When you make or upgrade a product, creating the many required planning documents can seem like pointless paperwork. Reviewing the project charter, the work breakdown structure (WBS), and the business requirements document can feel like wasted time. It’s true that depending on the scope and level of effort, not every document may be necessary for every new endeavor. However, one of these documents can point your team in the right direction and build a unified approach to the work — the functional specification document.
In this article, we’ll discuss the different functional spec formats and explain which format is best suited to different projects. We’ll also offer templates for each type of functional specification document, for Agile, websites, and more.
Agile focuses on finding the most efficient way to deliver a useful product to a user. In Agile development, traditional functional requirements documents and processes are sometimes considered to be financially prohibitive. Nevertheless, capturing more detailed plans and sketches can enhance clarity.
One of the most common Agile requirements tools is the user story. User stories put features in the context of what the user needs to accomplish. You can group together similar user stories to form Agile epics. As with traditional functional requirements specs, user stories describe the task or feature, but not how the developers should implement it.
User stories employ the following syntax: “As a user, I want to have something so that some benefit derives from it.” Here are some examples:
To test whether a user story is well formed, apply the acronym INVEST.
For project management purposes, in the tracking tool, you can give user stories a name and numbered ID. In addition, you can mark the development priority, sprint, and story status. Stories go into the Agile product backlog.
User story templates are usually quite simple: They focus on identifying the role of the user, their task, and what the task should accomplish. In addition, the following template includes space to identify the story and development cycle information.
Download Simple Agile User Story Template
Planning a website calls for a high-level understanding of the necessary technology and a detailed comprehension of who will use the site and what you (as the site owner) wish users to accomplish. The user stories employed in Agile development can help you focus on user needs. Other questions also help contextualize the website.
The following website specification template asks a series of questions to help you define the purpose of the website, who the website is for, the activities they will perform on the website, and any special considerations, such as security standards like PCI for financial transactions.
Download Website Functional Requirements Template
Download Website Technical Specification Template
When developing software and other technology with the Waterfall method, you can often use a traditional functional requirements or specifications template. Functional requirements list features and functions of what the product “shall” do. For example, “The vacuum shall pick up particles smaller than five mm.”
You may also prefer a template with more focus on business requirements. This minimalist template provides space for you to detail the purpose of your product or upgrade in context of your business goals, in addition to higher level design considerations.
You can create use cases for many types of products, including websites and software. Use cases focus on tasks that a user must perform with the product. By concentrating on tasks, the use case documents help steer developers toward creating user-focused products. These documents also keep stakeholders from misinterpreting product design. Use this use case template to define a task in terms of actors, steps, and branches.
Download Use Case Template
A functional specification document (FSD), also known as a functional requirements document (FRD), is considered by many project management and software development pundits to be the essential tool to limit confusion and misdirection on a project.
Although FSDs are frequently associated with software and web development, they have a role to play in any project, whether that be the launch of a new product, an upgrade, the development of a software product or tangible item, or the establishment of process or organizational changes. Functional specification documents present both business and engineering expectations. All stakeholders review and approve the document. The result is a reference document for the proposed product that addresses all parts of the organization, from coders to designers to sales staff.
You can use a functional specification document template to ensure that you include all the essential development information in a document. In addition, templates guarantee that with each new initiative, teams focus on the requirements for the product rather than waste time determining the design of the specifications document. Templates should be customized to meet the unique needs of each team or company.
Traditionally, FRDs tend to be long, dry, and often technical. But such documents may not be necessary or even useful. Because the purpose of the functional requirements document is to scope out the project for all stakeholders, FRDs avoid lengthy technical discussions. While you can include many types of requirements and supporting information (see the list below), the best practice is to only describe the FRD’s basic intentions. At its core, the document must describe the context and the features and functions to be developed. A technical design document is created based on the accepted functional requirements spec. The FRD should not duplicate any of the other requirements or process documents.
Functional specifications documents follow an approval process: Business users verify that the solution addresses their concerns, and technical reviewers verify that the described solution can be implemented. Often, key reviewers include testers, end users, technical writers, and product or system owners. You declare the document complete when everyone agrees on the contents. Some organizations then proceed to building the systems architecture document.
A functional requirements specification serves as a reference document for the entire team. It shows what product developers should develop, what testers should test, what writers should document, and what sales people will sell. A written functional specification shows that the design and intent have been thoroughly considered before development begins. It also illustrates that after specification approval, all stakeholders are on the same page. One should not write the specs to backfill the document after the product has been coded.
Some business analysts and developers distinguish functional specifications from functional requirements by saying that requirements describe what the software must do and that specifications describe how the software must do it. In practice, you usually combine these two roles.
Functional specifications (or requirements) document templates may also take a handful of forms. The format you choose depends on what works best for your organization.
Typically, business analysts and technical leads create templates and functional specifications that they share with business and technical stakeholders who provide reviews to ensure that the expected deliverable is on target.
You may use functional specifications when developing new software and upgrades. You can also use them for organizational and systems engineering changes, web development, and more. Users of specifications include the following groups:
Although many combinations and permutations of documents exist, functional specification documents (FSDs) and business requirements documents (BRDs) are sometimes separate.
BRDs describe the higher-level business requirements for a product (what a product does). BRDs avoid technical detail in favor of detailed rationale for the product. A clear understanding of what the product offers and why it is necessary can often help guide development through disputes on product direction. FSDs can focus on outlining the features and functionality of the product that you require to achieve your end goal.
Creating a product, whether tangible or transactional, can involve generating many documents. Functional specifications templates can be used in conjunction with any of the following:
Requirements may be categorized as functional and nonfunctional specifications (the what and the how).
In SAP, a functional specifications document is a description of the product from the stakeholder’s point of view, with precise expectations for how the feature relates to SAP. You create functional specifications after you combine the FSD and software requirements document into one.
At the minimum, FRDs should include these elements:
A written description of desired functions is an essential part of product development, but the form that the functional requirements template takes should also be governed by what works for your team.
When developing a template, or even when considering improvements to an existing development process, ask everyone with a vested interest in the outcome of the product what they want in a template. Each format offers advantages and disadvantages:
Again, when considering what tool to use for creating software requirements documents, your organization’s needs are paramount. What works for other companies may not work for you.
Although some requirements are basic and essential to conveying the intent of your product, others may or may not be valuable to developing your product. The format you choose may also be driven by what you are developing. Here’s a list that you can use as a guide when preparing functional requirements:
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