Functional Requirements Guide Templates and examples included
This guide will provide additional insights and
specific steps required to develop a functional Get started requirements document. You can also find a free cheat sheet inside this guide, including a list of functional requirements made by Elogic. This Guide Consists Of:
What Are FRs?
A brief introduction to functional requirements.
Why Document Your FRs?
Explaining the necessity to document FRs using the right tools.
The FR Epics
A showcase of some of the popular FR Epics.
Download the FRD template
Make a copy of the document for personal purposes
Steps to Develop FRs
Outlining steps to create FRs, from market analysis and revision management.
Additional Tips
Everything else you may find useful while making your FRs.
About Elogic Commerce
A few words about us.
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Introduction Getting things laid out in advance is always a good idea, no matter what you do. Having a clear map and a planned route is paramount for you if you’re a traveler. But if you happen to be in the ecommerce business, function requirements (FR) are your roadmap. The functional requirements are where business meets technology. As far as your new ecommerce project goes, your likelihood of success can be significantly improved with right FRs in place.
Naturally, writing down all of the functional requirements is no easy endeavor. Some things can easily get overlooked, especially if this is the first time you go about making your own website. Luckily, our years of expertise in ecommerce development have got us all it takes to make a versatile online store created to your unique vision.
We’ve made a list of pre-defined functional requirements available for grabbing. So keep reading so you don’t miss the link in the middle of this guide!
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What Are FRs? Functional requirements are one of the key aspects of your technical documentation that can best be described as the what of your projects, while non-functional requirements (NFRs) are undoubtedly the how. In this guide, however, we’ll be focusing on FRs as the foundation of ecommerce development.
FRs clearly define what the system is meant (or not meant) to do. Thus, it’s important they are written down in a simple, cohesive manner that doesn’t allow for any double meaning. Not to be confused with user stories, FRs always describe the system as a whole rather than keeping only a user perspective in mind.
Here are some examples of how functional requirements work:
GENDERLESS A website should support English (AU, US, USA)/German/Chinese languages;
GENDERLESS Website configurations should satisfy content security policy and customers should agree first on cookies before navigating pages;
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Project FRs
Why Document Your FRs?
GENDERLESS Single source of truth As a driving force behind your ecommerce project, documented FRs can keep everyone aligned as your vision evolves. It’s always great to be able to come back and check where it all started and how things progressed as opposed to where you are now with your project.
GENDERLESS Collaborative process
Well-defined FRs allow project managers, designers, developers, and testers to have the same understanding of all objectives and work up effectively required solutions. That reduces the number of regular sync-up meetings to keep everyone in the loop; instead, all stakeholders can communicate whenever the need arises without fear that someone can be left behind.
GENDERLESS Negotiation basis
A functional requirements document (FRD) can be a part of a broader business requirements document (such as a product requirements document and others), which can be used as a negotiating basis as most potential partners would naturally prefer to see some documents before committing to a project.
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The FR Epics Having a rough idea about what your website is supposed to be capable of is a good starting point. However, organizing your functional requirements can be a little bit tricky if you’re doing it for the first time. Below are some examples of the most common FR epics - if you want to get a full compilation, please follow the link at the end of this section.
GENDERLESS Global This category encompasses accessibility requirements so all website visitors across the globe can use the website easily and conveniently regardless of the language, currency, or device they are using. When engaging visitors, it’s important to keep the balance: you need to encourage users to sign up and allow them to perform certain activities without an account.
GENDERLESS User registration This is an important part of your overall website functionality: as a primary user acquisition source, it directly results in an increase in your client base. However, users must not be limited to a single sign-up option - allow them to create accounts in many different ways.
GENDERLESS User profile When designing a user profile, give users full control over what they can manage, specifically their personal data. Your clients should also have enough reasons to create an account, namely, additional features allowing tracking order details (status, delivery date, shipping costs, etc.).
GENDERLESS Customer support Provide your customers with the ability to get assistance whenever it’s needed. As a must, your website users would typically expect to see a live chat where they can get help through real-time communication. To optimize workload, provide additional assistance in the form of FAQs.
