Top 10 Business Analysis Techniques to Use in Order to Broaden Your Professional Horizon

In the last couple of years, business analysis has experienced a major shift thanks to the innovative outlooks of business analysis procedures. No doubt, the core focus of these techniques is to ensure that there is the best outcome for business solutions in the course of a project. It is important to note that these top BA procedures are not mandated to be used throughout the phases of the project. It may simply be used in a certain phase such as the beginning or the completion of the project. Additionally, these are not all the best procedures that are applicable to all projects. In other words, these techniques are project-specific and are meant for particular project purposes.

Now, let’s look at the top 10 business analysis procedures. It’s essential to mention that they are also sometimes referred to as techniques.

1. SWOT Analysis

This is an acronym that refers to four elements, and namely Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It’s a rigorous analysis that focuses on internal factors, which include Strength and Weaknesses, and external factors, which cover Opportunities and Threats. Basically, a business analyst carries out an analysis of each of the elements in SWOT and provides answers to each of them.

SWOT analysis has some advantages that make it one of the most popular techniques used for business analysis across industries. This is easy to perform, and it is also an enterprise-level analysis procedure, which means it is not restricted to only business analysis. SWOT analysis can be used at any project stage as long as it is needed by the team.

2. MOST Analysis

This stands for Mission, Objectives, Strategy, and Tactics. This is a powerful and extensive business analysis framework. As a matter of fact, it is one of the best business analysis procedures being used by the business analysts to analyze the activities and plans of the organizations in achieving their business goals. It also focuses on what the enterprise needs to do to sustain its strategic alignment. Let’s look at each component of MOST analysis for better understanding.

Mission: As far as business goes, mission is the most important factor for an enterprise as it explores the purpose and goals of the business. With a specific mission, it becomes easy to analyze and evaluate other factors.

Objectives: These are a collection of goals that have been derived from the mission of an organization. Essentially, the objectives of an enterprise must be SMART. In other words, they must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.

Strategy: This refers to the actions or steps that an enterprise plans to take in order to attain its objectives and accomplish its mission. Technically, a strategy is a collection of tactics.

Tactics: These are basic and straightforward approaches that a company wants to take in order to carry out its strategies.

3. Use Case Modeling

This procedure is designed to pictorially illustrate how business functions will work in the proposed system via user interactions. This technique is utilized in a software development project as well as in the design phase to convert business prerequisites into practical terms in the current development project. There are various tools that are used in drawing UML diagrams, including IBM’s Rational Rose and Microsoft Visio. The major elements of Use Case Modeling in the UML diagram are System, Use case, Actors, Association, and Stereotypes.

4. Business Process Modeling (BPM)

This procedure is all about process enhancement. It is usually utilized as a business analysis procedure in the course of a project analysis phase. The technique helps the analysts understand the gaps that exist between the current business process and the future process that an organization is choosing. According to the IIBA, International Institute of Business Analysis, the BA specialists perform specific functions in the BPM project, and these functions include strategic planning, business model analysis, technical analysis for intricate business solutions, process definition, and design.

5. PESTEL Analysis

Basically, there are environmental factors that affect the strategic planning of a business. These factors are referred to as PESTEL. This word is also an acronym that stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal. Each of these points influences the final decision making in a business enterprise, which makes its analysis a critical task for the business analysts. This analysis technique is an easy and simple framework that requires the cross-functional skills of a BA specialist.

6. Brainstorming

This technique focuses on group activities involving the business analysts. It is a creative procedure that helps generate ideas, analyze root cases of problems, and propose solutions to the same. This group activity functions as an underlying technology for many other analysis techniques such as PESTEL analysis and SWOT analysis.

7. Non-Functional Requirement Analysis

This procedure is utilized when there is a change in a technology solution. For instance, migrating from one technology to another requires building from scratch. Using this technique, the business analyst will focus on system performance as well as data storage requirements to evaluate the performance factors of the proposed system for live data. This analysis is usually performed in the course of the Analysis phase of the project, and the implementation will be in the course of the Design phase.

8. Requirement Analysis

This is an aspect of the lifecycle of a project, and it often starts at the point where the stakeholders offer a solution. Here, a business analyst is required to carry out interviews to comprehend the intention of requirements, which include Questions, Captures, Workshops, and Interprets. Although it is an informal business analysis procedure, it is still very important in the successful completion of any project. Without an appropriate requirement analysis, it will be impossible for any project to perform the appropriate design and development.

9. User Stores

This technique is modern and often used in the Agile model where reiterations for requirement gathering, building & designing a project are needed. This procedure focuses on the collection of requirements from the point of view of end-users with the aim of building the best solution.

10. CATWOE

This technique is an acronym that stands for Customers, Actors, Transformation, World View, Owner, and Environmental Constraints. It is a generic way of understanding what an enterprise is trying to attain. It recognizes the problem areas as well as the way of how the solution will affect the business and people.

 

All the procedures mentioned are effective and important for the business analysts in order to expand their professional horizons.