Project Management Patterns to Prevent Schedule Delay Caused by Requirements Changes - Empirical Study on a Successful Project

We propose PM (Project Management) patterns in order to prevent schedule delays caused by requirements changes on empirical studies. Changes or late elicitation of requirements during the design, coding and test processes are one of the most serious risks, which may delay the project schedules. However, changes and late elicitation of requirements are sometimes inevitably accepted during the development processes. Therefore, the PM method for preventing schedule delays caused by changes and late elicitation of requirements during the development processes should be studied. In this study, we examined the actual conditions of a project. The project succeeded in preventing schedule delays, though it did accept changes and late elicitation of requirements during the development processes. As a result, we were able to extract various typical PM techniques for preventing schedule delays caused by requirements elicitation. The techniques were also applied to other projects. Thus, we call them “PM patterns”. Moreover, we’ve arranged the patterns on a two-dimensional framework. The first dimension is a set of nine knowledge areas of PM such as scope, time and cost management. The second dimension is a group of PM processes such as planning, executing and controlling processes. We also break down the project goal, in this case, the redevelopment of systems for future modifiability, into issues such as keeping lead time and educating engineers, and arrange them on the framework. Then, we discuss the relationship between the project goal and PM patterns on the framework.