Business Requirement Document (BRD) Tutorial and EXAMPLE

Summary

This tutorial by Dr. White from the Doc Squad offers a comprehensive guide to crafting an effective Business Requirements Document (BRD). It covers the BRD's definition, its audience, main components, best practices, and a sample document. The video emphasizes the importance of aligning business needs, setting clear goals and objectives, and managing expectations through a well-structured BRD, which serves as a foundation for detailed requirements and project success.

Takeaways

• 📝 A Business Requirements Document (BRD) is a formal document that outlines high-level requirements, including business and stakeholder needs, and provides a basis for decision-making regarding scope, prioritization, and resources.
• 🎯 The primary audience for a BRD includes sponsors, senior executives, subject matter experts, marketing and sales teams, and external stakeholders who need a shared understanding of the project's business goals and objectives.
• 📚 The main components of a BRD encompass business requirements, stakeholder requirements, business process overview, scope and limitations, a glossary, an appendix, and approver sign-offs.
• 🔍 Business requirements describe the problem or opportunity, goals, objectives, and expected outcomes, focusing on high-level business needs and reasons for the project.
• 🎯 Business goals are long-term, ongoing states or conditions that the business seeks to achieve, while business objectives are quantifiable results expected from achieving these goals, often following the SMART criteria.
• 📈 Success metrics in a BRD are indicators measured to assess the factors with the greatest impact on the project's success, providing a clear understanding of the progress toward meeting objectives.
• 🛠 The scope section of a BRD defines the solution's boundaries, including new features and capabilities, and distinguishes between what is in scope and out of scope for the project.
• 👥 Stakeholder requirements in a BRD describe the needs of stakeholders or groups that must be met to fulfill the business requirements, without detailing functional or non-functional requirements.
• 📋 The supplemental sections of a BRD, such as the glossary and appendix, provide additional context, background information, or supporting details relevant to the business requirements.
• ✍️ Best practices for BRDs include documenting business requirements separately before including them in larger documents, ensuring alignment with business objectives, and managing expectations early in the project.
• 📑 An example BRD includes sections for problem statements, business goals, objectives, success metrics, scope, stakeholders, constraints, assumptions, dependencies, business process overview, and stakeholder requirements, culminating in a glossary, appendix, and approval signatures.

Q & A

What is a Business Requirements Document (BRD)?

A Business Requirements Document (BRD) is a formal document that outlines high-level requirements, including business and stakeholder requirements. It describes the project rationale, scope, key stakeholders, and provides a basis for decision-making regarding scope, prioritization, and resources.

Who is the primary audience for the BRD?

The primary audience for the BRD includes the project sponsor, senior executives, subject matter experts, marketing and sales teams, and external stakeholders such as vendors and partners.

What are the main components of a BRD?

The main components of a BRD include business requirements, stakeholder requirements, business process overview, scope and limitations, glossary, appendix, and approvers and sign-off.

What is the difference between a problem statement and an opportunity statement in the context of a BRD?

A problem statement describes internal or external issues that cause damage to the organization and need to be resolved by the project. An opportunity statement outlines potential areas for growth or improvement in a particular area that the project aims to seize.

What are SMART criteria for business objectives?

SMART criteria for business objectives ensure that objectives are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Why is it important to document business requirements separately before including them in a larger document?

Documenting business requirements separately ensures focus on the right goals and objectives, prevents wasted effort on misaligned details, guides decision-making, and manages expectations early in the project.

What is the role of the solution scope in a BRD?

The solution scope defines the new features and capabilities that comprise the boundaries of the change and the characteristics of the solution. It includes what is in scope and out of scope for the project.

What are constraints, assumptions, and dependencies in the context of a BRD?

Constraints are influencing factors that cannot be changed and create limitations. Assumptions are considered true but unverified factors. Dependencies are components of the solution dependent on the completion of internal or external project factors.

How does the BRD help in managing project expectations?

The BRD helps manage expectations by providing a clear understanding of the expected outcomes. It addresses unrealistic expectations early and redirects the project team and stakeholders towards feasible goals.

What should be included in the approval and sign-off section of a BRD?

The approval and sign-off section should include the signatures of all stakeholders with decision-making authority, indicating their agreement with the requirements outlined in the BRD.

