Scott Sehlhorst (@sehlhorst) has written an excellent article titled Requirements vs Design – Which is Which and Why? Some of my own thoughts are in this post, but read Scott's article first to get the context.
One of my readers contacted me recently to ask whether business rules and user story acceptance criteria could be considered the same thing.
As an analyst, it's not enough to know what your customer wants. It is essential to unearth what the customer needs and how the customer's business will benefit by fulfilling that need.
Data modelling: start it early!
Whenever I mention data modelling on a project, everyone seems to assume I am talking about database design.
Junior requirements analysts sometimes have difficulty with how to document business rules for information systems, or indeed, with recognising them in the first place. I hope this short article helps.
Many requirements analysis specialists have little or no development or testing experience and this can lead them to forget what the real deliverable is.