Why do I need a Requirements Management Plan?

There's a strong, practical case to be made for drawing up a Requirements Management Plan (RMP) that spells out precisely how the requirements will be managed—i.e., the strategies you'll use to present, review, prioritize, document, and approve the requirements. The RMP also includes details of how the requirements will be categorized, numbered, sequenced, referenced, and traced back to the business need, to each other, and to test cases. Like most management plans, it includes sections on requirements scope, roles and responsibilities, and risks. Last, but not least, it describes how change will be handled; that is, which review, approval, and communication procedures must be followed when (not if!) the requirements change.