A requirements specification describes what a piece of software has to do – from the point of view of the people who will use it. Providers estimate their effort and write their offers on the basis of it, and at the end it is the yardstick for the acceptance.
The template takes you through the usual sections: initial situation, goals, functional and non-functional requirements with priority and acceptance criterion, constraints, interfaces, acceptance and a glossary. Every section has a short note and every table an example row. The Word file is for filling in and passing on, the Excel file has each section on a sheet of its own – handy for sorting and filtering the requirements – and the PDF is for printing, for example for a workshop with the business department.
Already have a description or a specification? The project check turns it into a project brief with questions.
