A product requirements document (PRD) is a
document
A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ''Documentum'', which denotes a "teaching" o ...
containing all the requirements for a certain product.
It is written to allow people to understand ''what'' a product should do. A PRD should, however, generally avoid anticipating or defining ''how'' the product will do it in order to later allow interface designers and engineers to use their expertise to provide the optimal solution to the requirements.
PRDs are most frequently written for
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
...
products, but can be used for any type of product and also for services.
Typically, a PRD is created from a user's point-of-view by a user/client or a company's marketing department (in the latter case it may also be called
Marketing Requirements Document
A market requirements document (MRD) in project management and systems engineering, is a document that expresses the customer's wants and needs for the product or service. Shired, DianMRD – Market Requirements Document Birds-Eye.Net. Accessed 09 ...
(MRD)). The requirements are then
analyzed by a (potential) maker/supplier from a more technical point of view, broken down and detailed in a
Functional Specification
A functional specification (also, ''functional spec'', ''specs'', ''functional specifications document (FSD)'', ''functional requirements specification'') in systems engineering and software development is a document that specifies the functions ...
(sometimes also called Technical Requirements Document).
Components
Typical components of a product requirements document (PRD) are:
* Title & author information
* Purpose and
scope, from both a technical and business perspective
*
Stakeholder identification
* Market assessment and target
demographics
Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings.
Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...
* Product overview and
use case
In software and systems engineering, the phrase use case is a polyseme with two senses:
# A usage scenario for a piece of software; often used in the plural to suggest situations where a piece of software may be useful.
# A potential scenario ...
s
*
Requirement
In product development and process optimization, a requirement is a singular documented physical or functional need that a particular design, product or process aims to satisfy. It is commonly used in a formal sense in engineering design, includ ...
s, including
**
functional requirements (e.g. what a product should do)
**
usability requirements
** technical requirements (e.g. security, network, platform, integration, client)
** environmental requirements
** support requirements
** interaction requirements (e.g. how the product should work with other systems)
* Assumptions
* Constraints
* Dependencies
* High level workflow plans, timelines and milestones (more detail is defined through a
project plan
A project plan, according to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), is:
"...a formal, approved document used to guide both ''project execution'' and ''project control''. The primary uses of the project plan are to document planning as ...
)
* Evaluation plan and
performance metrics
A performance indicator or key performance indicator (KPI) is a type of performance measurement. KPIs evaluate the success of an organization or of a particular activity (such as projects, programs, products and other initiatives) in which it en ...
Not all PRDs have all of these components. In particular, PRDs for other types of products (manufactured goods, etc.) will eliminate the software-specific elements from the list above, and may add in additional elements that pertain to their domain, e.g. manufacturing requirements.
See also
*
Marketing requirements document
A market requirements document (MRD) in project management and systems engineering, is a document that expresses the customer's wants and needs for the product or service. Shired, DianMRD – Market Requirements Document Birds-Eye.Net. Accessed 09 ...
*
Product planning
Product Planning, or product discovery, is the ongoing process of identifying and articulating market requirements that define a product's feature set. It serves as the basis for decision-making about price, distribution and promotion. Product pl ...
*
Product design
*
Product management
Product management is the business process of planning, developing, launching, and managing a product or service. It includes the entire lifecycle of a product, from ideation to development to go to market. Product managers are responsible for ...
*
Requirements
*
Requirements management
Requirements management is the process of documenting, analyzing, tracing, prioritizing and agreeing on requirements and then controlling change and communicating to relevant stakeholders. It is a continuous process throughout a project. A requi ...
*
User requirements document
The user requirement(s) document (URD) or user requirement(s) specification (URS) is a document usually used in software engineering that specifies what the user expects the software to be able to do.
Once the required information is completely ga ...
References
{{Reflist
''Product Management''
''Translation and Localization Project Management''
''Project Management ToolBox''
''The Digital Guide To Software Development''
''The Product Manager's Toolkit''''Difference between requirement documents'' Product management
Software requirements