Begin with the reason this software should exist, not your preferred technology. Who will use the system, how often, and what does the process look like without it? An estimator who knows what you are trying to achieve can propose an alternative that costs less; a team that receives only a feature list will price exactly what you asked for.
Set out the scope as short scenarios: a walk through each important path. Every bit as useful, write down what is out of scope. An explicit exclusion list saves more friction later than almost anything else in the document. Indicate as well which decisions are settled and which may still change — the difference changes the price, and concealing the open questions only hurts you.
Set out your constraints. The list covers systems you must integrate with, the data you have and where it lives, regulatory obligations, traffic expectations, supported browsers vue or react devices and infrastructure that is already decided. If a deadline is real estate software development services, say why: an experienced team can often rearrange the plan to hit it, provided they hear about it early.
Write down what the word done means for each item. Clear acceptance criteria need not use special syntax: a plain-language note stating what a user should be able to do will do. That one addition compresses acceptance testing by a surprising margin and removes the most common source of disputes.
One last thing, ask for a specific format. Request a breakdown by feature or module, the assumptions behind each number, the main risks and an optimistic and a pessimistic figure. Take a broad range as useful information rather than evasion: it tells you the part of the brief that needs work. From there tighten that section and ask again — the second estimate will be the one worth planning around.
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