What is BRD? How it is different from SRS?

BRD stands for Business Requirement Document. BRD describes in detail the business solutions for the project as per their business or customers or client’s needs and their requirements.

BRD includes the main purpose of starting the project, what business solution does it provide, the necessity or importance behind doing this project and also its features and functionalities and its required timeline of completion.

There are few steps for creating BRD.

1. Executive summary: The executive summary is used to summarizes the entire document and also outlining the need for the project and its requirements, and how does it tie up to your overall business goals.
2. project scope: The project scope works to draws the boundaries of the project and helps managers to decide what should include in this project and what not.
3. desired goal and project objectives:  It describe the high-level goals and objectives of the project. to identify desired goal and objectives use SMART goals for your requirements document. The goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and completed within a precise Timeframe.
4. needs statement: Having a needs statement in your document helps convey the importance of the project and how it will impact the company’s bottom line in the long run.
5. requirements: team should know what needs to build and what is required to build it. Describe requirements, budget, and other key resources needed to implement the project without any restrictions.
6. identify stakeholders: identification of stakeholders is the very important documentation part hence the next step is to identify key stakeholders and assign roles and responsibilities. this can include each person’s name, department, and their role in making the project a success.
7. SWOT analysis: business requirements document (BRD) should contain a SWOT analysis of the project and the analysis should carefully articulate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that the project has. Adding this in BRD helps boost your credibility with upper management and external stakeholders as it defines how aware you are of the project’s limitations and scope.
8. limitations: Specify the limitations of the project and the team working on the project should be made aware of the possible difficulties team might face in the future while executing the project.
9. timeframe and schedule and budget: in this create the document in detail should contain each key phase of the project and the time it would take for project completion. Having a defined schedule helps you gain credibility with lenders, clients, or upper management, while also keeping your team accountable.

Difference between BRD and SRS

1. Business requirement document (BRD) includes the high-level business requirement of a system to be developed in layman language whereas Software Requirement Specification (SRS) document includes the functional and nonfunctional requirements and use cases.
2. Business requirement document (BRD) used to understand WHY part of project i.e., why the requirement is being prepared and Software Requirement Specification (SRS) is used for WHAT part of project i.e., what requirements to be fulfilled.
3. Business requirement document (BRD) document is created during the analysis phase of the project and Software Requirement Specification (SRS) is prepared during the planning phase of the project.
4. Business analyst is responsible for the creating the Business requirement document (BRD) document where for the Creation of Software Requirement Specification (SRS) business analyst and system analyst work together.
5. Business requirement document (BRD) is developed for the business users, stakeholders etc., where Software Requirement Specification (SRS) document is prepared for the subject matter expert and technical leads.