Software analysis, planning, development, and testing are crucial phases of every app creation process. All these phases are characterized by the collection of information, its management, and specifications that meet the planned requirements. 

As the gathered information and requirements can often be overwhelming, you must organize them to provide the data to software developers and engineers correctly. It is the reason why Functional Specifications Templates are widely used. 

In this article, we delve into the nature of these templates and explain their consecutive elements, benefits, and best practices. And without intending to extend more, let's go straight to it!

Functional Specifications Documents are blueprints that indicate to developers how a particular application works. Functional specifications also clearly map the app's user experience and how people will interact with the application through the user interface.

This document is designed for developers to transform all the information contained in the document into a functional app. This file indicates what iterations developers have to build, what features to include, what buttons and links should be contained, and how they relate. 

A functional specification document should specify all the visual details of the app and its functionality. This way, the final product the developers deliver will fulfill all the functional and non-functional requirements imposed by the creatives. 

An application has two phases of production. The first phase concerns the creative process, where creators design the concept, the functions, and general interactions. The second phase is the technical process, where developers pick the general ideas of the previous phase and make them real. Some benefits of creating a functional specification document to move from phase one to phase two are the following:

It Helps You to Mitigate Risks

Every good piece of art, project, or creation, in general, comes to life after finishing a meticulous planning phase. It is the same when you’re developing an application. During the development process, your functional specifications are a guideline for the software developers, so they can do the best work without wasting time and making errors. 

It Enhances Communication

Most of the time, the two phases of creation are separate. Initially, designers or the owner design the impact and the overview of how the app should work. In this sense, functional specifications documents effectively communicate all the ideas creators want to reflect in the app. Functional specification documentation is also great for dispelling assumptions about the app’s features and its functioning. 

It Boosts Efficiency

This document describes exactly what software engineers and developers must do when developing the app. In other words, the functional specifications define system configurations, user interfaces, and main features that specialists must include. This clarification helps to avoid misunderstandings, unforced errors, and configuration mistakes, which lead to a major efficiency increase.

If several departments are involved in the development process, each of them will know exactly how tasks must be performed. All team members will know how to get on with their job, adjusting to all requirements indicated in the functional specs. 

It Helps you to Avoid Feature Creep

Development phases are a total challenge. These integrate ups and downs, bickering, periodically reviewing previous steps, and backtracking. Everything can turn into absolute chaos if possible safeguards are not taken. Excellent functional requirements documents clearly define stages, including a detailed description of what features are integrated into different app sections. Engineers and developers can avoid feature creep and simplify application programming. 

Such document templates should contain crucial information you should specify as deeply as possible.  Here are 10 key items to include:

Stakeholders

This formal document should clarify all the people participating in the project, either creative or developing processes. You should include all the contact details, such as name and job position, for better documentation management.

Project Scope

Under the project scope section of your functional specifications template, you should include a specific section to describe an overall gaze of the project and all the features and requirements addressed in the development process. It also should explain how resources will be allocated and what solutions each functional spec will provide.

 Approvals

Approvals is crucial since it should include all the software system features that relevant stakeholders, such as the head of the development team or the main client, approve to be in the final version. Approvals in the user documentation also clarify which functions systems engineering must develop.

Risks and Assumptions

Among all the details you must include in functional specifications, you must clarify possible risks and assumptions that the project development may face. You should consider functional design risks, technical assumptions and delays, lack of labor, or budget. 

User Cases

User cases, or user stories, correspond to all the situations in which users may find themselves, their possible problems, and how your software product or app might solve them. You should bullet point all possible particular scenarios and user flows that describe, utilizing graphs, diagrams, and other elements to promote understanding of the product development process.

Requirements Specifications

Here you should describe every functional requirement you or the client have designed to help the user achieve their objectives and the project goals. Indicate how the internal interfaces should look, outline the features’ application, and explain how the app will manage data to provide services and solutions. 

Non-Functional Specifications

Contrary to the part mentioned above, in this section of the business requirements document, you should include all the major and general aspects of the application. Outline the intended user interaction with the application, and specify the visual aspects such as button design, color palette, font type, and size. Additionally, emphasize the importance of ensuring the interface's intuitiveness from the user's perspective.

Remember that correctly defining the non-functional specifications is crucial to determining the target users since they will have a different approach to your application. Consider using various visual tools like screen flows, sitemaps, and wireframes to illustrate better what you want developers to achieve. 

