How to Write a Brief for a Software Agency

Who This Guide Is For

Anyone preparing to approach a software development agency with a project, whether you have a detailed specification or just a rough idea. A good brief saves time for both sides and leads to better proposals. If you are considering a more formal competitive process with multiple vendors, How to Write an RFP for Custom Software covers that in more depth.

Before You Start

• You do not need to be technical. A brief describes what you need and why. The agency figures out how.
• You do not need a complete specification. Agencies expect to do discovery work. Your brief should communicate enough for them to understand the scope and propose a sensible approach.
• Prepare examples. Screenshots, competitor references, or workflow diagrams communicate more than paragraphs of text.

Step 1: Describe Your Business

Start with one or two paragraphs about your company: what you do, who your customers are, and how many people work there. This context helps the agency understand the scale and nature of the problem. A ten-person consultancy and a two-hundred-person logistics company have very different needs even if both want “a client portal.”

Step 2: Explain the Problem

This is the most important section. Describe what is not working today and what impact it has on your business. Be specific:

• “Our team spends approximately 12 hours per week manually creating client reports from data across three platforms.”
• “New client onboarding takes two weeks because it depends on email chains between four departments.”
• “We cannot offer our clients visibility into project progress without scheduling update calls.”

Problems are more useful than solutions because they let the agency apply their expertise. If you prescribe the solution, you might miss a better one.

Step 3: Describe Your Current Setup

List the tools and systems you currently use that are relevant to the project. CRM, project management tools, accounting software, website platform, communication tools. Note which systems need to integrate with the new software and which are being replaced by it.

If there is an existing system that the new software will replace or extend, describe its current state: what it does well, where it falls short, and what technology it uses if you know.

Step 4: Define What Success Looks Like

Describe the outcome you want, not the features. “Success is our team spending two hours per week on reporting instead of twelve” is more useful than “we need an auto-generated PDF report.”

If you have specific requirements, list them. But frame them as outcomes: “Clients can see their project status without contacting us.” “New clients are fully onboarded within two business days.” “All team credentials are stored securely with access logging.”

Step 5: State Your Constraints

Be upfront about:

• Budget range. Even a rough range helps the agency right-size their proposal. “Under ten thousand,” “ten to thirty thousand,” or “budget flexible for the right solution” all provide useful context.
• Timeline. Is there a deadline? Is it hard (regulatory, contractual) or soft (preference)?
• Technical constraints. Must it integrate with a specific platform? Must it be hosted in a specific region? Are there compliance requirements?
• Decision process. Who evaluates proposals? How many people are involved? What is the evaluation timeline?

Common Mistakes

• Writing a feature list instead of a brief. A list of features without context is hard to evaluate. Why do you need each feature? What problem does it solve?
• Being vague about budget. Agencies cannot propose effectively if they do not know the scale. “What will it cost?” without providing a range leads to proposals that are too expensive or too thin.
• Sending the same brief to ten agencies. Sending to two or three well-researched agencies produces better results than broadcasting to many. Evaluate their portfolio, read their content, and approach agencies whose work aligns with your needs.
• Omitting your timeline. A project needed in six weeks requires a very different approach than one with a six-month runway.
• Assuming the agency knows your industry. Provide context about your business, your clients, and your operations. Do not assume familiarity.

What Good Looks Like

A strong brief is two to four pages covering the business context, the problem, the current setup, what success looks like, and the constraints. It includes a few screenshots or workflow diagrams where helpful. It is honest about budget and timeline. And it leaves room for the agency to propose solutions rather than dictating them.

Next Steps

Once your brief is ready, send it to your shortlisted agencies and allow time for them to ask clarifying questions before proposing. If you need help refining your brief or evaluating responses, Technical Consulting can support that process. For the full planning framework once you are ready to proceed, see How to Plan a Custom Software Project and the Custom Software Development service page.

How Technical Does Your Brief Need to Be?

Not very. A clear brief for a software development agency describes what you need and why, in plain business language, and lets the agency work out how to build it. The technical detail worth including is narrow: the systems the new software must integrate with, anything it has to run on or comply with, and any hard constraints you already know about. Everything else is better expressed as a problem and an outcome, which is what the steps below help you do.