Business Analysts (BA's) or Requirement Analyst can employ several techniques to elicit business requirements from the customer. This includes things as holding interviews, holding focus groups, creating requirements lists, prototyping, and use cases. Where necessary, the analyst will employ a combination of these methods to establish the exact business requirements of the all stakeholders involved, so that software that meets the business needs is produced.

Business requirements for software development must be measurable, testable, and defined to a level of detail sufficient for system design.

Outlined below are important items to keep in mind for successful requirements capture and recording:

1. There are three levels of requirements.
   • Business Requirements - High level objectives of the project which are recorded in the Vision and Scope Document 
   • User Requirements - Task and facilities available to the end user recorded in the Use Cases 
   • Functional Requirements - Detailed listing out of each behavior that the software must exhibit. This along with the quality attributes and other non-functional requirements is documented in the Software Requirements Specification (SRS).


2. Involve the end-user or customers as much as possible during the requirements capture stage.
3. Ensure that the requirements are quantifiable and measurable.
4. Prioritize Requirements by their relative importance.
5. Ensure that the project scope is clearly defined in the Vision and Scope document.
6. Establish and enforce a clear and realistic process for change management.
7. Ensure scope and clarity of requirements are in place