Outlines

00:00

📝 Introduction to Creating an Effective BRD

This paragraph introduces the tutorial on crafting an effective Business Requirements Document (BRD). The speaker, Dr. White, offers a comprehensive guide for the audience, including the definition of a BRD, its audience, main components, best practices, and an example. The BRD is described as a formal document that outlines high-level requirements, project rationale, scope, and key stakeholders. The primary audience includes sponsors, senior executives, subject matter experts, marketing and sales teams, and external stakeholders. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of the BRD in aligning stakeholders, understanding the solution scope, and providing a basis for decision-making.

05:04

🔍 Main Components and Best Practices of a BRD

This section delves into the specific elements that constitute a BRD, including business and stakeholder requirements, the business process overview, scope and limitations, a glossary, an appendix, and the approver's sign-off. It highlights the significance of each component in shaping the document and ensuring clarity and understanding among stakeholders. The paragraph also discusses best practices for documenting business requirements, emphasizing the importance of a separate BRD to provide context and scope, prevent wasted effort, guide decision-making, and manage expectations.

10:07

📚 Example of a Business Requirements Document

The final paragraph provides an illustrative example of a BRD, showcasing its structure and content. It begins with the project's name, version, and date, followed by a revision history and table of contents. The example includes a problem statement, business goals, objectives that meet the SMART criteria, and success metrics. The scope section outlines what is in and out of scope, lists key stakeholders, and addresses business constraints, assumptions, and dependencies. The business process overview presents both the current and future states of the business process, and the stakeholder requirements are formatted to include actions and qualifiers. The document concludes with a glossary of terms, an appendix with relevant links, and an approval and sign-off section, which is crucial for gaining consensus and moving forward with detailed requirements documentation.

Keywords

💡Business Requirements Document (BRD)

A BRD is a formal document outlining high-level business and stakeholder requirements for a project. It describes the project's rationale, scope, and key stakeholders, ensuring stakeholder alignment and providing a basis for decision-making regarding scope, prioritization, and resources. For example, in the script, the BRD is presented as essential for creating a shared understanding of business needs and the solution scope.

💡Stakeholder

Stakeholders are individuals or groups impacted by the project, including sponsors, senior executives, subject matter experts, marketing and sales teams, and external partners. They provide significant input and insight into identifying business needs and defining objectives, scope, and expected outcomes. The script emphasizes the importance of including all relevant stakeholders to ensure comprehensive input and support.

💡Scope and Limitations

This section of the BRD defines the boundaries of the project, including what is in scope and out of scope. It helps manage expectations and ensures the project team focuses on the right goals and objectives. The script highlights how documenting scope and limitations prevents wasted effort and aligns the project with business objectives.

💡Business Goals

Business goals are long-term, qualitative states or conditions the business aims to achieve and maintain. They provide direction and set the framework for defining specific, measurable objectives. For example, the script mentions goals like improving customer satisfaction and increasing market share as part of the BRD.

💡Business Objectives

Business objectives are quantifiable results expected from achieving business goals. They should meet the SMART criteria (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound). The script discusses using these criteria to ensure objectives are clear and achievable, such as reducing department call volume by 50% within one month.

💡Success Metrics

Success metrics are indicators measured to assess the project's impact on achieving business goals. They help track progress and validate the effectiveness of the implemented solution. In the script, an example of a success metric is the number of incoming scheduling and financial aid calls per month, used to measure the reduction in call volume.

💡Solution Scope

Solution scope defines the new features and capabilities that comprise the boundaries of the project change. It includes what is in scope and what is out of scope. The script highlights that specifying the solution scope helps ensure a clear understanding of the project's boundaries and prevents scope creep.

💡Assumptions

Assumptions are influencing factors considered to be true but not verified, which can impact project decisions. They need to be confirmed or disproven during the project. The script includes an example where the assumption is that the website will be available 24/7 outside of scheduled maintenance.

💡Dependencies

Dependencies are components of the solution that rely on the completion of other project factors. They help understand task order and resource allocation. The script provides an example where students need to create online accounts to submit forms, which is a dependency for the project's success.

