PRD: Community class bookings

Fictional public example. All requirements, scenarios and decisions are invented; no real organization or project is represented.

Summary

Residents can find a free community class, reserve one place and cancel their booking themselves. The release adds self-service booking to a fictional community center’s existing resident accounts and published class schedule.

Business Context

In this scenario, residents contact staff to check availability and change bookings. That creates extra work and leaves residents uncertain about whether they have a place. Self-service booking gives them a clear answer while staff continue to manage class schedules and waiting-list invitations.

The center’s local time governs class dates, reminders and cancellation cutoffs. Three proposed policies still need business validation: waiting-list invitations, reminder timing and the cancellation cutoff. Their permanent IDs appear beside the affected criteria and in the assumptions register.

Acceptance Criteria

Find a Class and Reserve a Place

Residents can see whether a class suits them and whether places remain before they try to book. A waiting-list entry must be clearly different from a reservation.

• AC-BOOK-01 — Availability is clear before booking. Each published class shows its name, date, start and end times, venue and remaining places. A full class is labelled full. Classes that have started accept neither reservations nor new waiting-list entries. If no upcoming classes are listed, explain that rather than showing an empty screen.
• AC-BOOK-02 — One resident gets one place. A signed-in resident can reserve one place in a class with availability. A repeated request for the same class shows the existing booking. If the last place goes to someone else first, explain that the class is full without showing a successful reservation or sending its confirmation.
• AC-BOOK-03 — Joining the waiting list does not promise a place. A signed-in resident can join a full class’s waiting list once and see that they are waiting, rather than booked. Staff choose whom to invite when a place opens; nobody is enrolled automatically. The invitation policy is provisional under RULE-001.

Know Whether a Booking Succeeded

Residents can distinguish a confirmed reservation from an unsuccessful attempt. Confirmation and reminder messages serve different purposes.

• AC-BOOK-04 — A successful booking is confirmed. Show the booked class, date, times, venue and cancellation action, and send one confirmation email. A repeated booking request does not send another confirmation. The cancellation action follows AC-CANCEL-01.

• AC-BOOK-05 — Reminders follow one clear schedule. Apply the proposed reminder policy in NOTIF-001 as follows. The booking confirmation remains separate.

  Booking situation	Reminder outcome
  Reservation exists 24 hours before the class starts	Send one reminder email at that point
  Booking is made less than 24 hours before the start	Do not send a reminder
  Booking has been canceled before the reminder is due	Do not send a reminder

Change Plans and Cancel a Booking

Residents can give up their own place without contacting staff. They see which booking they are canceling and can keep it instead of confirming.

• AC-CANCEL-01 — Cancellation closes when the class starts. A signed-in resident can cancel their own booking before the start time. Show the class, date and venue before asking for confirmation, and explain that cancellation gives up the place. At or after the start time, remove the cancellation action and decline an attempted cancellation. This proposed cutoff needs confirmation under RULE-002.
• AC-CANCEL-02 — Cancellation releases exactly one place. Confirmation removes the reservation, makes one place available immediately and sends one cancellation email. Repeating the cancellation leaves it canceled, releases no additional place and sends no additional email. Waiting-list invitations follow AC-BOOK-03.

Out of Scope

• Payments, paid classes and refunds.
• Recurring or guest bookings and reserving several places for one resident.
• Creating resident accounts or changing sign-in behavior.
• Staff scheduling tools, invitation automation and automatic enrollment from a waiting list.

Review References

• Business assumptions — proposed policies to confirm or correct.
• Mockups — BOOK-1 illustrates the class list and availability; CANCEL-1 illustrates cancellation confirmation.

The two mockups illustrate selected states. They do not depict every acceptance criterion. This public example omits a technical design and is not an implementation-ready project.