Requirement gathering is the first step in the development process and consists of identifying the best ways to integrate technology into a business. The process involves asking the following questions:
The technology and business coevolution cycle starts with identifying opportunities for leveraging technological capabilities in a business to improve its value proposition. The next step is technology selection, followed by integrating the technology into the business, and finally, the end users’ mainstream adoption of the improved product.
Technology and the business:
How can technology help us improve our offerings, reduce our costs, or tap into green niches?
Which technology is best suited to our specific context?
Integrating the technology into the business:
What impact on our systems, processes, and business will we face when integrating or updating technology?
What is the best way to leverage the technology’s capabilities?
What constraints and compromises will we have to make for this integration to be successful?
All the above questions must be answered to integrate technology into your business successfully. Furthermore, the decisions you make when answering those questions will have a long-lasting effect on your business.
These decisions, which, in some cases, are irreversible, must be made with due care. The decision-making process must involve the key stakeholders, and the ensuing decisions and objectives must be communicated to all concerned parties. Therefore, the project sponsors must document, share, discuss, revise, review, and sign off on these decisions.
Various formats allow the storage and management of technical documentation. Some are simple, like traditional technical documentation, while others are more complicated, like user stories.
4. Why Do We Need a Business Requirements Document?
Creating a BRD is critical to the success of a software development project for several reasons:
Communication:
A BRD provides a clear and concise way to communicate the business needs and requirements to the development team, ensuring everyone is on the same page.
Alignment:
A BRD helps ensure that the project goals align with the business objectives. It also provides the development team with the right solution to the business problem.
Documentation:
A BRD provides a comprehensive business requirements record and is a reference document throughout the project lifecycle.
Validation:
A BRD provides a basis for validating the project deliverables and ensuring they meet the business needs.
During the project kick-off phase, the BRD provides a solid base for stakeholder agreement.
Project Governance and Quality:
The requirement-gathering phase and a carefully crafted BRD reduce rework, a significant source of project risk, and poor quality deliveries.
The BRD provides input to the solution design phase, where the different system components are assembled to create an optimal solution for the specific business needs.
The BRD permits accurate cost and effort estimation, adequate planning, budgeting, and efficient resource allocation.
A well-written BRD provides the basis for verifying that the requirements have been met by acting as input to the test plan and test case creation process.
Below is a list of things to consider when working with business requirements:
Tools and infrastructure:
Complex requirements for large software development projects would be better off stored on specialized tools instead of simple text-processing applications such as MS Word.
Today, sophisticated tools are abundant, making storage, access, navigation, search, and editing much more effortless.
These tools also allow the seamless addition of interactive data visualizations like tables and graphs, which help create a better story and comprehensively articulate the requirements.
Version Tracking and Control:
Version tracking and control are necessary when the number of people collaborating on a project is relatively large (more than five people can be considered significant) and updates are frequent.
Most modern tools will provide automated versioning and backup of documentation. However, some protocols must also be created and diligently applied to avoid losing track of your documents.
Collaboration:
Collaboration is critical in every stage, including creating, reviewing, and signing off a BRD.
Collaboration involves review sessions, asking for feedback, monitoring progress, and group communication. These activities can become a nightmare without the necessary infrastructure.
6. Writing a Great BRD in 7 Easy Steps for Business Analysts
Need to create a great Business Requirements Document? Here are 7 Easy Steps that will allow you to do that.
Creating a BRD is a collaborative effort that involves business stakeholders, subject matter experts, and the development team. Here are the critical tips to keep in mind when creating a BRD:
Step 1: Identify Business Objectives and Goals
The first step in creating a BRD is identifying the business objectives and goals. This involves understanding the business problem that needs to be solved and defining the expected outcomes.
One of the most challenging problems in knowledge management in general, and technical documentation in particular, is ensuring that all readers start from the same context. The notion of a shared context is critical as otherwise, the ideas presented might not be understood or interpreted similarly.
What you need to do
Create an executive summary that lets readers quickly understand if this document is relevant to them.
Write a few paragraphs explaining the problem’s background and what critical and relevant decisions have been made.
