BUSINESS SOFTWARE PROJECT BRIEF
Horizon Dynamics | Version 1.0 | 27 September 2026
Companion guide: https://www.horizon-dynamics.tech/blog/prepare-custom-software-project

Use this template in your own workspace. Replace prompts with your answers;
write "unknown" where investigation is needed. A short partial brief is useful.

PROJECT / OWNER / DATE
Project or working name:
Business owner and role:
Technical contact (if known):
Date and version:
Decision this brief should support:

1. BUSINESS OUTCOME
What should people be able to do better?
What happens today, and what makes that difficult?
How will you judge improvement? State a baseline only if you have measured it.
Who uses the result and who approves scope?

2. ONE WORKFLOW, INCLUDING AN EXCEPTION
Trigger:
People or roles involved:
Steps from start to completion:
Systems and documents touched by each step:
What indicates that the work is complete?
Exception: missing data, changed order, declined approval or unavailable system:
Who resolves the exception and where can they see it?

EXAMPLE
A sales coordinator accepts an order in a CRM. Operations checks availability
in an ERP. If only part of the order is available, a named approver chooses
whether to split or delay it; the customer receives the agreed outcome.
Acceptance scenario: a partial order stays traceable to its original reference,
with an owner and visible status in both systems. A repeated sync must not
create another order.

YOUR WORKFLOW:

3. EXISTING SYSTEMS
Repeat for each important system:
- Name and purpose:
- Keep, extend, replace or undecided:
- Business owner / technical owner:
- Known interfaces, export formats and test environment:
- Access still needed (describe access; do not include credentials):
- Constraints: provider limits, contract dates, server or data location:

4. DATA, MIGRATION AND SYNCHRONISATION
Records and history required:
System that owns each shared record or field:
One-time migration needed:
Changes that must continue syncing, direction and expected freshness:
Known duplicates, missing identifiers or data quality issues:
Non-confidential examples available:

5. REPORTS AND ACCESS
Decisions the reports support:
Users, operating units and access restrictions:
Important definitions, cutoffs and refresh needs:
Which existing reports should remain?

6. FIRST RELEASE
Required workflow(s):
Items that can follow later:
Items explicitly outside this release:
Acceptance scenarios, including exceptions:
Dependencies and people needed for review:
Who can approve a scope change?

7. COMMERCIAL AND OPERATING CONTEXT
Available budget or range (unknown is acceptable):
Timing constraint and the reason behind it:
Delivery model preference, if any: hourly team / scoped fixed-price module:
Hosting, support and operating hours to discuss:
Repository, documentation and handover expectations:

8. UNKNOWNS AND NEXT DECISION
Question | Person who can answer | Evidence needed | Next step
1.
2.
3.

BEFORE SHARING
[ ] Remove passwords, access tokens and unnecessary personal information.
[ ] Label examples and assumptions.
[ ] Identify the person who can discuss the first workflow.
[ ] Share a summary first; agree a channel before exchanging confidential files.

Discuss the brief: https://www.horizon-dynamics.tech/contact?source=brief-template
You may adapt this template for your own project planning.