What's a Functional Spec?

Without a doubt, our most popular business support function is the creation of a 'Functional Specification', so to share the love I thought I'd explain exactly what that is, and exactly how the support works.

Across the whole North East LEP area, we help individuals and businesses to make their technical ideas become a reality. A lot of the people we support have got ideas that require some kind of development, whether it's the build of a new mobile app, or a web platform that's the digital version of their current paper-based system. 

The problem is, they don't have the technical expertise in house to allow them to build their idea, or knowledge to ensure what they're going quoted for is really what they want. That's where we come in!

Our fully-funded support allows us to match people with an impartial technical expert (a 'techspert' as I call them), who will sit down with you to go through your idea, give feedback from a technical point of view, give impartial advice and help you to come up with your 'MPV', minimal viable product.

Your MVP is the simplest version of your concept that you can build to take to the market, test and get feedback. Building on from your MVP will help you create a better version of your initial idea in the long run, as well as reducing initial build costs.

After your consultation and deciding on what your MVP looks like; functionality, navigation etc. etc., your 'techspert' will go away and put everyone into a document called your 'Functional Specification'!

This document is essentially a blueprint of your idea from a technical point of view, and will allow you to get exact quotes for the build of the the exact functionality you want. So there's nothing lost in translation between you and your developers, there's no guesstimates on price and timelines, everyone know what's expected for what cost.

Simple!

Having a functional specification also helps you apply for funding, investment, and to get expert impartial feedback on your idea before taking the plunge! It's a fully-funded way of ensuring your project is off to the best possible start. 

If you have a technical idea but not the in-house knowledge, get in touch at jeni.banks@sunderlandsoftwarecity.com and we might be able to support