Devs, how do you track evolving requirements and protect yourself from ‘rework’ accusations? /u/TrojanGrad CSCQ protests reddit

I’m dealing with a situation where requirements frequently change or expand after implementation (specs turn out to be incorrect, new requirements emerge during review, scope grows mid-project), but the narrative becoming ‘developer needs to do rework’ rather than ‘requirements evolved.’

Here’s a real example: Implemented logic exactly per specs, then during review was told ‘specs aren’t always 100% correct’ and needed to change the calculation method. This got labeled as rework despite following the original specs precisely. Then there were a few cases where things have to be changed because implementing it as it was set would have caused a division by zero error in some cases.

I’m planning to start tracking requirement evolution using a simple spreadsheet (Date, What Changed, Why, Impact). Before I implement this, I’d love to hear:

1. How do you track requirement changes in your projects?

2. What tools or processes help you document the difference between actual rework vs requirement evolution?

3. How do you handle situations where working implementations need changes due to requirement updates?

4. Any strategies for making requirement changes more visible to management?

Looking for practical approaches that don’t create excessive overhead. Would especially appreciate hearing from devs who’ve successfully addressed similar situations.

I’m dealing with a situation where requirements frequently change or expand after implementation (specs turn out to be incorrect, new requirements emerge during review, scope grows mid-project), but the narrative becoming ‘developer needs to do rework’ rather than ‘requirements evolved.’

Here’s a real example: Implemented logic exactly per specs, then during review was told ‘specs aren’t always 100% correct’ and needed to change the calculation method. This got labeled as rework despite following the original specs precisely. Then there were a few cases where things have to be changed because implementing it as it was set would have caused a division by zero error in some cases.

I’m planning to start tracking requirement evolution using a simple spreadsheet (Date, What Changed, Why, Impact). Before I implement this, I’d love to hear:

1. How do you track requirement changes in your projects?

2. What tools or processes help you document the difference between actual rework vs requirement evolution?

3. How do you handle situations where working implementations need changes due to requirement updates?

4. Any strategies for making requirement changes more visible to management?

Looking for practical approaches that don’t create excessive overhead. Would especially appreciate hearing from devs who’ve successfully addressed similar situations.