Vision document
Encyclopedia
A Vision Document is a software process
document that describes the overall 'vision', or plan, for a particular piece of software. It defines the stakeholders view of the product to be developed, specified in terms of the stakeholders key needs and features. Containing an outline of the envisioned core requirements, it provides the contractual basis for the more detailed technical requirements. It is much shorter and more general than a product requirements document
or a marketing requirements document
, which outline the specific product plan and marketing plan respectively.
. It communicates the fundamental "why and what" for the project and is a gauge against which all future decisions should be validated.
Another name used for this artifact is the Product Requirement Document.
A vision document generally contains:
and is meant to be revised as the understanding of requirements, architecture, plans, and technology evolves.
The Vision serves as input to use case
modeling, and is updated and maintained as a separate artifact throughout the project. For agile projects, the Product Vision can feed into the user story
development.
Software development process
A software development process, also known as a software development life cycle , is a structure imposed on the development of a software product. Similar terms include software life cycle and software process. It is often considered a subset of systems development life cycle...
document that describes the overall 'vision', or plan, for a particular piece of software. It defines the stakeholders view of the product to be developed, specified in terms of the stakeholders key needs and features. Containing an outline of the envisioned core requirements, it provides the contractual basis for the more detailed technical requirements. It is much shorter and more general than a product requirements document
Product requirements document
A product requirements document is a document written by a company that defines a product they are making, or the requirements for one or more new features for an existing product...
or a marketing requirements document
Marketing Requirements Document
A market requirements document in project management and systems engineering, is a document that expresses the customer's wants and needs for the product or service.It is typically written as a part of product marketing or product management...
, which outline the specific product plan and marketing plan respectively.
Purpose
The Vision provides a high-level, sometimes contractual, basis for the more detailed technical requirements. It captures the "essence" of the envisaged solution in the form of high-level requirements and design constraints that give the reader an overview of the system to be developed from a behavioral requirements perspective. It provides input to the project-approval process and is, therefore, closely related to the Business caseBusiness case
A business case captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. It is often presented in a well-structured written document, but may also sometimes come in the form of a short verbal argument or presentation. The logic of the business case is that, whenever resources such as money or...
. It communicates the fundamental "why and what" for the project and is a gauge against which all future decisions should be validated.
Another name used for this artifact is the Product Requirement Document.
A vision document generally contains:
- Introduction
- Business Needs/Requirements
- Product/Solution Overview
- Major Features (Optional)
- Scope & Limitations
- Other Needs
Timing
The Vision is created early in the Inception phase. It should evolve steadily during the earlier portion of the lifecycle, with changes slowing during Construction. It evolves in conjunction with the Business caseBusiness case
A business case captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. It is often presented in a well-structured written document, but may also sometimes come in the form of a short verbal argument or presentation. The logic of the business case is that, whenever resources such as money or...
and is meant to be revised as the understanding of requirements, architecture, plans, and technology evolves.
The Vision serves as input to use case
Use case
In software engineering and systems engineering, a use case is a description of steps or actions between a user and a software system which leads the user towards something useful...
modeling, and is updated and maintained as a separate artifact throughout the project. For agile projects, the Product Vision can feed into the user story
User story
In computer programming a user story is one or more sentences in the everyday or business language of the end user that captures what the user wants to achieve. User stories are used with Agile software development methodologies for the basis of what features that can be implemented...
development.
See also
- Business caseBusiness caseA business case captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. It is often presented in a well-structured written document, but may also sometimes come in the form of a short verbal argument or presentation. The logic of the business case is that, whenever resources such as money or...
- Business PlanBusiness planA business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals....
- CaseCase-Academia and education:* Campaign for Science and Engineering , a non-profit organization which promotes science and engineering research in the UK* Case analysis, division of a problem into separate cases...
- InnovationInnovationInnovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...
- Optimism biasOptimism biasOptimism bias is the demonstrated systematic tendency for people to be overly optimistic about the outcome of planned actions. This includes over-estimating the likelihood of positive events and under-estimating the likelihood of negative events. Along with the illusion of control and illusory...
- Planning fallacyPlanning fallacyThe planning fallacy is a tendency for people and organizations to underestimate how long they will need to complete a task, even when they have experience of similar tasks over-running. The term was first proposed in a 1979 paper by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky...
- Reference class forecastingReference class forecastingReference class forecasting is the method of predicting the future, through looking at similar past situations and their outcomes.Reference class forcasting predicts the outcome of a planned action based on actual outcomes in a reference class of similar actions to that being forecast. The theories...
- Win-win
- user storyUser storyIn computer programming a user story is one or more sentences in the everyday or business language of the end user that captures what the user wants to achieve. User stories are used with Agile software development methodologies for the basis of what features that can be implemented...