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Agent brief
Template id: agent-brief
Responsible skill: m365-agents:agent-use-case-design. The knowledge section is completed with m365-agents:knowledge-source-readiness.
Use this brief before any build starts. Every fact the organisation must supply is marked [To confirm: ...]; replace the marker when the fact is confirmed, and never fill it with a guess. Example rows are fictional and are there to be replaced or deleted.
1. Summary
| Field | Entry |
|---|---|
| Agent name | [To confirm: working name] |
| Opportunity reference | [To confirm: opportunity canvas or intake reference] |
| Business owner (accountable for outcomes) | [To confirm: name and role; owner has agreed this brief] |
| Maker or build team | [To confirm: name or team] |
| Risk tier (0-4) | [To confirm: tier from risk classification, with date] |
| Brief status | Draft / Agreed by business owner / Superseded |
| Date agreed | [To confirm: date] |
2. Purpose
One sentence naming the job the agent does and the measure it improves.
Fictional example: "Help line managers answer routine absence-policy questions without raising a ticket, so HR advisers spend their time on complex cases."
[To confirm: purpose statement]
3. Audience
| Role or group | Approximate number | Where they work (channel) | Why they need the agent |
|---|---|---|---|
| [To confirm: role] | [To confirm] | [To confirm: for example Teams, intranet] | [To confirm] |
Who must not have access, and why: [To confirm: excluded groups and reason]
4. Scope
In scope - representative questions
Ten to twenty real questions in users' own words. These seed the evaluation set.
| # | Question | Expected source |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fictional example: "Can I carry over unused leave into next year?" | Fictional example: Leave policy, section 4 |
| 2 | [To confirm] | [To confirm] |
Out of scope - exclusions and redirects
| Question type the agent must not answer | What it says instead | Where it sends the user |
|---|---|---|
| Fictional example: questions about a named employee's case | Explains it cannot discuss individual cases | HR adviser contact route |
| [To confirm] | [To confirm] | [To confirm] |
5. Instructions approach
| Behaviour | Specification |
|---|---|
| Role and tone | [To confirm] |
| Citing sources | [To confirm: when the agent must cite] |
| When knowledge is silent | [To confirm: what the agent says and where it redirects] |
| Handling uncertainty | [To confirm] |
| Edge-of-scope behaviour | [To confirm] |
| Transparency to users | [To confirm: how users are told this is an AI agent and that they check its output] |
6. Knowledge sources and readiness
Completed with m365-agents:knowledge-source-readiness. A source with no owner or with permissions wider than its sensitivity warrants is not ready.
| Source and location | Owner | Intended audience matches access? | Currency (last review) | Accuracy checked | Classification or label | Review cycle | Verdict | Conditions, owner and date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [To confirm] | [To confirm] | Yes / No | [To confirm] | Yes / No | [To confirm] | [To confirm] | Ready / Ready with conditions / Not ready | [To confirm] |
Coverage gaps (representative questions no ready source answers): [To confirm]
Personal data in any source (refer to the privacy assessment): [To confirm: yes or no, and which]
7. Actions
Leave empty if the agent only answers.
| Action | System | Read / write / send | Identity it runs under | User confirmation required? | Accountable owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [To confirm] | [To confirm] | [To confirm] | [To confirm: user, service identity or other] | Yes / No | [To confirm] |
8. Build-or-reuse decision and route
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Existing agents, prompts or patterns checked (solution register reference) | [To confirm] |
| Why reuse or extension is not enough | [To confirm] |
| Route chosen | [To confirm: for example a declarative agent built in Agent Builder, an agent built in Copilot Studio, or a pro-code route] |
| Criteria that led to the route | [To confirm: answers only or acts, audience width, orchestration needs, governance zone] |
| Source records checked for capability, limits and licensing, with dates | [To confirm] |
| Environment and governance zone | [To confirm] |
9. Ownership and support
| Role | Name or team | Agreed? |
|---|---|---|
| Business owner | [To confirm] | Yes / No |
| Knowledge owners | [To confirm] | Yes / No |
| Maker | [To confirm] | Yes / No |
| Support route (where users report wrong answers) | [To confirm] | Yes / No |
10. Success measures
Measured at team or role level, never for individual staff.
| Measure | Baseline and source | Target | Owner | Review date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fictional example: routine HR tickets raised per month | Fictional example: service desk report, last quarter | [To confirm] | [To confirm] | [To confirm] |
| [To confirm] | [To confirm] | [To confirm] | [To confirm] | [To confirm] |
11. Open questions and preconditions
| Item | Owner | Due |
|---|---|---|
| [To confirm] | [To confirm] | [To confirm] |
12. Agreement
| Role | Name | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Business owner | [To confirm] | [To confirm] |
| Maker | [To confirm] | [To confirm] |
Credit: Template from CopilotForge by Simon Foote (https://github.com/SimonFoote-greensparx/CopilotForge), licensed under CC BY 4.0. Keep this credit when you share or adapt the template; in your own completed document you may keep it as a footer or remove it.