Who is responsible for requirements gathering in a project?

The Business Analyst (BA) is responsible for gathering, analyzing, and formalizing requirements. Their task is to become a bridge between the client and the development team, so both sides speak the same language and understand what needs to be built in the same way.

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#Role of the business analyst

The business analyst finds out what exactly the product must do, and formulates it as clear, measurable requirements. They translate the client's business goals into technical tasks for developers. If the client says: "Build a system so managers don't forget to call clients", the analyst turns this into specifics:

• the system must store a list of clients,
• automatically create reminders,
• log calls and statuses.

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#Main responsibilities

1. Requirements gathering Communicates with clients, users, and other stakeholders. Conducts interviews, workshops, analyzes current processes and documentation. The result is a list of the product's functions and constraints.
2. Requirements analysis Checks requirements for completeness, logical consistency, and feasibility. Sets priorities: what is needed right away, what can wait. Often uses diagrams, charts, user stories.
3. Documentation Creates a BRD (Business Requirements Document), SRS (Software Requirements Specification), or User Stories in Agile. These documents serve as the basis for architecture, test cases, and planning.
4. Development support During implementation, the analyst answers the team's questions, clarifies details, logs requirement changes. After testing, checks whether the result matches the client's expectations.

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#Who else is involved

Although the main responsibility lies with the business analyst, others take part in requirements gathering too:

• Product Owner (in Agile) - decides which features matter more and forms the backlog.
• Project Manager - makes sure requirements stay within budget and deadlines.
• Architect and tech lead - assess technical feasibility.
• QA engineers - clarify how requirements will be verified.

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#Conclusion

Requirements gathering is not just a conversation with the client, but a systematic process that the project's success depends on. The main role here belongs to the business analyst, who turns the client's wishes into concrete, verifiable tasks for the team.