💡Business Process Overview

This section describes how work is performed within the organization, including the steps, roles, and systems involved. It provides a clear understanding of the current and future states of the business processes. The script emphasizes the importance of including process maps for both the 'as is' and 'to be' states to illustrate the impact of the proposed solution.

Highlights

Tutorial on creating an effective business requirements document (BRD)

BRD outlines high-level requirements including business and stakeholder needs

Primary BRD audience includes sponsors, senior executives, subject matter experts, marketing/sales teams, and external stakeholders

BRD components: business requirements, stakeholder requirements, business process overview, scope and limitations, glossary, appendix, approvers and sign off

Business requirements include need statements, business goals, objectives, and success metrics

Need statements describe problems or opportunities the project aims to address

Business goals describe long-term, qualitative states the business seeks to achieve

SMART criteria for defining measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound objectives

Success metrics assess factors with the greatest impact on project success

Scope and limitations define solution scope, stakeholders, constraints, assumptions, and dependencies

Business process overview helps stakeholders understand how the proposed solution impacts existing processes

Stakeholder requirements describe needs of stakeholders to fulfill business requirements

Supplemental sections like glossary and appendix provide additional context and information

Best practices for BRDs include documenting requirements separately before including in larger documents

BRD helps provide context, prevent waste, guide decision making, and manage expectations

Example BRD includes project name, version, revision history, table of contents, and detailed sections on requirements and scope

Stakeholder requirements format includes action, object, and qualifier

Glossary of terms ensures common understanding of key terms used in the BRD

Appendix includes relevant documents and links, like business case and process maps

Approval and sign off section confirms agreement from key decision makers

Transcripts

are you tired of wasting your time on  requirements that nobody wants if so  

stick around for this tutorial on creating  an effective business requirements document

hey Doc Squad Dr White here with the business  analysis doctor today I'm giving you a detailed  

tutorial on creating an effective business  requirements document but before we get started  

if you want more business analysis training  and tips be sure to subscribe to the page and  

turn on the notification Bell with that said  let's get started now let's talk about what  

you'll learn first we'll look at what a business  requirements document is or BRD we'll look at the  

primary BRD audience then we'll look at the main  components of a BRD we'll look at some BRD best  

practices and then we'll look at an example of  a business requirements document so what does a  

business requirements document this is a formal  document that outlines high-level requirements  

including business and stakeholder requirements  it describes the project rationale the scope of  

the project as well as the key stakeholders the  business requirements document is often referred  

to as the BRD business requirements documents  are used to create stakeholder alignment on  

the business needs create a shared understanding  of the solution scope what needs to be achieved  

and the required resources it also provides  a basis for decision making regarding scope  

prioritization and resources so who is the brd4  the primary audience for the business requirements  

document includes the sponsor who's responsible  for the overall success of the project and will  

be the final decision maker regarding the project  goals and scope senior Executives and high-level  

decision makers need to understand the business  goals of the project and how they align with the  

Strategic goals of the overall organization the  subject matter experts will provide significant  

input and insight into identifying the business  needs and defining the objectives scope and  

expected outcomes marketing and sales teams may  need to understand the overall scope and direction  

of the project in order to develop effective  messaging and marketing strategies external  

stakeholders such as vendors and partners may be  interested in understanding the broader business  

objectives and direction of the project in order  to allocate the proper resources to support it so  

the main components of a business requirements  document includes business requirements  

stakeholder requirements the business process  overview scope and limitations a glossary  

an appendix and the approvers and sign off the  first section we'll look at is the business  

requirements business requirements are statements  that describe the problem or opportunity the goals  

the objectives and the expected outcomes unlike  stakeholder or solution requirements business  

requirements are a combination of different  types of statements that represent the high-level  

business needs and the reasons for the project  the main components of the business requirements  

documents section includes the following need  statement the need statement comes in the form  

of a problem statement or an opportunity statement  problem statements describe internal or external  

issues that cause damage to the organization  this focuses on current problems such as Revenue  

loss dissatisfy customers delays and operations  and services or non-compliance with regulatory  

requirements these problems need to be resolved  by the project opportunity statements describe  

the current situation and outlines the potential  areas of growth for improvement in a particular  

area this may include opportunities to increase  areas such as Revenue customers markets reputation  

