What is Business Analysis?

Business analysis may be performed to understand the current state of an organization or to serve as a basis for the later
identification of business needs. In most cases, however, business analysis is performed to define and validate
solutions that meet business needs, goals, or objectives.

Business analysis involves understanding how organizations function to accomplish their purposes, and defining the
capabilities an organization requires to provide products and services to external stakeholders. It includes the definition
of organizational goals, how those goals connect to specific objectives, determining the courses of action that an
organization has to undertake to achieve those goals and objectives, and defining how the various organizational units
and stakeholders within and outside of that organization interact.

Business analysis may be performed to understand the current state of an organization or to serve as a basis for the later
identification of business needs. In most cases, however, business analysis is performed to define and validate solutions
that meet business needs, goals, or objectives. Business analysis involves understanding how organizations function to
accomplish their purposes, and defining the capabilities an organization requires to provide products and services to
external stakeholders. It includes the definition of organizational goals, how those goals connect to specific objectives,
determining the courses of action that an organization has to undertake to achieve those goals and objectives, and
defining how the various organizational units and stakeholders within and outside of that organization interact.

Acceptance and Evaluation Criteria Definition

Brainstorming
Business Rules Analysis
Data Dictionary and Glossary
Data Flow Diagrams
Data Modeling
Decision Analysis
Document Analysis
Interviews
Metrics and Key Performance Indicators
Non-functional Requirements Analysis
Organization Modeling
Problem Tracking
Process Modeling
Requirements Workshops
Scenarios and Use Cases

Other Sources of Business Analysis Information:

Agile Development▶▶
Business Intelligence▶▶
Business Process Management▶▶
Business Rules▶▶
Decision Analysis and Game Theory▶▶
Enterprise Architecture (including the Zachman Framework for Enterprise ▶▶Architecture™ and TOGAF™)
Governance and Compliance Frameworks, including Sarbanes-Oxley, Basel II, and ▶▶others
IT Service Management (including ITIL®)▶▶
Lean and Six Sigma▶▶
Organizational Change Management▶▶
Project Management▶▶
Quality Management▶▶
Service Oriented Architecture▶▶
Software Engineering (particularly Requirements Engineering)▶▶
Software Process Improvement (including CMMI®)▶▶
Software Quality Assurance ▶▶
Strategic Planning▶▶
Usability and User Experience Design