What Should a Technical Project Specification Contain? 4 Practical Ways to Prepare One

How did we choose the best way to prepare a technical project specification?

We judged the best way of preparing a technical specification by whether it genuinely reduces the risk of misunderstanding, sharpens the estimate and simplifies acceptance of the finished work. What decided it was not the formality of the document or its page count, but how usable it is when deciding, building and handing over the project.

We worked mainly with 5 criteria when assessing them:

1. Clarity of scope – whether the document clearly separates what is part of the project and what stays outside it.
2. Transfer into delivery – whether a designer, an analyst and a developer can genuinely work from it.
3. Readiness for change – whether it covers priorities, approvals and the procedure for additional work.
4. Measurable acceptance – whether it is clear when the work counts as delivered.
5. Proportionality to the project – whether the form of the brief matches the size of the project and is neither needlessly detailed nor riskily brief.

We also separated 3 areas that often blur together in search results: general project questions, formal grant or public-procurement forms, and the practical specification of a digital product. For companies dealing with software, a CRM, a website or automation, the key is knowing which form of brief fits their situation and which parts must not be missing from it.

Why is a specification prepared with a development partner choice no. 1 for most companies?

For a CRM, a web application, an e-shop, a mobile app or an AI automation, the safest option tends to be a technical specification prepared together with the partner who will both design and build the solution. The business goal is then translated into features, roles, integrations, acceptance criteria and technical constraints without critical gaps.

This is choice no. 1because it limits the most expensive kind of mistake: the document exists, but it is too general for estimating, prioritising and building. In practice a formulation such as “we want a CRM for managing customers” is not enough. A good document has to describe how the system will work within specific processes.

In this form a technical specification should contain at least these 12 points:

1. The goal of the project and the problem it solves
   Not merely “digitalising the company”, but for example shortening lead processing time, reducing manual retyping of data or speeding up order approvals.

2. Users and roles
   Who will use the system: a salesperson, a manager, an administrator, a client, a partner, the warehouse, marketing. Each role needs different permissions.

3. Project scope and the boundaries of the solution
   What belongs in the first version and what does not. A missing “out of scope” list is a frequent source of conflict.

4. Functional requirements
   Specific screens, modules, forms, states, notifications, reports, exports, filters, workflows, approvals and automatic actions.

5. Use cases or usage scenarios
   For example: a lead arrives from a form, is assigned to a salesperson, a task is created, an e-mail is sent, and after 3 days a follow-up is prompted.

6. Non-functional requirements
   Performance, security, availability, logging, backups, GDPR, mobile responsiveness, supported devices and browsers.

7. Data and integrations
   Where the data comes from, where it is stored and what the solution connects to: ERP, invoicing, stock, e-mailing, a payment gateway, analytics, third-party APIs.

8. UI, UX and source material
   Wireframes, the design system, the brand manual, existing templates, mandatory interface elements and content material.

9. The client's contribution
   Who supplies the copy, the access credentials, the licences, the test data, the internal processes and the approvals, and who will be the contact person.

10. Schedule and milestones
    Analysis, design, development, testing, feedback, deployment, training, support. Not only a final deadline.

11. Acceptance criteria
    How it will be verified that the solution is finished. For example which scenarios have to pass, which integrations have to work and which outputs are being handed over.

12. Change control and priorities
    Who may change the brief, how new requests are approved and what takes priority if scope collides with the deadline or the budget.

With custom software development and with a custom CRM alike, this approach generally works best in our experience, because it joins the business view to the architecture and the delivery. The result is not a document that exists only on paper, but a brief you can sensibly price, design and hand over a working system against.

When is an internal template with a checklist a sensible choice no. 2?

An internal template with a checklist is suitable when the project is small, the goal is clear and the risk of complicated integrations is low. It works best for simpler websites, landing pages or smaller changes to an existing solution, where a separate analytical phase with dozens of decisions is not needed.

Choice no. 2 makes sense especially if the company already knows the answers to the basic questions: why the project exists, who it is for, what it has to deliver, by when you need it and how you will judge success. For this kind of project a brief but precise specification with these blocks is usually enough:

• the goal of the page or the change,
• the target group,
• the content structure and the number of subpages,
• the required forms and CTA elements,
• visual material and references,
• technical constraints,
• basic SEO and analytics requirements,
• the deadline, approvals and the people responsible.

This form saves time, but it has clear limits. It fails on projects where permissions, workflows, data models, automations or several stakeholders have to be handled. If questions such as “how will the states work”, “what happens after approval” or “where will the data be pulled from” come up at the very start, a simple template is no longer enough.

For smaller briefs such as building a website, however, a checklist is often entirely sufficient, provided it is specific and does not stop at general phrasing.

Why is a stakeholder workshop choice no. 3 for more complex processes?

A stakeholder workshop is the right choice when the project belongs to neither one person nor one department. If sales, service, marketing, finance or management all meet in the solution, the technical specification should emerge from mapping the processes together — otherwise the contradictions only show up during development, when they are already expensive.

Choice no. 3 is strongest for CRMs, internal portals, client areas and automations. Instead of each department sending its own separate list of requirements, a workshop produces a single brief grounded in reality. It typically works through:

• the current “as-is” process,
• the future “to-be” process,
• responsibilities and approval steps,
• the pain points and manual steps that need removing,
• the list of systems and integrations,
• priorities by business impact,
• risks, dependencies and open decisions.

