Business requirements form the cornerstone of any project, helping avoid expensive scope changes later on in development. They should be captured early in the development process for maximum effect.
As part of the planning process, customer requirements documentation is an integral component. Like any documentation, these should be easy to read and comprehend and should not contain unnecessary jargon.
Definition
Business requirements are broad-brush project objectives from a company’s viewpoint, such as increasing profit margins or expanding market share.
Effective business requirements should be tangible and easily verifiable, unambiguous statements that provide clear solutions for existing or arising problems. Furthermore, they should also be straightforward enough for employees to comprehend them and advance company goals.
An effective business requirement document should use graphs, charts and models whenever possible to make its message more easily understood by stakeholders. Furthermore, before being released for distribution it should be validated to ensure it accurately represents the needs of the business.
Validation techniques may include interviews, surveys, and document analysis. They must be carefully selected to meet the business requirements for each project and should help reduce project failure due to poorly defined requirements.
Purpose
Business requirements represent the broad goals of a project, such as increasing market share or customer lifetime value. They do not address how these goals should be accomplished; that responsibility falls to other forms of requirements documents such as user or functional requirements specifications (FRD).
The Business Requirements Document (BRD) serves as the foundation of any project’s structure and priorities. Any requirement that does not align with business objectives identified within it should either be eliminated or reconsidered before being included in any proposal or project plan.
Business analysts often define business needs, though other specialists may also contribute. For instance, top-level managers of a company could offer insight into market opportunities and competitive strategies; additionally, subject matter experts such as engineers could consult on potential technical solutions that meet business goals.
Scope
A business requirements document provides managers with clear boundaries as to the inclusion and exclusion criteria of any project, helping them allocate resources appropriately. Furthermore, it keeps everyone on the same page and prevents scope creep – where projects quickly expand beyond what was initially envisioned – from happening.
A BRD’s scope section should also contain an assumption list for your project. Certain aspects cannot be known in advance, and so you will likely make some educated guesses as to how things may develop – this is fine as long as these assumptions are documented and recorded within its scope section.
From this information, you can craft a concise project scope statement. This document should detail the objectives and deliverables of a project as well as any exclusions.
Methods
Gathering business requirements involves using various techniques. This could involve interviewing stakeholders or observing existing processes before creating prototypes to demonstrate how a solution would function. The approach taken will depend on your SDLC methodology, type of project and number of stakeholders involved.
An accurate business requirement definition (BRD) can reduce the chance of project failure due to unspecified business needs. A thorough elicitation process also aids in the production of a business case and project vision document as well as draft project management plan and scope elaboration documents.
Behaviour Requirement Document (BRD). Non-functional requirements, also referred to as quality requirements, serve to establish constraints for a design such as adhering to government or regulatory guidelines.