The Correlation Between Requirement and Design in Business Analysis
The Requirement is focused on the need and Design is focused on the solution, but the distinction between both is not always clear.
Originally published on medium.com
I have already written an article about The Business Analyst Role in a Project, pointing out the importance of contributing e not interfere in other professionals roles — such as UX designers. Maybe it makes it sound like there is a sharp boundary between requirements and design but it is not true. Here, I would like to talk more about how designs should be part of business analysis e how it can be integrated with the requirements gathering.
These two areas are often mixed because the focus shift is constant: Usually, a requirement (the need) leads to a design (the solution) which in turn may drive the discovery and analysis of more requirements.
Tasks as eliciting, analyzing, validating, and managing requirements are always related to the Business Analyst role. Nevertheless, the definition of design, at some level, is also the responsibility of Business Analysis — and the level of design responsibility can vary based on the perspective the business analyst is working with. The BABOK® Guide confirms that “the classification as a requirement or a design may become less significant as the business analyst's work progresses to a greater understanding of and eventual fulfilment of the need.”
“Requirements and Design Cycle” by The BABOK® Guide
As shown in the figure above, the Requirements and Design cycle in Business Analysis can be complex and recursive. The Business Requirements gathering is followed by Stakeholder Requirements, Solution Requirements and Transition Requirement, and all these types of requirements may require some sort of Design (e.g. Process model, Screen mock-up, Prototype, etc.) to validate them or generate other requirements from them. And this cycle continues until all requirements are met. Which is not simple and requires hard work.
Business Analyst and Designers are not rivals. Sometimes the same Design techniques are used to eliciting, modelling, and analyzing requirements. That is why a Business Analyst must know design techniques too e work closely with Designers, contributing to an initial design level, so both approaches can satisfy the customer’s need, serving as a secure foundation for software development.
