It is the responsibility of the business analyst to understand who holds the decision-making power to approve a change. The business analyst should also be aware of whom to inform or consult with regard to a requirement. It is important for the business analyst to consider that there may only be a small number of stakeholders who have the authority to approve or reject requirements or changes to requirements, but many stakeholders will have some level of influence and input into these approval decisions.

Let us consider the following example to elaborate on stakeholder roles:

A vehicle dealership is required to implement a time clocking system for their workshop staff members. 

The following stakeholders could potentially be involved in this decision:

• The service manager who is responsible for managing the workshop staff will have certain requirements for such a system. For example, they would like to be able to see how many hours each workshop staff member works per day or per week. 
• The financial manager has a list of requirements on what they would prefer to see in such a system, for example, the rate per staff member per hour. 
• The workshop staff, who will be the main users of the system, want it to be user-friendly. 

However, it remains the board of directors for that dealership that will ultimately give the final approval for a specific time clocking solution to be selected for implementation. 

In this example, it is important for the business analyst to understand that the service manager and financial manager can only support the requirements and suitability of a specific solution, but cannot approve the implementation thereof. They may, however, have some strong influence on the board of directors, who are likely to rely on their input and confirmation of which solution would fulfill their requirements best.