Requirements Analysis and Design Definition (RADD) in Business Analysis
RADD tasks are essential for Business Analysts to develop requirements and solutions that represent value to stakeholders and align with business objectives.
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The Requirements Analysis and Design Definition (a.k.a. RADD) is a knowledge area prescribed in the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK® Guide v3) by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®). RADD knowledge area covers complementary activities from the initial concept, passing through the business need exploration, to the recommended solution.
RADD defines tasks that business analysts need to structure and organize requirements discovered during elicitation activities; specify and model requirements and designs; validate and verify information; identify solution options; and estimate its potential value. The five key Business Analysis tasks within RADD are designed to format requirements, establish solution options and estimate potential benefits. These are:
- Specify and model requirements to refine elicitation results into requirements and designs;
- Verify requirements to ensure requirements, designs specs, and models meet quality standards;
- Validate requirements to check for alignment between stakeholder, solution, and transition requirements with business requirements;
- Define requirements architecture to communicate the structure of the requirements and ensure that it supports the business objectives and can be used to produce a useful outcome for stakeholders;
- Define solution options to define the solution approach, identify business improvement opportunities, allocate requirements to solution components, and represent design options that could achieve the future state; and
- Analyze potential value and recommend solution to compare the potential value of options produced, analyse each option's costs and benefits, strategic analysis, and the effectiveness of trade-offs such as resources, constraints, and requirement interdependence.
