GUIDE 13Tools & Templates

Technical Requirements Template

Once a project is scoped, technical requirements translate business needs into engineering specifications. This template provides the structure — you or your technical team can fill it in, or we can complete it together during discovery.

Section 1: System Overview

High-level description of what the system does, who uses it, and how it fits into the broader technology ecosystem. Include a simple diagram if possible — even a hand-drawn sketch photographed and attached is valuable.

System purpose in 2–3 sentences
Primary user roles and approximate count
Relationship to existing systems
High-level architecture diagram (even rough)

Section 2: Functional Requirements

List what the system must do. Group by module or feature area. Each requirement should be testable — 'the system shall send email notifications when an order status changes' is better than 'the system should have good notifications.'

Feature/module name
Specific requirement (the system shall...)
Priority: Must / Should / Could
Acceptance criteria: How do we know it's done?

Section 3: Data Requirements

What data does the system store? List the main entities and their key fields. Don't worry about exact data types — describe the information conceptually. 'Each property has a name, address, unit count, and manager' is sufficient at this stage.

Section 4: Integration Requirements

List all external systems the application needs to communicate with. For each, note the direction of data flow, frequency, and any known API documentation.

External system name
Data flow direction (inbound, outbound, both)
Frequency: Real-time, scheduled, on-demand
API documentation link or contact

Section 5: Non-Functional Requirements

Performance, security, availability, and scalability expectations. Be realistic — 'the system must never go down' isn't helpful. '99.5% uptime during business hours, recovery within 30 minutes' is specific and actionable.