Eliciting requirements: beyond the blank sheet of paper

Summary form only given. This report shows how we have successfully avoided the "blank sheet of paper" problem in eliciting business requirements. We did this in a context in which we had explicitly separated business specification ("analysis") from solution specification ("design"); in producing a precise, compact, understandable, yet complete business specification for a non-trivial business problem; and in which business analysts of a non-consulting company became self-reliant and comfortable with the approach in a reasonably short period of time. More generally, "research" terminology (e.g., "invariant", "generic relationship") essential for writing such a specification was quickly understood and freely used by all industry participants. We show how business patterns help to produce complete, explicit and rigorous business specifications understandable by both business users and system developers.