Requirements Author

Requirements Author Skill

Overview

This skill defines how to produce and evolve requirements documents across the project lifecycle for two document types: the Business Requirements Document (BRD) and the Product Requirements Document (PRD). Shared requirements-engineering knowledge lives in references/_shared/, while BRD-specific and PRD-specific knowledge live in references/brd/ and references/prd/ so each consuming agent loads only what its document needs.

The canonical BRD template is [brd-full.md](templates/brd/brd-full.md) with its [brd-frontmatter-overlay.md](templates/brd/brd-frontmatter-overlay.md), and the canonical PRD template is [prd-full.md](templates/prd/prd-full.md). The BRD Builder dispatches into the BRD phase anchors (#discover, #define, #govern); the PRD Builder dispatches into the PRD phase anchors (#prd-assess through #prd-finalize).

Use this skill with the references for the active document scope:

Shared (references/_shared/):

• [Requirements Definition](references/_shared/requirements-definition.md)
• [Traceability Naming](references/_shared/traceability-naming.md)
• [Traceability Matrix](references/_shared/traceability-matrix.md)

BRD scope (references/brd/):

• [BRD-to-PRD Handoff](references/brd/brd-to-prd-handoff-v1.md)
• [BRD Quality Formats](references/brd/brd-quality-formats.md)

PRD scope (references/prd/):

• [Product Discovery](references/prd/product-discovery.md)
• [EARS Acceptance](references/prd/ears-acceptance.md)
• [PRD Quality Formats](references/prd/prd-quality-formats.md)

BRD Lifecycle

| Phase | Primary objective | Entry condition | Exit condition | |----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------| | Discover | Establish business context, stakeholder scope, and problem framing | Request or initiative is in intake | Discover hard gate passes and artifacts are complete | | Define | Produce complete, testable, and traceable requirements content | Discover artifacts are approved for elaboration | Define hard gate passes with quality evidence | | Govern | Finalize, approve, and supersede BRD versions under lineage controls | Define package is approved for governance review | Govern hard gate passes and publication artifacts are recorded |

Discover {#discover}

Activities

• Capture business context, drivers, imposed constraints, and expected outcomes.
• Identify stakeholders, decision owners, and review participants.
• Define scope boundaries, assumptions, and dependency surfaces.
• Draft initial requirement candidates and map early traceability placeholders.

Hard exit gate

Discover exits only when:

• Scope is bounded and stakeholder ownership is explicit.
• Core assumptions and constraints are documented and reviewable.
• Seed artifacts needed for Define are present and internally consistent.

Output artifacts

• Discover summary and scope statement.
• Stakeholder inventory with role and ownership mapping.
• Initial assumption and constraint register.
• Seed requirement and traceability scaffold for Define.

Define {#define}

Activities

• Author full BRD content using [brd-full.md](templates/brd/brd-full.md) and the canonical naming rules.
• Refine business goals and requirement sets with clear acceptance intent.
• Build and verify author-maintained traceability links across FR, AC, BG, and BR records.
• Perform quality assessment using the BRD quality reporting contract.

Hard exit gate

Define exits only when:

• Requirement content is complete, unambiguous, and testable.
• Traceability links satisfy the active ID schema and naming policy.
• FR-to-AC coverage meets the active fr_to_ac_coverage_threshold_pct or has a recorded blocker.
• Quality findings are generated and reviewed against the defined rubric.

Output artifacts

• Full BRD draft package with structured sections.
• Author-maintained traceability matrix aligned to naming and ID conventions.
• BRD quality findings and consolidated quality report payloads.
• Define gate decision record with reviewer notes.

Govern {#govern}

Activities

• Prepare final BRD for approval with version metadata and lineage fields.
• Bump approved BRDs from draft 0.x.y versions to 1.0.0 or higher.
• Resolve or disposition remaining quality findings.
• Publish approved BRD outputs and downstream handoff payloads.
• Maintain supersession chain when issuing replacement BRD versions.

Govern handoff production

Before emitting BRD_TO_PRD_HANDOFF_V1, the BRD Builder applies the coverage and waiver validation rules in [BRD-to-PRD Handoff](references/brd/brd-to-prd-handoff-v1.md), including zero-FR coverage handling. It records the following values from the signed-off BRD and final quality review:

• A lowercase SHA-256 hash of the exact BRD artifact bytes at signoff.
• Counts for FR, NFR, BR, CON, AC, and BG identifiers using [id-schema.md](references/_shared/id-schema.md).
• FR-to-AC and FR-to-BG coverage metrics from the author-maintained traceability matrix.
• The final BRD_QUALITY_REPORT_V1 reference, overall status, and Govern decision.
• Signoff approvers, roles, decisions, approval timestamps, comments, and active waivers.
• Waiver records for any accepted FR-to-AC threshold gap or FR-to-BG target gap.

