Who owns the business requirements document

Who is responsible for the requirements specification? Ask Question. Asked 8 years, 10 months ago. Active 3 months ago. Viewed 38k times. Improve this question. Mat Mat 1 1 gold badge 1 1 silver badge 4 4 bronze badges. I edited your post a bit to focus more on solutions instead of just building a list of problems. Good luck, and welcome to PMSE! Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Responsibilities for Specifications The customer is ultimately responsible for specifying requirements.

Improve this answer. Todd A. Jacobs CodeGnome makes a good point here - ultimately the client needs to decide what they want the system to do. I think the key to 'avoiding problems' will be to ensure that whoever elicits and documents the requirements does so in a way that is understandable to non-technical client representatives.

User stories mountaingoatsoftware. While I feel that the customer being responsible is the perfect world answer, the reality for me has often been different. I've worked with several customers who won't even look at requirements specifications let alone give input into them.

They come into the project with one or two paragraphs describing the product they want, have an hour or so kick-off when you can ask them questions and then they go hands off until reviews leaving us to drill down into detailed requirements. I've found scrum to help decently here as the whole process is built around keeping the customer involved.

NightMan If your customers aren't contractually responsible for specifications, you probably need to carefully review your engagement practices. Guessing what the customer wants is generally not a successful strategy.

To add cause I ran out of room - I feel like anyone on the team potentially could be responsible for requirements. Whoever has the best handle on what the customer s want would be the best choice - whether that's a developer, tester, project manager or business analyst. I've seen it done by each in my career and the reason it works or doesn't work solely depends on how much the person can identify what the customer s truly want and then document it in such a way that engineers can translate them into a functioning product.

CodeGnome Oh, you're absolutely right and I've been on failed projects because of exactly that. Unfortunately, the team rarely gets to make the decision on what customers to do business with.

Many executive teams out there see only the dollar signs and don't care if the customer is difficult or not. I've been told "just do the best you can" many times when I've reported lack of customer involvement. Community Bot 1. A manual tells an end-user how to use a system. It doesn't replace a specifications document, which describes what the system ought to do.

CodeGnome : Right. But what is a better format for an IT illiterate customer - a bunch of "shall" statements or a way to understand the structure and function of the system? Having a clear scope helps keep the team aligned and avoids unnecessary wastage of resources.

When you are clear on the outcome of a project, you are better able to describe it in your requirements document. This, in turn, helps stakeholders understand the project details in a granular manner. All project functionalities or special requests need to be included here. In this section, describe the high-level goals and objectives of the project.

What will the project ultimately achieve? How does the project goals tie up to the overall business objective and mission? Describe in detail what success will look like, accompanying relevant metrics for performance measurement. The goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and completed within a precise Timeframe. Provide a rationale for the project. The next step is gathering requirements and documenting them. Know what needs to build and what is required to build it. Describe personnel requirements, budget, and other key resources needed to implement the project without any hiccups.

Once you know what you need to build, the next step is to identify key stakeholders and assign roles and responsibilities. The scope comprises of three key things:.

Businesses grow or change in phases and cycles, and as they change, the requirements may also change. For the changes in the phases of the business, you must create a business requirements document.

The size or stage of the development is of little relevance, but what is important is that different requirements are needed for the business to survive or progress to new phases. The ideal business requirement document template or sample BRD template should have the following components:. The executive summary is the outline of the requirements of the project.

The best time to formulate a summary statement is once the BRD is written completely. The project objectives should be written in a SMART format which implicates they must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. The needs statement outlines why the project is needed for the business and how the project will be able to meet the needs.

This also holds the information on the funding of the project and how it would be done. This section outlines in a detailed manner the functional requirements and corresponding features including diagrams, charts, and timelines. This section covers the human resources aspect of the project. Who needs to be hired and when the hiring needs to be done. It also covers the cost of the resources. Each phase of the project is covered in detail in this section. This helps to ensure that all stakeholders are aware of what is required and when it will be required.

This section holds a detailed list of all the costs involved in the project along with the cost-benefit analysis. Uniquely this example includes highly-detailed explanations and charts. It is perfect for those who need some inspiration to create a highly technical or detailed BRD. It identifies what capabilities the stakeholders and the target users need and why these needs exist, providing a focused overview of the requirements, constraints, and Information Technology IT options considered.

This document does not state the development methodology. This BRD example is great for organizations who want to see how to outline very technical and stringent project requirements. The BRD contains more details and more specifications and deadlines to be met along the way and at the end of the project.

Put simply, RFx documents are used to identify which vendors your organization wants to partner with. Then, BRDs outline the goals and expectations you have for the vendor you ultimately select. RFP supports strategic vendor partnerships with capabilities that empower you to issue better RFPs and questionnaires. RFP development and administration Manage all RFPs in a template library — simplifying, standardizing and improving every request you create.

Workflow and collaboration Assign tasks, set deadlines, collaborate and communicate with stakeholders, suppliers and scorers in one solution. Evaluation and scoring Collect, score and compare responses in a single view, driving more informed and objective buying decisions. Dashboards and reporting Generate reports for insight into past responses and glance at dashboards to see the status of RFPs and tasks.

Request a demo to see how RFP can help your organization develop more effective procurement and supplier relationship management processes. How to write a business requirements document: Template, examples, tips.

What is a business requirements document? Everything you need to write a successful business requirements document.

What are the components of a business requirements document? Download the business requirements document template now. Executive summary The executive summary sets the stage for the entire document.

Consider including: Overall goal s for the project A high-level description of what the project will accomplish How the goal supports larger strategic objectives A list of stakeholders involved Background of the project How it came to be and issues or problems experienced Business drivers that make this project important Operational, market, environmental or financial Description of current process and proposed process Diagrams can be helpful.