Updated on December 1st, 2021
A technical requirement document concisely conveys the development workflow of a product. Every aspect of a technical writer's involvement, from basic design to execution, reflects through the document. Read on to discover the tools, process, and importance of writing a technical specification document.
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A technical requirement document consolidates the entire product development workflow and presents it straightforwardly and readable. Your company's product's functionality, features, and purpose must show up in the technical requirement document.
A consistent record of all document updates helps keep track of all changes.
All factors that affect the product development workflow include resources or constraints, a similar product in the market, and the availability of expertise.
A complete project overview summarizes the necessary background information, target audience, product scope, and high-level goals.
A detailed section includes a prioritized list of needs for designers and testers to confirm all product goals.
A list of all supporting documents and relevant external links appears with all technical and non-technical terms needed to read the document.
Writing a technical requirement document is quite different from other standard business documents. It follows a structure that ensures all readers can understand the content. The structure is crucial as these readers use the information to complete or start a new project.
Here are some tips to keep in mind as you write a technical requirement specification:
Be as concise as possible. Start with a simple introductory passage and include bullet points wherever possible to increase readability.
Ensure that your sentence structure is simple and conveys only one idea at a time. Mixing multiple ideas and haphazardly presenting them can make the document difficult to read.
Use straightforward language to have a common understanding of the information you are trying to present.
Wherever feasible, try to insert pictures into the document. Choosing the right photos will simplify the concept or showcase the relationship between ideas in a simple, visual format that is easier to follow.
If you're interested in learning the finer details of writing technical documentation, then check out our technical writing certification courses.
A well-written technical specification document will allow your team to arrive at a mutual understanding regarding the technical aspects of the product and the development process.
The document will clarify whether the issue is service availability, response time, security functions, software development, or other technical problems. You and your team can then focus on the user requirements, which vary depending on the product, and find systematic solutions.
A technical specifications document will also highlight information that will help you make some critical decisions:
Determining the budget for the project
Creating the work breakdown schedule so that all technical specifications are being implemented and adjusted in the product
Initiate and develop a plan of communication between the various teams
Define and describe risk-management aspects of the project and discuss ways to mitigate the same.
Keeping a checklist of the necessary information will help you consolidate all your information and ensure that the technical specification document contains relevant details.
As you start investing time into the writing process, you will need to consider different aspects of the project while writing the document. Project implementation, stakeholders, other companies, and required resources are essential to the technical requirements document.
Try to follow the following steps while carrying out the writing process.
All the essential data in the technical specification document may come from various sources. Ensure that you speak to the developers, stakeholders, designers, operations team, and users for a thorough and precise technical requirements document.
You may collect this information through various means, such as interviews, questionnaires, surveyors, research, or even a roundtable conference with the relevant parties.
Being aware of the product and its relevance to user stories and services is essential. Try to collect data on the types of users your product targets and their usage habits. Conducting usage analysis will help you stay at the top of your game.
Moreover, by ensuring that other teams and other stakeholders are aware of this information, your company can make the desired changes in the product to achieve maximum success and performance.
As mentioned earlier, the goal of the product development workflow and the technical requirements document is to ensure that user services take center stage. If you want to guarantee user satisfaction, define user needs and how the product can be used in the real world to solve the same.
Consider the following questions:
What core issue will your product resolve for your users?
What does your product seek to accomplish?
Will lives be made easier with your product or software? If so, how?
You will also need to clearly define which teams members are responsible for various aspects of the job. You could use mock-ups, lists, or narratives to achieve this in an organized and understandable manner.
Along with these steps, you could create and design a prototype to clarify the outcomes of the product. The prototypes will allow users to see the implementation of the solutions that your product offers firsthand.
Defining the entire lifecycle of the product development workflow, including the people, processes, software, and technology development, is also crucial to understanding the desired outcomes of your project or service.
Try to identify and point out contingencies dependent on each other and why this is so. If possible, you could also develop solutions that would make them independent of the process and other parts of the product.
As you write your technical requirements document, consider system qualities that will provide all the details surrounding the quality of service and user requirements.
Availability: How much time you can expect your system to run or your product to function, based on your system's resources, services, and accessibility to users.
Performance: Given specific load conditions of various uses, what will be your product's response time and functionality or service.
Serviceability: Is your product easy to monitor, repair, and upgrade? Some critical factors to consider here include planning for downtime, opportunities for maintenance based on patterns of usage, essential times for service availability, schedules for diagnosis and monitoring.
Latent Capacity: How will your service or product deal with sudden and unexpected peaks in usage, independent of more resource usage?
Scalability: How quickly can capacity and the number of users be increased or decreased without changes in the original design and structure of the product or service.
Security: How secure and reliable is the system, including authorization and authentication of users and information during transfer?
The technical requirements document deals primarily with science, engineering, and technology. Typical documents include specifications, manuals, datasheets, research papers, field reports, and release notes.
A business requirement document consists of just about any writing people do at work, except journalism and creative work. It includes reports, proposals, emails, minutes, business cases, letters, copywriting, bids, and tenders.
But there is some overlap between the two. A business requirement document contains technical data and specifications, such as reports, bids, and proposals.
Business writers may find themselves editing technical content. Technical writers may be called upon to write persuasive documents for a non-technical audience.
That's everything you need to know about writing the perfect technical requirements document! Concise and clear documentation, software development, product scope, and user stories are essential components of the document.
