Are you ready to learn everything you need to know about how to write a business requirements document (BRD)? This article will explain in detail what information you’ll need to put in your BRD, as well as step-by-step instructions for creating your own. We know it’s helpful to see an example when you’re starting a document from scratch, so we’ve given you a full example, too.
Plus, you can use our prebuilt requirements management template to help you write your own BRD. Once this is done, you’ll be able to start your project even faster using our prebuilt project scheduling template.
What is a business requirements document (BRD)?
A business requirements document (BRD) is an official document that provides a comprehensive overview of a project, including its objectives, key stakeholders, timeline, budget, constraints, and more.
This document outlines what’s needed to reach the intended project objectives. When it’s done well, it should be so self-explanatory that it removes any ambiguity associated with the project work. Nobody is left guessing — everything they need is listed in the business requirements document.
In a paper for the Project Management Institute (PMI), Paul Burek emphasized that business requirements are the “what” — what an organization wants to do upon completing a project. The requirements define the changes that will come as a result of the project work.
While it might sound overly formal, a business requirements document is a critical element to ensure alignment among all parties involved.
Later on, we’ll delve into some tips for writing a concise BRD with Wrike’s templates, so that you can accomplish your business goals and objectives.
What information do you put in a business requirements document?
Now that we have a loose overview of what this document is, let’s dig into the nitty-gritty of what goes into it.
Business requirements documents are similar to other formal documents such as requests for proposals (RFPs) and client contracts. With that in mind, the document includes:
- An executive summary: Write this summary after completing the rest of the document. This high-level section should outline the project requirements and should summarize the following contents of the document.
- Project objectives: Describe the project’s goals and objectives and mention what the work will achieve. What are the outcomes? How does the project align with the goals of the business? To simplify this product management roadmap and ensure it’s succinct, use the SMART system for project objectives.
- A needs statement: This is where you make your case as to why the project is needed. Providing rationale and garnering support from stakeholders and employees is a great way to build rapport with your peers before diving into the rest of the project.
- Project scope: Why is scope management important? Successful projects communicate the work scope from the beginning and stay within the defined boundaries unless otherwise instructed. Clear project scope will help you avoid dreaded scope creep. Find a scoping document template that works for you to clearly lay out your project scope.
- Requirements: After requirements gathering with key stakeholders, you’ll need to summarize all of the project’s requirements in this section. Be mindful of high-level requirements like the “what,” as well as technical requirements like the “how.”
- Key stakeholders: Identify the stakeholders involved in the project and lay out their roles and responsibilities. Who will do the work? What are the expectations of each stakeholder? Will the business need to hire any additional resources?
- Project constraints: Highlight any project limitations and ensure your project team is aware of them. If necessary, offer additional resources (such as contractor help or in-depth training materials) to overcome these constraints.
- Schedule, timeline, and milestone deadlines: Detail the project phases in this section, carefully outlining what is required and when. Create timelines and account for dependencies, as well as unforeseen challenges that could arise.
- Cost benefit analysis: Your cost benefit analysis is where you’ll capture the associated costs involved in the project along with the expected benefits to help you build a case for the return on investment (ROI) of the project
- Glossary: Although layperson’s can help the average person easily grasp the information being presented, there are times where you must use technical terminology. Industry-specific terms and any phrases/project names unique to your business fall under this category and should be defined here.
How to write a business requirements document
There’s no denying that there’s a lot that goes into this document. But, writing business requirements and adding them to a business requirements document doesn’t have to be an overwhelming challenge. Follow these tips for writing your own.
1. Start by learning from previous successful projects
If starting this document feels daunting, spend some time reviewing successful past projects completed within the organization.
Look at the documentation associated with these projects and use your insights to outline your new business requirements document. Some elements to consider as you review previous documentation include:
- What worked well
- What didn’t work
- Hurdles the project team had to overcome
- Dependencies that might affect your current project
- Elicitation methods used during the requirements-gathering phase
2. Capture your requirements
Here are the meat and potatoes of this process: gathering requirements. This may consist of many different types of requirements, ranging from high-level to technical.
Ultimately, your business requirements document won’t be effective without gathering and capturing all stakeholders’ requirements accordingly.