The advantage is that the technical specification does not then arise as an isolated document written by one person, but as an agreement between users, management and the supplier. On projects where the software should adapt to real processes rather than the other way round, that matters.

For AI solutions for companies and for more complex custom CRM processes this is often the decisive phase. It is here that it becomes clear which tasks should be automated, which data is the source of truth and where human approval has to remain.

When do you need a formal specification with milestones, risks and work packages as choice no. 4?

You need a formal technical specification with milestones, deliverables, risks and work packages when the project enters public procurement, a grant scheme or a larger internal governance process. A description of features alone is not enough. The document has to be auditable, comparable and tied to capacity, schedule and responsibilities.

Choice no. 4 is the most demanding to prepare, but on larger projects it is often unavoidable. Compared with an ordinary brief it adds these layers in particular:

• dividing the project into work packages,
• precise milestones and deliverables,
• the link between activities, deadlines and budget,
• partner roles and staffing capacity,
• a risk analysis and mitigations,
• qualitative and quantitative success criteria,
• a plan for implementation, coordination and reporting.

Slovakia's official forms for digital projects go in this direction too. The model project description from VAIA works with work packages, milestones, deliverables, staffing capacity, risks, a schedule and eligible costs for the individual parts of the solution.

For an ordinary company application this form would often be needlessly cumbersome. If you do need internal approval, several partners, control over spending and precise traceability of decisions, however, it is exactly this level of detail that saves you trouble later.

How do the approaches to a technical specification compare on scope, precision and the risk of change?

The difference between a good and a weak technical specification is not the number of pages, but how well it matches the complexity of the project. The comparison below shows when brevity is enough and when you need deeper analysis, workshops or a formal project structure.

Choice	Precision of the brief	Speed of preparation	Best for	Risk of change during development	What must not be missing
#1 A brief with a development partner	high	medium	CRMs, apps, web applications, e-shops, automations	low to medium	scope, roles, features, integrations, acceptance
#2 An internal template with a checklist	medium	high	smaller websites, landing pages, simple changes	medium	goal, content, structure, forms, deadline, approvals
#3 A stakeholder workshop	very high	medium to lower	process projects spanning several departments	low	processes, priorities, roles, dependencies, decisions
#4 A formal brief with packages and milestones	very high	lower	grants, tenders, larger enterprise projects	low with good preparation	milestones, deliverables, risks, capacity, reporting

If your goal is to launch a simple project quickly, you do not have to choose the heaviest form. But if this is a system meant to replace manual processes or connect several tools, too brief a specification will sooner or later show up as risk. The best document keeps scope and the risk of change under control.

How do you choose the right type of technical specification for your project?

You choose the right type of technical specification by 2 factors: how many decisions are still unmade, and how many systems or people the project will touch. The more roles, integrations, approvals and dependencies a project contains, the less a simple brief suffices and the more you need analysis, a workshop or a more formal document.

Use this quick shortcut:

1. If you are building a smaller company website or a landing page
   Choose the internal template with a checklist. You need the goal, the structure, the content, the forms, the design material and the deadline.

2. If you are dealing with a CRM, an internal system or a client area
   Choose a brief prepared with a development partner. Roles, workflows, reports, notifications, imports and integrations are what matter.

3. If you are preparing a mobile application
   You need a more detailed brief from the outset: platforms, sign-in, push notifications, offline mode, analytics, publishing and supported devices. With mobile application development these are exactly the points that are most often underestimated.

4. If you want an AI automation or to connect several tools
   Include the data sources, decision rules, exceptions, human approvals, logging and the limits of the automation. A sentence saying “AI will do it for us” is not enough.

5. If this is a larger project with several departments or partners
   Run a workshop and prepare a more formal brief with milestones, risks and ownership of decisions.

If you are unsure, a short discovery phaseis a useful intermediate step. It lets you verify the goal, scope, roles, integrations and acceptance before development itself begins. To find out what level of detail your project needs, start with a no-obligation consultation about your brief with the BeCode team.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a technical specification and a project brief?

A brief is a concise business document explaining the goal, the context and the expectations. A technical specification goes 1 level deeper: it sets out the features, roles, integrations, constraints, acceptance criteria and the way the work will be delivered. A brief says why the project exists. A technical specification defines what is to be built and how it will be handed over.

Does a technical specification have to include a budget?

A technical specification does not have to contain a final fixed price, but it should state at least the budget constraints, the priorities and the phasing logic. Without those it is hard to decide what belongs in the first version and what can wait. If the budget is missing entirely, the risk of a mismatch between expectations and the proposed solution grows.

Is a technical specification needed even for a small website?

Yes — a technical specification is useful even for a small website, it just does not have to be extensive. For a simple project a concise checklist covering the goal, the structure, the content, the forms, the design material and the deadline is often enough. What decides it is not the page count, but removing ambiguity at approval and handover.

Who should approve the technical specification before development starts?

The technical specification should be approved by someone with business accountability for the outcome, and at the same time by a representative of the delivery side who confirms it is technically feasible. On larger projects it pays to involve key users too. If the process owner and the supplier do not both approve the document, the risk of late changes rises considerably.