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Business requirements document

As explained in Think Like a Software Engineering Manager

A business requirements document is a formal document that states a project’s business objectives, requirements, and scope.

When a project involves product, business, program, and engineering teams, a business requirements document (BRD) gives everyone one practical description of what must be accomplished. It states the project's business objectives, requirements, scope, and boundaries, helping teams share expectations and limit scope creep. section 10.1.2

A useful BRD can record:

  • Project goals and objectives. section 10.1.2
  • In-scope and out-of-scope work, plus project assumptions. section 10.1.2
  • Acceptance criteria and success metrics. section 10.1.2
  • Functional requirements, such as required system behavior, and nonfunctional requirements, such as performance, reliability, security, and scalability. section 10.1.2

Project Accessible

Stakeholders define a website for specially abled students aged zero to five. The scope includes accessibility, adding products to a cart, checkout, and custom product text. section 10.1.2

How Think Like a Software Engineering Manager covers it

How deep it goes
Defines document contents and benefits, but stops short of prescribing a complete BRD template or detailed writing procedure.
Examples
Uses an accessible website scenario involving age range, cart and checkout, accessibility, and custom product text.
What it assumes
Assumes a project goal and stakeholder participation; teaches scope boundaries and requirement categories within preplanning.
What you can do after
Apply it via stakeholder meetings to define boundaries, capture requirements, align teams, and reduce project risk.
How it connects
Connects project scope, functional requirements, nonfunctional requirements, acceptance criteria, success metrics, and scope creep.

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This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Think Like a Software Engineering Manager. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.