“A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge” (BABOK® Guide) identifies commonly used requirements elicitation methods, including:
- Brainstorming: Bring your stakeholders together and elicit ideas and themes for the project. This particular method may be beneficial if there are multiple solutions identified.
- Document analysis: Review all existing documentation pertinent to the project, including previous documentation for successful projects.
- Focus groups: Identify stakeholders to gather input from them on a smaller scale. You can dig into the proposed solutions further with predetermined stakeholders than you would in a brainstorming session.
- Interface analysis: This elicitation method is particularly beneficial for software solutions and involves user interactions with an application.
- Interviews: One-on-one interviews are a popular way to gather input for requirements. Hone in on the stakeholder’s thoughts and perspectives related to the project and potential solutions.
- Observation: This method of elicitation is beneficial when revamping a process or workflow. When observing a worker’s process or workflow, be mindful not to interrupt them. Instead, ask them to review your documentation post-observation.
- Prototyping: Using a prototype is a great way to ensure that the current requirements meet all stakeholders’ needs. Prototypes can illustrate how a solution might work and help determine if requirements should be altered.
- Requirements workshops: Conduct collaborative workshops with your stakeholders to outline requirements together. Workshops generally have more direction than brainstorming sessions with predetermined asks of each stakeholder specified at the beginning.
- Surveys/questionnaires: Surveys and questionnaires can help if you’re looking to obtain feedback from a larger group of stakeholders. Question design is important, so be sure to determine how best to pose questions to gather the information you need.
Don’t worry — it’s certainly not essential to use all of the techniques mentioned above. Instead, identify which ones will work best for you and your current product specifics. Throughout the project lifecycle, ensure you listen for impacts to the requirements defined at the beginning of the project and address them as needed.
Try our prebuilt requirements management template to help you organize all the inputs.
Wrike’s business solution, including our high-level dashboards and reporting, allow you to actively track the status of all requirements in real time.
3. Use clear, jargon-free language
Business documents like these can often be long-winded and heavily detailed, making them difficult for your team members to follow and understand. Remember that this document will be viewed by lots of different stakeholders in various roles, and not everyone will understand technical text. There’s no need to include heavy jargon in your business requirement document — try and keep your language clear, relatable, and concise.
A good tip is to include a glossary of terms at the end of your document so that any technical terms can easily be found, and misunderstandings can be avoided.
4. Add visual elements to make content more digestible
Visuals and surrounding context can increase your plan’s effectiveness and break up text-heavy chunks of information.
Research indicates that 65% of the population are visual learners, which means incorporating visuals in your document can help you convey your message and plan in a more compelling way.
For example, a business process diagram is a typical visual seen in a business requirements document. Mapping out business processes in their current state versus the proposed future state can help communicate requirements with ease.
5. Ask team members to review your document
Once you’ve finished your business requirements document, ask stakeholders to review it and validate it. This provides the opportunity for you to confirm you’ve captured all of the requirements accordingly and offers a chance for stakeholders to provide feedback and make changes before the project begins.
As an added bonus, completing a review process also contributes to overall alignment, setting your team up for success from the get-go.
Want to create your project schedule today? Use our ready-made template.
Business requirements document example and template
We’ll admit that all of this can feel a little complex and academic, so let’s walk through a basic requirements document example.
Imagine that your organization wants to find a way to better track employee performance and key performance indicators (KPIs).
For the sake of this example, let’s say there’s currently no system that allows employees to track their performance, so one will have to be selected and implemented. Here’s what a very simple document might look like for this type of project (along with some helpful tips on how to write a BRD):
1. Executive summary
Our organization is seeking a performance management system to track our overall employee performance, boost retention and morale, and increase transparency between managers and employees.
We aim to have this system launched within the second quarter and will evaluate systems, implement the system, and provide adequate training to managers and employees by June 1, 2025.
There are a number of requirements we’re looking to satisfy, including career path mapping, reporting and analytics, and goal management. A number of stakeholders will be involved in the selection and implementation of this system, including project managers, human resources, department heads, executives, managers, and employees.
This document details the selection of this system, the objectives, needs, scope, requirements, stakeholders, schedule, and cost benefit analysis.
