Beyond the BA Basics: A Comprehensive Look at Needs, Requirements, and Solutions

Photo by Sangga Rima Roman Selia on Unsplash

Every day, we may encounter situations where we need to address certain requirements in our daily life. However, have you ever questioned whether the requirement truly represents the underlying problem you need to solve? For example:

• Is your requirement every time you visit the ice cream store simply to ‘purchase a scoop of ice cream’?
• Is your requirement every time you open Uber Eats to order lunch merely to ‘get a meal delivered promptly’?

To gain a better understanding of these questions, it’s important to clarify the differences between a business need, a business requirement, and a solution.

Business Requirement v.s. Business Need

Can we consider everything stated by our stakeholders as a ‘requirement’?

Obviously not.

Otherwise, when you buy a bottle of water in the supermarket, you would grab a carbonated water bottle without hesitation, as long as it’s water, rather than spend 2–3 minutes considering a bottle of coke.

So, what exactly constitutes a requirement? According to the explanation from BABOK 3.0:

“Requirement is a usable representation of a…