Functional requirments document software

So who exactly writes functional specification documents? The exact person or group whose role it is may vary in each company or organization, but it is seldom written by just one person. Usually, a product manager draws up the functional specification documents in the company of others, such as UXers, clients and other project stakeholders.

By actually sitting down with members of other departments to write functional specification documents, you will be able to obtain buy-in at an early stage and make sure that everyone is onboard with the current direction. Think about beginning writing a novel without planning.

Is it possible? Is it likely to succeed? So imagine writing a piece of software into existence in code without planning! Your functional specification documentation serves as a roadmap for your developers. Development is difficult and bug-prone enough as it is without having them write line after line of code on the edge of their seat with no structure or plan to guide them.

Another reason to use functional specification documents before designing products or product features is to avoid running into the infamous design by committee conundrum.

No stone is left unturned in the functional specifications document, meaning everyone can get on with their job and ensure that no detail is left out. Functional specification documents prevent unwanted design changes, sudden pivots or direction changes initiated by the client or other stakeholders. Anything surplus to that is unnecessary. Gather requirements by listening to the client and carrying out vigorous user research.

To manage all this information, you can use a requirements gathering tool. Most importantly, though, you can test that these features are actually usable for your main personae. If the testing confirms your assumptions, then you start to write up your functional specification document so that your developers can code the end product.

Co-writing is the way to go with functional specification documents, rather than working in a silo. Firstly, it helps to use software that has good version control. Many functional specification documents are written in Microsoft Word, however, Google Docs tends to allow for better version control, something which is crucial in product development. Often, developers complain about messy version control in Word documents and not being able to see specifically when and where a certain change was made.

For the most part, your functional specification document is going to be written in non-convoluted language. This is the main reason why functional specifications documents exist in the first place. Plain language and diagramming makes everything clearer from the start.

Developers who start working without having this document to hand often find they have problems later on with their code.

For the actual document itself, using a functional specification document template is a no-brainer. These templates already come with a table of contents and many come with all of the sections and headers you will need.

From there, all you need to do is edit each field to include the relevant information from your own project. Most of them can even be copied and pasted into your favorite word processing tool. These explain the rationale for each feature and provide some context as to how the feature should work. Imagine the following use case for a car rental app:. The user can then choose to accept that vehicle or reject it. The user flow will show how the user case and scenarios translates to the product.

For this section, you should include a diagram of the different screens of your mockup or prototype to show how the user will navigate through your app. The alternate flows might demonstrate the different ways the user can arrive at the car unavailable screen — either via a tapping on a notification or by opening the app and navigating to booking. If they do, the rental timer will begin. If not, the user might be returned to the booking screen. The functional specifications document is also where you should include a link to your wireframe or prototype, as well as to your shared library of assets and any extra deliverables that will aid the developers, such as CSS stylesheets and element spacing and padding and color codes.

You may include a timeline or roadmap that establishes when user testing occurs, for example, after each feature design. Additionally, you may specify at what point you will have reached the MVP stage of your product that you will use with early adopters.

Lastly, once the developer has coded all of the feature specifications, then you have reached the end product. However, most of the time there will be some scope for further future iterations of the product in the form of features, new versions and updates.

In this case, the cycle is merely repeated, for which you will start with a brand new requirements statement and flesh out a new feature specification document. Here are some great examples of functional specification documentation that you can also use as templates to start writing up your own. Quick and easy and no having to start everything from scratch! This functional specification document template from Stanford University is a page document template that contains a complete table of contents with 10 items and an appendix.

It ticks all the boxes of a complete functional specification document in that it contains risks and assumptions, project scope, business need, functional specifications and actors users in use cases. This short template comes with questions that ask you to write in the details about your planned website without any technical knowledge required.

It includes sections such as the purpose and business goals of the website, the target user personas and the organization of the website. It serves as a brilliant example of how to integrate use cases, screen mockups and user flows in one document.

The system must allow users to reset their password by clicking on "I forgot my password" and receiving a link to their verified email address. When capturing product requirements, it's important to distinguish between functional and non-functional requirements.

To put it simply, functional requirements describe what the product should do , while non-functional requirements place constraints on how the product should do it. They can be expressed in the following form:. Functional requirements — as the name implies — refer to specific product functionality. Defining, measuring, and testing them is usually a straightforward task. On the other hand, non-functional requirements also known as "quality requirements" or "quality attributes" are more abstract.

They impose constraints on the implementation of the functional requirements in terms of performance, security, reliability, scalability, portability, and so on. NFRs are not themselves backlog items, but they are just as important since they ensure the usability and effectiveness of the entire software system.

A transaction that takes 20 seconds to successfully complete may be functional — but it's certainly not usable. Every functional requirement typically has a set of related non-functional requirements, for example:. Functional requirement : "The system must allow the user to submit feedback through a contact form in the app.

Non-functional requirement : "When the submit button is pressed, the confirmation screen must load within 2 seconds. There is no universally accepted functional requirements document template, and it's up to you and your team which style and format to follow. However, there are several best practices that apply in most cases. In the past, most teams used Microsoft Word to create and manage functional requirements.

This inevitably led to out-of-date, inaccurate FRDs bouncing around the team's inboxes. Fortunately, now you have more options to choose from. Select a tool that facilitates collaboration and ensures that everyone always has the latest version to avoid confusion. For example, you could store your requirements in a Google Doc, or better, in your team's documentation tool or internal wiki , which can be easily set up in Nuclino.

While Nuclino can be used exclusively as a documentation tool, it's highly versatile and capable of much more. It offers a variety of ways to structure and visualize your content, including a nested list, a Kanban board , and a mindmap-style graph. This makes Nuclino a great solution for many additional use cases, including project collaboration , sprint planning , asynchronous communication , and more.

Nuclino works like a collective brain, allowing you to bring all your team's work together and collaborate without the chaos of files and folders, context switching, or silos. Your FRD needs to be a living document, evolving as your project progresses. To ensure that everyone stays on the same page, every stakeholder needs to continuously contribute.

Involve your team early on and collaboratively keep the requirements up-to-date. Although functional requirements may have different priority, every one of them needs to relate to a particular business goal or user requirement. Use simple and easy-to-understand language without any unnecessary jargon to prevent confusion or misinterpretations.

All requirements you include need to be realistic within the time and budget constraints set in the business requirements document. Authentication functions They concern the information users share with the system and their authentication level.

Authorization levels These functions determine various system access levels and decide who can CRUD change, read, update, or delete information. Audit tracking Audit tracking is the process of tracking critical data. External interfaces These functions concern the external interface of systems other than the main system. Certification requirements Your organization might require certifications to work on the system, such as security certifications. Historical data You will have a growth of data if your database is dynamic, so you need to define storage requirements to accommodate these data.

Compliance, legal, or regulatory requirements These are laws, regulations from the government, and even internal policies that the organizations and their systems must follow. Algorithms Algorithms capture any formulas or manipulations of data elements that need to occur. Database The elements and formats you should use when defining what data needs storing in a system.

Backup and recovery You will need this function in case your system crashes and wipes out all your data. Functional requirements examples The following functional requirements examples are taken from our estimation document sample.