2. Project objectives
Use the SMART system for your project objectives:
- We will have all 500 employees trained using our new performance management system by June 1, 2025.
3. Needs statement
Back your statement with data and research, if possible, to strengthen your position:
- A performance management system is needed to increase our employee retention rates, maintain consistency across employee development paths, boost our financial position by upleveling our talent, and motivate and reward employees. Turnover costs our organization on average $35,000, and implementing this system will allow us to save money by retaining our employees.
4. Project scope
Clearly define what work falls within the scope:
- In scope:
- Evaluating and selecting a performance management system
- Implementing the performance management system
- Providing system training to managers
- Providing system training to employees
5. Requirements
Work with key stakeholders to outline all of the requirements:
- Goal management for tracking progress
- Performance evaluation for mid-year and end-of-year performance reviews
- Career path mapping and succession planning
- Reporting
- Performance analytics
- Coaching and mentoring opportunities
6. Project constraints
Expand on the project and its limitations so that stakeholders can understand its complexity and how project objectives can be achieved. Some project constraints include:
- Costs
- Deadlines
- Physical resources (materials, etc.)
- Team resources
7. Key stakeholders
Identify key stakeholders and outline their roles and responsibilities:
- Project manager: Responsible for holding all parties accountable to the project timeline
- HR: Will research performance management systems, gather requirements, provide a recommendation to the executives for signoff, conduct manager and employee training sessions
- Department heads: Share desired needs with HR for a comprehensive list of requirements
- Executives: Responsible for signing off on the selected performance management system
- Managers: Will be trained on the system
- Employees: Will be trained on the system
8. Schedule
Outline all various phases of the project along with the deadline for each phase:
- Phase I: Complete requirements gathering with all stakeholders by March 31, 2025
- Phase II: Select a performance management system to recommend to executives by April 7, 2025
- Phase III: Onboard HR team to the new performance management system by April 26, 2025
- Phase IV: Complete training materials for managers and employees by May 3, 2025
- Phase V: Conduct manager training on May 10, 2025
- Phase VI: Conduct employee training on May 17, 2025
Use a tool like Wrike to help you visualize your project timeline — our Gantt Chart view will keep your stakeholders up to date on your progress.
If you need to alter any dates or deadlines, reschedule your tasks in bulk on our project timeline and easily communicate these changes in real time.
9. Cost benefit analysis
Complete a cost benefit analysis:
- Costs of employee turnover per team YoY
- Costs of resources needed by the project team to implement the system
- Benefits of having employees aligned to business objectives
- Benefits of legal protection for terminations
10. Glossary
Define all special terms and abbreviations used, for the reference of your viewers:
- Business vocabulary
- Industry jargon
- Technical terminology
Here’s what our example would look like in a finalized template:
Like the above example? Create your own business requirements document with Wrike’s blank template:
Kick-start your project scheduling in no time with Wrike.
What is the difference between business requirements and functional requirements?
The difference between business requirements and functional requirements is the purpose. While a business requirements document provides stakeholders with an in-depth overview of your project requirements, a functional requirements document (FRD) describes how to carry out certain tasks to complete the project.
Think of these documents like purchasing and using a cookbook. The BRD represents the cookbook, as the front cover and table of contents give a general idea of what you’ll be making. As for the FRD, this is similar to the individual recipes with instructions on how to cook up certain creations.
Additionally, beyond functional requirements, there are several others:
- Non-functional requirements: As detailed as functional requirements, these discuss how a project should run and what the user experience looks like upon project completion.
- User requirements: More detailed than business requirements, these outline the actions that users can take with the finished deliverables.
- Product requirements: More detailed than both business and user requirements, these guide teams on how to effectively create and sell the desired product.
How to plan a business requirements document with Wrike
A collaborative work management platform like Wrike can take plenty of stress and headaches out of the process by streamlining communication, collecting requirements from stakeholders, and providing visibility into the process. Our prebuilt templates, like our requirements management template and our project scheduling template, can help bring those results to fruition even more quickly.
Are you ready to manage projects more efficiently, increase productivity, and decrease risks? Click here to start your Wrike free trial and avail of our prebuilt templates and valuable product management resources that will supercharge your business.