Include a list of assumptions on which the solution has been built.
Include links to external references.
Step 2: Identify Stakeholders
Identify the stakeholders involved in the project and their roles and responsibilities. This includes business stakeholders, subject matter experts, and development team members.
What you need to do
Identify your intended audience and mention this specifically in the introduction.
Use technical vocabulary that the intended audience can understand
Overly technical details can be left to the Appendices.
Step 3: Define Functional Requirements
Functional requirements define what the system or application should do. This includes features, capabilities, and behaviours necessary to achieve the business objectives.
What you need to do
Be specific about the requirements.
Present the requirements in tables (if possible), focusing on important aspects and ensuring consistency for the reader.
If the requirement spans multiple systems, applications, or modules, consider breaking down the requirements into further documents per system, application, or module.
Step 4: Define Non-Functional Requirements
Non-functional requirements define how the system or application should perform. This includes performance, reliability, usability, security, and other quality attributes.
What you need to do
List all non-functional requirements while being very specific about the details.
Non-functional requirements can be tricky as they require input from subject matter experts. In this case, consider involving the relevant stakeholders directly in preparing the requirements.
Step 5: Define Assumptions, Constraints, Risks, and Dependencies
Assumptions are factors that are considered to be accurate but are not verified. Constraints are limitations that must be considered in the design and development of the system or application. Risks are potential problems that could impact the success of the project. Dependencies must be established before the system or application can be built or deployed.
What you need to do
Include a section in your document for constraints, risks, assumptions and dependencies.
Any explicit and specific constraints, risks, assumptions and dependencies must be listed for clarity.
While this type of information can never be complete (again, the problem of shared context and how much people already know), care must be taken to include the points that heavily influence the final product.
Step 6: Review and Approve the BRD
Once the BRD is complete, it should be reviewed and approved by all stakeholders. This ensures that everyone agrees on the business requirements and that there is a shared understanding of what needs to be built.
What you need to do
Allowing enough time to review the document and provide feedback is critical. There is a general approach to problem-solving, decision-making, and planning at Toyota that applies nicely to this case, where the motto is “Make decisions slow, execute swiftly”.
Step 7: Implement a Proper Change Management Process
Business requirements will be adjusted and updated over time. Maintaining a grip on the change management process is vital to preventing scope creep and rework.
What you need to do
Have the change management process ready and explicitly referenced in the BRD.
Ensure changes to the BRD are tracked, and the document is version-controlled.
7. Tips for Creating an Effective Business Requirement Document
Here are some tips to help you create an effective BRD:
Be specific and detailed: Use clear and concise language to define the requirements and provide examples to illustrate the expected behaviour.
Avoid ambiguity: Make sure the requirements are unambiguous, and there is no room for interpretation.
Consider the audience: Tailor the language and level of detail to the audience, ensuring everyone understands the requirements.
Include visuals: Use diagrams, flowcharts, and other visual aids to help illustrate the requirements and make them easier to understand.
Prioritize requirements: Rank the requirements in order of importance so that the development team knows which requirements to focus on first.
Test the requirements: Define test cases and acceptance criteria to ensure the requirements are met, and the system or application works as expected.
Be flexible: Be prepared to revise the BRD as needed based on feedback and changes in the project scope.
8. Common Mistakes to Avoid
While creating a BRD is critical to the success of a software development project, there are some common mistakes that you should avoid:
Not involving all stakeholders: It is essential to involve all stakeholders, including business leaders, end-users, and technical experts, in creating the BRD. Leaving out any key stakeholders can lead to misunderstandings and missed requirements.
Being too vague or general: The BRD should be specific and detailed, outlining the business needs and requirements clearly and concisely. Being too vague or general can lead to misinterpretations and confusion.
Overcomplicating the document: While the BRD should be detailed, it should also be easy to understand. Avoid using technical jargon or overly complex language that can make the document difficult to comprehend.
Not prioritizing requirements: It is essential to rank them in order of importance so the development team knows which requirements to focus on first. Failure to do so can lead to delays in the project and wasted resources.
