If you want to set up a new application for your business or your latest project to be successful, one of the essential documents you need is the business requirement document (BRD). A business requirement document provides a solid understanding of the requirements of a project, application, or design across all related parties. Business requirement documents are necessary for a project to be successful and address the needs of the business. If you are wondering what a business requirement document is and how to write it, we’ve got you covered!

In this article, we will explain how to craft a well-written business requirement document.

Ready?

Let’s begin!

TL; DR

  • BRD is a document to record the functional, qualitative, equipment, and usability aspects, which you can use for future analysis and plans.
  • A business requirement document should include a project summary and background, project scope, project management, business process, working model, constraints and cost-benefit sections.
  • Business requirement documents make it easier for stakeholders and employees to understand the project.
  • When creating a business requirement document, you need to set objectives, define the project scope, list the stakeholders, business requirements and add an executive summary that summarizes all of them.
  • If you are looking for an assistant who will help you with all aspects of your company, including the business requirement document, TextCortex is the solution for you.

What is a Business Requirement Document (BRD)?

A business requirement document is a framework to record the functional, quality, equipment, and usability requirements in a simple format that can be used for future analysis, designs, and plans. Business requirement documents are designed to take project or business processes from general to specific.

What to Include in Business Requirement Document?

A business requirement document should include the project summary and background, project scope, project management, business process model, use cases, constraints, requirements, and success metrics. Each component you include in the BRD should provide information about the project and business, specify the requirements, and explain the constraints and process. In this way, the reader can learn about the project or business and understand the objectives just by looking at the BRD.

Benefits of Business Requirement Document

Business requirement documents have various advantages for stakeholders, employees and managers. The first of these advantages is that receivers have detailed information about the needs of the project or business, thanks to BRD. In this way, all parties involved in the business can be informed about the project and business, thus increasing transparency and strengthening communication and collaboration.

Sharing the risks and requirements of your project or business with all stakeholders also increases reliability. Because the project requirement document is accessible to relevant people, they are more likely to notice errors and mistakes and suggest corrections.

How to Write a Business Requirement Document?

A business requirement document should be created with care, as it is a resource that covers the entire process and can be used as an overview of the process. If you don’t know how to write a business requirement document and need some help, we’ve got you covered! Let’s take a look at how to write a business requirement document step by step.

How to Write a Business Requirement Document?

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary is the first part that provides a brief summary of the entire text and is written for those who do not have time to read the entire document. In this section, you need to define the purpose of the project or business. The executive summary aims to provide information about the project even to those who have not read the entire business requirement document. Although the executive summary is the first section in your business requirement document, you should write it after writing the other sections.

2. Set Project Objectives

The project objectives section of your business requirement document should include the business goals you aim to achieve for your project or business. The project objectives section is important to state your goals and targets before starting work. You can utilize project objectives as the measurement of your progress or milestones. You should list your project objectives as SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-specific) goals. By setting objectives that comply with these standards, you can measure the progress of your project or business and grow your business more efficiently.

3. Define Project Scope

By adding your project scope to your business requirement document, you can bring everyone on the same page and explain the boundaries of your project to everyone. This way, you can prevent your project from going beyond the boundaries you set and getting out of control. In the project scope, you need to provide readers with information such as timeline, budget, deliverables, and project team. In the project scope section, you can focus on the main goal by listing the exclusions you want to leave out of the project.

4. List Business Requirements 

The business requirement section is the most crucial part of your BRD. In this section, you need to list the actions and tasks required to complete your project. This listing should also have a classification, such as critical level or priority level. In this way, everyone involved in the project can see and focus on the priority and important tasks. Listing the tasks in order of importance will be beneficial for both employees and stakeholders, and investors.

5. List Stakeholders

The term project stakeholder represents anyone included in your project. Your project stakeholder is everyone to whom you intend to send or will send the business requirement document. They can be team members, project managers, clients, investors, and other parties related to your business. In this section, you should list the names and roles of each stakeholder, describe their duties.

6. Project Constraints

The section where you will show the readers the boundaries, limits and shape of your project or business is project constraints. In this section, you need to touch on project limits in detail. After finishing this section, readers should be able to clearly understand what the project does not cover and what it does cover. In this section, you need to mention information such as project risks, resources, deadlines, and project budget.

7. Cost-Benefit Analysis

If you are writing a business requirement document to gain approval for your project, it would be useful to add a cost-benefit analysis at the end. This way, investors and other stakeholders can use the data you provide when evaluating your project. In this section, you should use documentation and statistics to prove that your project is profitable. To create a cost-benefit analysis, you need to describe all costs associated with your project, explain the project benefits, mention the expected total cost of your project, and specify the estimated ROI (Return on Investment).

Get Help From AI to Create BRD – TextCortex

If you are looking for an AI assistant to help you create all the documentation you need in your company, including business requirement documents, then TextCortex is designed for you. TextCortex comes with multiple LLMs, AI image generators, a paraphraser, translator, knowledge bases, web search, documentation templates, AI agent builder and more. With TextCortex, you can generate business requirement document templates, create entire documents from scratch, or enhance existing documents.

You can upload or connect all your projects to business documents to TextCortex’s knowledge bases. Then, you can generate paragraphs, documents, articles or analyses using this data. Moreover, thanks to TextCortex AI agent builder, you can automate a wide range of business tasks, including business requirement documents, by building AI agents that work integrated with your knowledge bases.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a BRD and FRD?

The term BRD is an abbreviation for “Business Requirements Document,” while FRD is an abbreviation for “Functional Requirements Document.” While BRD provides an overview of the entire project, FRD describes how to perform a specific task.

How to create business requirements document (BRD)?

To create a business requirements document, you must complete 7 essential steps:

  • Executive Summary
  • Project Objectives
  • Project Scope
  • Business Requirements
  • Stakeholder List
  • Project Constraints
  • Cost-Benefit Analysis

What is BRD format?

Business requirements document format is a template that is designed to help users write BRDs more easily and quickly, specifying the required sections and what the content should be. If you need BRD templates that will meet the specific needs of your business, you can create one with TextCortex.