BA Mindset Principle #8: Shared Understanding of Requirements

Creating a shared understanding is business analyst’s responsibility

What is the most important outcome of business analysis activities?

Is it detailed and intricate process maps?

Comprehensive business requirements documents?

Groomed user stories?

A requirements sign-off obtained within schedule?

All of the above are important. But there is something else that needs to be achieved to make business analysis deliverables useful:

Help all stakeholders have a consistent and shared understanding of the business problem and the requirements for the solution.

A business analyst may have put a lot of effort into understanding the current state of the business, all the details of a complicated process, terminology and business rules.

She or he then spent many hours with subject matter experts to understand what they need to achieve, and helped them formulate the requirements, capturing them with diligence and attention to detail.