Requirements Management Plan

The requirements management plan is documentation of how requirement management efforts will be carried out by the team and has different dedicated sections to cover the introduction of the plan, an overview of process and responsibilities, and the tools and practices deployed for requirement planning, elicitation, analysis, documentation, communication, monitoring, and further traceability.

The requirements management plan also talks about potential risk and risk management, the resultant change, and change control as well.

The following is what a requirement management plan contains:

  1. how requirement activities will be planned, tracked, and reported.
  2. Configuration management activities –– how the versioning of project documents will be done in a project.
  3. How and on what basis will requirements be prioritized.
  4. Standards and metrics to which the deliverables will be measured
  5. How requirements will be traced throughout the lifecycle of the project

Typical sections of the requirements management plan can vary, but conventionally and typically, these are the sections that they have.

  1. Stakeholder roles and responsibilities
  2. Requirements gathering & management process
  3. Types of Requirements
  4. Requirements artifacts
  5. Requirements naming and versioning convention
  6. Requirements prioritization
  7. Requirements traceability
  8. Requirements versioning
  9. Requirements baseline

Why is the requirements management plan important?

Being that requirement management makes or breaks your project, making a good requirements management plan is extremely important. Since requirements are the building blocks of your project, it is essential that you follow proper documented and well-planned processes and practices. Make the best of teams’ efforts and adhere to standards –– all of which is assured to happen when a proper plan is in place.

A requirements management plan ensures that everyone is on the same page and clear about the methods to employ, the standards to adhere to, the responsibilities to carry out, the tools to use, and how to track the requirement. This ensures that the project team works like a well-oiled machine.

Let’s talk about some of the sections of the requirements management plan: