How to Write a Better Functional Requirements Document?

 

 

(Image Reference – Image created using AI through ChatGPT) 

Unaddressed gaps in functional requirement document is one of the most common causes for failed IT (Information Technology) projects (intended for Strategic Business Transformation). In this blogpost, I have tried to highlight some points, which (if given consideration) may help in improving capture and documentation of requirements for any major IT project. These are: -

1. Story of Transformation is more about the Organization and less about the Technology - "Information Technology" implements “Information Management” as per "Information Design" for any organization. Therefore, it may be noted that clarity in organizational information design and in execution of this design (through information management) are more important than underlying technology (which is merely a tool to implement design through electronic means).

2. An Organization is a System of Systems - It may be helpful to express an organization as an institutionalized entity having responsibility of pre-defined work to deliver (tasks with activities) with the help of an organizational structure (organizational chart of designated officials with respective responsibilities and associated authorities) and a set of governing rules (for systematic operation of organization to deliver work with institutional obligation to remain just, fair and transparent in conduct). Thus, an organization may be viewed as a system having dependencies on many (sub) systems.

3. Understanding the Information Design behind Organizational Practice of Information Management - Information Design within an organization could be viewed as a template for rule-based exchange of information across the organizational structure intended to operationalize delivery of work (as expected from the organization). Implementation of information design through information management allows administration of information in such a way that appropriate and authentic information is available within the organization in timely manner.

4. Information Management is a Specialized and Critical Service to drive Organizational Operations - Success of a "Functional Requirement" document lies in representing information management as a structured entity logically connected with organizational workflows, which are executed by officiating officials (human resources working as per (usually) hierarchical roles with defined authorities and responsibilities). Thus, information is serviced to facilitate organization (through underneath organizational structure) to work in accordance with the needs of intended objectives.

5. Three Aspects to Organizational Information - Three broad aspects of information management within an organization could be considered as - information capture, information flow and information storage.

6. Objectivity on Transformative Information Technology Project is Important – Since any transformative information technology project is essentially an organizational endeavour to change organizational Information Design (usually) to support a mid-to-long term strategy (targeted at operational changes with the motive of business prospects), it is important to have objectivity embedded in the design of such a project.

It could be helpful to develop a ‘Mission Paper’ (usually aligned to Organizational Vision) on Strategic Organizational Transformation (including Strategy, Feasibility, AS-IS & TO-BE Guidance) to make the objectives of endeavour clear, precise, tractable and measurable. The ‘Mission Paper’ could become input to project charter for the associated transformative project(s).

7. Assess the Need for Engaging Workforce on Transformational Endeavours – Try to assess understanding and existing capacity of the workforce to take-on the transformational journey. Give heed to needs to educate end-users and to bring them onboard into the project so that they get actively engaged to become prospective performers in the TO-BE scenario implementation. Accommodate requirements for holding sensitization sessions and discussion sessions with end-users to build internal consensus on upcoming change. Precise understanding of AS-IS Scenario & TO-BE Scenario (with respect to work, structure, rules and information management) and understanding of intended organizational benefits to get intended strategic benefits out of transformational endeavour engages the workforce and at the same time wins credibility and trust of senior management in the eyes of workforce.

8. Traverse all the Actors and Paths in Work-Flow and associated Processes – Try to design Work-Flow for every entity (actor) under organizational structure taking TO-BE Scenario in consideration (also include actors at interfaces to the organization – (say) stakeholders outside the organization - like customers / suppliers / prospective-candidates interested in joining the organization / partner-institutions to an organization). Traverse all the possible paths in every workflow. Diagrammatically represent Workflows precisely highlighting the most important paths critical to delivery of prime responsibility of the organization and highlighting associated paths addressing quality concerns of the most important path(s).

9. Design of Wireframes Helps – With agreed workflows as input, designing wireframes to ensure UI / UX (User Interface and User Experience) helps reducing any confusion, any apprehension or any operational concerns in the minds of user community (while operating under TO-BE scenario). Expectations from new applications in the minds of decision makers also gets a reality check while traversing through TO-BE wireframes. With approved wireframes the application development team also feel confident about clarity of requirements.

