Who can be considered an author of requirements?

The role of an author of requirements primarily aligns with that of a business analyst. Business analysts have the specialized skills to gather, analyze, and document requirements from various stakeholders. They play a critical role in ensuring that the requirements accurately reflect the needs and expectations of the business and its stakeholders. This involves not only collecting information but also clarifying and articulating the needs in a structured format that can be effectively communicated to the development team and other relevant parties.

While stakeholders can contribute to the requirements by providing their insights and expectations, they typically do so in a collaborative manner through interviews, workshops, or review sessions rather than authoring the requirements themselves. Stakeholders often represent different areas of the business or users of the system, and their input is essential, but the formal documentation and composition of the requirements is usually the responsibility of the business analyst.

Quality assurance testers focus on validating and verifying that the requirements have been met in the final product, rather than developing those requirements. Similarly, a project sponsor may have high-level insight and influence over the overarching goals of the project, but does not engage in the creating and detailing of the requirements itself. Their role is more strategic and often focuses on funding and resources rather than the specific nuances of what the system needs to accomplish