Etc these opportunities are to be seized by  the project next is business goals business  

goals are statements that describe longer term  ongoing and qualitative States or conditions that  

the business is seeking to achieve and maintain  high-level goals are generally broken down into  

various areas to include the expected results for  example improve customer satisfaction increase  

market share enhance brand recognition or create  new capabilities next is business objectives these  

are quantifiable results expected from achieving  the goals these are measured to assess whether or  

not the goals have been met a common approach to  validating objectives is to ensure they meet the  

smart criteria the first Criterion for the smart  objectives is being specific specific objectives  

describe something that has an observable outcome  measurable objectives are trackable to measure the  

outcome attainable objectives are feasible in  relation to the effort and the goals relevant  

objectives align to the Enterprise's vision  mission and goals and time-bound objectives  

Define a time frame that is consistent with the  need the last component for business requirements  

is Success metrics these are indicators  that are measured in order to assess the  

factors that have the greatest impact on the  Project's success business objectives indicate  

the progress toward meeting the overall business  goals while success metrics are the elements that  

get measured to indicate the progress towards  meeting those objectives now let's discuss the  

main components of the scope and limitations  section the first element in this section  

is solution scope this is the new features and  capabilities that comprise the boundaries of the  

change and the characteristics of the solution  the more requirements approved the larger the  

solution scope it's best practice to indicate the  solution components that are in scope as well as  

out of scope for the project the solution scope  May describe changes to functions capabilities  

technology business rules data or processes next  we have the stakeholders these are the people or  

groups who will be impacted by the project  including internal and external stakeholders  

key roles and responsibilities may be outlined  here as well constraints are influencing factors  

that cannot be changed and create limitations  or restrictions on the product or solution  

raw projects may have both project and solution  constraints the BRD will only include solution  

constraints assumptions are influencing factors  that are considered to be true but has not been  

verified they could also be conditions that  are true now but may not be in the future these  

assumptions are confirmed or disproven prior  to making any decisions on which they impact  

dependencies are the components of the solution  that are dependent on the completion of internal  

or external project factors common dependencies  may be the implementation of requirements that  

are dependent on other requirements decisions to  be made resources funding or other constraints  

outlining dependencies is an easy way to better  understand what tasks need to be completed and  

in what order the next section is the business  process overview a business process describes  

how work is performed within the organization  including the steps involved the roles and  

responsibilities of those involved and the systems  and tools used to execute the process by including  

the business process in the BRD stakeholders can  get a better understanding of how the business  

operates and how the proposed solution will  impact existing processes this information is  

important for defining the scope and designing the  solution that meets the needs of the business it's  

generally best practiced to include a depiction of  the current state and the future State the current  

state is a depiction of the existing state  representing how a process within the context  

of the project is currently performed in the  organization this is often represented as an as  

is process model the future state is a depiction  of the desired or Target State representing how  

process is expected to be performed within the  scope of the project after changes have been made  

this is often represented with a 2B process model  the next section to include is the stakeholder  

requirements stakeholder requirements are  statements that describe the needs of the  

stakeholder or stakeholder group that need to be  met in order to fulfill the business requirements  

please note that solution requirements such as  functional and non-functional requirements should  

not be included in the business requirements  document those are reserved for more detailed  

requirement specifications that come after  the vrd has been approved we'll talk more  

on that later in the lesson a complete list of  stakeholder requirements should convey the key  

features of the solution these statements will  be decomposed into solution requirements in  

Downstream specification documents it's often  helpful to group The stakeholder requirements  

by stakeholder groups it could help to ensure  the requirements are organized in a way that  

ensures that each stakeholder understands which  requirements are relevant to them and can avoid  

confusion it also makes it easier to track  progress on individual requirements to ensure  

that all stakeholders have provided their input  now let's look at the supplemental sections of  

the business requirements document these are  additional sections that provide additional  

context background information or supporting  details that are relevant to the business  

requirements these sections can vary based on  the project and organization common supplemental  

sections that may be included in the BRD include  the glossary of terms which provides a common  

understanding of the terms that are used in the  BRD this is especially critical when a term may  

