Outsourcing Requirements Document
This is a practical guide to building a requirements document for an outsourcing project — the documented needs the solution must meet, adapted to the realities of outsourcing a function to an external provider.
What a Requirements Document is
A requirements document is the documented needs the solution must meet. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Requirements Document. On an outsourcing project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for an Outsourcing project
Outsourcing projects live or die on outsourcing a function to an external provider. A well-built requirements document gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how outsourcing projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- Business requirements
- Functional requirements
- Non-functional requirements
- Acceptance criteria
- Traceability
Outsourcing-specific considerations
Tailor the requirements document to the risks that most often derail outsourcing projects:
- Knowledge transfer
- Service-level definition
- People impact
Example
On a real outsourcing project, the requirements document would be shaped by outsourcing a function to an external provider. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — knowledge transfer, service-level definition, people impact — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.