You are working with Terry on the conduct stakeholder analysis task as part of the business analysis duties in your company. Terry wants to know why it's so important to identify stakeholders so early

Determining the reporting structure is an organizational or project management concern, not the primary driver for early stakeholder identification in business analysis.

Billing is entirely unrelated to the purpose of stakeholder identification within business analysis practice.

Identifying stakeholders early ensures their timely involvement in requirements elicitation, so their needs and expectations are captured before decisions are finalized. Missing a stakeholder until later in the process often results in incomplete requirements, scope changes, and expensive rework after work has already begun.

Ensuring stakeholders know who the business analyst is, while helpful for communication, is a secondary benefit and not the primary reason for early identification.