Business analysis identifies a company’s changing business needs and formulates workable solutions to identified business problems. New business needs may surface through external pressure from competitors, or from management’s recognition of internal pain points and desire to increase productivity and reduce costs.
The tools/ methods listed below have been applied on a wide range of client projects, inc Mobile Applications – to eliminate field staff’s paperwork, Process Automation – web enabled commercial bank account opening application & investment banking – trade settlement application, Risk Management Application – requirement specification, Commercial Websites – design & implementation, Investment Banking – process improvement (risk mitigation) & recent GDPR Process Discovery & Risk Mitigation Projects.
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In our view, the most effective techniques used by business analysts, depending on the situation, include: CATWOE, SWOT, Process Modelling, Entity Relationship Modelling, User Stories, Use Case Diagrams and Descriptions, Prototyping, Workshops, Mind Maps, Interviewing, Organisation Diagrams, Scenario Analysis, Cost Benefit Analysis and Prioritisation. We explain each one in more detail below.
Top Business Analysis Techniques explained.
CATWOE – a powerful method used to surface different perspectives from stakeholders prior to starting, and during a “change” project. Avoids the impact of unresolved differences undermining future efforts to introduce better processes and systems, by facilitating group consensus/ understanding. Often used to inform a Business Activity Model to enable managers to understand how different perspectives might pan out conceptually.
SWOT – a well known and useful tool especially with a precursory PESTLE exercise for the external perspective, and the Resource Audit to uncover strengths and weaknesses.
Business Process Modelling – Investigation, analysis and prototyping with OPAL technique, formal documentation via swim-lane or UML activity diagrams, sometimes used with BPMN method.
Entity Relationship Modelling – provides an analyst with an understanding of the entities (and their data attributes) used within an organisation, that might need to be stored and processed in a system. ERM provides a view of the business rules that dictate the creation, processing and deletion of an organisation’s data.
User Stories – a shortened description of a user’s needs to be met by a new system, best practise includes a description of the business benefit involved. They are often captured in a requirements management application like JIRA. Eg As a (user’s s job title),…. I want (functional description),….. so that (business benefit to user).
Use Case Diagrams – supports the scoping of a system’s boundaries, the functionality required from the system, by the actors proposing to work with it.
Use Case Descriptions – describes in a variety of levels of detail how a happy day scenario (primary route) would flow, and how alternative flows could work should the circumstances deviate from the ideal.
Prototyping – the production of mock-ups, models, wireframes, visual designs etc to establish requirements, confirm expectations and test achievability of objectives. Approaches may vary depending on the situation, from rapid/ throw away to evolutionary prototyping where the model is refined in an iterative manner, until eventually being fit for purpose.
Workshops – a popular method of exploring differences in perspective and considering potential business and systems related solutions. Must be properly facilitated to be most effective.
Mind Maps – a powerful visual and shorthand method to capture the full scope of a discussion or ideas under consideration, and the structured relationships between the topics or aspects covered.
Interviewing – with the appropriate interpersonal skills applied, and sufficient advanced preparation, can be used to surface political issues and tease out detail that may not be appropriate for a workshop. A great opportunity for an analyst to build relationships with stakeholders and establish credibility.
Organisation Diagram – this model reveals who the customers, owners, suppliers and competitors of a proposed business system are, along with the main high-level processes involved, to be explored in more detail via other methods. The analysis of system’s “customer groups” provides valuable insight into their widely diverse needs and requirements.
Scenario Analysis – its often difficult for business users, when put on the spot, to articulate their requirements, because what is a “given” in their environment may not be obvious to the analyst. Exploring scenarios helps them think about how stuff gets done now, how exceptions to the rule are handled now, what is wrong with the current procedure and what needs to change.
Cost Benefit Analysis – often included in the options analysis section of a business case. Tangible benefits and costs linked to their delivery need to be valued credibly, with Intangible benefits stated as realistically as possible to support confident decision making.
Prioritisation – no organisation can implement everything at once, this method supports management decision making to enable deployment of limited resources in the most cost-effective way.