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Guide To Writing a Software Brief

Writing a good software brief to give to potential developers can be very difficult, especially if you are still uncertain about exactly what you want. However, a good software brief is important to both parties as it will:

Help to establish the basis for your agreement.
Reduce the development effort.
Provide a basis for accurately estimating cost and timescales.
Provide a basis for verification and validation.
Serve as a reference for future developments.

Characteristics of a Good Brief

The key qualities of a good bespoke software brief are for it to be:

Unambiguous – every stated requirement should only have one possible interpretation.
Correct – every stated requirement is one that the software should meet.
Complete – all significant requirements are included.
Consistent – the brief should not conflict with other documentation relating to the project.
Verifiable – it should be possible to check that the software meets each stated requirement.
Modifiable – the brief should be organised such that it would be easy to make changes to at a later date.

Software Brief Contents

Organisation Overview

Giving the developer an overview of your organisation is a great way to help them understand your objectives. It can also help them to suggest additional functionality that may benefit your organisation. You should include details about the products/services your company offers, the size of your company, the mentality of your company and your objectives for the future.

Objectives

Your developer needs to know what you are trying to achieve with your piece of software. Generally, software is required to solve a particular problem / inefficiency, therefore you should describe this problem in detail to your developer.

Details of exactly how the software will solve the problem should be saved for the requirements section, your objectives should be focused on what you are trying to achieve (not how). Try to ensure that your objectives are clear, concise and achievable.

Software Requirements

Here you should provide a detailed explanation of the software you require, the more detail you can provide the more accurate and useful the developer’s response will be. As with your objectives, you should try to ensure this section is as unambiguous and complete as possible. If your business uses a lot of industry-specific terminology, be sure you provide clear definitions as your developer may have no knowledge of your industry.

You should try to ensure you include details of the following in your requirements:

Functionality Details of what the software will do.
External Interfaces How will the software interact with existing hardware and software? This includes details of your existing PCs, servers, operating systems and third-party software.
Performance What are the performance benchmarks for the system?
AttributesWhat are the important attributes of the system? If your organisation uses Windows and Linux operating systems, then you may require the software to be cross-platform. If your software will deal with sensitive data then security will be a key attribute.
ConstraintsThe development of your software may be influenced by a variety of constraining factors, including: legislation, company policies, resource limitations, programming languages and operating environments.

Timescale

Your developer needs to know when you expect the software to be developed by. Try to be realistic with your timescales; the software development process can take a long time to fully complete. Providing unrealistic timescales may cause a developer to charge you more for the project, or it may cause them to choose not to take on the project. Try to allow for the time that it will take for you to collate all the required information.

Unfortunately, there are often problems that will only be identified once the development process has started, which will undoubtedly delay the project. You should try to allow some extra time for these unexpected complication.

Budget

You may or may not choose to inform a potential developer of your budget. If you do, you may find that some developer’s will increase their quotes to match the budget. However, you may also find that a good developer will be able to advise you what you can realistically achieve for you budget. If your budget is below the estimated cost, they will be able to help you to devise a solution that is more cost-effective.

Additional Information

If you have any additional details that are important but have not been covered elsewhere, you should make sure they are also clearly specified in your brief. Additional information may include:

Who should own the intellectual property rights for the system once completed.
The process the developers should follow when submitting their proposals.
How proposals will be evaluated.
When a decision will be made regarding proposals.
How payment for the software development will be structured.

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