How do I document code change requirements?
We have some code changes that need to be made because they were poorly written. basically, a developer looked at some old code and has found some areas of opportunity. They are going to modify the code to make it perform better. They created a project initiation document that says they are going to rewrite the code and now they want a requirements document. To me the only requirement is to streamline the code for better performance.
It seems a little over kill to try to put a requirements specification document together for this project (which has already been completed).
What do you tihnk? Any suggestions on how I should go about documenting this kind of project?
Control Scope
There have been some good comments so far and one that I agree with. When you start entering code improvement, one should understand the benefits for justification. I would consider understanding the impact to the business process or processes. If the scope only affects a process or even a step the scope can be contained. However, often these exercises turn into bigger projects because the component of code that is being touch affects multiple processes. Keep in mind that the code will need to be tested and the bigger the impact, the bigger the effort, the larger of the project.
As for documentation, that depends on how your companies methodology of documentation inventory. If it is project based, then it you need to decide do you update a previous project documentation. If it is process or function based, then you can update the documentation with the proper change control documentation. If it is solely a technical change, then the the project management methodology will address the reason for change. But always validate the business benefit and impact of the change.