Does Anyone Read a Requirements Specification Anymore?

The requirements sign-off process needs human interaction. The best way to achieve a good understanding of the requirements by the relevant stakeholders is to use new ways of engaging with people. 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect the perspectives of IIBA.

I’ve been working in the business analysis space since 1999. Back then, computers had a maximum capacity of two or three gigabytes, and most requirements were handwritten. Sometimes, the actual sign-off was on a piece of paper. Those were also the days when people would read books, magazines, and periodicals, and visit libraries.

Fast forward to today, and people’s attention spans have decreased to the point where finishing a book in a month is quite an achievement. Yet as a business analysis professional, I’m still writing requirements specifications, sometimes consisting of more than 100 pages. These explain the business need/problem and document the proposed ways of addressing it, mostly by either changing the existing IT system or implementing a new one.

Every time I write these specifications, I wonder who will read them and whether I’ll be able to hold their attention long enough for them to grasp the details.

This article is neither a critique of current behavioural patterns nor a suggestion for correcting them. Rather, it’s a proposal to implement new methods of stakeholder engagement, based on my own revisions to the requirements specification task.