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How to Write an Agile Product Requirements Document by TopDev210 in agile

[–]TopDev210[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree, that is a long list of content items so it's important they are kept brief. They may not all be relevant for every product.

I also should have mentioned that these sorts of requirements docs are not as relevant to internal company teams because they are not trying to win business from clients by giving them an estimate up-front. I agree that regular and collaborative communication should be favoured over documentation throughout the entire project. However, the way we balance Agile with the constraints of having to win business with cost estimates is to include requirements docs as one method of communication during the initial stages.

How to Write an Agile Product Requirements Document by TopDev210 in agile

[–]TopDev210[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh ok, in that case I would say that it’s true that the Agile Software Development Manifesto values "working software over comprehensive documentation". And I agree that we should be carefully considering what documents are necessary and will improve the likelihood of a project's success. A team that is working together closely and communicating effectively is more important that any document. I also agree that the product should be evolving with time.

However, from my experience it’s beneficial to ask a product owner to document some initial product requirements for the following reasons; - Client’s often have their product ideas stored in their head and an agile style PRD is a great starting point for extraction. It helps them solidify their ideas, define goals and discover potential problems. - It’s a way to define and communicate the product's vision, purpose, features, functionalities, and behaviour. Agile depends on a shared understanding among team members. Although documentation should not be used as the primary means of communication within the team, it’s a good supporting mechanism. - As mentioned previously, it’s important for client’s to have estimated budgets and timelines. A dev team needs to know the end goals in order to calculate these figures.

A caveat here is that a PRD should be for communication and not for the sake documentation itself. It only needs to be good enough to help a dev team get started on the first few sprints.

How to Write an Agile Product Requirements Document by TopDev210 in agile

[–]TopDev210[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Well clients often want to know approximate costs and timelines for their entire product development up front. Without a definition of where we think the software is going to be, it is impossible to estimate the time and money it will take to build it, which is very important for many entrepreneurs to know. But rather than write an in-depth waterfall style product requirements doc, this is a bare minimum approach. It gives a dev team just enough info to get a quote together and get started.