Which practice helps maintain a complete history of requirements and decisions?

Which practice helps maintain a complete history of requirements and decisions?

• A. Rely on memory.
• B. Recreate files for each update.
• C. Version control.
• D. Keep only the latest version.

Answer: (C)

Maintaining a complete history of requirements and decisions relies on using version control. This practice records every change as a separate, time-stamped entry with who made the change and why, creating an auditable trail from old requirements to new ones. With commits, you can see exactly how a requirement evolved, review the rationale in the commit messages, and link changes to specific decisions. Version control also supports branches so you can explore alternatives without losing the original path, and you can revert to earlier states if a change proves problematic. This level of traceability is essential for accountability, quality control, and regulatory or project audits. Relying on memory introduces gaps and ambiguity because people forget details or misremember rationale. Recreating files for each update wastes time and fragments history, making it hard to reconstruct how a requirement evolved. Keeping only the latest version discards the complete context, preventing you from understanding past decisions or validating why a change was made. Version control avoids these issues by preserving a full, navigable history of every requirement and decision.

Maintaining a complete history of requirements and decisions relies on using version control. This practice records every change as a separate, time-stamped entry with who made the change and why, creating an auditable trail from old requirements to new ones. With commits, you can see exactly how a requirement evolved, review the rationale in the commit messages, and link changes to specific decisions. Version control also supports branches so you can explore alternatives without losing the original path, and you can revert to earlier states if a change proves problematic. This level of traceability is essential for accountability, quality control, and regulatory or project audits.

Relying on memory introduces gaps and ambiguity because people forget details or misremember rationale. Recreating files for each update wastes time and fragments history, making it hard to reconstruct how a requirement evolved. Keeping only the latest version discards the complete context, preventing you from understanding past decisions or validating why a change was made. Version control avoids these issues by preserving a full, navigable history of every requirement and decision.