Business Analyst Requirements gathering

Requirements’ gathering plays a vital role for a successful Project, if this task is not done properly by the Business Analyst the project timelines will effect, it means the project will not be completed in the scheduled time.

How the requirement gathering should be done by the Business Analyst?

Client is the only person knows what requirements to be implemented in the system and how does he wants the users to use the system/application. Most of the clients explain their business process by giving examples about their current system and how does he want to be implemented in the new system.  

Few clients doesn’t know how what they exactly need to be implemented also, they just explain the scenario and ask the requirements to  implement in the system. No complete picture on the requirements will be given by the client, the client will be like that only. It is the Business analyst who should think in the perspective of client, if am the client, how does I want the system to be implemented based on the discussion with the client.

For example: What are the functionalities I want the sales man to do for creating a Sales order, what information he needs to create a sales order, does all the information available for him, if not does he have permission to create required information, he shouldn’t have permission to delete the customer or product information etc..

In the above example, the requirement is Sales man should have the ability to create a Sales order in the system; client will only give single statement. Now its Business analyst job to analyze the requirement deeply and think in the client perspective, Does the sales man have all the information for creating a sales order? if business analyst thinks, then business analyst will get multiple steps what does the sales man should for creating a sales order. Like this, if you analyze each requirement you will get the accurate requirements from the client by asking more questions. 

More questions, more accurate requirements you will get from your client. 

Ask questions using the 5 ‘W’ 1 ‘H’ principle.

1.      Why

2.      What

3.      When

4.      Where

5.      Who

6.      How

The above principle is also used in Problem solving to find the root cause analysis.

If Requirement gathering is done perfectly, you will not get multiple change requests from the client. If you miss some functionality, client will ask in the middle of the project implementation which becomes a change request, for which the implementation company might charge additional amount if  it takes more time.  Most of the client doesn’t agree for the price, they start discussion that functionality is standard which is understood and it is in project scope. Multiple discussions would take place which delays the Project implementation, etc.

The Requirements gathering is not a simple task, the Business analyst need to analyze the requirements multiple times, so that no requirement is missing. After analyzing is completed, the Business Analyst should put the requirements in the document and get the approval from the client.