Creative Briefs & Software Development
Creative Briefs are usually associated with the Marketing Industry where it is a document used to describe the creative deliverables like images, web design, etc.
It is the first document prepared either by the customer or in close collaboration with the customer which states the purpose of the project undertaken. It also helps in establishing a common understanding of the background and goal amongst various teams members across the project lifecycle.
Software Development teams usually lack a standard document which acts as a creative brief for every team member. A lot of times, this result in team members not really knowing the real purpose of building software. Everyone gets so busy writing and shipping code.
Here, I make a strong case to have such a document at the start of every software development project and ensure that every new member who gets onboarded to the project reads and understands it well.
So, what should be the key components of a creative brief for a software development project?
- Background m(Why)— what is the background of the project? Why is it being done? Motivation. Are we trying to address a challenge or create new experiences?
- Target audience & personas — How this project will impact them.
- Key insight — The research is done and insights from the study which led to the need for this project.
- Objectives — what is to be accomplished? How will this be measured and success understood? A brief of deliverables.
What should be avoided adding to the creative brief? Anything which has the potential of changing during the course of the project lifetime. This makes creative brief a pretty static document and helps in avoiding people reading older versions and also maintenance efforts.
- Timeline
- Budgets
- Team Size
- Project Plan
- Proposed Technology
- Solution architecture design
- Non-Functional Requirements
