Business process

The business process is something very important to understand before you design a system.  Sometimes you get the general idea of what the business process is but the details -- you sometimes to try and understand them little by little.  Sometimes, as you review the business process, you find loopholes as well as quirks that you haven't anticipated before.  In any case, we must try and see what needs to be addressed.  Clarifications must be done.  Sometimes through email, sometimes through face to face meetings.  That is why recording meetings is actually a pretty good idea because as discussions grow longer, you could see how complex certain parts of the process are.  Taking notes from the recordings are important so that you can figure out the salient points are, in hindsight.