Many businesses have a process in place to assist with project management and implementation. One opportunity for improvement involves making reasonable estimates of how big a project is and how much it is going to cost. There are many different names for tools used with this process: business needs specification, requirements specification or, simply, business requirements. Business requirements are the critical activities of an enterprise that must be performed to meet the organizational objective(s) while remaining solution independent.
A business requirements document (BRD) details the business solution for a project including the documentation of customer needs and expectations. If an initiative intends to modify existing (or introduce new) hardware/software, a new BRD should be created. The BRD process can be incorporated within a Six Sigma DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) culture.
A business requirements document (BRD) details the business solution for a project including the documentation of customer needs and expectations. If an initiative intends to modify existing (or introduce new) hardware/software, a new BRD should be created. The BRD process can be incorporated within a Six Sigma DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) culture.
The most common objectives of the BRD are:
- To gain agreement with stakeholders
- To provide a foundation to communicate to a technology service provider what the solution needs to do to satisfy the customer’s and business’ needs
- To provide input into the next phase for this project
- To describe what not how the customer/business needs will be met by the solution
The BRD is important because it is the foundation for all subsequent project deliverables, describing what inputs and outputs are associated with each process function. The process function delivers CTQs (critical to quality). CTQs deliver the voice of customer (VOC). The BRD describes what the system would look like from a business perspective.
The BRD distinguishes between the business solution and the technical solution. When examining the business solution the BRD should answer the question, “What does the business want to do?” For example, the business wants to serve 100 bottles of red wine each night during a three-day conference and the wine must be 57 degrees Fahrenheit when poured. The technical solution should support the business solution. For example, the company would need a wine grotto or refrigeration storage unit capable of holding 300+ bottles operating between 48 and 52 degrees Fahrenheit.
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