Investigating the Role of Business Analysts Competencies into Strategic Business Requirements Gathering

Competency of a business analyst plays a crucial role in requirements elicitation, particularly now when the information systems are developed to support strategic business goals. However, as yet, there has been little research into the relationship between competencies of business analysts and requirements elicitation. In this study, a scenario-based approach has been used for the collection and documentation of requirements from the perspective of ten stakeholders of a business system with the emphasis on strategic goals. The 30 business analysts having senior, intermediate and junior level of competencies were recruited for this purpose. The results indicate that senior business analysts, overall, perform better than intermediate and junior business analysts in relation to pursing key stakeholders for the collection of holistic view of the organisation. Senior business analysts tend to approach senior management of the enterprise to collect strategic business goals whereas the intermediate and junior business analysts appear more focused on middle and operational level management for the collection of technical requirements. The results conclude that the senior business analysts are important to be involved in the crucial activity of requirements elicitation if we want to develop an information system that is supportive to the strategic direction of the organisation.