How to prepare a good mobile and web app specification?

?? in short - in this article you will learn:

1. ?What is an app functional specification and PRD (Product Requirements Document)?
2. ?How to prepare the Product Requirements Document for a digital product?
3. Why it could be important for you as CTO/CEO/Founder?

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?? What is an app's functional specification?

Product Requirements Document (PRD) it’s not about creating an essay about how our app will save the world.

1. A product requirements document (PRD) is a detailed description of the requirements of a product, including the value and purpose of a product (or feature).
2. Your PRD should follow a top-down approach that starts with the overall vision of what you want to accomplish. It should then tie product goals and initiatives with the features required to achieve that vision.
3. PRD is often confused with a Market Requirements Document (MRD), but they are different:?MRD should be created before a PRD, in MRD you can describe what the customer needs and wants from your product before you define the requirement.?

?? How to prepare the Product Requirements Document for a digital product?

Product Requirements Document (PRD) should a practical tool for coders because it describes how your product will actually be built. ?A well-defined PRD also includes details about how the end user will interact with the functionality and what it will look like.

The functional specification is not a form and does not go by one universal formula. The document should first and foremost be readable, and it is usually made up of a few elements:?

1. ?general description with business goals and the target user’s profile,
2. Detailed Roadmap with Release, Features, user flow and design, information regarding app operation scenario,?
3. Future technological requirements; functionalities;?
4. Analytics plan with key performance indicators and other additional information important for the project?

?? It can be helpful to see an example of a PRD if you have not created one before. If you are interested in this topic, write me an email at [email protected], and I will send you some useful templates. ??

?? Why is a PRD so important?

One of my best friends from the biggest polish VC told me once: “I saw so many startups with great ideas, but I never met a successful digital startup that came to me without product documentation or at least without basic Product Requirements Document (PRD). If there is no interest on the founder's side to prepare this document - for us an investor, it was a signal that the team is not ready to build this product and will need big technical support from the beginning”.?

I completely agree with this point of view, at Geekforce, we are working with companies in different stages of development (corporations, medium size or startups) and I realized that the problems with product documentation are usually bigger in the early stage where the functional specification is very often the most important criteria for future investors or clients. Think about it, that the delay can be costly for both parties.

Why it could be important for you as CTO/CEO/Founder? With this document, it is possible to re-think and verify?some ideas about the features of your product. The specification can also lay the grounds for performing the necessary app performance tests and boundary situations to help to estimate the budget and time needed for implementation.

If you could compare the first stage of your software project with the way how you would build a house:

?? You can’t see buildings raised without architectural plans and workers that understand the plan. Without a proper plan, your construction will be laid upon doubtful foundations, exposing us to delays and the need for corrections in the future.

?? Lack of specification may correspond to the request to build a house based on information about the number of rooms.? It doesn’t take too long to guess that the final effect may be significantly different from what we just might expect

I am writing about the phase BEFORE the real development even starts, I am not speaking about the Agile methodology of software development, which is great and very often compared to “build a building without architectural drawings or engineering”. In one of my next articles, I will compare Agile vs Waterfall methodologies.