To successfully communicate requirements to interested parties it’s important that they all get the same message.

We start by looking at a children’s game to demonstrate what can go wrong when communicating requirements.

Chinese Whispers when communicating requirements

The child’s game, referred to in English as Chinese Whispers, is one in which children, typically seated in a circle, receive a whispered message from the person on one side and whisper it to the person on their other side.  The last person in the circle has to say out loud what they heard.

To the delight of the children, this usually has nothing to do with the original message.  Unfortunately, the process of requirements discovery also displays some of the characteristics of the child’s game. The more links in the chain, the more likely that there is miscommunication.

Business analyst – Problem or Solution?

Perhaps the easiest way of solving this problem is for the person with the requirements to talk directly to the person who will create a solution, i.e., the developer. This minimises the number of people in the chain and consequently the possibilities for misunderstanding. Some ‘agile’ projects work this way, often with great success. Sometimes with not such great success.

The job of the business analyst is to listen to the person with the requirements and to pass on these requirements to the people who will participate and cooperate in the provision of a solution. So what value add does the business analyst offer?

If the business analyst is simply acting as a relay, the answer to this question is, ‘very little – if anything’. In fact, if the person with the need is capable of clearly defining the problem to be solved and the requirements that any solution must satisfy, the business analyst would be redundant.

What can the business analyst bring to the party?

The value of the business analyst rests on their capability to deal with issues such as the following:

• Problem not well understood or well defined
• Solution attacks a symptom rather than an underlying problem
• Requirements are not well expressed
• There are usually many people with specific, perhaps personal, goals and requirements
• Budget may not be sufficient to satisfy all the requirements
• Requirements, and even goals, maybe mutually conflicting
• Suggested solutions may not be culturally feasible
• The implemented requirement improves one bit of a process but worsens the overall outcome
• Requirement satisfies a group of stakeholders, but not all of them
• Continuous reinvention of the wheel

and so on.

To be of value, the business analyst needs to do much more than simply pass on a message.

Business analysts analyse business problems

The business analyst (BA) must get to the root of a problem or the essence of an opportunity. They can use the following techniques:

• Assist all parties to agree a common understanding of the business problem or opportunity that is being targeted by the project.
  • Ensure that all options for a solution address this problem or opportunity
• Negotiate with the business stakeholders and IT in order to identify an approach to a solution that recognises constraints, priorities, benefits and risks.
• Frame requirements without unilaterally imposing an arbitrary solution.