HKSM

High-level statements of business needs, desired outcomes, and constraints that justify the product and guide backlog creation and prioritization. In SBOK, they are captured with stakeholders early, evolve through feedback, and are traced to epics and user stories.

Key Points

• State the business need and expected outcomes, focusing on why, not how.
• Owned by the Product Owner and co-created with key stakeholders; the Scrum Master facilitates collaboration.
• Established during initiation and refined continuously as new insights emerge.
• Provide the basis for creating epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Drive prioritization by value, risk, time sensitivity, and compliance obligations.
• Validated in Sprint Reviews and upon release against measurable success criteria.

Purpose

Business Requirements align the product vision with tangible business outcomes and benefits. They frame scope boundaries and decision criteria so that backlog items deliver maximum value and support the business case.

They also provide a common language for stakeholders and the Scrum Team, reducing ambiguity and guiding trade-offs during planning and delivery.

Key Terms & Clauses

• Business need: the problem or opportunity the product addresses.
• Benefit hypothesis: why delivering this capability will create measurable value.
• Success criteria/KPIs: quantifiable outcomes to verify value realization.
• Assumptions and constraints: known limits, dependencies, and conditions.
• Business rules/compliance: policy, legal, and regulatory requirements.
• Scope boundaries: what is in scope and out of scope at a high level.
• Stakeholders: key sponsors, users, and impacted groups with interests.
• Non-functional expectations: performance, usability, security, and reliability outcomes.

How to Develop/Evaluate

Development steps:

• Discover: interview stakeholders, run visioning workshops, and review strategy and the business case.
• Capture: write concise, solution-agnostic statements with measurable outcomes.
• Structure: group by themes and map each to epics for traceability.
• Measure: define KPIs or leading indicators for each requirement.
• Prioritize: use value, risk, and urgency to order requirements.
• Validate: confirm shared understanding and feasibility with stakeholders and the Scrum Team.

Evaluation criteria:

• Clear, outcome-based, and testable (measurable KPIs).
• Consistent with the product vision and business case.
• Feasible within constraints and dependencies.
• Traceable to epics and product backlog items.
• Stakeholder agreement documented and visible.

How to Use

• Input to Create Project Vision and Develop Epic(s) to shape the backlog structure.
• Input to Create Prioritized Product Backlog to order items by value and risk.
• Guide Release Planning by setting outcomes for releases and increments.
• Inform Sprint Planning by selecting stories that advance top business outcomes.
• Support Sprint Reviews by assessing increment value against success criteria.
• Maintain traceability by linking each epic and story to at least one business requirement.

Example Snippet

• BR-01: Reduce onboarding time for new users by 30% within two releases. KPI: median onboarding duration. Priority: High.
• BR-02: Achieve compliance with regulation X for customer data handling by Q3. KPI: audit pass with zero critical findings. Priority: High.
• BR-03: Increase monthly active users by 15% within six months. KPI: MAU growth rate. Priority: Medium.
• BR-04: Improve checkout success rate from 85% to 92%. KPI: conversion rate. Priority: Medium.

Risks & Tips

• Risk: statements are vague or solution-biased, causing misaligned delivery. Tip: keep them outcome-focused and technology-agnostic.
• Risk: no measurable criteria, making validation subjective. Tip: attach clear KPIs and target thresholds.
• Risk: conflicting stakeholder demands. Tip: use a single Product Owner to arbitrate and document trade-offs.
• Risk: requirements go stale as markets change. Tip: review and revalidate during backlog refinement and release planning.
• Risk: poor traceability to backlog items. Tip: maintain a simple mapping between requirements, epics, and stories.
• Risk: non-functional or compliance needs are overlooked. Tip: capture them explicitly and prioritize accordingly.

PMP/SCRUM Example Question

During initiation, the team has a draft product vision. To ensure epics and the product backlog align with stakeholder outcomes, what should the Product Owner prepare as the key input to Develop Epic(s)?

1. A detailed technical architecture and component design.
2. Business Requirements with measurable success criteria and constraints.
3. A team capacity forecast for the next three sprints.
4. A Sprint Burndown chart from the previous project.

Correct Answer: B — Business Requirements with measurable success criteria and constraints.

Explanation: Business Requirements are the high-level input that guides epics and backlog prioritization. Technical designs and burndown charts are not appropriate inputs at this stage, and capacity planning alone does not capture business value.