Airtable for Beginners: A Business Analyst's Requirements Tracker Tour
A beginner tour of Airtable for business analysts: a base with requirements, user stories, a stakeholder register and a RAID log, linked records and free views. Shown on a real Airtable base on the free plan.
Step by step
The tour
- Airtable for B As. Airtable looks like a spreadsheet but works like a database. This tour runs a project in it, with requirements, user stories, stakeholders and risks, all on the free plan.
- A base. The base here is called Online shop requirements. A base holds tables, the way a workbook holds sheets.
Tables and fields
- Tables. Each tab is a table. In the Requirements table, every row is one requirement.
- Field types. Each column is a field with a type. Priority is a single select field, so everyone picks from the same MoSCoW words instead of typing their own.
- Tables. The User Stories table holds the parts of each story (As a, I want, So that) plus its acceptance criteria. The Stakeholders table is the stakeholder register. It records each person's influence and interest. The Risks table is a RAID log, which tracks risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies in one place.
- Field types. The RAID type field keeps the 4 kinds apart, so you can filter by them later.
Linked records
- Linked records. Linking is the real power. Go back to the Requirements table to open one record. Click the expand arrow at the start of the Track my order row. The full record opens. Its User stories and its owner are linked records from the other tables. If you change a story once, it changes everywhere it is linked. Press Esc to close the record.
Views
- Views. The panel on the left lists views of the same data. Grid, kanban, calendar, gallery, list and form views are all on the free plan.
Recap
- Your project in one base. A base holds tables, tables hold records, and fields give every record the same shape. Once the tables are linked, you can trace every requirement to its user stories and owner.
Common mistakes
- Typing priority as free text. People write Must, must have or High, and filters miss half the rows. Make Priority a single select field so everyone picks from the same MoSCoW words.
- Typing names instead of linking records. If you type an owner's name into each requirement, every copy has to be fixed by hand when something changes. Link to the Stakeholders table instead, so a change in one record shows up everywhere.
- Copying data into a new table to see it another way. A kanban or calendar does not need a second table. Add a view to the same table. Views show the same records, so nothing gets out of date.
- Mixing risks, issues and assumptions with no type. In one RAID log with no way to tell the kinds apart, you can't list just the open issues. Add a single select field like RAID type and filter on it.
When a business analyst uses this
In a requirements workshop, the BA adds each agreed requirement as a record, sets its MoSCoW priority and links it to its user stories and owner from the Stakeholders table. Before sign-off, the expanded records show which requirements still have no story or owner.
Questions people ask
Is Airtable free to use?
Yes. Airtable has a free plan, and everything in this tour works on it. That includes tables, field types, linked records, and grid, kanban, calendar, gallery, list and form views.
What is Airtable used for?
Airtable is a database that looks like a spreadsheet. You keep related lists in separate tables, such as requirements, user stories and stakeholders, and link the records instead of copying data.
How do beginners start using Airtable?
Start with one base for the project and one table for each kind of thing you track. Give each field a type, link the tables together, then add views to see the same data in different ways.