10. Include Monitoring and Control of Information under TO-BE Scenario – It is good to incorporate requirements for monitoring and control of information. While designing an Information-Management system including reliable information capture, logical information flow, modular information storage requirements incorporating authorized accessibility of organizational information are important but monitoring organizational information for availability, accuracy, completeness and with prompts for finding related information (or provision for knowledge management) is equally important.

11. Keep in Perspective the Next Steps to follow after the Requirement Document – It is advisable to not to lose the sight of end-to-end project while doing capture of requirements. It is much better to keep the other teams and stakeholders on-boarded with the proceedings during the capture of requirements.

Some expected upcoming activities after ‘Requirements Document’ could be: -

a.     Technology Design to support finalized UI-UX design. Technology Design may include: -

                                i.     Database Design

                              ii.     Application Design (Development of Forms & Reports, Incorporation of Business Logic - for Business Operations and Business Analysis)

                            iii.     Technical Architecture (Platform - Technology Stack, Integration, AI Tools, Database Implementation).

                            iv.     IT Infrastructure and Connectivity Requirements.

                              v.     IT Governance (including - Data Retention Policy, Security Policy and Certifications, Quality and SLA, Operation and Maintenance).

b.    Cost Estimation: -

                                i.     Make or Buy / Develop or Customize considerations

                              ii.     Procurement and Operationalization costs

                            iii.     Continuous Business Support (Operation and Maintenance) for a suitable period of time.

           

/**********************/

Why Public Spending on Climate Change gets Lost in Translation?

 

(Image Source - Blog title image generated using AI with copilot)

Public spending on Climate Change often gets trapped in translational problems. Even though there is lots of noise around climate change but it is evident that much less action happens on ground. This is also mentioned in the recent Lancet Countdown report of 2025. In this blogpost, I have tried to highlight three important translation leakages, which could be hampering effective efforts to address the issue of Climate Change. These are: -

1. Synchronization with Budget Cycles - Government budget (by any government) is prepared for a specific period of time. The period covered by a budget is usually a year, known as a financial or fiscal year. However, looking into the slow process of climatic changes, the policy perspective for Climate Budgeting has to be longer period of time (say 10 to 30 years). In order to financially support longer term climate policies through climate budgeting embedded within the annual government budget, annual budgets allocated to climate change efforts has to target at incremental efforts distributed across periodically (annually) managed budgets. This involves act of breaking down of policy led efforts (tasks) towards climatic changes to smaller parts (sub-tasks). These smaller parts (sub-tasks) have to be broken down to the extent that they get synchronized to fit the periodicity of the budget implementation cycle (usually a year).

The process of breaking down of efforts (sub-tasking) from a larger policy led effort (task), which is a logical entity under a longer policy roadmap needs adjustments to get budgetary allocation. These adjustments include keeping the broken-down effort in tune with the available time (usually yearly budgetary cycle), keeping the broken-down effort objective for quantified consumption and utilization of allocated budget (within the timeframe of budget cycle) and keeping the broken-down effort auditable in tandem with comprehensive budget outlay of entire budget spanning across all the other priorities. Even though such adjustments improve fiscal accountability, it carries risk of dilution and deviation of broken-down effort (sub-task) from policy led effort (task) in terms of meeting the core objective to minimize the impact of climate change impact on the planet.

Further, in dealing with public spending, it is observed that fixed shorter terms of budget-cycles (annual) tend to give preference to those matters, which are considered needing immediate attention. Often this happens at the cost of those matters needing long term persistence. Sudden preference to such matters needing immediate attention may be attributable either to unanticipated changes in fiscal conditions arising from local or global contingencies or to unexpected socio-political compulsions faced by governing bodies time to time.

2. Synchronization across Geographies - Climate Change is a global phenomenon, which needs to be addressed at local levels by locally governing entities across the globe. This means there should be synchronization amongst entities governing geographies. But different geographies are diverse in character and have their own socio-economic and politico-cultural dynamics. It can be easily observed that different countries face vastly different fiscal capacities, priorities, and vulnerabilities, making coordinated global action difficult.

