Bridging Requirements Gaps
Mind the Gap
How do business analysts miss requirements?
Toni Martin posed that question to Laura Brandenburg, Founder and CEO of Bridging the Gap, a leading business analysis education and information company. Laura replied she had given the question a lot of thought, starting with techniques, skills, and multiple perspectives. She next mentioned that different perspectives such as business processes, functional and data requirements help fill in requirements. Then she said it comes back to understanding the project’s business objectives, asking, “Why are we doing this project?” and “What are we trying to accomplish?” The answers to these questions help business analysts see the big picture with a broader context to identify requirements gaps.
An Unasked Question has No Answer
Asking the “big why” about the project and what it intends to accomplish helps business analysts start the discovery process. Laura noted that some business analysts don’t ask good questions to avoid appearing ignorant to the other stakeholders. However, these analysts regret withholding the question when it results in a missing requirement and incomplete solution.
When business analysts understand business needs from an incumbent solution, documents, and reports, they can overcome their perceived ignorance. They also have a deeper context for asking questions.
What Makes Questions “Right?”
Toni and Laura had their conversation at the Fall 2021 SFBA Summit in the session “Asking the Right Questions for Requirements with Laura Brandenburg.” The “right questions...”
Get asked by business analysts
Pertain to the business goal or objective
Are not clearly answered in an incumbent solution, documents, and reports
Some questions may relate to the business goal or objective indirectly through layers of business needs. Therefore, the business analyst should develop the big picture by connecting business needs to goals.
The breadth of a project’s big picture combined with the depth of preliminary research gives business analysts confidence to ask enough questions to fulfill requirements.
This article touches on fully covering requirements by asking the right questions. For insight into asking the questions right, see Discovering Success with Stakeholders.
The “Asking the Right Questions for Requirements with Laura Brandenburg” video is available with an all-access pass to the Fall 2021 SFBA Summit.