There are some standard guidelines that most technical writing interviews will follow. Familiarising yourself with these will increase your chances of getting the job. Over time, writing a technical requirement document will become easier and easier with some practice and guidance, and you will become an invaluable asset to your company.
Technical writing is documenting processes, such as software manuals or instructional materials. An FAQ is an excellent example of a technical requirement document. It requires knowledge of the product to create and leads to higher product conversions as well as onboarding.
Writers use various programs to create and edit illustrations, applications to create visual aids, and editors to design, build, and format their work. Some of the most common tools for creating a technical requirements document include Snagit, ClickUp, and Tango.
The technical requirement document focuses on user services and a high-quality product that solves real customer problems. The goal is to record the entire project and use the information presented to either change the existing product or draw inspiration from the current product and start a new project.
By understanding your role as a tech content writer and the responsibilities of the position, you can produce valuable technical requirement documents that will become an essential part of the production process.
Writing is essential across every big product area on a company's roadmap. It helps outline:
Vision: Delving into the "why" behind a project in written form enables team members to make the hard decisions early. Proper communication gives the rest of the team a clear direction to align their efforts.
Planning: Breaking down that vision into explicit, well-articulated stories, goals, sprints, and documentation makes projects attainable and keeps them aligned with customer needs.
Execution: Technical writers who can communicate in written form quickly and efficiently with designers, engineers, and product managers are the ones who can effectively clear roadblocks, resolve disputes, and give their ideas enough momentum to get past the finish line to completion.
Presenting your skills to the company and communicating that you will be a valuable addition to their work environment is essential in securing your position as a technical writer. Formatting your resume clearly and concisely will help you get the job and move upwards.
If you are new to technical writing and are looking to break-in, we recommend taking our Technical Writing Certification Course, where you will learn the fundamentals of being a technical writer, how to dominate technical writer interviews, and how to stand out as a technical writing candidate.
Free Technical Specification Templates
Smartsheet Contributor Kate Eby
Aug 25, 2017
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A technical specification document defines the requirements for a project, product, or system. A specification is the information on technical design, development, and procedures related to the requirements it outlines. This document provides information to developers and other stakeholders on business requirements, internal standards, and best practices.
Below you will find a selection of technical specification document templates for Microsoft Excel and Word, such as a website technical specifications template, a technical requirements document template, and a software technical specifications template.
In this article
IT Technical Specification Template
Website Technical Specifications Template
Technical Requirements Document Template
Software Technical Specification Template - WORD
What to Include in a Technical Requirements Document
Transform Your Technical Requirements Into a Working Checklist With Smartsheet
IT Technical Specification Template
IT Technical Specification Template
Download IT Technical Specification Template
Excel | PDF
This technical specifications document template is designed to help you create a detailed report for IT projects, which could include addressing infrastructure issues, system updates, and other technical projects. The template provides sections for including a project overview, specifications and requirements, resource needs, and more. This Excel template has a simple layout that can easily be edited to suit your project.
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Website Technical Specifications Template
Website Technical Specification Template
Download Website Technical Specifications Template
Excel | PDF
List requirements for a website project, including those related to navigation, content management, design, security, and more. The template provides room for detailed comments, and a column for assigning a tracking number to each requirement. To expand the template and include more requirements, simply copy and paste the number of sections needed.
Technical Requirements Document Template
Technical Requirements Document Template
Download Technical Requirements Document Template
Excel | PDF
Use this technical requirement document template for any project. It provides a basic outline to work from with an easy-to-read format. List your functional requirements, reporting requirements, security requirements, and more.
Software Technical Specification Template - WORD
Software Technical Specification Template
? Download Software Technical Specification Template - WORD
This software technical specification template is a Word document with traditional outline formatting. Create a comprehensive document describing project scope, user information, product features, assumptions and dependencies, system features, interface requirements, and other specifications. The template includes sections for a glossary and appendix.
What to Include in a Technical Requirements Document
A technical requirement document, also known as a product requirement document, defines the functionality, features, and purpose of a product that you’re going to build. It is often the first phase of planning for product managers and serves a vital role in communicating with stakeholders and ensuring successful outcomes. Companies may have different technical requirements templates based on the technology and methodology they’ll use to complete the project, the needs of internal and external stakeholders, and other factors. However, there are some key items that are often included in requirements documentation:
Revision Log: A record of document updates that designates who is responsible for the updates, in order to track changes.
Executive Summary: An overview of the project or product with background information, the business case for pursuing the project, a description of the target audience, and high-level goals. You may also include the scope of the project in this section, detailing what is in-scope and out-of-scope for the current stage of documentation.
Assumptions, Risks, and Dependencies: Factors affecting the project and requirements. These items may include constraints that present limitations to a project, a description or diagram of the context and larger system in which a product exists or is being created, and specific assumptions such as what technology, equipment, or expertise may be available.
Requirements: Functional requirements should have sufficient detail so that designers can work to meet all requirements and testers can confirm that they all have been satisfied. You may include a numbered and prioritized list of requirements for tracking and reference. There may also be a separate section for non-functional requirements.
References: Create a list of supporting documents and links to relevant artefacts.
Glossary: A glossary can help stakeholders decipher technical and non-technical terminology used in a requirements document.
For more information, including how to write a technical requirements document and a brief look at Agile modeling, see the detailed article on requirement documents.
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