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Managing People, Not Just Requirements: The BA’s Role in Stakeholder Success
Business Analysts do more than gather requirements — they build trust, align perspectives, and guide projects toward meaningful outcomes through strategic stakeholder engagement.
Hey fellow BAs! How’s your stakeholder line-up looking this week? Got the “I need it yesterday” exec, the “just make it pretty” designer, and the “I didn’t ask for that” user? Welcome to the wonderful world of Business Analysis — where the real skill isn’t just defining requirements… it’s decoding humans.
Early in my BA career, I walked into a workshop thinking my job was to gather requirements. Simple, right? By the end of the session, I’d witnessed a Product Lead, an IT Architect, and a QA Manager all passionately argue about the same feature — each convinced their perspective was the priority. That’s when it hit me: I wasn’t just missing alignment — I was missing a core skill altogether. I needed to learn how to manage people, not just processes. That moment changed everything. I realised that truly effective Business Analysts aren’t just facilitators — we’re mediators, and relationship-builders.
