Requirements Documentation

This guide covers requirements documentation practices, including Product Requirements Documents (PRDs) and related requirements gathering standards.

Product Requirements Document

The Product Requirements Document (PRD) serves as the authoritative source for what a product should do, who it serves, and how success will be measured. It bridges business objectives with technical implementation.

Purpose and Benefits

  • Alignment: Ensure all stakeholders understand product goals and scope.

  • Prioritization: Provide clear criteria for making trade-off decisions.

  • Acceptance criteria: Define measurable success conditions.

  • Communication: Facilitate discussion between business and technical teams.

  • Change management: Track requirement evolution throughout development.

PRD Structure

Use the following structure for product requirements documents:

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Product Requirements Document
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Executive Summary
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[Brief overview of the product, its purpose, and key benefits. Should be
understandable by any stakeholder.]

Problem Statement
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[Clear description of the problem this product solves. Include:
- Who experiences the problem
- When and where it occurs
- Impact and consequences of the problem
- Current workarounds or solutions and their limitations]

Goals and Objectives
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[Specific, measurable goals the product should achieve. Include:
- Primary objectives (must-have outcomes)
- Secondary objectives (nice-to-have outcomes)
- Success metrics and how they will be measured]

Target Users
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[Description of intended users including:
- User personas or roles
- User needs and motivations
- Technical proficiency levels
- Usage contexts and environments]

Functional Requirements
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[Detailed description of what the product must do. Organize by feature area
or user workflow. For each requirement include:
- Requirement ID (for traceability)
- Priority (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- User story format when appropriate
- Acceptance criteria]

Non-Functional Requirements
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[Technical and quality requirements including:
- Performance requirements (response time, throughput, etc.)
- Scalability requirements
- Security requirements
- Reliability and availability requirements
- Usability requirements
- Compatibility requirements]

Constraints and Assumptions
===============================================================================

[Known limitations and assumptions including:
- Technical constraints (platforms, technologies, etc.)
- Regulatory or compliance constraints
- Dependencies on other systems or teams
- Assumptions about user behavior or technical environment]

Out of Scope
===============================================================================

[Explicitly state what will NOT be included to prevent scope creep and
manage expectations.]

Best Practices

Requirement Quality

  • Specific: Requirements should be unambiguous and precise.

  • Measurable: Include quantifiable acceptance criteria where possible.

  • Achievable: Ensure requirements are technically and practically feasible.

  • Relevant: Each requirement should trace back to business objectives.

  • Testable: Requirements should be verifiable through testing or inspection.

User Story Format

When appropriate, express functional requirements as user stories:

As a [user role], I want [functionality] so that [business value].

Acceptance Criteria:
- [Specific condition that must be met]
- [Another condition that must be met]
- [Edge case or error condition handling]

Prioritization Guidelines

  • Critical: Product cannot launch without this feature.

  • High: Important for product success but could be delayed if necessary.

  • Medium: Valuable enhancement that improves user experience.

  • Low: Nice-to-have feature that can be considered for future releases.

Traceability

  • Assign unique identifiers to requirements (REQ-001, REQ-002, etc.).

  • Maintain traceability from business objectives through requirements to test cases.

  • Update requirement status as development progresses.

Requirements Management

Change Control

  • Document changes: Track all requirement changes with rationale.

  • Impact assessment: Evaluate effects on schedule, resources, and other requirements.

  • Stakeholder approval: Ensure appropriate sign-off for requirement changes.

  • Communication: Notify affected teams of requirement updates.

Review and Validation

  • Technical feasibility: Validate requirements with development teams.

  • User validation: Test requirements with actual users when possible.

  • Consistency checking: Ensure requirements don’t conflict with each other.

Integration with Development

  • Architecture alignment: Ensure requirements inform architectural decisions.

  • Sprint planning: Break requirements into implementable user stories.

  • Acceptance testing: Use requirements as the basis for acceptance test criteria.

  • Progress tracking: Monitor development progress against requirements completion.