This Requirements Management Plan example shows how Alex Morgan, PMP, defined the process for collecting, documenting, tracking, and controlling requirements throughout Project Phoenix — a $72,250 website launch managed using the PMBOK Guide 8th Edition. Requirements management is not a one-time activity — it is an ongoing discipline that must be planned and governed from the first stakeholder interview to the final UAT sign-off.

What Is a Requirements Management Plan?

A Requirements Management Plan is a subsidiary component of the Project Management Plan that describes how requirements will be collected, analyzed, documented, validated, and controlled throughout the project. It defines the tools and techniques for requirements gathering, the format for documentation, the traceability approach, the change control procedure for requirements modifications, and the metrics that will be used to assess requirements stability. In PMBOK 8, requirements management is addressed within the Planning and Delivery Performance Domains. A well-written Requirements Management Plan ensures that every requirement has a traceable origin, a clearly defined acceptance criterion, and a defined process for change — which is the foundation of effective scope control.

What's Inside This Requirements Management Plan Example

This Requirements Management Plan example for Project Phoenix includes:

• Requirements collection approach: individual stakeholder interviews (8 stakeholders, 30-minute structured sessions, March 11), followed by a half-day facilitated requirements workshop (March 12) and a post-workshop stakeholder survey to validate completeness and priority
• Documentation format: user story format ("As a [persona], I want [feature] so that [benefit]") for functional requirements; structured specification format for non-functional and compliance requirements
• Traceability approach: every requirement linked to its source stakeholder, its WBS work package, its test case, and its acceptance criterion — maintained in the Requirements Traceability Matrix in Confluence
• Storage and version control: requirements documentation stored in Confluence with version history; all changes tracked with author, date, and rationale
• Change control: changes to Must-Have requirements require PM and Sponsor approval (Riley Park); changes to Should-Have or lower can be approved by the PM alone, provided there is no cost or schedule impact above 2%
• Requirements validation: two formal UAT sessions — Sprint 4 (May 16–20) for frontend and CRM requirements, Sprint 5 (May 21–31) for full-system requirements including load and performance testing
• Stability metrics: requirements volatility tracked; at project close, 3 requirements changes were approved and 0 rejected during the 13-week project

How Alex Morgan Used This Requirements Management Plan

The Requirements Management Plan proved its value most clearly during the content delay crisis in Periods 3 and 4. When the marketing team was unable to deliver final content by the Week 6 deadline, Alex used the requirements document and management plan to separate content requirements (a Should-Have delivery mechanism) from the underlying functional requirement (contact forms must route leads to Mautic CRM — a Must-Have). This distinction allowed development to proceed with placeholder content while keeping the Must-Have requirements on the critical path. Without the requirements management framework, the content delay would likely have cascaded into a 3-week schedule slip rather than being managed through a targeted workaround.

Download and Customize

This Requirements Management Plan example is available as a free download. Use it as a reference to build your own plan, or start with the blank template and fill it in for your project.

• Download the Requirements Management Plan Template — PMBOK 8 (blank, ready to use)
• Read the article: Requirements Management Plan in PMBOK 8 — Guide and Best Practices

Requirements Management Plan Example: Key Takeaways

The critical lesson from this Requirements Management Plan example is that requirements traceability is the link between planning and quality assurance. Alex Morgan's team was able to run UAT efficiently because every test case mapped directly to a documented requirement, and every requirement had a specific acceptance criterion. Tom Nguyen (QA Lead) knew exactly what to test and exactly what "pass" meant for each item — because the Requirements Management Plan had defined that mapping months earlier. When ISS-007 (load test failure) occurred, the traceability matrix immediately identified the affected requirement and the associated acceptance criterion that needed to be met before the deliverable could be formally accepted.

Want to go deeper? The PMBOK Guide 8th Edition is the definitive reference for modern project management. Get your copy and use it alongside these examples to build a solid, practical understanding of every performance domain.