https://www.productplan.com/glossary/product-requirements-document/https://www.productplan.com/glossary/product-requirements-document/An artifact used in the product development process to inform the development and testing teams of the features that must be included in a product release is the product requirements document (PRD). Although it can also be used in an agile setting, this document is primarily utilized in waterfall settings when product definition, design, and delivery occur in a sequential manner at productplan.com
The PRD will serve as a reference for later documents in the release process and contains all information required for a release to be deemed complete. PRDs may not mandate a particular implementation, even though they might allude to one in order to show a use case productplan.com/glossary/product-requirements-document/
Also see: MRD (Market Requirements Document).
And what distinguishes an MRD from a PRD?
For many years, the most significant document that product managers would produce was a product requirements document (PRD). It acts as the official record upon which the entire product release is based, meticulously listing every requirement necessary for every specific release. To put it briefly, something won’t be included in the release if it isn’t in the PRD at productplan.com
A marketing requirements document (MRD), which is prepared by ,product marketing, or product management, and which outlines consumer demand, market potential, and a business case for the product as a whole or for a specific product release, may come before the PRD productplan.com/glossary/product-requirements-document
The PRD is strongly grounded in use cases and desired functionality, and it does not address market opportunity or revenue in and of itself. Typically, a use case is provided with each feature or capability, and each is specified as a separate item at productplan.com
Other members of the organization will build several more artifacts based on the PRD. In addition to creating (or updating) an architectural design document, engineering will produce a functional specification that outlines how each PRD item will be executed. When necessary, UX will produce wireframes and mockups, and quality assurance will draft a test plan to guarantee that each and every use case in the PRD can be carried out effectively during testing productplan.com/glossary/product-requirements-document/
What Information Needs to Be in a Product Requirements Document?
Every specific capability needed for the release must be included in a PRD. A use case that explains how a user would use each desired capability should be included in order to support it and provide guidance for the test strategy productplan.com/glossary/product-requirements-document/
Sub-items can be utilized to give technical teams greater granularity and depth when a feature is complex. When appropriate, each of these sub-items should have its own use case at productplan.com
The PRD should have an overview and release purpose in addition to the features and capabilities that are specific to the product. The goal of this release should be clearly stated, even while it shouldn’t attempt to duplicate the contents of the MRD (because an MRD can be used for numerous releases of the same product or suite of products).
The PRD should specify any additional requirements in addition to the functional ones. These include any usability criteria (e.g., one-handed navigation for mobile apps) as well as any system or environmental needs (e.g., this product should operate on Windows 10 or later, or it should run in Firefox, Chrome, and Safari browsers) at productplan.com
The Assumptions, Constraints, and Dependencies make up the last set of components in a PRD.
- Anything you anticipate to exist but aren’t certain about, like the assumption that every user will have access to the Internet, is an example of an assumption at productplan.com
- Budgetary or technical limitations impose requirements that the final implementation cannot meet.
- Any known circumstance or component that the product will depend on is referred to as a dependency. For example, a dog walking app may depend on Google Maps to add directions.
What Kind of Product Requirements Document Example Is There?
An outline of the essential contents of a PRD is provided below. Although there are no hard-and-fast guidelines for this, the following things are usually present:
- Goal/Objective: Describe your intentions and the reason you are constructing this.
- Features: At the very least, you should provide a description, aim, and use case for each feature. Depending on the feature’s complexity, other information (such objects that are outside of the scope) might be useful or required.
- Notes on UX Flow and Design: After reviewing and accepting the PRD, most organizations finish the UX design of the features. At this point, though, it could be necessary to provide some broad guidelines to make sure the release goals are fulfilled. This is where you may describe the broad user workflow, not where you put pixel-perfect mockups or wireframes that cover every case at productplan.com
- Requirements for System and Environment: Which end-user environments—including those with respect to memory, computing power, operating systems, and browsers—will be supported.
- Assumptions, Constraints, and Dependencies: Describe the requirements for the end solution’s functionality, including any limitations the implementation must be aware of and the expectations of users.
What Procedures Are Included in a PRD?
Product management should speak with product marketing first, if there is already an MRD, to make sure everyone is aware of the business reasons behind the particular release that the PRD is describing. From there, it is best to apply any existing processes of product prioritization to determine what is within the purview of the release at productplan.com
After that, it’s time to create the document using the user comments and notes that were gathered for each feature that was going to be released. To make sure all conceivable questions have been addressed and the document is as comprehensive as possible, it should go through multiple rounds of review with additional members of the product team productplan.com/glossary/product-requirements-document/
Once a PRD is finished, it should be distributed to business side stakeholders to ensure they agree with the release’s goal and the features included to achieve it. When everyone is in agreement, it’s time to give engineering the PRD at productplan.com
At this point, the technical team will have questions, clarifications, and issues. These should be handled orally and, if needed, updated in the PRD. To ensure that there are no surprises down the road, the PRD should be sufficiently detailed and complete. The PRD is then transferred to other teams for UX design, functional specifications, and test plan definition whenever it is decided that it has reached that point at productplan.com
All of these teams are brought on board with the intended result and the contents of the release by involving them in the PRD creation and review process. At the conclusion of the process, there ought to be minimal uncertainty regarding what will be shipped, how it will help the company, and how it will affect users.
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