Phase 2: Planning & Requirements

Phase 2: Planning & Requirements

Modernization Overlay: Apply the 2026 Modernization Addendum controls (AI assist + RTG linkage) before phase exit.

Purpose

Define what will be built in detail, including functional requirements, technical specifications, timeline, budget, and risk management.

Duration

2-3 weeks

Key Activities

2.1 Market Requirements Document (MRD)

• Lead: PM + Business Analyst

• File: [ProjectCode]-010-MRD-[ProductName]-v1.0.docx

• Location: Confluence > Project Setup > Requirements

• AI Assist: Ingest transcript/call notes/brief to draft first-pass MRD and unresolved-question list

MRD Contents:

1. Executive Summary

• Business opportunity & market context

• Expected revenue/impact

1. Market Analysis

• Target market size (TAM/SAM/SOM)

• Market trends & growth

• Competitive landscape (3-5 key competitors)

• Customer segments (personas)

1. Customer Needs & Pain Points

• Problem statement

• Jobs to be done (for each persona)

• Current solutions & gaps

4. Product Vision & Positioning

• Vision statement (aspirational future state)

• Positioning statement (how we differentiate)

• Key benefits to customer

5. Success Metrics & KPIs

• Launch goals

• Year 1 targets

• Example metrics:

• Revenue: INR 1.5Cr ARR (or equivalent regional target)

• Adoption: 10,000 registered users

• Retention: 70% monthly active users

• NPS: >40

6. Go-to-Market Strategy

• Target customer segments (priority order)

• Pricing model

• Launch strategy (phased, beta, etc.)

• Marketing plan overview

7. Assumptions & Risks

• Key assumptions

• Market risks & mitigation

2.2 Product Requirements Document (PRD)

• Lead: PM

• File: [ProjectCode]-011-PRD-[ProductName]-v1.0.docx

• Location: Confluence > Requirements > PRD

• AI Assist: Draft PRD/user stories using transcript + brief inputs, then PM validates before approval

PRD Contents:

1. Product Overview

• Product name & code

• Product vision

• Target users

• Key stakeholders

• Scope (what's in/out)

2. Goals & Objectives

• Strategic goals (align with MRD)

• Product goals (launch features by date X)

• User adoption targets

1. User Stories & Requirements Format: As a [user role], I want [feature], so that [benefit]

Example: Story ID: PAYAPP-US-001 Title: User Login with Email As a user, I want to log in with my email and password, so that I can securely access my account.

Acceptance Criteria:

• User can enter email and password

• System validates credentials against database

• Valid login redirects to dashboard

• Invalid login shows error message

• Failed login after 5 attempts locks account for 15 min

Priority: P0 (Critical) Story Points: 5 Epic: User Authentication

Acceptance Tests:

• TC-001: Valid credentials → dashboard access - TC-002: Invalid password → error message - TC-003: Locked account → display lockout message

1. Feature List (Prioritized by Epic)

EPIC: User Authentication

• Login/signup (P0, 5 pts)

• Password reset (P0, 3 pts)

• 2FA setup (P1, 8 pts)

EPIC: Payment Processing

• Add payment method (P0, 5 pts)

• Process payment (P0, 8 pts)

• Payment history (P1, 5 pts)

1. Non-Functional Requirements Performance:

• Login should complete in <2 seconds

• Payment processing in <5 seconds

• Page load time <3 seconds

Security:

• All data encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+)

• Passwords hashed with bcrypt

• PCI DSS compliance required

Scalability:

• Support 100K concurrent users

• Handle 1000 transactions/sec

Availability:

• 99.5% uptime SLA

• <15 min RTO (recovery time objective)

• <1 hour RPO (recovery point objective)

6. User Interface Requirements

• Wireframes/mockups link (Figma)

• Navigation flow diagrams

• Key user journeys illustrated

7. Integrations & Dependencies

• Payment gateway: Razorpay/Stripe (based on target market)

• Email service: SendGrid

• Analytics: Mixpanel

• External APIs required

1. Constraints & Assumptions

• Must work on iOS 12+, Android 9+

• Technology stack: [Tech stack]

• Team size: 8 developers

• Budget: INR 15L-25L / month (team burn) or equivalent contract budget

• Timeline: 24 weeks

9. Dependencies

• Approval from legal/compliance

• 3rd party API access (payment gateway)

• Design approval from marketing

• Infrastructure provisioning (AWS account, databases)

10. Success Metrics

• Adoption: 50K users in 6 months

• Retention: 60% month-over-month

• Performance: <2s login, <5s payment

• Quality: <1 critical bug per release

1. Appendix

• Data dictionary

• Process flows (swimlanes)

• Reference to design mockups

USER STORY FORMAT (Jira Issue):

Title: [Feature Name] Description: As a [user role] I want [specific feature/capability] So that [benefit/value to user]

Acceptance Criteria:

• ☐ Criterion 1

• ☐ Criterion 2 ☐ Criterion 3 (typically 3-5 criteria)

Definition of Done:

• ☐ Code written and peer-reviewed

• ☐ Unit tests written (>80% coverage)

• ☐ Feature tested in staging environment ☐ Design review completed

• ☐ Documentation updated

• ☐ Code merged to main branch

• ☐ Ready for QA testing

Priority: P0/P1/P2 (P0 = Critical, blocks launch P1 = Important, should include P2 = Nice to have, future release)

