A business requirements document template is an essential document relating to a business. It is sometimes also known as a BRD. This document assists in explaining the objectives of the business in question. It also describes what a brand new or improved product will offer to consumers.
Moreover, by using this template, businesses or organizations can easily define the project, its features, and the anticipated results of the project or product in question.
What is a business requirements document?
A business requirements document is a document of high detail about the logic behind the product’s creation. In the production of the product, if there are challenges the company will face, then this special document defines the product production challenges ahead. IT businesses and companies that focus on the creation of software programs use this specific and professional template.
The usage of this document combines the feedback from company stakeholders and at the time just prior to document’s creation, a full assessment of the business’ condition. This report offers unbiased information along with a complete description of how a product will work, its operation, and its desired purpose. It reveals the production process from starting to end.
Furthermore, the parts of the document contents are the diagrams and data flow information. These contents assist in illustrating the as-Is production process in its current state. They will also help in describing the state of production as it undergoes advancements and improvements.
The relevance of a BRD template:
In the marketplace, when a company determines a hole or gap, they may establish the perfect product to fill that gap. Definitely, if the product is determined to be a lucrative venture, it only comes into being. This indicates that the process of production comes into question. This document proves a valuable report. It reveals what it takes to manufacture the product, its objective, how it works, and the desired use for the end user.
Additionally, the business requirements document enables a business to evaluate potential cost factors and production risks. You can say it a well-designed written plan that indicates the steps it takes to make the product or bring the project to life. When a professional business analyst analyzes the current state of a business, this document gets completed. The analyst uses data and feedback from users and this feedback comprises of uses cases. The gathered data s entered in a distinct document complete. After that, it separates from the business requirements document.
The objectives of a BRD template:
Professional business analyst does not work alone or in a vacuum. They always work with IT experts, technology professionals, and project managers. All these people assist in assessing any limitations, dangers, or threats of loss that might exist. The goal is to take any guesswork out of the mix and before the product’s production or project’s undertaking, put a stop to whatever limitations or risks that are determined. This step is important. So, the team establishing the product’s design or purpose of the project can work out design and technical specifications.
Since a BRD contains significant information, so businesses highly depend on this document to make sure every base is covered. The template has easy-to-fill-in sections. Hence, all aspects of the report assists in bringing together the various sources of information.
Sections of the BRD template:
BRD title page
The BRD title page should include the following information;
- The name of the company that needs the document and material included therein
- A small description of the project or undertaking
- The individual’s name who is responsible for the document’s preparation
- The company for whom the document creator works
- The current date
- Executive summary
- Business Objectives or Business Problem Statement
- Background
- Current Business Process or Scope Statement
- Features
- Functional and Non-Functional Requirements
- Necessary Training and Scheduling Factors
- Reporting and Quality Assurance
- Delivery Schedule
- Assumptions
- Limitations
- Risks
- Appendix A – Glossary of Terms
BRD table of contents
The table of contents, in BRD document, comes immediately after the cover page of the document. The table has to list the chapters of the report in linear and consecutive order along with the page number on which each chapter begins. The table of contents has numbers that shows the chapter order. At first, there comes a headline reading ‘table of contents.’ The headline should have a different color font than the regular text.
The following should appear listed in the table of contents;
BRD’s the Executive summary
In the business requirements document, the executive summary is about three paragraphs in length. Each paragraph should have minimum three sentences in order to provide the summary a full, informative body of material. The summary shows terse information regarding the material inside the report as well as the reason why the report is available in the first place.
BRD’s company objectives
This part has precise description of what the business has to achieve. Don’t just write that the business is looking to solve a generic problem. The business analyst and document producer has to familiar with SMART formula.
BRD’s business background
This section includes the most current practices the business engages in the basic history of the business, and other background information.
BRD’s company scope
It is the scope of the work involved in getting the project off the ground.
BRD’s features
If you are using a mobile software then this section describes how the application operates, its features, how it navigated, and more.
BRD’s functional and non-functional requirements
This is a continuation of the features section that stats how the application will serve the end user when it is completed. For ease of visualization and greater clarity, there might be things like diagrams and images or flow charts.
Other sections are;
- BRD’s personnel requirements
- BRD’s reporting and quality assurance
- BRD’s assumptions
- BRD’s limitations
- BRD’s risks
- BRD’s appendix A – glossary terms
What is the importance of business requirement documents?
BRDs provide you a complete insight of a current project. With the help of this document, you can bring all team involvement into the project. In this way, you can make sure successful project delivery. BRDs make your team able to do the following;
- You can monitor the complete health of your project
- To make collaboration, it allows you to bring stakeholders and team members together.
- Overcome the risk of unexpected project amendments.
- Your project constraints can be easily understand and you can find effective solutions to solve them.
Writing a business requirement document:
Here are the steps to follow for writing a BRD;
Step#1; Go through previous successful projects
At first, you should take some time and start reviewing the previous successful projects that are completed within the organization. Then, outline your business requirement document by using your insight. You can consider the following elements in your past projects;
- The things that worked well
- The things that didn’t work well
- Problems that the project team has to solve
- Factors that may affect your current project
Step#2; Gathering your requirements
In this step, you have to capture your requirements ranging from high-level to technical. According to a Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge, following are the requirements elicitation methods;
- Brainstorming: gather your shareholders together for brainstorming and selecting themes for the project. This gathering would prove beneficial for you.
- Document analysis: it is important to analyze your all existing documentation and previous documentation of successful project.
- Focus groups: bring pre-determined stakeholders to get a proper solution.
- Interface analysis: this method proves very beneficial for software solutions.
- Interviews: the most effective and popular method to capture input for requirements is one-on-one interviews as you can get thoughts and perspectives of stakeholders relevant to project and potential solutions.
- Observation: when you are revamping a process or workflow, you can use this method to observe a worker process or workflow.
- Prototyping: in order to make sure that the current requirements meet the stakeholder’s expectations, you should use a prototype. It would be an effective method to explain how a solution might work.
- Surveys/questionnaires: if you want to get feedback from a larger group of stakeholders then surveys/questionnaires proves beneficial.
Step#3: make use of a clear language
Long-winded and heavily detailed business documents are difficult to understand and follow. So, during making your BRD, you should keep in mind that it will be read by several stakeholders and it will not easy for everyone to understand the technical text. Make sure your business requirement document contains a language which is clear, relatable, and precise. It would be recommended to add a glossary at the end of the document so that technical terms can understand easily.
Step#4: ask team members to go through your BRD
When you have completed your BRD, ask your team members or stakeholders to go through your document. This way, stakeholders can give you feedback and make amendments before the project starts.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, a business requirements document template should be created correctly. It makes the users able to fill in the necessary information in order to produce an effective, professional document.
Faqs (Frequently Asked Questions)
A business requirements document basically provides details on what your project requirements are. Stakeholders gets an overall view of the project by having this document.
On the other hand, a functional requirements document gives an explanation on how to perform the specific tasks within the project.