have different meanings for different stakeholders  or if there are acronyms that need to be defined  

for stakeholders who may not be familiar with them  the appendix includes any attachments or links to  

additional information outside of the actual BRD  that is relevant to the project such as diagrams  

charts or tables and finally the approvers and  sign off this section includes the signatures  

of all stakeholders with decision-making  authority to indicate their approval of the  

business requirements document a signed off BRD  ensures that all stakeholders are in agreement  

with the requirements outlined in the document  now let's take a look at some best practices  

for the business requirements document it's best  practice to document business requirements in a  

separate document prior to including it as part  of a larger document that contains all levels of  

requirements here are some reasons why a BRD  is needed before a functional requirement or  

a software requirement specification document is  developed first of all a BRD provides context and  

scope having sign off on the BRD helps to ensure  that the upcoming detail requirements focus on the  

right goals and objectives and insurance coverage  for all necessary features and functionalities it  

prevents waste having sign off on the BRD  also helps prevent wasted time and effort  

spent on analyzing and documenting detail require  environments that don't align with the business  

objectives are deemed to be out of scope the BRD  helps guide decision making by providing a clear  

understanding of the business requirements and  priorities this helps the analyst and development  

team prioritize features and functionalities  based on business value it manages expectations  

the business requirements document helps  manage expectations early by providing a  

clear understanding of the expected outcomes  if business expectations around capabilities  

are unrealistic the project team can redirect the  business to more feasible expectations early on  

now let's look at an example business requirements  document to start you would include the name of  

the project the version number and date I  usually like to include the company logo  

on the document that I'm creating then we have  the revision history here you would include any  

changes that are made to the document as they  are reviewed you can use whatever numbering  

convention that works best for the organization  next is a basic table of contents so the first  

section is the business requirements section  here I've highlighted some key areas of the  

problem statement which states that the admissions  department is currently bombarded with calls and  

appointments with students and potential students  who need information and assistance currently the  

department has been exceeding application slas  by two weeks on average then we move on to our  

business goals the goal of this project is  to improve service and increase efficiency by  

revising the department's website to enable  self-service for all applications and forms  

related to the admissions department so there are  some key objectives that we'll need to achieve one  

is that we want to reduce Department call volume  by 50 percent within one month of implementation  

as you can see here all of these objectives meet  the smart criteria mentioned earlier in the lesson  

now let's look at the success metrics so one of  the metrics is the number of incoming scheduling  

and financial aid calls per month now let's move  on to the scope section here we discuss what's in  

scope as well as out of scope then we have a table  of the key stakeholders our business constraints  

assumptions and dependencies one of the business  constraints is that only forms that do not  

require a wet signature can be submitted online an  assumption will be that the website is available  

24 7 outside of scheduled maintenance and one of  the dependencies could be that the students will  

need to create online accounts to submit the forms  the next section is the business process overview  

as you can see it includes the process map  for both the as is and the 2B feature state  

for details on creating a process map using  bpmn see the link in the description the next  

section is the stakeholder requirements the  general format for stakeholder requirements  

is to include an after an action and object and a  qualifier if appropriate so the first stakeholder  

requirement here states that students must be  able to identify all functional areas within  

the admissions Department from the home page  again I'm not decomposing these into functional  

requirements because those are reserved for more  details documents like a functional requirements  

document or a software specification document  also in this example we can assume that this is  

a waterfall project but if your organization is  using agile or a hybrid model this section could  

also be a list of high-level user stories instead  next is our glossary of terms as you can see I've  

defined SLA which is a service level agreement to  respond within 48 hours this term was used in our  

problem statement now we have the appendix where I  included links to some relevant documents such as  

the business case and the full versions of the  process maps that were included in the BRD and  

finally we have our approval and sign off section  where we get our approvals and signatures from the  

key decision makers once we get the sign off we  have the green light for this to serve as an input  

for our detailed requirements document well there  you have it folks that's what you need to create  

an effective business requirements document if  you learned something new tell me about it below  

and I'd love to hear your feedback also be sure  to check out all the business analysis and ba  

certification training and resources we have for  you available at my website thebadoc.com thank  

you so much for watching have a productive and  prosperous day and I'll see you next time bye now