Do you know what is the biggest mistake you make when developing your mobile app? Not creating the requirements doc for the application can help analysts, planners and developers check for feasibility and define the features.
What happens when you don’t write this document? The vision and reality don’t match. Your development team will create the application based on the discussions you had in the kickoff meeting.
To ensure 100% conversion of your ideal application to reality, you should sit down and write everything that you want in the application. Ensure you tell them the scope, goals, and even the minutest detail.
Looking at this line, you may think creating a requirements document is difficult. It need not be if you follow the correct steps from the beginning. Here are all the steps to help you build the ideal document for your next application.
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How To Write App Requirements Document?
Check out the tips on how to write the mobile app requirements document for your next business app. These steps will give a detailed perspective on what all should go and the things you need to avoid.
State The Business Requirements:
Why do you need this application? Start writing the requirements doc with this question in your mind.
For example, Slack wanted to solve the problem that businesses faced with real-time communication. Similarly, Amazon wanted to offer a solution to ship books from anywhere in the world (that was their starting point).
Similarly, what is the one issue that you believe your app will solve? If there are takers for the app, who are they? Try describing the persona of the target audience and how they are likely to consume the application.
At this point, check if the app you plan to develop will streamline the current process. If yes, how?
In the business requirements document, you should also mention readiness. See if your business is ready for the application. Would it be possible to use the ready systems in your app? Do you need to develop the app from scratch?
How do you visualize the application, and what is the vision for the app?
With these questions answered, you have defined the business scope for the application. You know why you need the app and how it will help the audience.
Define The User Needs:
The user is specific about their consumption of an application. When planning your mobile app, excluding the user from your requirements doc can harm your development strategy. Your user should be at the core of your development process and plan.
Define the different users of your application, segregate them according to their usage of the app, and define their roles.
This will help in designing the role-based access for the application. You can, at this point, define what things they can or cannot do with the application.
Once you are clear of the user’s persona, it is time to understand their journey within the app. Answer the question – how will your user use the application? What are some of the routes they can take while on the application?
The user’s journey from registration to the end should be defined, which is why you need to create the user document. You should include the narratives and add the touchpoints for the user while defining their journey.
Elaborate On System Requirements:
Once you have defined the work scope and the users, it is time to plan the infrastructure. Based on the scope and users, you would know if you want a cross-platform or native app solution.
You can think through the technology stack for your business app at this point.
- Do you want to choose React Native or Flutter for your cross-platform solution?
- What are you planning for the backend?
- Are you planning cloud-based solutions?
- What are the different systems you need to integrate?
- Will you need AI or other current technologies for the application?
Once you answer these questions, you will be able to define the blueprint for the application. This would help you plan the application and its interface better.
Build Your Feature List:
It’s time to work on your feature list for the application. This also brings you to the other question – would you like to build an MVP or start with the basic app version?
Once you know what type of app you are building, creating the feature list is easy.
Some standard features should be part of every app
- The registration
- Onboarding of the user
- Splash screen
- Navigation design
- Essential forms
- Product menus (for most product-based businesses)
- Shopping cart (mobile commerce solutions)
- Push notifications
- Analytics
These are primary features. You can always build up on these features when planning your business solution.
Determine Your Monetization Model:
When building the mobile app requirements document, adding the monetization model for your business app is essential. It helps you and the other stakeholders know how you plan to earn money from the mobile application.
There are several ways to earn money from the mobile app.
- You can choose to run advertisements that will give the user some returns.
- For example, gaming apps allow in-app advertisements that help the users get points. You can use the points earned to play the game.
- these in-app ads are more like sponsors, and people will watch the ads to earn points. It is a win-win system.
- You can choose to create a premium app and get people to pay for the application.
- A freemium model allows you to give the app for free with the basic features. The user needs to upgrade for advanced features.
- Subscription apps (Netflix, Amazon Prime) can earn you a good amount of money too.
You can choose one from this list to build your monetization model.
List The Assumptions:
When you plan for a mobile app, you base to develop on certain assumptions. It is essential for you as the business owner to enlist these assumptions in the document.
You believe based on the secondary research you conducted, that more than half of your target market will find value in this product.
You are assuming that the users will use the latest OS version. Listing out these assumptions can help the developer plan the development accordingly.
About the Author:Jignen Pandya has been working with Expert App Devs an India-based professional mobile app development company. Expert App Devs provide end-to-end mobile and IoT solutions as per the client’s business requirements.
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