of key usage topics.

  • Context-sensitive link via "Help" button to description of key data entry pages.

  • Liberal use of cursor over hints on most forms.

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