Business Analyst Community & Resources | Modern Analyst

Provenance Requirements Template

adrian — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 23:14:00 GMT

A practical, copy/paste Provenance Requirements Template for business analysts, systems analysts, and product managers building AI-enabled features. Use it to specify “Why should I believe this?” as testable requirements: citations and sources, freshness SLAs, confidence/uncertainty behavior, conflict handling, “what changed” explanations, and audit export fields. Includes ready-to-fill tables and a minimum set of validation tests so provenance becomes shippable product behavior—not a vague guideline.

Guardrails Catalog Template (with Starter Examples)

adrian — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 21:59:00 GMT

A copy/paste Guardrails Catalog you can use to turn vague AI “be safe” guidance into testable Allowed / Not Allowed requirements. Includes a blank catalog table plus 10 starter guardrails written in acceptance-criteria style (forbidden actions, restricted data, safe defaults, refusal wording, and validation steps). Designed for business analysts, systems analysts, and product managers shipping AI-enabled features.

AI Requirements Spec – Starter Template

adrian — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:55:00 GMT

This starter template is a structured, copy/paste-ready “container” for converting workshop answers into a usable requirements package that teams can actually build and test against. It provides clear sections for the most important AI requirements categories: use case and AI role; scope boundaries; users and workflow context; measurable success metrics; inputs and data sources with authoritative “source of truth” rules; access and privacy constraints (least privilege, retention, logging, and training usage); output contract (format, required fields, tone/style); guardrails (refusals, disallowed content/actions, escalation triggers); fallback behavior for low confidence; quality and non-functional requirements (metrics, thresholds, latency); testing and acceptance (golden dataset and sign-offs); monitoring and operations (signals, alerts, incident triggers); and change control (versioning, approvals, rollback, audit trail).

The template is intentionally lightweight: it helps teams document what they know, flag what they don’t know as explicit TBDs, and generate discovery tasks rather than relying on assumptions. BAs can use it as a PRD section, a Confluence page, an epic attachment, or a governance artifact—especially valuable for regulated environments where traceability, accountability, and auditability matter.

AI Requirements Starter Kit – 20 Questions Checklist

adrian — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:51:00 GMT

This checklist is a practical, BA-friendly worksheet designed to turn “Let’s add AI” into a clear, testable set of requirements before anyone commits to building. It contains 20 must-ask questions organized into the exact sequence that prevents common AI project failures: vague use cases, undefined success metrics, unclear data access, inconsistent outputs, missing guardrails, and “we’ll figure out testing later.” Each question includes a short explanation of why it matters, plus the specific output artifact you should capture (for example: a problem statement, a source-of-truth hierarchy, an access matrix, an output contract, refusal rules, escalation triggers, a golden test set, and monitoring thresholds).

The checklist is intentionally written for cross-functional workshops—BAs can run it with product, engineering, data/ML, security, and compliance in a 60–90 minute kickoff and leave with shared clarity. It’s also useful as a readiness gate: if your team cannot answer most of the questions with reasonable confidence, that is a signal to pause and do targeted discovery rather than rushing into a prototype that later creates rework, risk, or stakeholder distrust. Use it as a printable handout, a meeting agenda, or a paste-into-notes checklist.

Requirements-Friendly Data Dictionary Template

adrian — Sun, 07 Dec 2025 23:03:00 GMT

This template is intended to support capturing data requirement details (about Records and Fields) as part of the process of eliciting detailed functional requirements for an Information System.

It was developed in conjunction with the Trips-R-You Web-Based Flight Reservation System Case Study and Requirements In Context series of articles.

The fifth article in that series specifically discusses using this type of data dictionary.

The Trips-R-You Case Study Data Dictionary utilizes this template and includes over 150 example entries.

COTS Information System Detailed Requirements Template

adrian — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 23:43:00 GMT

This spreadsheet-based template is intended to support documenting detailed requirements (DTRs) discussed in the article “What Requirements Are Needed When Implementing a COTS Information System?"

A business analyst is normally expected to document requirements by describing what is needed, avoiding how a solution might satisfy them. But a selected COTS product is an existing solution. A domain-specific information system solution includes user interface (UI), data import, export, report, or automated function capabilities. Additionally, a COTS product’s selection may have been influenced in part by its inclusion of domain-independent capabilities such as configurable workflows or business rules.

A complete set of DTRs identifies which “Out-of-the-Box” (OOTB) capabilities are to be implemented as is, which need changing, which aren’t needed, and which unsupported capabilities need to be added.

The article "What Requirements Are Needed When Selecting a COTS Information System?” discusses capability-specific high-level requirements (HLRs). Those requirements are intended to be of the “What, not How” variety.

5 Reasons Why Enterprises Need Workflow Automation

HighGear — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 15:41:00 GMT

This free guide provides five reasons why enterprises should implement no-code workflow automation to dramatically streamline operations, reduce inefficiencies and achieve digital transformation.

Requirements in Context – Tool Extension Meta-Model

adrian — Sat, 06 Mar 2021 23:44:00 GMT

The purpose of this spreadsheet is to present details of a meta-model that can and has been used to extend Requirements Management (RM) or Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools. The rationale for applying these extensions is discussed in the article: Tool Support for Managing Requirements [In Context]

BABOK 3.0 Tasks vs. Techniques

snikookar — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 04:49:00 GMT

This poster provides information related to the BABOK® 3.0 Tasks vs.Techniques. This is version 2 of this poster with better quality and printable (PDF).

