Project Requirements Template

The template

PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

Project: [name]            Client: [name]
Version: [0.1]             Date: [date]
Author: [name]             Approved by: [name, date]

1. PURPOSE
[Why this project exists, in two or three sentences]

2. GOALS AND SUCCESS MEASURES
- [Goal] - measured by [how]

3. USERS
- [Who uses it and what they need]

4. SCOPE
In scope:
- [...]
Out of scope:
- [...]

5. FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
| ID | Requirement | Priority (Must/Should/Could) | Source |
| F1 | [The system shall ...] | Must | [meeting, date] |

6. NON-FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
- Performance: [...]
- Security and privacy: [...]
- Accessibility: [...]
- Compatibility: [...]

7. INTEGRATIONS
- [System] - [what data moves, in which direction]

8. CONSTRAINTS AND ASSUMPTIONS
- Timeline: [...]    Budget: [...]
- Assumption: [...]

9. OPEN QUESTIONS
| Question | Owner | Needed by |

10. CHANGE LOG
| Version | Date | Change | By |

How to use it

1. Draft straight after the discovery meeting, while you remember what was said.
2. Fill the Source column with the meeting and date, so every requirement can be traced to a conversation.
3. Mark priorities with Must, Should or Could. If everything is a Must, nothing is.
4. Move uncertain items to Open questions, not into requirements.
5. Send it for confirmation and record who approved which version.

Writing good requirements

• Write one requirement per line, testable and unambiguous. "The page loads quickly" is vague. "The home page is usable within 3 seconds on a mid-range phone" can be checked.
• Say what, not how, unless the how is a constraint.
• Keep out-of-scope as visible as in-scope. It is where most disputes begin.

With MeetMemo

MeetMemo can draft a requirements specification from a meeting, with purpose, functional and non-functional requirements, integrations and open questions, and flag anything unconfirmed. See meeting notes to proposals and branded business documents. The requirement stage is described in how to turn meeting notes into a proposal.