Failing to test the requirements: Define test cases and acceptance criteria to ensure the requirements are met, and the system or application works as expected. Failure to do so can lead to costly errors and delays in the project.
9. Are Business Requirements Documents (BRD) Used with Agile?
Are BRDs required in Agile? Epics, user stories, and tasks are the alternatives to creating BRDs in Agile.
Regardless of which software development methodology you choose, whether Agile, Waterfall, or Hybrid, the need for sharing information, collaboration, and documentation will remain the same. However, the information content, size, and format will radically differ between them. Let’s see how this applies to Business Requirements Documents or BRDs:
Size:
With Agile focusing on small and more frequent releases, it is natural to see requirements decomposed into smaller units such as User Stories. The latter will then be grouped into Epics if they belong to the same feature or module or are intended to be developed under the same project.
The Waterfall methodology and attitude towards BRD preparation are significantly different. In Waterfall, an analysis phase would typically cover all business requirements. An attempt is usually made to have all the requirements batched together if they are destined to be implemented under the same project. This makes documentation in general, and the BRD in particular, much larger than its Agile counterparts.
Content:
The Waterfall methods for preparing BRDs and their generic contents have already been described in the previous sections. In summary, they include in one document an overview, project assumptions, risks, or constraints, the business requirements themselves, and an appendix of technical details where needed.
In Agile, at the most elementary level, we have user stories. These describe how users wish to interact with the system and leave it to the product owners and developers to determine the implementation details and make small design decisions.
Format:
The BRD in Waterfall is typically a document written in Word or Excel with the sections and paragraphs as discussed above. Requirements are written in the following format: The product [shall, should] support this or that <functionality>.
The conventional Agile user story format looks like this: As a <role>, I can <functionality>, so that I get <business value>. User stories can be grouped into epics whenever they share some similarities. Complex user stories are normally divided into tasks and subtasks.
However, there are some general limitations to formatting user stories in the way just mentioned since some business requirements do not typically fit into that box and are more easily specified using the Waterfall format.
In the end, practical reasons will dictate which format is used, regardless of the methodology.
10. Writing Better Technical Documentation
Writing effective technical documentation, including a business requirements document (BRD), involves adhering to specific best practices to ensure clarity, precision, and comprehensibility. Here are some general best practices for technical documentation, along with their application to a business requirements document:
Audience Understanding: Know your audience and tailor the content accordingly. Understand that stakeholders like developers, testers, and business analysts might read the BRD. Use language and details that cater to these diverse audiences.
Consistent Formatting and Structure: Maintain a consistent format for headings, lists, and other document elements. Organize the BRD logically with sections for introduction, scope, objectives, functional requirements, non-functional requirements, and other relevant categories. Consistent formatting makes it easier for readers to navigate.
Clarity and Simplicity: Use simple and clear language, avoiding unnecessary jargon. Express business requirements in a straightforward manner. Avoid ambiguity and ensure all stakeholders can understand the document without extensive technical knowledge.
Include Visuals: Use diagrams, charts, and graphs to enhance understanding. Include process flows, use case diagrams, and other visuals to represent complex business processes or relationships between requirements.
Use a Style Guide: Follow a style guide to maintain consistency in language and terminology. Adhere to a specific style guide to ensure uniformity in writing. This is crucial for a document that may span various business and technical domains.
By applying these best practices, you can enhance the quality and effectiveness of your technical documentation, ensuring that your business requirements document provides clear and actionable information to stakeholders.
A typical follow-up question to an article on technical documentation is whether the article has any templates that can be downloaded. In this case, as is in general, a single template for a Business Requirements Document (BRD) that fits any project of arbitrary size and complexity and industry is just not possible. To have enough generality to apply in any context, such a template would lose all usability.
In fact, you can create your template and reuse it for new projects. You can also have several templates, each for a different type of project. The diligent business analyst will have to review the ideas presented in this article, assimilate them, and keep only those that apply to their situation.
Any team needs to build its internal competencies and discover the techniques that allow it to perfect its task within the constraints and limitations that apply to its situation. We hope this article has given you some great insights on creating BRDs in your team.
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