How To Write Business Requirements - BRD Tips

Do you need help in finalizing your Business Requirement Document? No Problem! You have landed to the current place. Stay tuned, sit tight and follow the below article.



Business Requirement document could be the first document you will create after Project Charter and it’s a first step towards minimizing the risk and uncertainties in the later phase of the project. The objective of BRD is to communicate all the deliverable and detailed business requirements. BRD is a detailed document and it requires participation from all key member of the project.

Business Requirement Document is nothing but the formal agreement between organization and client/customer, hence it should be prepared carefully keeping each aspect of the project in mind. A detailed and well written BRD is a key to the successful project, therefore, do not hurry, do proper homework and be dedicated while working on it.


Below are some key tips which could be beneficial while drafting an effective and successful Business Requirement Document.

  1. Understand the complete business problem which clients are trying to overcome and outline detailed business problem including efforts required, the risk involved, budget needed. Make sure that BRD includes only functional requirements and it is simple to understand by anyone and not be limited to an only technical person.

  2. List key stakeholders, their title and their responsibilities clearly in the Business Requirement Document.

  3. Always use standard and well-structured BRD template (Most of the organization has its own BRD template and same should be used)

  4. Each sentence should be positive, clear and complete and it should not contain words Like, Maybe, Could be, if necessary, approx. etc.

  5. Define one request at a time, this helps the testing team to prepare test cases and easy to map with test cases in the later phase of your project. It’s always a good practice of splitting complex requirements.

  6. Always explain what system will do? And never confuse your stakeholder by explaining how the system will do?

  7. The scope of the project should be described clearly and same should be agreed by stakeholder. Clearly documented both i.e. in-scope and out-of-scope avoids any uncertainty once the project is underway.

  8. Identify potential privacy and security issues at an early stage so that these problems can be mitigated to a level that satisfies the stakeholders that these risks have been managed properly.

  9. Always have some acceptance criteria to accept the business request in order to maintain the quality and do not simply accept all business requests.

  10. Describe the current process (As Is), plus and negative side of the current process and part of the process causing problems or fails to deliver business requirements and how the proposed process (To Be) will eliminate the issue.

  11. List down all the assumption in the current project by discussing with clients/stakeholders to simplify the work.

  12. List out the risks and issues so that vendor/client can take a proactive approach, and thus the chances of the work getting derailed or delayed will be reduced significantly.

  13. List down all the deliverable with respective owner details.

  14. List if any kind of training required for the end user because of proposed changes in the process.

Things to be remembered while working on Business Requirement Document:

  1. Stakeholder’s involvement from the beginning of the project plays an important role in creating a successful project and analysts should always maintain good credibility with your stakeholder to get their support throughout the project life cycle. This will help in building a more detailed list of improvisations needed to address current as well as potential problems.

  2. Conduct both group and one-on-one meetings to ensure that all business requirements, risks, and concerns are identified.

  3. The document should be reviewed by all stakeholders before finalizing it. Rewrite the BRD if you get any findings from the reviewers and repeat the same till you get the green single from all.

  4. Present the completed business requirements document to all stakeholders in a formal meeting. Take notes in order to maintain the collective project memory and be ready to address any issues or concerns which may be raised.

  5. Take all required sign off from all involved stakeholders before finalizing or marking it Baseline.


I tried to keep this article as short as possible to make it handy or quick guide while working on any BRD.

This is my list and I’m sure there are other tips also and I would appreciate your contribution is sharing best tips and practices for writing Business Requirements in the comment section of this post. 

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