Applicant Tracking System Business Requirements

An applicant tracking system manages hiring from job requisition to accepted offer: posting jobs, collecting applications, screening, interviews and offers. It is bought by HR and talent acquisition teams, and used by recruiters, hiring managers and interviewers.

120 requirements for choosing applicant tracking systems, each written so a vendor can answer it and you can check the answer. Delivered as an Excel workbook.

Inside the Workbook

• 93 functional requirements in 12 areas, each with how to verify it
• 27 non-functional requirements written for this category
• Suggested priorities (45 Must) that you change, with weights that follow
• A vendor response form with six response types, from Standard to Not supported
• 7 scripted demo scenarios, each mapped to the requirements it tests
• A weighted scorecard for up to five vendors, by area, with Must gaps counted

Functional Areas

• Requisitions and approvals (6)
• Job posting and sourcing (10)
• Applications and candidate experience (9)
• Screening and evaluation (9)
• Pipeline and workflow (10)
• Interviews (7)
• Offers (6)
• Talent pools and outreach (5)
• Compliance support (12)
• Reporting and analytics (6)
• Integrations (6)
• Administration (7)

Deeper Vendor Due Diligence

Security, privacy, contract and exit questions are in the RFP question bank: Integration & interoperability, Data protection & privacy, Bias, fairness & content provenance, Accessibility, Migration & exit, Security.

How It Was Written

First published in October 2026. A language model drafted the requirements against written rules and a second model reviewed every row. No named subject-matter expert reviewed them. The workbook lists what changed.

Built For

IT, business and procurement teams writing requirements before a software selection, and consultancies running one for a client. The Consultancy License covers use with any number of clients.