Configuration item records are created only if required by the project’s change control approach. Their purpose is to provide a record of such information as the history, status, version and variant of each configuration item, and any details of important relationships between them. If configuration item records are not used then less formal information about the configuration status of products may be part of the product status information.

A set of configuration item records for a project is often referred to as a configuration library.

The records may be derived from:

• the change control approach
• product breakdown structure
• a stage plan and work package
• the quality register, issue register and risk register.

PRINCE2 does not define the composition, format and presentation or quality criteria for this product. The template provided here is a suggestion of the format and structure you could choose to use.