Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Software Requirements Management Plan (Excel workbook). Software requirements management plan content: Competencies needed Infrastructure Communication plan Structure Traceability guidelines Priorization guidelines Techniques selection guidelines Change management guidelines Change control board Config management Metrics Requirements [read more]
Requirements Management Plan: Why Do We Need It Anyway?
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Requirements gathering is a small phase of the project. Why do we need a plan for it?
We have a project management plan for the project. Why do we need one more plan?
We follow agile life cycle where in the project cycle is shortened. Then, why is requirements management plan needed?
Given below is an indicative list of items/aspects that are managed in Requirements management plan.
- Overview of the project – Describing the overview and objectives of the project
- Terms and Glossary – Terms, abbreviations and definitions specific to the project used in the document can be described here
- Infrastructure – Hardware, software, tools needed for the project
- Communication plan/mechanism – what will be the communication mechanism, frequency and audience /stakeholders
- Structure – Which part of the requirements will be contained in which document e.g. SRS will contain use case description, BRD will contain the business requirements
- Traceability Guidelines – How the requirements will be traced e.g. project objectives à stakeholder request àBRDàSRS
- Prioritization Guideline – How the requirements will be prioritized e.g. statutory/legal requirement, Critical business objective then it will be high priority
- Techniques – what techniques will be used in which situation, from the usual techniques like SWOT, Matrix model, surveys and techniques etc
- Change Management – How will requirements change be handled, the requirements change management process can be documented here
- Change control board – the constitution and the authority of the board can be described here e.g. functional requirements <20 Hrs can be authored by Requirements analyst, reviewer can be Lead BA and Domain SME, approver can be PM
- CM Plan – who will be owner for which document like Flow diagrams, prototypes
- Metrics – Typical metrics can be % of requirements delivered as per requirements management plan, Average effort spent per detailed requirements document, Number of defects identified per use case
- Attributes – Attributes of the requirement can be detailed here will need to contain the attribute name, description, type, Values
- System context – Various system context such as stakeholders, interfacing systems etc
- Sources and techniques – This will detail out the type of requirements, Source of the requirement, techniques for Elicitation and Modelling
- Stakeholder Matrix – This will have details of the various stakeholders like name, type, role, Criticality, expectations, contact details etc
- Resource structure of the BA/RE team with name, role, contact details etc
- Skill gap analysis and Competencies needed
- Effort estimate for the Requirements engineering task
- RACI Matrix for the various types of requirements
- Risks and assumptions – Risks and Assumptions for the requirements of the project with impact, mitigation plan
- Activity plan – Activity/ task plan with schedule, responsibility, effort needed, deliverable details
- RMP checklist – To ensure all the planned activities and tasks are completed
A requirements management plan is needed as much as a project plan is needed for a project and smooth functioning of the project.
Please see a video demonstration of the template here.
You can acquire an exhaustive Requirements Management Plan Template from the author on Flevy here.
Excel workbook
Requirements for IT systems are often divided into two broad categories: Functional Requirements and Non-functional Requirements. Functional Requirements are usually focused on describing the ICT functionality most visible to users. Non?functional requirements are equally important but often less [read more]
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Excel workbook
The Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) is an excel spreadsheet that links the product requirements to design and test cases. The purpose of a RTM is to provide a means to trace requirements throughout the project lifecycle. It also ensure that all requirements are tested and [read more]
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7-page Word document
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About Ananya Pani
Ananya Panyi is a Director and Co-founder of Adaptive US Inc., a technology consulting firm specializing in Business Analysis training services and materials. Adaptive US Inc. is also an author on Flevy, offering a wide selection of BA, IT, and business training guides (see their materials here). You can reach Ananya directly by email here: ananya.pani@gmail.com.
