Business Requirements at the Core: Where Analysis Begins

Sometimes you start a new initiative with no clear starting point—no defined business requirements, no shared understanding of what’s needed, and no common vision among stakeholders. The absence of this foundation can make it difficult to begin analysis activities with confidence.

Ambiguity is common and even expected at the outset, but without clarity on the why behind an initiative, it’s easy for teams to rush into solutioning or head in the wrong direction. When business requirements aren’t clearly documented, they still exist somewhere—embedded in conversations, strategy documents, or organizational goals. The analyst’s task is to uncover and articulate them.

This article explores how to find those elusive business requirements, use them to guide your analysis, and reconnect your work to what your customers truly need.

Start with the Big Picture

In the rush to deliver results and meet deadlines, it’s tempting to jump straight into solution details. Analysis goes beyond listing system features; it’s about identifying and solving the right problem.

Business requirements are the highest-level requirements and the foundation upon which initiatives are built. They express stakeholder needs at a strategic level, describing what must be achieved without offering solutions or implementation details.

As a result, this big-picture view helps business analysis professionals avoid premature detail and maintain strategic alignment. They set the direction and provide the baseline for deeper analysis. When done well, they ensure that every requirement that follows delivers real value.

Before diving into elicitation activities, pause to ask: What is the organization trying to achieve? Why now? That perspective sets the stage for where to look next.

Where to Find Business Requirements

Business requirements will form the backbone of your elicitation approach. They offer a holistic view of your analysis area, capturing both the current state and the desired future.

Yet, despite their importance, it’s very common for initiatives to begin without them being clearly defined. When this foundational information is missing, the project can easily veer off course, chasing solutions that don’t address the real need.

As the business analysis professional, it’s your responsibility to uncover these requirements. Doing so may take time and persistence, but the payoff is clarity, alignment, and a stronger path forward.

So, where do you begin? Where might you find business requirements? Let’s examine three ways.

1. Start with document analysis of your project documentation

Often, the strategic documents created by leaders or project managers define the value the project aims to deliver and highlight the core problem to be solved.

• Documents such as business cases and project charters provide the rationale for the project
• Vision statements and corporate strategy documents can reveal the long-term direction
• Even Requests for Proposal (RFPs) or Invitations to Tender (ITTs) typically include sponsor objectives, high-level scope, and success criteria that point toward business needs

By analyzing the gap between these strategic documents and the current state, business analysis professionals can uncover meaningful business requirements.

2. Talk with stakeholders

Conversations reveal what documents often don’t. Interviews and discussions can uncover priorities, success criteria, and the outcomes that matter the most. The stakeholders who requested the project may have specific outcomes in mind, but to gain a broader view of what’s needed, be sure to identify and speak with other types of stakeholders as well:

• Sponsors often have the clearest understanding of the strategic drivers behind an initiative
• Operational stakeholders bring practical insights about pain points, opportunities, and user needs
• Stakeholders that are indirectly impacted can provide valuable perspectives on risks, dependencies, and unintended consequences

Together, all these perspectives help shape a well-rounded understanding of the business context and ensure that your requirements reflect the needs of the whole system, not just a single viewpoint.

3. Understand the external factors shaping business requirements

Often, those external factors create constraints or barriers that, if ignored, can lead to costly consequences. These include regulatory penalties or missed market opportunities.

• Market trends may reveal what customers—and even your customers’ customers—are demanding, such as better service, digital experiences, or faster response times
• Regulatory and legal requirements can impose strict compliance obligations that must be addressed early to avoid risk
• Competitive pressures can push the organization to innovate, reduce costs, or improve speed to stay relevant in the market

Understanding these external forces helps ensure that business requirements reflect not only internal goals but also the realities of the broader environment in which the organization operates.

Modelling the Requirements

Once you've identified and developed business requirements, the next challenge is keeping them visible, understandable, and aligned with the bigger picture. This is where modelling becomes valuable.

Models help translate abstract ideas into structured visuals and statements that guide analysis and communication. They serve as a kind of north star, ensuring that as you move into more detailed requirements, you stay anchored to the original business need.

Here are a few models that are helpful in the early stage of your initiative:

• Context diagrams help define scope boundaries and external actors
• Business objectives maps connect goals to underlying problems and opportunities
• High-level process models illustrate both the current and future states

These models help you capture business requirements in a way that’s concise and free from a solution bias, keeping the focus on what the business needs, not how it will be delivered.

Why Business Requirements Matter

Even when business requirements aren’t documented at the start, they’re still there. They’re embedded in strategy, conversations, and organizational context. The business analysis professional’s job is to uncover, model, and connect them to the project's purpose.

Well-documented business requirements provide the foundation for systems thinking. They help business analysis professionals avoid contradictions and ensure that all requirements are fit for purpose. Only after high-level business requirements are defined can analysts move into more detailed requirements.

This alignment ensures that those details support strategic goals and deliver real business value. Impact analysis also becomes more efficient, and validation is more successful when detailed requirements are derived from business requirements.

When business requirements are at the core, every step in analysis—from elicitation to modelling to validation—is guided by clarity, alignment, and the promise of real outcomes.

Turn insight into action with IIBA’s KnowledgeHub. Access expert “how-to” content, global standards like the BABOK Guide, and practical tools to elevate your impact. Start your free 7-day trial today.

About the Author

Giorgos Sioutzos works in the business consulting industry as a business analyst. He has experience in projects from different sectors and holds a BSc in Management Science and Technology from the Athens University of Economics and Business and an MSc in International Business & Management. He has published numerous articles about business and technology issues in Greek and foreign media.