This poster is useful for people who want to learn about the BABOK® standard and prepare for the IIBA® exams as well as people who want to use BABOK® in their work.

Face-to-Face (F2F) and Virtual Meeting Risk Planning - Quick Reference Guide

adrian — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 23:35:00 GMT

This guide assumes that the reader is familiar with risk analysis and facilitation techniques. Note that only negative risk is addressed in this guide. Besides threats, positive risk (opportunities) may be considered by the facilitator.

Trips-R-You Case Study: Requirements for an Automated Function Example

adrian — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 02:52:00 GMT

The purpose of this spreadsheet is to present an example of detailed requirements for an Automated Function (AF). The example is part of the Trips-R-You Flight Booking Case Study. It's purpose is to provide an integrated, end-to-end set of requirement examples.

Trips-R-You Case Study: Data Import Requirements Example

adrian — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 00:09:00 GMT

The purpose of this spreadsheet is to present an example of detailed requirements for a data import interface. The example is part of the Trips-R-You Flight Booking Case Study. It's purpose is to provide an integrated, end-to-end set of requirement examples.

Trips-R-You Case Study: Data Export Requirements Example

adrian — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 23:59:00 GMT

The purpose of this spreadsheet is to present an example of detailed requirements for a data export interface. The example is part of the Trips-R-You Flight Booking Case Study. It's purpose is to provide an integrated, end-to-end set of requirement examples.

Trips-R-You Case Study: User Interface Example

adrian — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 00:36:00 GMT

The purpose of this spreadsheet is to present an example of detailed specifications for a screen-based user interface. The example is part of the Trips-R-You Flight Booking Case Study. It's purpose is to provide an integrated, end-to-end set of requirement examples.

The following case study example high-level requirements identify the need for this user interface:

Trips-R-You Case Study: Report Example

adrian — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 00:23:00 GMT

The purpose of this spreadsheet is to present an example of detailed specifications for a report. The example is part of the Trips-R-You Flight Booking Case Study. It's purpose is to provide an integrated, end-to-end set of requirement examples.

The following case study example high-level requirements identify the need for this report:

Trips-R-You Case Study: Requirements

adrian — Sun, 29 Sep 2019 20:04:00 GMT

The purpose of this spreadsheet is present an integrated, end-to-end set of requirement statement examples, based on the Trips-R-You Case Study. In IIBA® BABOK® V3 terminology, end-to-end means from Business Requirements to Stakeholder Requirements to Solution and Transition Requirements. The case study, and associated artifacts, use the more traditional business terms Goals, High-level Requirements (HLRs), and Detailed Requirements.

Trips-R-You Case Study: Data Dictionary

adrian — Sun, 29 Sep 2019 19:26:00 GMT

Section 3 begins by presenting one additional tool - a Data Dictionary. As the detail for a given HLR is discussed, the data-specific business needs involved are captured using this tool. The idea is to add entries about record types and fields (i.e. entities and attributes) the first time their need is discussed (e.g. an HLR for a specific screen or report). Once captured, those data-specific details are available for reference when those needs come up again, as they will, during discussions involving other HLRs. The detail in the data dictionary is shown to support a transition requirement for a new or updated database schema.

Business Analysis Plan - Template

Wed, 11 Sep 2019 14:12:00 GMT

Just like projects have a project management plan, business analysis should have a business analysis plan. The attached template is intended to help BAs in developing and documenting their BA planning activities in this template depending on the needs of the project.

BABOKv3 - A Summary

Alan Maxwell — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 23:21:00 GMT

A 2 page summary of the IIBA BABOKv3 information to help prepare for the CCBA + CBAP exams and as a general reference.

BABOK v3 Matrix of Task associations to: Inputs/Outputs + Techniques + Stakeholders

Alan Maxwell — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 23:49:00 GMT

A two page matrix type summary of BABOK v3 showing:
1. CRUD (create, read, update, delete) type analysis of Inputs and Outputs versus the complete Task list.
Note: The initial CRUD section separates out and shows the Guideline and Tool Inputs as a small 'r' with 'full' Inputs showing as a Capital 'R'.
2. Stakeholders versus Tasks
3. Techniques versus Tasks.

ECBA Simulation Test Set 01

lnadaptive — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 04:51:00 GMT

10 sample questions for the aspirants of the ECBA® examination from IIBA®, authored by qualified ECBA® trainers who have helped many other participants clear the ECBA® examination in the very first attempt.

CCBA Simulation Test Set 01

lnadaptive — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 04:48:00 GMT

10 sample questions for the aspirants of the CCBA® examination from IIBA®, authored by qualified CCBA® trainers who have helped many other participants clear the CCBA® examination in the very first attempt.

CBAP Simulation Test Set 01

lnadaptive — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 04:31:00 GMT

10 sample questions for the aspirants of the CBAP® examination from IIBA®, authored by qualified CBAP® trainers who have helped many other participants clear the CBAP® examination in the very first attempt.

Template for Conforming Requirements Documents to MIL-STD-962E Standards

adrian — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 02:08:00 GMT

This template provides suggestions for ensuring that requirements documents conform to the
U.S. DoD’s MIL-STD-961E standards.

Template for Writing Concise Functional Requirements Documents

adrian — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 01:58:00 GMT

This template suggests the syntax, with examples, to create concise functional requirements documents. The template covers most conditions systems that engineers will need to account for in creating systems specifications. Furthermore, the suggested formats in this template conform with the Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax (EARS).