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Download the FRD template
Make a copy of the document for personal purposes
Priority Epic ID Functional requirement Status
63 Catalog: Product listing should have pagination,
P2 Must Have and customer should be able navigate by pages Catalog 64 Catalog: Catalog page should have suggested P3 articles for customer to read and Recently viewed Nice to have products section 65 Attributes: The product list page should have filters P1 that allow users to refine their search results by Must Have attributes such as: Type, Material, Weight, Price Product 66 Attributes: Products should have following attribute P2 attributes Must Have sets: colors set, size set 67 Attributes: most of the products options can P3 Must Have have own price 68 Products type: System should have Two types of P1 Must Have products Configurable and Bundles 69 Details: Customer should be able to check instruction P2 Must Have for selecting ring size in separate PDF view 70 Details: Products size options can be viewed in P3 Must Have separate products details section (slider modal) 71 Details: Product page should have detailed dedscribtion of the products, and Certificates Must Have attached as PDF file Product management 72 Look: Products shoud should be group in Look and P1 be suggested customer as "Complete look" at the Must Have select product page 73 Reservation: customer should be availble to request reservation of the product for some period. Ony P2 Should have for registered users, and limitation on max allowed should be defined 74 Media: Should be possibility to add up to 7-10 P3 product photos and videos and there is also an Must Have option for a 360 photo
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Functional vs. Non-functional Requirements GENDERLESS Functional differences GENDERLESS Not functional requirements As non-functional requirements are not Non-functional requirements are arguably our priority for this time, we’d like to less critical to the operability of the whole explain the key differences briefly. NFRs system: the website will still function are the quality indicators of how the even if some (or all) NFRs are not met. At system is supposed to do something. the same time, the importance of non- Subjective by nature, NFRs typically reflect functional requirements should not be usability, reliability, and performance underestimated, as they encompass needs in mind. user needs.
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Steps to Develop FR In case you’re still willing to go down the path of drafting requirements on your own, here are the steps you need to take.
GENDERLESS Know your market GENDERLESS Check your requirements
Knowing the market you operate in is the key Once you’ve built the scope of your to defining your functional requirements, requirements, it’s time to circle them to get including business goals, user needs, and feedback from all stakeholders and ensure the unique selling proposition (USP) of your everyone is on the same page. ecommerce store.
GENDERLESS Use proper tooling GENDERLESS Manage revisions
Your tool choices matter a lot, so you can’t go Your project requirements can evolve,
wrong with Jira, Trello, or RedSuite. You can whether it’s due to the volatile nature of
easily go back and forth on your requirement the market, technological advancements,
list and link to other project artifacts. or something else.
GENDERLESS Define priorities
Label your list of requirements so you can easily get your way around them, from desirable features to absolutely essential.
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Additional Tips Now that you know how to write functional requirements, how can you be certain you got them right? Clearly defined FRs are consistent, granular, testable, and concise across the project. Conversely, poorly specified requirements can create more confusion than do any good for your business.
Let’s say one of your stakeholders suggested that the system “needs to be fast .”What does that mean in reality? Do they refer to the checkout process or a page speed load? To avoid discrepancies, always get down to the specifics and add specific benchmarks to your FRs.
You can leave it to professionals if you still think that’s too much to take in: writing functional requirements is a typical part of our discovery phase that we initiate to gather information about your project and establish a specific vision, goals, and scope.
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About Elogic Commerce
Elogic Commerce is a full-cycle ecommerce development agency helping retailers build,
optimize, and design their online stores. The team has delivered over 500 projects since 2009, taking care of the whole development process from discovery and strategy consulting to support, and everything in between. We are platform-agnostic and take pride in our certified partnerships with Adobe Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, and commercetools.
14 years in the market 200+ ecommerce specialists 92% customers NPS 500 launched projects
Our mission is to deliver solutions that become an essential part of your success. And we live up to the promise, having Contact us successfully launched 500+ projects across industries and business verticals.