Hard exit gate

Govern exits only when:

• Approval status and required reviewers are recorded.
• Version and lineage metadata are valid and complete.
• The final quality report authorizes Govern exit.
• Handoff artifacts are published for downstream consumers.

Output artifacts

• Approved BRD release artifact.
• BRD-to-PRD handoff payload.
• Governance decision log with approval evidence.
• Supersession linkage record for replaced BRD versions.

Status taxonomy

Use the following status values for BRD lifecycle tracking:

• draft: Actively authored or revised.
• in-review: Under formal review and gate validation.
• approved: Accepted for governed use.
• superseded: Replaced by a newer approved BRD.

Quality rubric pointer

Apply the BRD quality rubric and payload contracts from [BRD Quality Formats](references/brd/brd-quality-formats.md) together with guidance in [Requirements Definition](references/_shared/requirements-definition.md). Treat rubric results as gate evidence for Define and Govern decisions. The BRD Quality Reviewer emits both standard findings and the consolidated quality report.

Supersession lineage rules

• A BRD can supersede one or more earlier BRDs when scope is merged.
• A BRD can be superseded by only one approved successor version.
• Every supersession event records supersedes and superseded_by links.
• Supersession preserves historical artifacts for auditability.

PRD Lifecycle

The PRD Builder agent runs a seven-phase lifecycle. Each phase has its own section anchor below so the agent loads only the guidance for the active phase.

| Phase | Section anchor | Primary objective | |-----------|------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------| | Assess | #prd-assess | Determine whether enough context exists to create PRD files. | | Discover | #prd-discover | Establish the PRD title, scope, and product goals. | | Create | #prd-create | Generate the PRD file and state file once context is clear. | | Build | #prd-build | Gather detailed requirements iteratively. | | Integrate | #prd-integrate | Incorporate references, documents, and external materials. | | Validate | #prd-validate | Ensure completeness and quality before approval. | | Finalize | #prd-finalize | Deliver the complete, actionable PRD. |

PRD Assess {#prd-assess}

Activities

• Determine whether enough product context exists to create PRD artifacts.
• Identify the initiative, problem statement, and primary target users.
• Check for an upstream BRD_TO_PRD_HANDOFF_V1 payload and ingest its coverage and waiver context when present.
• Decide whether to gather more context or proceed to file creation.

Hard exit gate

Assess exits only when:

• A meaningful kebab-case PRD name can be derived.
• Problem framing and primary users are identified.
• Any available BRD handoff payload has been validated and its coverage metrics recorded.

Output artifacts

• Assess summary noting context sufficiency.
• Derived working title for the PRD.
• Ingested handoff context when a BRD handoff payload exists.

PRD Discover {#prd-discover}

Activities

• Ask focused questions to establish the PRD title, scope, and product goals.
• Explore the problem space using [Product Discovery](references/prd/product-discovery.md) and [MVP Framing](references/prd/mvp-framing.md).
• Capture target users, candidate success metrics, and explicit non-goals using [Metrics Frameworks](references/prd/metrics-frameworks.md).

Hard exit gate

Discover exits only when:

• Title and scope are explicit.
• Primary users and candidate success metrics are named.
• In-scope and out-of-scope boundaries are recorded.

Output artifacts

• Discovery summary.
• Scope and non-goals statement.
• Candidate success metrics.

PRD Create {#prd-create}

Activities

• Generate the PRD file from [prd-full.md](templates/prd/prd-full.md) and create the session state file once title and context are clear.
• Populate the skeleton with the established scope, users, and goals.
• Seed the iterative requirement and metric structure for Build.

Hard exit gate

Create exits only when:

• The PRD file and state file exist.
• The skeleton matches the canonical PRD structure.
• Initial scope and goals are seeded.

Output artifacts

• PRD draft skeleton.
• PRD session state file.
• Seeded scope and goals sections.

PRD Build {#prd-build}

Activities

• Gather detailed functional and non-functional requirements iteratively.
• Author acceptance criteria using [EARS Acceptance](references/prd/ears-acceptance.md) and the [Connextra Template](references/prd/connextra-template.md).
• Classify non-functional requirements with the [NIST 800-160 NFR taxonomy](references/prd/nist-800-160-nfr.md) and check stories against [INVEST](references/prd/invest.md).
• Maintain author traceability across requirements, goals, and metrics using [Traceability Naming](references/shared/traceability-naming.md), [Traceability Matrix](references/shared/traceability-matrix.md), and [id-schema.md](references/_shared/id-schema.md).

Hard exit gate

Build exits only when:

• Requirements are complete, testable, and traceable.
• Acceptance criteria follow EARS or Given-When-Then form.
• Non-functional requirements are categorized.
• Coverage meets the active thresholds or records a blocker.