Story Points: [1-13, use Fibonacci sequence] (1 = trivial, 2-3 = small, 5-8 = medium, 13 = large/should break down)

Epic: [Epic Name] Sprint: [Sprint number] Assignee: [Developer name]

2.3 Requirements Analysis & Prioritization

• Lead: PM with stakeholder input

• Activities:

  • Review AI-generated stories/ACs with PM, BA, and tech lead

  • Normalize requirement IDs and link each item to source evidence (transcript/doc/design)

• Translate PRD into user stories in Jira

Prioritize features using MoSCoW method:

• Must Have: Core features, launch blockers (P0)

• Should Have: Important features, Q1 release (P1)

• Could Have: Nice to have (P2)

• Won’t Have: Out of scope for now

• Create product roadmap (see section 2.4)

• Create living requirements traceability graph (RTG) with bi-directional links

Output Artifact: [ProjectCode]-012-Requirements-Traceability-Graph-v1.0 (workspace + export snapshot)

2.4 Product Roadmap

• Lead: PM

• File: [ProjectCode]-013-Product-Roadmap-v1.0.docx + Figma/Jira roadmap

• Format: Timeline showing features by release

MVP (12 weeks, go-live)

• ├─ User Authentication

• ├─ Basic Payment

• ├─ Wallet Management

• └─ Transaction History

Q1 Release (Week 16)

• ├─ Advanced Reporting

• ├─ Batch Payments

• └─ API for Integrations

Q2 Release (Week 20)

• ├─ Analytics Dashboard

• ├─ Subscription Payments

• └─ Mobile App

2.5 Resource Planning & Timeline

• Lead: PM / Project Manager

• File: [ProjectCode]-014-Resource-Plan-v1.0.xlsx

Contents:

Resource Allocation:

┌─────────────────────┬──────────┬─────────────┐ │ Resource Role % Time │ │ │ ├─────────────────────┼──────────┼─────────────┤ │ John Doe Dev Lead 100% this │ │ │ │ Sarah Smith Frontend 100% this │ │ │

│ Mike Johnson Backend 100% this │ │ │ │ Alex Chen QA Lead 100% this │ │ │ │ [PM Name] PM 100% this │ │ │ └─────────────────────┴──────────┴─────────────┘

Timeline (in weeks): Phase | Week | Duration | Milestone -------|------|----------|---------Plan | 0-2 | 2 weeks | Sprint 0 Design | 2-4 | 2 weeks | Sprint 1 Dev | 4-20 | 16 weeks | Sprints 2-9 Test | 20-23| 3 weeks | Sprint 10-11 Launch | 24 | 1 week | Production

Critical Path:

Database schema → Backend API → Frontend → Integration Duration: 16 weeks

• 2.6 Budget & Cost Estimation

  • Lead: PM

  • File: [ProjectCode]-015-Budget-Estimate-v1.0.xlsx

Breakdown:

Labor Costs (India-first planning baseline):

• Team burn (8-10 member squad): INR 15L-25L per month
• Example 4-month delivery window: INR 60L-100L
• Suggested split:
  • Development: 65-70%
  • Product + Design: 15-20%
  • QA + DevOps: 15-20%

Infrastructure & Tools (monthly baseline):

• Cloud/PaaS: INR 1.5L-4L (stage-dependent)
• 3rd party APIs: INR 0.5L-2L
• Monitoring/logging: INR 0.5L-1.5L
• Collaboration stack: INR 0.5L-1L

Contingency (15%): Add on top of computed total

Reference (legacy USD benchmark for global bids): TOTAL: $197,175

2.7 Risk Register & Mitigation

• Lead: PM / Risk Manager

• File: [ProjectCode]-016-Risk-Register-v1.0.xlsx

Risk Format:

Risk ID: PAYAPP-RISK-001 Title: Key developer may leave project Probability: Medium (30%) Impact: High (project delay 4 weeks) Risk Score: 30 × 10 = 300 (High) Mitigation Strategy:

• Ensure knowledge sharing (pair programming)

• Cross-train 2nd developer on critical modules

• Regular 1-on-1s to identify concerns early Contingency:

• Contract backup contractor (on retainer)

• Pre-vetted replacement developer Owner: PM Status: Active

Key Risks to Identify: - Resource availability (key person leaves) - Technical complexity (unknown unknowns) - Scope creep (requirements change) - 3rd party dependencies (API delays) - Regulatory/compliance (delays from legal review) - Market risk (customer demand lower than expected)

2.8 Technical Stack Decision

• Lead: Technical Lead / Architect

• Document: [ProjectCode]-017-Tech-Stack-Decision-v1.0.docx

Decision Table:

Layer | Technology | Rationale ---------------|---------------|-----------------Frontend | React.js | Fast rendering, large ecosystem Backend | Node.js/Exp | Rapid development, async I/O Database | PostgreSQL | ACID compliance, scalable Cache | Redis | Session management, speed Message Queue | RabbitMQ | Async jobs, decoupling CI/CD | GitHub Actions| Integrated with GitHub Container | Docker | Reproducible environments

Orchestration | Kubernetes | Scalability for 100K users Monitoring | Prometheus | Metrics collection Logging | ELK Stack | Centralized logs

Deliverables Checklist

Success Criteria

✅ All user stories defined and estimated

• ✅ PRD approved by stakeholders

• ✅ Budget approved

• ✅ Timeline agreed and resourced

• ✅ Risk register created with mitigation plans

• ✅ Tech stack decided and reviewed