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All resources // WORKSHEET

The short build brief

Many software projects begin to fail at the brief rather than during the build. This is the worksheet we use in our own first session, and it is deliberately short, because a brief nobody can hold in their head is a brief nobody agrees on. Of the 15 pages, the worksheet itself is seven, mostly room to write. About three and a half pages of guidance follow it, explaining why each box is there and what a good answer looks like, and the rest is the cover, contents, instructions and document control. Fill it in before you talk to any developer, including us.

Seven-page worksheet plus guidance · 15 pages. Free.

WHO THIS IS FOR
  • Anyone about to commission software and unsure how to specify it
  • Businesses replacing a spreadsheet that has quietly become critical
  • Managers who need to compare development quotes on equal terms
// READ IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT

The box people want to skip

A real page from the document. The black bars mark detail removed for publication, or space left for you to fill in.

WHAT IS INSIDE
The one-sentence job If it needs two sentences, it is two projects
Who does this today, and how Including the workarounds, which are the real requirements
What the first release deliberately excludes The most valuable box on the page. A project with no exclusions has no scope
Data, hosting and where it lives What is held, who sees it, how long it is kept, and where the support desk sits as a separate question from where the data sits
One block per integration Because "must integrate with" on its own is not enough to estimate against
Non-functional requirements The questions that quietly set the price, including the accessibility target and the authentication model
Success measures and formal acceptance Two different things. One is whether it was worth building, the other is whether this release is finished
The buy-instead check, and who owns it after launch Compared on five-year total cost of ownership, not licence price against build cost
Ferres Systems The Short Build Brief
SAMPLE
SECTION 03 OF 12 // WHAT THE FIRST RELEASE EXCLUDES

Not in version one, and we have agreed that. This is the most valuable box on the page and the one people want to skip. A project with no exclusions has no scope.

HOW THE TABLE WORKS
  • One numbered row per feature discussed and consciously set aside, by name
  • A "revisit when" column against each, so setting something aside is not the same as refusing it
  • Room for anything you are choosing to keep doing manually for now
  • Room for every system you are choosing not to integrate with yet
WORKED EXAMPLE

Release one does not send client-facing email, does not integrate with the accounting system, and does not replace the month-end spreadsheet. Client email is revisited once weekly volume exceeds 50. Accounting integration is out until the finance system upgrade completes.

WHY THIS MATTERS HIGH

Ambition is not the problem, undiscussed ambition is. An unwritten exclusion is not an exclusion, it is a disagreement waiting for a deadline. Writing it down converts an argument that would have happened in month three into a decision made in week one, when it is cheap.

YOUR EXCLUSIONS Fillable in the PDF, four numbered rows
THE HONEST CHECK INFO

Section 10 asks which off-the-shelf products you looked at, why none of them fit, and what you would have to change about how you work to use one. Compared on five-year total cost of ownership rather than licence price against build cost. We ask this first in every engagement, and sometimes the answer sends the client away.

Sample page. The full document continues. 1 / 8
// GET THE FULL VERSION

Send me the worksheet

One email, with the document attached. We use a work address because these are written for businesses, and because it tells us which of our writing is worth doing more of.

  • The document arrives within a few minutes
  • No follow-up emails unless you tick the box
  • Never sold or shared for anyone else's marketing. Delivery providers are named in the privacy policy
RELATED SERVICE Custom Software and Integrations Scope, timeline and what it costs

We use your details to send this document. Follow-up emails go only to people who tick the box above, and every one has an unsubscribe link.
Ferres Systems, PO Box 338, Geelong VIC 3220. ABN 98 663 151 710.

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