Output artifacts

• Full PRD requirement set.
• Author-maintained traceability matrix.
• Acceptance criteria and NFR classifications.

PRD Integrate {#prd-integrate}

Activities

• Incorporate user-provided references, documents, and external materials.
• Reconcile incoming content with existing requirements and resolve conflicts.
• Link supporting evidence to requirements and metrics.

Hard exit gate

Integrate exits only when:

• Provided references are incorporated or explicitly deferred.
• Conflicts between sources are resolved.
• Supporting evidence is linked.

Output artifacts

• Updated PRD sections with integrated references.
• Reference and evidence linkage record.

PRD Validate {#prd-validate}

Activities

• Assess completeness and quality before approval.
• Run the PRD Quality Reviewer to emit PRD_STANDARD_FINDINGS_V1 and PRD_QUALITY_REPORT_V1 per [PRD Quality Formats](references/prd/prd-quality-formats.md).
• Review findings against the rubric and resolve or disposition gaps.

Hard exit gate

Validate exits only when:

• Quality findings and the consolidated report are generated.
• The report authorizes Validate exit via gate_decisions.validate_exit.
• Coverage and quality thresholds are met or waived.

Output artifacts

• PRD quality findings and report payloads.
• Validate gate decision record.

PRD Finalize {#prd-finalize}

Activities

• Deliver the complete, actionable PRD.
• Resolve remaining findings and record version and approval metadata.
• Run a Finalize drift check and publish downstream artifacts.

Hard exit gate

Finalize exits only when:

• Approval status and required reviewers are recorded.
• The final quality report authorizes Finalize exit via gate_decisions.finalize_exit.
• No unresolved blocking findings remain.

Output artifacts

• Approved PRD release artifact.
• Finalize decision log with approval evidence.

References

The skill bundles reference documents under references/, organized into three scopes: shared requirements-engineering knowledge in references/_shared/, BRD-specific knowledge in references/brd/, and PRD-specific knowledge in references/prd/. Load a reference body only when its phase activity requires it; each body links to its own sub-references (standards pointers, scoring sheets, and worked examples).

Shared references (references/_shared/)

• [requirements-definition.md](references/_shared/requirements-definition.md) - Requirement categories, canonical statement form, acceptance-criteria formats, and quality dimensions.
• [stakeholder-analysis.md](references/_shared/stakeholder-analysis.md) - Mendelow Power/Interest grid and RACI accountability variants.
• [process-modeling.md](references/_shared/process-modeling.md) - Optional process, decision, and structural diagram guidance.
• [prioritization-schemes.md](references/_shared/prioritization-schemes.md) - Required MoSCoW prioritization scheme.
• [traceability-naming.md](references/_shared/traceability-naming.md) - Requirement, goal, and decision identifier routing plus traceability conventions.
• [id-schema.md](references/_shared/id-schema.md) - Canonical prefix, digit, and adjacent identifier rules.
• [traceability-matrix.md](references/_shared/traceability-matrix.md) - Author-maintained FR-to-AC, FR-to-BG, and BR-to-FR matrix views.
• [design-decisions.md](references/_shared/design-decisions.md) - Registry for DD-### design decision codes.
• [quality-rubric.md](references/_shared/quality-rubric.md) - Operational status taxonomy (RISK / CAUTION / COVERED / NOT_APPLICABLE) and the gate decision rule.
• [standards-excerpts.md](references/_shared/standards-excerpts.md) - Cite-only registry of third-party standards (ISO, IIBA, PMI, ISTQB) referenced by name.

BRD references (references/brd/)

• [brd-quality-formats.md](references/brd/brd-quality-formats.md) - Producer and consumer map for the BRD data contracts.
• [requirements-quality-rubric.md](references/brd/requirements-quality-rubric.md) - Combined per-requirement, per-NFR-category, and per-business-goal scoring sheets.
• [handoff-payload-schema.md](references/brd/handoff-payload-schema.md) - BRD-author view of the BRD-to-PRD handoff payload.

PRD references (references/prd/)

• [product-discovery.md](references/prd/product-discovery.md) - Problem-space exploration and discovery questioning for PRD scope.
• [mvp-framing.md](references/prd/mvp-framing.md) - MVP framing and scope-boundary guidance.
• [metrics-frameworks.md](references/prd/metrics-frameworks.md) - JTBD, HEART, and AARRR success-metric frameworks.
• [ears-acceptance.md](references/prd/ears-acceptance.md) - EARS acceptance-criteria patterns for PRD requirements.
• [nist-800-160-nfr.md](references/prd/nist-800-160-nfr.md) - NIST 800-160 non-funct

…

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: microsoft
• Source: microsoft/hve-core
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.