How to build a perfect PRD for your mobile application?

Mobile apps have turned out to be the important aspect of most businesses. Understanding the need for mobile application development for businesses, business owners have started to rely on development companies. There are both established and grooming industries that seek the help of mobile app development companies.

While approaching the companies these industry owners fail to convey the exact expectation and the need for their business. This eventually results in delivering the wrong product. In order to avoid such circumstances, it is always good that the requirements are carried out in an effective manner which is through a document.

Providing a PRD would highly help developers to come up with the exact or at least a mere product. In case of any misassumption, the document can be used to clarify the doubts.

What is PRD?

PRD, product requirement document is an essential way to convey the business requirements to a mobile app development company. The document is also called the product specification document that outlines the complete requirement of a business and helps the development team from conceptualizing the content till the final stage of the product.

Now, let us have a detail view on processing the document.

What information do you need to prepare a PRD?

The business which is looking out for a mobile application needs to include the following in the PRD,

1. Business requirements
2. Technical requirements
3. Presumptions
4. Limitations
5. Submission

Business requirements:

The business requirement should be in a manner that it serves both the company and the user. Only when the business requirements are shared on the document the outcome of the product would be clear. The business requirements are meant to typically outline the product. Make sure to include the following in the document,

Technical requirements:

The technical requirements outline the technical needs of the product to obtain the desired functionality and features. Make sure to input the following specifications to your PRD.

  • On what platform do you wish to run the application (iOS or Android)?
  • What versions of an operating system should it support?
  • What current services, servers or databases you use?
  • Do you need maintenance? Or do you need support in future?
  • How long do you want the app to process before an overhaul?
  • Do you have developer account credentials?
  • Is there any existing provisioning profiles?
  • Do you have any other credential that is required or any that is existing?

Presumptions:

The presumption is an expectation of the product. There are assumptions about the product which are based on the knowledge, experience, and the existing information. This includes the following,

  • The assumption about the user
  • Business assumptions
  • Technical assumptions

Limitations:

The limitation can be determined as the days that the team has to work for. Likewise, it includes scope as well as the budget. They may also include risk maintenance, resources, and quality requirements.

Submission:

On the submission of your PRD to the app development company make sure that your document includes all the technical assets and information of the app which is required for the app store submission. Declaring all these requirements in advance would make the submission process an instant one.

This may vary based on the app stores that you submit. Depending on the requirements we have phrased a few important assets and information to include for App store and Google play store.

Common assets:

  • Icons of recommended sizes (iOS: @1x @2x @3x images | Android: mdpi, hdpi, xhdpi, xxhdpi)
  • Splash screens of approved sizes (iOS: @1x @2x @3x images | Android: mdpi, hdpi, xhdpi, xxhdpi)
  • Screenshots incorrect sizes, in required languages
  • Description for the app in required languages
  • Search terms in required languages
  • List of supported devices and OS versions

Apple app store:

  • iTunes account access
  • Company/Entity Name
  • App Store app listing name
  • Keywords
  • Bundle ID / SKU
  • Demo account for reviewers
  • Description
  • Support URL
  • Marketing URL
  • Privacy policy
  • App category
  • Copyright information
  • Contact information
  • App icon (1024×1024)
  • App Store distribution provision profile
  • App Store distribution code signing identity
  • Screenshots (correct sizes based on devices)

Google play store:

  • Google Play Developer access
  • Store listing name
  • Paid/free
  • Short description
  • Full description
  • App icon (512×512)
  • Feature Graphic (1024×500)
  • App type
  • App category
  • Content Rating
  • Contact Email
  • Privacy Policy
  • Screenshots (accurate sizes based on devices)

The above-mentioned are the requirements for submission of the app on stores. You should also consider the following things while phrasing your product requirement documents.

The requirements document should be high-level. As the product is likely to change and evolve as a new information.
Do not indulge too many details and make sure that your product requirement document is flexible.

At the same time, do not be less. This might make your document under-specified. Always try to run the document with your developer team to make sure that nothing is overlooked.

Never fail to develop a document without inputs. Your team holds years of experience and insight and you definitely need to take advantage of it.

The biggest reason behind mobile app requirements document is to provide a foundation for a successful outcome. Sketching out your business and the requirements, constraints, and submissions will help your team get your project a flight. There are chances that your development team could come up with queries in spite of a well-framed PRDs. At such circumstance, it is good that you answer them or you can even add the answers to the document but make sure that doesn’t lead to miscommunication.

Wrap up:

Furnishing a perfect PRD depends on how good you follow the above-mentioned steps. These steps are just an ideology that we have come up with to help our customers or clients. Getting them well-framed is based on how you understand your business requirements.

As stated you could be more clear in delivering a perfect PRD or you might even fail. In order to avoid shortcoming, it is required to run through the document with your development team before you get them submitted.