How Should I Document My Solution Design Software Requirements?

Starting the process of developing customized software can add a lot of stress and pressure when you’re uncertain about the best approach to follow and your responsibilities in the requirements definition process. It’s common to have a myriad of questions run through your head. Where do I start? How detailed do I need to be? How do I communicate my vision? Do I need to determine the technical requirements? What if I am not very technical?

You are right to think hard about specifying your requirements well, as this is one of the most critical aspects of the development process and starting a successful project. Most of our clients are business executives rather than technologists, but they have a clear vision of how to streamline their operations internally or provide new services to their customers using a web app, mobile app, or AI-powered solution. However, communicating that vision completely and in a technically savvy manner to a software engineering team can be a challenge. 

We place a great deal of importance on upfront Solution Design. It saves time and money and helps you avoid mistakes, overruns, and unnecessary time delays. 

Proper upfront documentation of requirements and solutioning in software development is the key to setting up the project for success. This also ensures the resulting solution will fulfill all your critical business objectives.

At SOLTECH, we provide our clients with a carefully crafted requirement checklist that was developed to bypass typical pitfalls that many software development solution projects experience. We ask questions that prompt thoughtful responses about the end-users and their goals when using the application as well as details about needed software features. 

Below, we have provided some guidelines to help you start documenting your software development requirements specifications. 

What Does Documenting Software Requirements Mean?

Documenting software requirements refers to creating a well-written description of the features and functions that the software needs to provide to achieve your end users’ expectations or your internal business objectives. Requirements often include both functional and non-functional requirements, a.k.a., what the software should do and how it should perform. 

The business requirements document serves different purposes depending on who the user is. For you (the client), it is important because it serves as a sort of “agreement” between you and the development company or team. It outlines the expectations you have for the final product, which is essential for ensuring that the developers understand and deliver exactly what you want. 

As for the development team, documenting the requirements serves several purposes, including:

• It acts as a guide for the team during the entire development process. This is because the business requirements outline the project’s scope and goals, which are vital for ensuring that the team stays on course and doesn’t deviate from the original plan. 
• Business requirements are a starting point for software design. Business requirements focus on “What” the software needs to do whereas the subsequent technical design work will focus on “How” the software will be built to fulfill the requirements.
• Business requirements are a critical input for quality assurance test planning. A key component of software development is translating business requirements into acceptance criteria, which act as a reference point to identify and correct any gaps between the final product and the initial requirements. 

Why Is Documenting My Software Requirements Important?

Past project statistics indicate that 70 percent of all software projects that fail are a result of poor requirements. This data alone indicates just how important it is to document your software requirements. Other than that, there are several other reasons why documenting your requirements may be beneficial, including:

• Better Communication: With clear documentation, you help reduce the risk of misinterpretation and conflicting assumptions that usually occur during the implementation stage of software projects. 
• Risk Mitigation: Documenting your requirements can help you identify potential risks and challenges that the development team will likely encounter. This is essential for creating mitigation measures before the risks occur, thus expediting the development process. 
• Scope Management: Scope creep is a common occurrence in software projects, especially those with poor requirements. A clearly written SRS document can help solve this problem by helping the development team evaluate any changes or additions to the scope against the original requirements to determine if they align. 

Where Should I Start When Documenting Software Requirements?

When creating the most optimal and functional application and Solution Design, the best place to start is to define each type of user who will be using the software. Once the software has been completed, the most important aspect is to have developed solutions for each user group. Therefore, once the user categories are rigorously defined, the software team can construct an efficient and effective roadmap.

Questions will arise, such as:

• Is there more than one type of user group?
• Does each user group have completely different requirements?
• Are there accessibility and security requirements for each user group?
• Will any of the users be using payment processing or data storage?
  • • Are any of the user groups going to use the software to interact with other user groups?`

Let’s take a look at an example that will give you a better idea of how this is achieved. 

Say you recently founded a company similar to Uber. While it may appear that the software requirements would be fairly basic, they are actually quite complex. 

Since the software application will be used by the drivers, rideshare customers, and the company, there are three primary user groups. Delving into each group’s interactions with the software will uncover specific requirements, such as:

• Driver Requirements: The driver will need the software to access profile features such as login and profile editing, add/edit customer ratings, track the car’s location, receive payments/tips for services, and more.
• Rideshare Customer Requirements: The customer is looking for a quick and simple experience and will expect the system to accept ride requests, display the drivers’ exact location, provide trip pricing, and allow online payments. They will also expect a profile that includes their ride history, account history, driver ratings, and more.
• Company Requirements (the back end): An internal company admin user will expect the application to provide user management, ride management, payment management, geographic tracking, driver/contractor agreements, driver payments, and the ability to handle any support request that might come up.

By evaluating each user type and their needs separately, you are likely to be more thorough and think more like the end-user — which is always a good thing when designing software. 

Additionally, user-driven requirements will be easier for your software developer to follow and will more easily translate to technical design concerns like user roles and security.

The Takeaway: Carefully identify the various types of users that will be using the application and think of them individually when defining your software requirements.

How Can I Effectively Communicate My Vision to the Development Team?

Once you have taken the time to understand and define each user’s requirements clearly, the next step will be to consult with a Solution Architect. This is an architect-level technical resource that will take the User Personas and high-level requirements and take them a step further. 

The Solution Architect’s role is to typically ask a myriad of additional questions that you didn’t know to ask. They will uncover issues that need to be addressed before the Software Design is expanded with the details required by the software engineers.

A highly experienced Solution Architect should be able to converse with you in business terms and help translate business requirements into a more precise and detailed set of software specifications. This will guide future implementation efforts. It’s also very common for the input of a Solution Architect to help you identify requirements or features that you might have missed otherwise.

No matter how detailed your business requirements may be, we always recommend engaging a Solution Architect to help you translate requirements into Software Specifications before you engage a software development team. Remember that Software Design should be a collaborative process and that your input and involvement are equally important to the process. Avoid working with architects or developers that seem to minimize your input in the development process.

Do I Need to Determine the Technical Requirements?

When working with a reputable software development company, you will not be asked to make technical decisions and Solution Design without describing the options in business terms. In fact, if your software development contractor regularly speaks to you in technical terms, we would suggest working with someone else. 

You would not be expected to tell the home builder how to engineer a foundation or build to government building codes. So, your development contractor should not expect you to provide technical-level details and requirements either.

In our downloadable eBook, The Ultimate Guide to Software Requirements, we walk through the process of identifying and documenting the most important aspects of software development. Our objective is to make the entire Solution Design and development process easy for our clients by gleaning the most important information upfront.

Thayer Tate

Thayer is the Chief Technology Officer at SOLTECH, bringing over 20 years of experience in technology and consulting to his role. Throughout his career, Thayer has focused on successfully implementing and delivering projects of all sizes. He began his journey in the technology industry with renowned consulting firms like PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM, where he gained valuable insights into handling complex challenges faced by large enterprises and developed detailed implementation methodologies.

Thayer’s expertise expanded as he obtained his Project Management Professional (PMP) certification and joined SOLTECH, an Atlanta-based technology firm specializing in custom software development, Technology Consulting and IT staffing. During his tenure at SOLTECH, Thayer honed his skills by managing the design and development of numerous projects, eventually assuming executive responsibility for leading the technical direction of SOLTECH’s software solutions.

As a thought leader and industry expert, Thayer writes articles on technology strategy and planning, software development, project implementation, and technology integration. Thayer’s aim is to empower readers with practical insights and actionable advice based on his extensive experience.