

What Should a Product Requirements Document Contain?Ī PRD must include every explicit capability required for the release. UX will create wireframes and mockups as needed, and quality assurance will write a test plan ensuring every single use case in the PRD can be successfully executed during testing.

Engineering will create a functional specification, which describes how each item in the PRD will be implemented, and they may also create (or update) an architectural design document. Each feature or capability is usually described as a separate item, and a use case is typically included for every item as well.īased on the PRD, a number of other artifacts will be created by others in the organization. The PRD itself does not touch on market opportunity or revenue but is instead firmly rooted in use cases and desired functionality. The PRD may follow on the heels of a marketing requirements document (MRD)-created by product marketing, marketing, or product management as well-that describes customer demand, market opportunity, and a business case for the overall product or a particular product release. In short, if it isn’t included in the PRD, it won’t be included in the release. It painstakingly lists out everything required for a given product release and serves as the document of record that the entire release is based on. What’s the Difference Between a PRD and an MRD?įor decades, a product requirements document (PRD) was the most important artifact product managers would create. See also: Market Requirements Document (MRD) While PRDs may hint at a potential implementation to illustrate a use case, they may not dictate a specific implementation. The PRD will contain everything that must be included in a release to be considered complete, serving as a guide for subsequent documents in the release process. This document is typically used more in waterfall environments where product definition, design, and delivery happen sequentially, but may be used in an agile setting as well. A product requirements document (PRD) is an artifact used in the product development process to communicate what capabilities must be included in a product release to the development and testing teams.
