What a requirements document is for
Without a requirements document, every provider imagines a different project: quotes cannot be compared, and omissions are discovered along the way, at a premium. The document sets down in black and white what will be done, what will not, and in what order. It protects both parties: you know what you are buying, the developer knows what has to be delivered.
There is no need for an 80-page document. For a small business, 10 to 20 clear pages are better than a tome nobody reads.
What goes into a website requirements document
- Context: your business, your customers, your current site if there is one
- Objectives: receive quote requests, sell online, reassure, recruit… with measurable criteria
- Target audiences: who visits the site and what they come looking for
- Site structure: the list of pages and how they are organised
- Features: form, appointment booking, customer area, multilingual version…
- Content: who supplies the texts, the photos, the translations
- Technical constraints: hosting, domain name, tools to connect, GDPR, accessibility
- Search engine optimisation: target keywords, pages to keep, redirects
- Budget and schedule: a realistic range and a target launch date
- Scope: what is included, and what is not
The requirements document of an ecommerce site
For an online store, you add everything that relates to selling:
- The catalogue: number of products, variants (sizes, colours), import of existing product sheets
- Payment: card, bank transfer, instalments
- Delivery: carriers, zones, rates, in-store pickup
- Operations: stock, invoices, link with the till or accounting software, e-invoicing
- Customer relations: customer accounts, promotions, reviews, automatic emails
It is the starting point of every PrestaShop store I build.
The requirements document of a website redesign
A redesign has a trap: starting from scratch and forgetting what worked. The requirements document of a redesign therefore starts with an inventory: the pages that attract visitors, the URLs to redirect, the features actually used, the data to carry over (customers, orders, articles). Without this work, a new site can lose in a few weeks the search ranking built over several years. If you know your current site poorly, an express audit is a good starting point.
The requirements document of a CRM or business application
For a CRM, the requirements document describes the way you work rather than pages:
- Users and their rights: who sees what, who changes what
- The customer journey, from first contact to invoice
- Screens: customer records, lists, dashboards
- Automations: follow-ups, alerts, emails
- Tools to connect: mailbox, calendar, accounting, website
- Migration of existing data: Excel files, old software
Each feature is ranked: essential from the start, useful later, or to be dropped. That is what makes it possible to set a firm price for a custom CRM and to start with the essentials.
Mistakes to avoid
- Describing solutions instead of needs: “a red button at the top right” rather than “the customer must be able to request a quote in two clicks”
- Wanting everything in the first version: the budget explodes and the project bogs down
- Forgetting the content: it is the first cause of website delays
- Not giving a budget: without a range, it is impossible to propose the right solution
- Copying a template without adapting it: a template helps you forget nothing, but it does not know your business
Free requirements document template
To prepare your project, download my requirements document template: 7 pages to fill in, covering the 10 parts above, with examples and three appendices (online store, redesign, CRM or business software). It comes as a Word file to fill in on a computer and as a PDF to print (new tab). Free, no sign-up.
I write your requirements document with you
You have neither the time nor the habit of writing this document? We build it together: you explain your business to me, I ask the questions, I translate your needs into features and I write it up.
- Express scoping, €290 excl. VAT: about 2 hours of discussion on a video call, then the writing of the requirements document. For a showcase website, a simple store or a simple CRM.
- Full scoping, from €750 excl. VAT: workshops with your teams, analysis of your tools and data, a detailed requirements document with the screens and priorities. For business software, a complex store or a redesign with data migration.
In both cases, you receive a firm costing and a provisional schedule. Scoping is deducted from the quote if you entrust me with the project within 3 months. And the requirements document belongs to you: you can also submit it to other providers and compare their quotes on the same basis. All my prices are on the pricing page.
What comes next: launching the project
Once the requirements document is approved, the project starts on a clear footing: approval of the designs, development in stages that you test as we go, then launch. At each stage, you know where the project stands and what remains to be done. And if a new idea comes up along the way, we cost it separately rather than let the budget drift.
