Create specifications
🟩 Workshop 9: Automatic functional specifications
This text provides background information. What types of text are there?
You can't do without a requirements specification
The requirements specification fulfills several essential tasks:
- Detailed requirements: The requirements specification precisely describes all the requirements that the product or system to be developed must fulfill - including functional aspects, performance characteristics, design specifications and many other details.
- Means of communication: It ensures that all stakeholders - including customers, developers and project managers - have a uniform basis of information.
- Contractual basis: The requirements specification serves as a binding basis for the contract between the client and service provider. The services described therein are defined clearly and in detail.
- Quality control and acceptance: By comparing the actual implementation with the agreed requirements, it is possible to objectively check whether the project has been successfully completed.
In short, the requirements specification is an indispensable document - it supports the definition, planning, implementation and control of a project.
The problem: Creating a requirements specification is time-consuming
The service provider can only make a reliable estimate of the actual cost of a project once the requirements specification has been finalized. Only this document provides the necessary level of detail to make well-founded statements about the scope, time required and costs. In an ideal world, the client would therefore initially only commission the creation of the specifications - and actively participate in the clarification of open questions. On this basis, the service provider could then submit a reliable offer and a realistic schedule.The problem: In practice, many clients expect a reasonably reliable offer much earlier. Often, this is actually the prerequisite for entering into more in-depth discussions with the provider about the project.
This means a considerable risk for the service provider: they have to calculate into the blue - in the hope that their estimates are realistic despite incomplete information and that the planned buffers are sufficient. If the effort is underestimated, the customer bears the additional costs - in the worst case at a loss.
Leadtime addresses precisely this problem:
- It speeds up and simplifies the recording of requirements using dynamic questionnaires in project components. 👉 More on this here.
- The creation of the requirements specification becomes much more efficient: With the help of ready-made texts and a systematic list of questions, a requirements specification can be created directly after the customer meeting.
- The resulting specifications transparently show where there is still a need for clarification of the requirements.
- Thanks to AI integration, requirements that have been recorded once are used multiple times - first for the requirements specification for coordination with the customer and then as the basis for specific tasks that the team can implement.
Create functional specifications
Leadtime can be used to automatically generate functional specifications from a saved project version. The entire content is generated from the project components, form responses and stored text modules - structured and formatted in a Word document that can be used immediately.
Prerequisites
Before a specification sheet can be created, a project version should be saved. This contains
- the complete project tree with all epics and work packages,
- all answers to project-related questions,
- any images or files that are to be included in the specifications as attachments.
Step-by-step instructions
- Navigate to the "Documents" tab within the project.
- Click on "Create Document".
- Under Project version, select the version on which the functional specification is to be based.
- Set the document type to specification.
- Set the status e.g. to Waiting for approval or Final.
- Enter a title, e.g. Specification NextGen Architects Setup.
- Optional: Add a description.
- Activate the following options:
- Include table of contents: Creates a clickable table of contents when the document is opened.
- Include title page: Adds an automatically generated title page with client information, logo and project data.
- Click on "Save & Download" to generate the Word document.
Important when opening
When opening the Word file, a security prompt appears:
"This document contains fields that may reference other files. Would you like to update the fields in this document?"
Please answer this question with "Yes" - this will ensure that the table of contents is created correctly.
Result
The specification is a well-structured Word document that follows the project tree in Leadtime exactly. It contains
- a clearly numbered structure according to epics, work packages and questions,
- all customer responses clearly laid out in table form,
- stored images and files automatically attached,
- an optionally designed title page.
Individualization
Under Administration → Workspace settings → Documents, you can customize the layout of the specification sheet to match your own corporate identity:
- Upload an individual logo,
- Specification of a font (default is "Inter"),
- Upload a title page background,
- selecting a desired numbering format for headings.
With just a few clicks, a professional specification is created that precisely documents all the project information collected - ideal for coordination, implementation and later reference.