Knowledge Sharing Pattern Language

Problem	During a project, requirements change and the project team members do not know what changes must be implemented and how those affect the project.
Initial Context	A project is ongoing and Created Skeleton (KSP08) exists for it.
Roles	Project team members and a project manager or a person in the role of Requirements Manager.
Forces	Requirements are a structured way to introduce what is required from a project. Requirements are linked to all parts of the project implementation through the traceability information, and thus are a sort of a skeleton for the project. The traceability information does not help unless it is kept up-to-date. Changes to requirements must be systematically processed and the effects to other requirements, work results etc. studied. Changes must be properly communicated so that all project team members (and other relevant stakeholders) know them.
Solution	Receive Approved Change Request and Define Changes to the Requirements. Based on approved change request, define the changes to the requirements. Update the requirements specification. Communicate Changes. Communicate the changes to the project team members. Notice especially the persons who will implement the changes, but also inform others at the general level. E.g. inform briefly in project team meetings. Study Changes and Implement Changes. Study required change and what parts of the software it will affect. Utilize the traceability information for this. Implement the change. Maintain Traceability. Maintain the traceability information. This is defined here as a one-time procedure but, after completing, it a new round needs to be started as long as the project realization continues.
Resulting Context	Requirements and the linkage of those to the other parts of the project are well known in the project team making possible cooperation, separate sub teams working with separate tasks and quick understanding of how suggested and implemented changes affect the project. One potential pitfall is not noticing all work results etc. being affected by a change. This could result in a situation where part of the project team continues building a module that will not work because of changes in some other module.
Instances	To be used continuously in projects. If a project does not contain many software requirements it still normally contains other project requirements (e.g. integration projects).
Process Connection	Requirements Management