My Daily Thoughts

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Business Analysis Principle: Traceability

Happy is he who can trace effects to their causes.
Virgil

A key principle in business analysis is traceability.

All the requirements that are gathered related to each other. Part of the reason that requirements are refined is to minimize the relationships between requirements. The more each requirement can stand on its own the more the hierarchy of the requirements emerges.

Just as everything a business analyst does is to create value, all the requirements a business analyst collects builds towards that value. With well-defined requirements, each requirement can be traced back to the use case or user story for that requirement, and that user story can be traced back to the business outcome that requirement is fulfilling.

Each requirement becomes a piece in a puzzle where the puzzle is the business value (change) that is being defined.

On the other end, when the change is being built, the development needs to be traced back to the requirements to ensure all the requirements are being satisfied.

With this clarity, the features that get built are directly related to the business outcome. Therefore, when it comes to marketing those features, it is the business outcome you sell not the feature. But I think that will be another post on its own.

Live the Adventure

Geoff

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