Solution Overview

Solution overview directly links with non-functional specifications since here you include the application’s key features whose goal is proposing solutions for a specific problem. For example, you can include the map site or user flow diagrams. 

System Configuration

In this section, list all the steps needed to implement and configure the application or product, such as user account setup. In the system configuration area, inform developers what the user must do to correctly use the application so that they can program the product and core functionality.

Error Reporting and Exception Handling

No application is invulnerable or bulletproof, so you must specify how your product will deal with possible errors. Mistakes can come from many sources, either system configuration errors or user mistakes, so presenting a different plan for any case is mandatory. 

In this sense, user testing is crucial to minimize the impact of possible errors and the likelihood of their appearance.   

Ticketing System Requirements

During application or web development, it's very common that bugs or issues interrupt the regular functioning of processes. The regular procedure in this case is ticketing, which indicates the right practice to remedy problems. The ticketing system requirements should clearly outline the handling of errors concerning internal procedures and user information.

As we mentioned in the previous paragraphs, an FSD describes in detail what the system does and how it works. These two aspects of the functional specifications can be created in four simple steps.

• Define your requirements for the project. Functional and non-functional requirements must be addressed from the beginning when you plan an app or are contacted by a client who needs you to develop an application. What the app does and the quality and usability of it are crucial aspects that should be defined from scratch. 

• Identify functionality required by the project. As a second step, you must specify all the features your app should contain to do what it has to do. It can include logic specification and features such as GPS, linking with other platforms, payment methods, and more. 

• Design how the functionality will work. The next step is to describe how all the features included in the previous step will work and how people will interact with them. This step also defines how products' features are linked, building an interactive net of functionalities.

• Design your requirements in an understandable format. Since your specifications intend to clarify to developers what they should try to achieve, the descriptions should have an understandable format. Writing a functional specification document involves being brief and clearly understanding the final objectives.

The three functional specification templates we share below will facilitate documenting, organizing, and describing the requirements and functions you want your app to have. 

Functional Requirements Document Template for a Website

Download it from Smartsheet.

Designing an application, software, or website demands a profound grasp of the essential technology, a clear identification of the target users, and a well-defined vision of the objectives you wish visitors to achieve while navigating through it.

This template puts you in front of a series of questions you can briefly answer to define the major scope and reasons for the website, applications, or software, identify the target audience of the website, the activities they will carry out within it, and all the special considerations you want to include, such as security standard for financial transactions or functional details. 

Standard Functional Requirements Template

Download it from Sampletemplates.

This file is the most linear template among this section's three functional specification templates. It corresponds to a Microsoft Word document containing several sections to describe the general scope of the project deeply, the methodology used in determining the FSD, the software requirements, and the non-functional requirements to understand the entire product development cycle better. This document facilitates the creation of functional specifications by providing clear instructions to define background, assumptions, references, constraints, context, and requirements.  

Functional Requirements for a Data Repository

Download it from AllBusinessTemplates.

This functional specification document template is a 100% customizable file that you can use freely for any product. This spreadsheet contains five layouts: Document Control, Requirements, MoSCow, method, and Stakeholders. First, indicate all the controls that should be completed during the project. In requirements, insert all the draft requirements, their priorities, and the stakeholder in charge. The three remaining sections describe your methods for the working group, stakeholders, and terminology. 

Regarding the right spreadsheet software for editing this functional requirements specification template, you should use MS Excel since the famous Microsoft app includes all the tools to manage and edit it easily. 

Here, on RoyalCDKeys, you can quickly get it by acquiring a reliable copy of Microsoft Office 2021 Professional Plus Key Retail Global at the lowest price on the market. Click the link before and meet all the benefits and requirements of this powerful project management software and more. 

Project managers, the entire team, and you must be prepared to face any challenge, especially when building a specific software, digital product, or application for a client. Specifications and requirements must revolve around a comprehensive context of what clients need to create, what issues they want to solve, and how the target audience and business users will engage with the product. 

This is why a functional specification template will make creating a software requirements document and other related files easier. This copy integrates all the gathered information to add a functional structure, check models and user flows, test a prototype, and start to write the spec copy on the same page.

We encourage you to analyze this document and the templates we’ve given and create the best product overview that includes all specifications and regulatory requirements. For other supporting documents, browse our blog and check all the useful templates for multiple activities, such as detailed analysis, budgeting, quality control, and more.