Change in requirements during the design process

Specification is an integral part of the product development process. Frequently, more than a single version of a specification is produced due to changes in requirements. These changes are often necessary to ensure the scope of the design problem is as clear as possible. However, the negative effects of such changes include an increase in lead-time and cost.

Thus, support to mitigate change in requirements is essential. A thorough understanding of the nature of changes in requirements is essential before a method or tool to mitigate these changes can be proposed. Therefore, a case study approach was employed to understand the nature of change in requirements during the design process - particularly concerning the initiation, discovery, and motivation of these changes.

Semi-structured interviews were adopted as the data collection method. The interviews were transcribed and analysed based on a pre-defined coding scheme. The results of the study shows that change in requirements were initiated by internal stakeholders through analysis and evaluation activities during the design process, meanwhile external stakeholders were requested changes during the meeting with consultant.

All communications between consultant and clients for change requests mostly through informal methods i.e. email or memo. In addition it was found that design engineers frequently updating specification document at the end of the design process