📍 You are here: Main Guide → Templates → Quick Spec Template
- Prerequisites: Lightweight Specs
- Related: Micro Spec Template, Full Templates
Ready-to-use template for 1-3 day features that need requirements and tasks but can skip the design phase.
Copy the template below and fill in the bracketed sections. Delete any sections that don't apply to your specific feature.
Spec Type: Quick Spec
Estimated Effort: [X hours/days]
Priority: [High/Medium/Low]
Assignee: [Developer name]
Created: [YYYY-MM-DD]
Status: [Draft/Review/Approved/In Progress/Complete]
What: [One sentence describing what this feature does]
Why: [Brief justification - business value or user need]
Success Metric: [How you'll know this succeeded]
As a [user type]
I want [capability]
So that [benefit/value]
- [Specific, testable criterion that defines success]
- [Another criterion - focus on the happy path]
- [Edge case or error handling requirement]
- [Performance/quality requirement if applicable]
- Technical: [Any technical limitations or requirements]
- Business: [Any business rules or constraints]
- Timeline: [Any deadline constraints]
- [Any setup or dependencies needed before starting]
- [Access permissions or environment setup]
-
[Task Name] - [Brief description]
- Estimate: [X hours]
- Details: [Specific implementation notes]
-
[Task Name] - [Brief description]
- Estimate: [X hours]
- Details: [Specific implementation notes]
-
[Task Name] - [Brief description]
- Estimate: [X hours]
- Details: [Specific implementation notes]
- Unit Tests: [What needs unit test coverage]
- Integration Tests: [What needs integration testing]
- Manual Testing: [What needs manual verification]
- Code Comments: [Areas needing documentation]
- README Updates: [What documentation needs updating]
- API Docs: [If API changes are involved]
[file/path]- [What changes are needed][file/path]- [What changes are needed]
- Internal: [Other components this depends on]
- External: [Third-party services or libraries]
- Risk: [Potential issue]
Mitigation: [How to address it]
- All acceptance criteria are met
- Code is reviewed and approved
- Tests are written and passing
- Documentation is updated
- Feature is deployed to staging
- Manual testing is complete
- Stakeholder approval received
If something goes wrong:
- [Step to revert changes]
- [Step to restore previous state]
- [How to communicate the rollback]
Spec Type: Quick Spec
Estimated Effort: 2 days
Priority: Medium
Assignee: Sarah Chen
Created: 2024-01-15
Status: Approved
What: Allow users to upload and display profile pictures in their account settings
Why: Users want to personalize their profiles and be more recognizable to teammates
Success Metric: 50% of active users upload a profile picture within 30 days
As a registered user
I want to upload a profile picture
So that my profile is more personalized and I'm recognizable to teammates
- User can click "Upload Photo" button in profile settings
- System accepts JPG, PNG, and GIF files up to 5MB
- Image is automatically resized to 200x200px
- Profile picture displays in navigation bar and profile page
- User can remove their profile picture and return to default avatar
- Error messages show for invalid file types or sizes
- Technical: Must integrate with existing S3 bucket for file storage
- Business: Images must be family-friendly (manual moderation for now)
- Timeline: Needed for Q1 user engagement goals
- Confirm S3 bucket permissions for profile-images folder
- Install image processing library (sharp.js)
-
Frontend Upload Component - Add file upload UI to profile settings
- Estimate: 6 hours
- Details: File input, preview, progress indicator, error handling
-
Backend Upload Endpoint - Handle file upload and processing
- Estimate: 8 hours
- Details: Validate file, resize image, upload to S3, update user record
-
Profile Display Updates - Show profile pictures throughout app
- Estimate: 4 hours
- Details: Update navbar component, profile page, user cards
- Unit Tests: File validation, image processing functions
- Integration Tests: Upload endpoint, S3 integration
- Manual Testing: Upload flow, different file types, error cases
- Code Comments: Image processing and S3 upload functions
- API Docs: Document new upload endpoint
components/ProfileSettings.jsx- Add upload UIapi/users/upload-avatar.js- New upload endpointcomponents/Navbar.jsx- Display profile picturecomponents/UserCard.jsx- Display profile picture
- Internal: User authentication, S3 service wrapper
- External: sharp.js for image processing
- Risk: Large file uploads could impact performance
Mitigation: Client-side file size validation, server-side limits
- All acceptance criteria are met
- Code is reviewed and approved
- Tests are written and passing
- API documentation is updated
- Feature is deployed to staging
- Manual testing with different file types complete
- Product owner approval received
If something goes wrong:
- Disable upload endpoint via feature flag
- Revert frontend changes to hide upload UI
- Notify users via in-app message about temporary unavailability
# [Endpoint Name] API - Quick Spec
## Requirements
**Endpoint:** [Method] /api/[path]
**Purpose:** [What this endpoint does]
**Authentication:** [Required auth level]
### Request Format
```json
{
"field": "value"
}{
"result": "success"
}400- [Bad request scenario]401- [Unauthorized scenario]500- [Server error scenario]
- Route Handler - [X hours]
- Validation - [X hours]
- Database Operations - [X hours]
- Tests - [X hours]
### Bug Fix Quick Spec
```markdown
# Bug Fix: [Issue Description] - Quick Spec
## Problem
**Issue:** [What's broken]
**Impact:** [Who/what is affected]
**Root Cause:** [Why it's happening]
## Solution
**Fix:** [How to resolve it]
**Files:** [What files need changes]
**Risk:** [Potential side effects]
## Implementation
1. **[Fix step]** - [X hours]
2. **[Test step]** - [X hours]
3. **[Verification step]** - [X hours]
## Verification
- [ ] [How to test the fix]
- [ ] [How to ensure no regression]
- Micro Spec Template - For even smaller changes
- Full Spec Templates - For complex features