On the journey known as Business Analysis, outlines are the gas stations. Templates are the fast food restaurants.
The next time you begin a Business Analysis document, first fill up the tank. Outline that document. When you run out of outline, stop writing or get some more outline.
If you are writing a System Requirement Specification, or a Test Plan Document, or a Technical Solution Design, you may want a template as well. This is much like the craving you get for doughnuts or a hamburger while on a road trip. You navigate the drive-thru, they hand you a bag and you're back on the road. You have everything you need.
Except nutrition. By the end of the journey, if you rely on fast food, you will feel a little sick.
By the end of a project, if you rely on templates, the quality of your work will suffer.
An employer or esteemed colleague or corporate custom may insist on use of a template. Okay. Use it correctly: as an outline, not as a form.
You already have a content outline. The template will be your structure outline. Merge the content into the structure. If this leaves bare structure, lacking content, then you have more research and outlining to do. More likely, you will have content beyond the structure. Appendixes will hold any of this if the template must remain intact.
A template may look like a form, but it is not a form. It is fast food on your journey to meet a business need. Forms have little boxes that tell you how much to write. Fill-in-the-blank, and you are done. No need to think too much about what you are writing - just leave no blanks.
You can be paid for work like that, and you can call junk food a meal. That is the tyranny of templates.
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