What Techniques Do Business Analysts Use?



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DESCRIPTION:
Although the field of IT Business Analysis offers great career opportunities for those seeking employment, some business analysis skills are essential for any adult in the business world today. For example, the task of defining the requirements for an IT solution is handed to Business Analysts as well as Subject Matter Experts, Developers, System Analysts, Product Owners, Project Managers, Line Managers, or any other business expert. Applying business analysis techniques to define their business needs results in much higher chances for a successful IT project.

In this KnowledgeKnugget™ you will learn what business analysis techniques and tools are most commonly used around the world based on surveys of actual business analysts.

This KnowledgeKnugget™ answers questions like:
1. What are the primary activities in business analysis?
2. What tools or techniques do they use?

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PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:
Business analysis is the process of studying a business or any other organization to identify business opportunities / problem areas and suggest potential solutions. A wide range of people with various titles, roles and responsibilities actually apply business analysis techniques within an organization.

There are three fundamentally different flavors or levels of business analysis:

1. Strategic Business Analysis (aka Enterprise Analysis) ( )
2. Tactical Business Analysis (
3. Operational Business Analysis ( Business Analysis)

Strategic Business Analysis is the study of business visions, goals, objectives, and strategies of an organization or an organizational unit to identify the desired future. It encompasses the analysis of existing organizational structure, policies, politics, problems, opportunities, and application architecture to build a business case for change. This analysis employs business analysis techniques such as Variance Analysis, Feasibility Analysis, Force Field Analysis, Decision Analysis, and Key Performance Indicators to support senior management in the decision-making process.

The primary outcome of this work is a set of defined, prioritized projects and initiatives that the organization will undertake to create the desired future. If the initiative includes the development of software using an Agile Software Development Methodology (SDM) ( strategic business analysis techniques identify themes and/or epics, and initiate a product backlog.

Tactical Business Analysis is at the project or initiative level to flush out the details of the proposed solution and to ensure that it meets the needs of the business community. Commonly used business analysis techniques at this level include Stakeholder Identification ( Interviewing ( Facilitation ( Baselining, Coverage Matrices, MoSCoW Analysis ( Benchmarking, Business Rules Analysis, Change Management, Process and Data Modeling ( and Functional Decomposition (

In an Agile environment, Tactical Business Analysis adds to the Product Backlog and/or Release Plans expressed in Themes, Business Epics, Architecture Epics, User Stories ( and User Story Epics. In a traditional setting, the primary outcome of Tactical Business Analysis is a set of textual and/or modeled Business and Stakeholder Requirements (

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