Environment Portal

Those BAs who work solely on developing software systems may be called IT Business Analysts, Technical Business Analysts, or Systems Analysts.

Business analysis sub-disciplines

Business analysis as a discipline has a heavy overlap with requirements analysis sometimes also called requirements engineering, but focuses on identifying the changes to an organization that are required for it to achieve strategic goals. These changes include changes to strategies, structures, policies, processes, and information systems.

Examples of <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/article_exit_link']);” href=”http://www.businessanalystfaq.com”>business analysis</a> include:

Enterprise analysis or company analysis
focuses on understanding the needs of the business as a whole, its strategic direction, and identifying initiatives that will allow a business to meet those strategic goals.

<a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/article_exit_link']);” href=”http://www.businessanalystfaq.com”>Requirements planning and management</a>
involves planning the requirements development process, determining which requirements are the highest priority for implementation, and managing change.

Requirements elicitation
describes techniques for collecting requirements from stakeholders in a project.

<a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/article_exit_link']);” href=”http://www.businessanalystfaq.com”>Requirements analysis</a>
describes how to develop and specify requirements in enough detail to allow them to be successfully implemented by a project team.

Requirements communication
describes techniques for ensuring that stakeholders have a shared understanding of the requirements and how they will be implemented.

Solution assessment and validation
describes how the business analyst can verify the correctness of a proposed solution, how to support the implementation of a solution, and how to assess possible shortcomings in the implementation.

Business analysis techniques

There are a number of techniques that a Business Analyst will use when facilitating business change. These range from workshop facilitation techniques used to elicit requirements, to techniques for analysing and organising requirements.

Some of these techniques include:

PESTLE

This is used to perform an external environmental analysis by examining the many different external factors affecting an organisation.
The six attributes of PESTLE:

Political (Current and potential influences from political pressures)
Economic (The local, national and world economy impact)
Sociological (The ways in which a society can affect an organisation)
Technological (The effect of new and emerging technology)
Legal (The effect of national and world legislation)
Environmental (The local, national and world environmental issues)

MOST

This is used to perform an internal environmental analysis by defining the attributes of MOST to ensure that the project you are working on is aligned to each of the 4 attributes.
The four attributes of MOST

Mission (where the business intends to go)
Objectives (the key goals which will help achieve the mission)
Strategies (options for moving forward)
Tactics (how strategies are put into action)

SWOT

This is used to help focus activities into areas of strength and where the greatest opportunities lie. This is used to identify the dangers that take the form of weaknesses and both internal and external threats.
The four attributes of SWOT:

Strengths – What are the advantages? What is currently done well?
Weaknesses – What could be improved? What is done badly?
Opportunities – What good opportunities face the organisation?
Threats – What obstacles does the organisation face?