While defining what necessary conditions are required to achieve the business need for a highly regulated government client, a business analyst (BA) discovers that some legacy policies will either…

Modifying the solution to comply with constraining policies may sacrifice the intended business value and does not address policies that are insufficient to support the future state at all.

In BABOK terms, when policy constraints create uncertainty about whether the full desired value can be realized, the BA should document the future state value as an assumption - a factor believed to be true but not yet confirmed. This is appropriate because the constrained policy environment means the value outcome cannot be guaranteed, and labeling it as an assumption formally flags the dependency for sponsors and stakeholders. Documenting the assumption allows future state definition to proceed while ensuring the policy risk remains visible.

Modeling two alternative future states adds scope and complexity beyond what is needed at this stage; the BA's task is to define necessary conditions and surface constraints, not to design multiple scenarios.

Obtaining approval to change government policies is outside the BA's authority and is not a feasible course of action during the requirements definition phase of the project.