Business requirements are the result of strategic business analysis
historically (e.g. in the waterfall approach) strategic business analysis It was preparatory work prior to a project or initiative.
The purpose of the strategic business analysis was to clearly define the scope and goals of the proposed IT project. If the initial feasibility analysis determined that the project was unlikely to result in positive outcomes for the organization, the project was canceled. If the outcome was project approval, Strategic Business Analysis provided high-level business requirements.
According to the IIBA® definition, a “business requirement” defines an outcome that benefits an organization as a whole or a specific subset.
Whether you call it ‘strategic business analysis’ or create ‘business requirements’, you have to decide whether to solve a particular problem or take advantage of an opportunity.
Decision makers at this level of detail are typically senior executives or owners of the organization. At this high level, software development methodologies (SDM) have limited impact on the decision-making process.
Examples of business requirements for a start-up marketing company are:
Increase market share by 25% by the end of 2022 by actively leveraging social media.
This structure specifies:
- what What the organization wants to achieve (increase market share by 25%)
- when They want to achieve it (by the end of 2022)
- how They expect to achieve it (through active use of social media)
Note that both goals (WHAT) and timeframes (WHEN) are expressed in measurable terms.
A good guide for describing business requirements is the SMART acronym. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timebound. Business requirements are primarily used by managers to determine their willingness to invest resources to achieve desired results.
