Recently I attended a session on the “7 Pillars of Wisdom-Requirements” by Suzanne and James Robertson. It was a great session and reinforced what I have been thinking for some time about why some BAs succeed and others do not.
The fourth pillar that they spoke about was that “requirements come from people”. This I believe is the key message for BAs. Yes business analysis is about the business and the system, but it is also about the “people”, the “users”.
My background before the BA life was business management and communication. My technical expertise has been learnt from experience at both the client and technology group end. I really agree with Suzanne and James that gathering requirements is a “sociotechnical” business. You do indeed need to find out who all the stakeholders are to find out all the requirements. You also need to keep them interested and motivated throughout the process and that’s about communication.
People love to talk about their business. If you take the time to really listen you will uncover what they like and don’t like about a process and what opportunities they see for improvement. Getting initial interaction to get some high level requirements is the first step, but not the only step. The systems that are developed right, are the ones where there has been stakeholder engagement from start to finish.
Unlike some of my collegaues, as a BA, I don’t think the process finishes when I have delivered the requirements document. I believe it is only the start. Keeping the stakeholder engaged through the development and testing process means maintaining a level of enthusiasm and passion for the project. OK, I admit that sometimes this role may be filled by the project manager, but I find, that if as a BA you have developed a great working relationship with the client, your passion and enthusiasm for the project will help ensure you get requirements that are not only sound from a technical perspective (as you have uncovered all the needs for the system) but you also have a system that works from a useablity perspective. Happy User = Happy Client 
I could not agree more. Many BAs get very focused on the system but forget that the system is for the people - the end users. A system which does not meet the expectations of its users and which does not solve the problems of the business is useless.
Happy blogging!
- Adrian
Are you suggesting that a BA is part of the change management process with respect to understanding user needs, user wants, setting expectations, delivering process improvement to meet those needs and wants, and interpreting these as system requirements to deliver specifications to systems developers?
Cool!
It’s a rare thing to see BAs in all of these roles. I wish it would occur more often.
More BAs should read your blog, pay attention and learn!
M
Thanks for information.
many interesting things
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