Documenting Requirements in Software Projects 101

Let's be honest: communication is hard. What seems crystal clear in the mind of one person often becomes a game of telephone as it travels through project managers, stakeholders, designers, and developers. This is why a strong requirements gathering process is a must-have.

Think of requirements as the foundation of your project's success. Your North Star. They serve as the basis for tickets and work to be performed, helping to transform abstract ideas into actionable tasks. Typically, we handle requirements gathering in dedicated engagements through our Gnar Ideate offering. However, that approach doesn't fit every client's needs, timeline, or budget. Sometimes requirements need to be collected during the development phase itself, and that's where having a solid process becomes invaluable.

At The Gnar, requirements are more than just words on a page. They act as a four-way contract between stakeholders, project management, design, and the technical team. Design artifacts, such as flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity designs, are considered part of the requirements. When requirements are collected during the development phase, we involve developers early and often to ensure technical feasibility before sign-off is obtained, ensuring everyone is aligned before a single line of code is written, which prevents costly misunderstandings and surprises down the road.

However, it is important to keep in mind that requirements are living documentation. They're not chiseled in stone, nor are they meant to gather digital dust. Instead, they evolve as we receive feedback and the understanding of the problem deepens. With that said, once a sprint begins, well-documented requirements protect development work by providing clear boundaries and expectations.

The payoff? Well-documented requirements lead to more efficient implementations and dramatically reduce churn. They can also provide stakeholders with a concrete way to verify and accept work, eliminating the "uh…that's not what I meant…" conversations that can derail projects.

Now, we know what you're thinking: "This sounds great, but when do I actually have time for all this documentation?" We get it, and we’re here to help. One asset that we continue to reach for to help streamline our process is a requirements gathering template.

Our Battle-Tested Requirements Template

After many hours at the drawing board, we've developed a template that consistently delivers results. Use it as is, or adjust it to your taste. We’ll go through the template section by section and describe the goals, expectations, and reasoning behind them. 

At a high level, the goal is to define “What”, the “Why”, and the “Who” at a high level without being too prescriptive on the “How” – that is to be answered by the Design team, with input from the Engineering team. To document “The Ask”, not “The Solution”. So, rather than describing “a user can interact with a multi-select input with the following options…”, try “a user can choose many of the following options…”. That may be a multi-select, but it could also be checkboxes or a multi-step selection process. Let the Design team make that call.

Sign-Off Tracking

Obtaining proper sign-off isn't just bureaucratic box-checking; it ensures that the four-way contract mentioned earlier is in place and that all parties agree we are ready to begin development. While we embrace Agile methodologies, we've learned that some structure prevents chaos. Requirements are expected to evolve over time, so in addition to the Sign Off table below, we recommend choosing a platform with a solid versioning system (Confluence or Google Docs can work well).

• Requirements Status: To Do, In Progress, Ready for Review, In Review, Approved

• Written Requirements Approved By: Which stakeholder(s) approved the requirements?

• Written Requirements Approval Date: When did the stakeholder(s) approve the requirements?

• Design Status: To Do, In Progress, Ready for Review, In Review, Approved

• Design Approved By: Which stakeholder(s) approved the high-fidelity designs?

• Design Approval Date: When did the stakeholder(s) approve the high-fidelity designs?

• Design Software Artifact(s): A link to the design artifacts (documentation of the Solution)

• Project Management Software Artifact(s): E.g. Jira Epic

• Notes: Any notes or conditions relevant to sign off

Access Control List

‍Who can or cannot perform a given action? What are the specific user scenarios? Who can perform only a portion of this action? Documenting roles and permissions is critical for a comprehensive and secure end-to-end experience. Be sure to capture special cases and exceptions when necessary.

Business Justification

‍Why is the action being performed? This isn't simply an academic exercise; understanding the business value helps everyone make informed decisions throughout the software development lifecycle.

The Action Being Performed

What is the action being performed? Be specific about the scope and impact.

Examples of common actions:

• Create a record
• View a list of records
• View an individual record
• Edit a record
• Delete a record

Information to Show

‍What information needs to be displayed? Focus on what's relevant to the task being performed. Not every piece of available data needs to be shown—prioritize what users actually need to accomplish their goals.

Information to Capture

‍What information needs to be captured and stored for the task to be considered complete? Note that this section isn't always applicable depending on the action being performed.

Implementation Notes

Any nuances of the Implementation can be noted here, including more granular details about roles and permissions. There are times when “The How” is known: there is an established pattern in an existing app, or a Stakeholder has a strong preference for a specific implementation. If that is the case, capture it here.

Version Notes

Not every part of a feature is needed right away. Highlight any features that are nice-to-have and clarify which aspects are essential for launch. Often, these notes are small callouts, but if there is a lot here, it may be worth creating and linking a separate page to capture future enhancements. 

Making it Work for Your Team

The special sauce isn't in the template itself, but in how you use it. Treat it as a living document that evolves with your understanding of the problem. Involve your entire team in the requirements process—designers, developers, and stakeholders all bring unique and valuable perspectives to the table. Use your requirements as a foundation for your team to build something great.

Download the template 👉 here 👈

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