Yes, I've often seen business people pick up on technical terms without really understanding what they mean. It is our responsibility to coax users into giving non-technical requirements.

Sometimes they are trying to deceive people though: Not about the spec, but about their own certitude and level of technical expertise.

> For many BAs, 'MySQL' is interchangeable with 'database' so they don't realise that a different database might be a better solution.

One minute of googling can be expected from BAs, too.

> They're phrasing the requirement in terms of their best understanding of the implementation.

Then they should say "to my knowledge MySQL is a popular database that I know of and is to my knowledge used a lot in the company, but if you know of a better implementation (I don't know much about that - I'm no computer scientist) use it instead.".

This is an opportunity to exercise some social nuance. To them, "MySQL" and "database" are equivalent, and to point out the difference is to make the social faux-pas of overspecification (somewhat of a trope for nerds like us).

By the time you're having this conversation with a BA, the DB is not going to be changed because they made some offhand reference to a different DB. They said something technically wrong, but in a way that doesn't have any meaningful effect on what they were trying to say: as such, to nitpick a detail like that may give the impression of trying to reinforce your superiority by pointing out tiny technical mistakes in their speech. So just let it go :)

Or it's the developer's job to ask "why do you say that?" - the BA thinks they're being helpful and shortcutting a decision for you; the least you could do is try to be helpful back.

> the BA thinks they're being helpful and shortcutting a decision for you; the least you could do is try to be helpful back.

Giving an exact specification is a statement that you want it this way. It is a property of an executive position to give correct instructions to the subordinates. If they are not capable to do that they are simply not qualified for their job. On the other hand: If you want feedback for your specification, ask for it. Giving instructions means "you implement it this way and I am personally responsible with my honor that this is indeed what is needed".

You seem to have a very rigid view of the business world. That is fine, but you are very likely to find yourself to be more effective if you can adopt a more flexible outlook, where you see peoples' competency in their jobs as a continuum rather than black and white, and where you see instructions as conversations rather than rigid honor-bound orders (unless you're in the military). Many have tried to make the organizations around them reflect their rigid prescriptions for how things should be done, and they mostly just succeed in making people dislike working with them.

Maybe it's like that where you work. But if I was the BA and was having to be personally responsible for something I would want to make sure that what I was specifying was actually correct by discussing it with the people who will be doing the work. Because that responsibility cuts both ways.

It would make developers (or anyone doing a job for someone else) lives substantially easier if people behaved the way you think they should, but the reality is that 99% of the time they aren't doing something that most people would consider to be lying, they're just being people.