Time and again it has been established that breaking-down collective actions on the critical issue of Climate Change to be addressed through regional or country level efforts have been ineffective. (Ref - The World Is Failing Its 2025 Paris Climate Target. Now What? | TIME)

The translation of a critical issue of global significance, which needs immediate attention gets easily overshadowed by local and regional priorities of individual countries. Collectively all the countries across the globe have not been able to curb the pursuit of growth driven development at the cost of one and another and even at the cost to human existence on the planet. Eventually, this leads to fragmented investments, uneven adaptation, and inefficiencies in tackling the global challenge of Climate Change (ultimately impacting collective public spending patterns at global level).

3. Synchronization across Socio-Political Spheres - Most vulnerable groups to climate change often are either ignorant about linkages of their problems to Climate Change or lack the political voice to drive the attention of the governing body towards lasting solutions to problems faced due to Climate Change. Many dominant groups with better understanding about climate change or with strong political voice are not expressive on the issue either due to vested economic interest (example - fossil fuel industry) or due to indifference towards vulnerable groups and / or towards future consequences.

What is perceived by politically dominant groups as a problem of livelihood and health amongst vulnerable groups has a potential to impact entire societies across the globe in a massive that too way all of sudden. With sincere efforts by many agencies across the globe through all the possible channels, the message is reaching loud and clear to all sections of the society. Therefore, there is an awareness about Climate Change and its possible impact in the sub-conscious minds of significantly large population (beyond the critical mass). But this is not translating into collective concern within societal groups to present a dominant political agenda significant enough to become universal political consensus transcending all other prevailing issues (many may be less significant to a rational analysis).

Eventually, such a socio-political scenario presents institutional fragmentation rather than convergence towards matters pertaining to Climate Change (ultimately impacting public spending patterns).

In the end, it can be concluded that promising future for human being can be achieved by avoiding losing in translation in above cases with following considerations: -

1.    Continuous Policy Support by appropriately funding Climate Change

2.    Cooperation at Country Level on the issue of Climate Change

3.    Consensus within societies for prioritization on Climate Change

The above conclusion can be summed up as 4Cs: -

Coexistence (for Promising Future) = Continuous (Policy Support) + Cooperation (Country Level) + Consensus (Inter-Societal)

 

/************************/

Definitions:

 

Budget - Budget is a plan to show how much money a person or organization will earn and how much they will need or be able to spend. Public budget or government budget is the forecast by a government of its expenditures and revenues for a specific period of time.

(Ref- https://www.britannica.com/money/government-budget),

(Ref- https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/budget).

Public Budgeting - Public budgeting is defined as the study of the allocation of government resources, which involves the development, structure, and dynamics of political institutions as well as the formation of comparative fiscal and macroeconomic policies (Ref - https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/economics-econometrics-and-finance/public-budgeting).

Climate Finance - Climate finance refers to local, national or transnational financing—drawn from public, private and alternative sources of financing—that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation actions that will address climate change. The Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement call for financial assistance from Parties with more financial resources to those that are less endowed and more vulnerable. This recognizes that the contribution of countries to climate change and their capacity to prevent it and cope with its consequences vary enormously. Climate finance is needed for mitigation, because large-scale investments are required to significantly reduce emissions. Climate finance is equally important for adaptation, as significant financial resources are needed to adapt to the adverse effects and reduce the impacts of a changing climate. (Ref - https://unfccc.int/topics/introduction-to-climate-finance)

Carbon Budget - The term Carbon-Budget refers to the total net amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that can still be emitted by human activities while limiting global warming to a specified level (e.g.,1.5°C or 2°C above pre-industrial levels).

Carbon budgets are part of long term emission reduction targets which are broken down into annual limits. A climate budget then integrates these carbon budgets into routine operations and policies.

Climate budgeting enables the identification, classification, and categorisation of expenditures that are pertinent to climate change within the scope of a government's budgetary structure. This mechanism allows precise estimation, diligent monitoring, and methodical tracking of such expenses.

(Ref  - https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/faqs/IPCC_AR6_WGI_FAQ_Chapter_05.pdf)

(Ref - https://budgit.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Climate-Budgeting-for-Green-Accountability-1.pdf)

(Ref - https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/climate-budgeting#:~:text=The%20recently%20released%20Union%20Budget%20for%20the,of%20the%20energy%20transition%20and%20sustainable%20development.).

Climate Change - Climate change means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods. (https://unfccc.int/resource/ccsites/zimbab/conven/text/art01.htm)

 

 

/************************/