It's surprising how many managers have difficulties expressing their expectations when comes about work processes. As a debutant business analyst I was advised that whenever I'm dealing with a team leader having trouble defining their requirements, the best thing I can do is to encourage them to note down their needs. Then after a series of discussions with their documents and the software at hand the puzzle will get resolved.
Nowadays this methodology is called agile, the requirements are collected in a written backlog during multiple iterations, attended by techies, and compared with the written definition of done. It's a common misbelief that scrum is about ignoring documentation and real team work, since the KPIs are focused on individual productivity.
Thank goodness I've had the chance to work between others in a few well-driven scrum teams. I can say that scrum is about optimizing the amount of written papers (what a new team member would need to know when joining the project), and the daily meetings are not only about educating people on the task but also about supporting them to grow.
Who is not demanding database diagrams, commented code, trackable tasks, written backlogs and priorities, is growing impediments. While a semi-structured environment offers sufficient flexibility and support for dealing with new challenges, shooting in the dark is expensive from financial point of view and toxic from HR perspective.
Since hundreds of years is known that writing down one's thoughts is a good exercise for clarifying and organizing them. Teachers and coaches engaged in developing various skills are advising people to keep a journal.
The right written document flows are battle-tested tools for making us efficient and happy, and putting down a requirement list is the best point to start from.
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