{"id":1855,"date":"2009-11-04T05:00:15","date_gmt":"2009-11-04T11:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bridging-the-gap.com\/?p=1855"},"modified":"2009-11-04T05:00:15","modified_gmt":"2009-11-04T11:00:15","slug":"requirements-as-the-main-focus-of-the-business-analyst-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridging-the-gap.com\/requirements-as-the-main-focus-of-the-business-analyst-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Requirements As the Main Focus of Business Analyst Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author: Adriana Beal<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In discussions about the role of the business analyst, it is common to see professionals insisting on the importance of “going beyond requirements” when describing the BA work. These analysts argue that BA activities such as enterprise analysis and process improvement indicate the need for a broader description. Being myself a consultant who often works in activities related to business process modeling and process improvement, I fail to see the benefit of moving away from the term “requirement” when describing the work of a business analyst, and here I explain why.<\/p>\n

The IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology<\/strong> defines requirement as:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A condition or capability needed by a user to solve a problem or achieve an objective.<\/li>\n
  2. A condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a system or system component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification, or other formally imposed documents.<\/li>\n
  3. A documented representation of a condition or capability as in (1) or (2).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The BABOK<\/strong><\/a> provides a very similar set of definitions (differences underlined):<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. A condition or capability needed by a stakeholder <\/span>to solve a problem or achieve an objective.<\/li>\n
    2. A condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a solution <\/span>or solution <\/span>component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification or other formally imposed documents.<\/li>\n
    3. A documented representation of a condition or capability as in (1) or (2).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Simplifying a bit these statements, it is possible to define requirement as “a condition or capability needed to achieve an objective” (solving a problem can be considered an objective–something toward which effort is directed–, and therefore doesn’t need to be explicitly mentioned here). Based on this definition, it becomes easier to view “requirements” as the core aspect of the business analysis work–even for BAs who don’t belong to the IT space.<\/p>\n

      Take, for example,\u00a0business process modelin<\/a>g activities. Process modeling is used to generate a visual representation of the flow and control logic associated with a sequence of related activities or actions. A process model, however, is not an end on itself: models may be created to better understand how certain business scenarios are handled, to help identify problems in the flow, to detect activities that don’t add value to the business, etc. Process models, in most cases, become a source of requirements<\/em>, helping the organization (and, in particular, the business analyst) identify the conditions or capabilities<\/em> needed to solve a problem (for example, a bottleneck, or errors caused by a faulty interface between business units), or to achieve another objective (e.g., increase productivity by reducing the time to perform a task or eliminating the wait time between tasks).<\/p>\n

      Business analysts exist to facilitate organizational change. They study business problems and opportunities and recommend solutions to help corporations achieve their goals. In doing so, BAs are constantly involved in discovering, identifying, analyzing, negotiating, and documenting requirements that address business problems and opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Author: Adriana Beal In discussions about the role of the business analyst, it is common to see professionals insisting on the importance of “going beyond requirements” when describing the BA work. These analysts argue that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1474,1465],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-analyst-roles-and-responsibilities","category-business-analyst-career-advice"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridging-the-gap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridging-the-gap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridging-the-gap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridging-the-gap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridging-the-gap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridging-the-gap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridging-the-gap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridging-the-gap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridging-the-gap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}