What is Business Analysis?

Until I got into the tech field, I thought Business Analysis simply meant Analyzing Businesses.

Analysis

I mean come on, the name suggests that, but it is totally far from it. In my own words, I’d say Business Analysis is simply translating business problems into solutions via using a research. The desired outcome might be process improvement, creating a software or even creating a new department policy.

Basically, Business analysis can be termed a research discipline, which assist organizations in finding the business needs and defining solutions to business problems. Although, there is a component of Business Analysis that involves a software-systems development. So it is important to note that it is far from only researching.

So what a Business Analysis process does is that it gives you an overview into the early framework of any project in your organization. However, to be a successful Business Analyst, one must know the importance of Business Analysis. So here are some of the importance:

- What BA does is that it helps you know the areas that need change and also helps in establishing the fact that change is needed.
- BA helps an organization in achieving its goal of solving problems and finding ways of delivering value.
- Through the kinds of projects you’d be working on, BA helps you know the kinds of issues departments are trying to solve and the target audience for such solutions.
- Because of the stakeholders you’d be working it, BA helps you to understand your organization as you get to actually know the dynamics and how your org works.
- It helps you think critically as you solve problems in real life.

As many other discipline, Business Analysis also has its own techniques and Business Analysts use these techniques to analyze what needs to be achieved and how it can be achieved.

It is often advise to be a master of at least any three of these techniques as they will definitely come in handy when you need them.

1. SWOT

This is one of the most common techniques as it is also used in Project Management, Human Resources etc. The full meaning is Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. What this technique does it that it helps to find areas where an organization or department or unit has both strengths and weaknesses and tries to capitalize on it.

2. PESTLE

Pestle is actually also common in Human Resources. It simply stands for (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, and Environmental). Rather than looking inward, this technique will help you evaluate all external factors that can affect a project or a new process and also look at ways with which it can solved.

3. MOST

This is a short form of Mission, Objectives, Strategies and unlike PESTLE, you use this technique to look inward. Basically, you look at the mission, objectives and strategies and how they can be achieved.

4. The 5 Whys

The 5 whys stems from asking questions and looking at the root cause of an issue. It is somewhat related to six sigma.

Five whys is an iterative interrogative technique used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem. The primary goal of the technique is to determine the root cause of a defect or problem by repeating the question "Why?". Each answer forms the basis of the next question. Wikipedia

5. MoSCoW

This techniques is far from Russia. It simply means: Must or Should, Could or Would and is a long-form of MosCow. This technique allows you to prioritize requirements by comparing and contrasting each requirement and asking the question of why it is needed.

A typical Business Analysis process would look like this:

1. Gather Information
2. Identify Stakeholders that are involved
3. Discover the Business Objectives
4. Evaluate the options that are available
5. Define the scope
6. Provide a detailed Timeline of deliverables
7. Define the Project Requirements
8. Implementation of Requirements
9. Evaluation of Business Outcomes