It has been an ongoing debate or area of confusion that requirements and designs are being used and elaborated upon interchangeably. In the past, we have said that you must first establish the requirements and then another role, such as a solution architect, will typically be responsible for elaborating on the design aspects of the initiative or planned solution. However, through our years of experience, we have realized that this is not always practical and not always appropriate. In some situations, requirements will be defined and elaborated initially, and, in some cases, the design will initiate further definition of more requirements. 

People are solution-driven, which means that, occasionally, design or solution sometimes drives the analysis of requirements rather than requirements being the first step in the life cycle. Regardless of whether requirements are defined up front and then designs are considered, it is important for the business analyst to understand that, in some situations, they will be responsible for doing designs (or at least part of it), as well as the requirements for a solution. It remains really important for the business analyst to always ask "why" design or a requirement is being considered and how it aligns with the business goals and objectives.

The following are some comparison examples of requirements and designs:

• Example 1:
  The requirement: View 6 months of order information across all departments in a summary report.
  The design equivalent of the requirement: A sketch of a dashboard-style user interface or screen layout.

• Example 2:
  The requirement: To capture employee personal information in a central database.
  The design equivalent: A wireframe or screen mockup showing all the required fields and general design of the screen layout.

In conclusion, the business analyst will be responsible for defining the requirements throughout the life cycle of the development of the solution. The business analyst will also be responsible for being closely involved during the design steps of the process to ensure that designs are aligning with the requirements and that they ultimately meet the business objectives of the organization.