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Free Business Requirements Document Template

Operations
Explore Scribe's business requirements document template to streamline project planning and enhance efficiency by outlining your goals and needs.
Last updated:
January 13, 2025
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Free Business Requirements Document Template

Operations
Explore Scribe's business requirements document template to streamline project planning and enhance efficiency by outlining your goals and needs.
Last updated:
January 13, 2025

A business requirements document (BRD) gives your teams all the details they need to navigate a successful project from start to finish. It’s a repository for crucial information about the project scope, stakeholders and constraints. 

This business requirements document template will help you create documentation that outlines critical details in a readable, shareable format that’s easy to update as project objectives change.

What’s a Business Requirements Document?

A BRD outlines the scope, constraints and business objectives that make for a successful project. It’s a central source of truth for every stakeholder — providing an executive summary for decision-makers, objectives for project managers and a list of requirements all team members must strive to meet.

A detailed BRD provides valuable context for every project-related decision. If you need to adjust your budget or reset expectations, this document will help you determine all options and communicate changes to the team.

What Should a Business Requirements Document Include?

Our sample business requirements document includes sections for all the essential details a BRD should cover. These are:

  • Executive summary: A high-level overview of the project objectives, scope and constraints written for decision-makers who must approve the project before it can begin.
  • Project objectives: A detailed breakdown of the project’s business goals, such as launching a new product or increasing sales for an existing one.
  • Project scope: The extent to which the team will go to complete the project, including all the new and existing features and products they’ll work on.
  • Business requirements: A section stating requirements that the project must meet before it’s considered complete, such as essential functionalities or technical specifications.
  • Key stakeholders: A list of critical players involved, including project managers, development team leaders and business analysts.
  • Project constraints: Financial and operational limitations that the project must stay within.
  • Cost-benefit analysis: An assessment of the budget for the project along with a justification for allocating it.
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Free Business Requirements Document Template

Operations
Explore Scribe's business requirements document template to streamline project planning and enhance efficiency by outlining your goals and needs.
Last updated:
January 13, 2025

A business requirements document (BRD) gives your teams all the details they need to navigate a successful project from start to finish. It’s a repository for crucial information about the project scope, stakeholders and constraints. 

This business requirements document template will help you create documentation that outlines critical details in a readable, shareable format that’s easy to update as project objectives change.

What’s a Business Requirements Document?

A BRD outlines the scope, constraints and business objectives that make for a successful project. It’s a central source of truth for every stakeholder — providing an executive summary for decision-makers, objectives for project managers and a list of requirements all team members must strive to meet.

A detailed BRD provides valuable context for every project-related decision. If you need to adjust your budget or reset expectations, this document will help you determine all options and communicate changes to the team.

What Should a Business Requirements Document Include?

Our sample business requirements document includes sections for all the essential details a BRD should cover. These are:

  • Executive summary: A high-level overview of the project objectives, scope and constraints written for decision-makers who must approve the project before it can begin.
  • Project objectives: A detailed breakdown of the project’s business goals, such as launching a new product or increasing sales for an existing one.
  • Project scope: The extent to which the team will go to complete the project, including all the new and existing features and products they’ll work on.
  • Business requirements: A section stating requirements that the project must meet before it’s considered complete, such as essential functionalities or technical specifications.
  • Key stakeholders: A list of critical players involved, including project managers, development team leaders and business analysts.
  • Project constraints: Financial and operational limitations that the project must stay within.
  • Cost-benefit analysis: An assessment of the budget for the project along with a justification for allocating it.

FAQs

Business analysts and project managers usually collaborate to create business requirements documentation. Since BRDs touch on several aspects of a project, analysis and management expertise are both necessary to convey the project’s scope, objectives and constraints accurately.The project manager writes the objectives, scope and stakeholders required to complete the project.

Meanwhile, the business analyst writes the cost-benefit analysis, constraints and requirements, which add valuable context to the endeavor’s bigger picture. When all that’s finished, both stakeholders combine their work to create a detailed executive summary that captures everything concisely.

Easily duplicate this template by selecting "Save This Page" in the top right corner. Once you go through a quick sign-up process, you'll find the template waiting for you in your Dashboard or under Favorites.

Business requirements and functional requirements describe different aspects of the same business objectives. There are also non-functional requirements that add another layer of detail to the project’s goals. You don’t need to describe all three in a BRD format, but knowing their differences is essential to deciding what to include. Here’s a breakdown:

  • Business requirements outline high-level project objectives regarding business needs like cost, time, and resources. Writing a thorough BRD requires detailing all these objectives precisely.
  • Functional requirements describe specific deliverables that’ll help accomplish the business needs, such as the specifications for a new feature or the makeup of a new support team. While they aren’t necessary for a BRD, you should mention them when they provide valuable context about constraints or objectives.
  • Non-functional requirements describe the behavior and functionality of the finished project. These factors will change rapidly as the project takes shape, so it’s best not to include them in your BRD to avoid constant updates.

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Click the "Use This Template" button at the top of this page to open the business requirements document template in Scribe. Then, click the Duplicate Page icon in the top right. Select which team you want the template saved to and whether to keep the linked Scribes. Click Duplicate, and the template will appear in your Scribe Dashboard within your chosen team. You can then open and edit it as needed.

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