Business Analysis

Business Analysis

Business analysis is the practice of identifying the Business needs and finding solutions to various Business problems, which add value to the Business and its stake holders.  In a simple words, Business analysis the process of understanding the needs of the business and looking for solutions to it.

Before the beginning of any project, it is very important to begin with the business analysis process.  To get start with any analysis, we need to understand why we are conducting this analysis and objective of analysis.  In the same way, business analysis also divided into multiple steps, each step have specific action to perform, principles to follow and documents to produce.

Gather Background Information: 

First we need to know the basic information like we are working for a brand new project or the existing one for required changes, basis on this we can have plan of action for gathering information.  It is very important for each and every project to gather the required background information.   Understanding the domain of the project and technical background of the project also important for this analysis.

Basis on the information that we have gathered only, we can have the plan action towards achieving the objective of the project.  It is going play the key role in the project, the success or failure of the project solely depends upon the requirements that we have gathered.

Identify Stakeholders:

Identifying the stake holders plays in important role in the project.  We need to have clear understating about the stake holders, who are associated with our project.  In general scenarios, stake holders are share holders, trustees or anyone who is sponsoring the project, senior or middle managers responsible for communication and monitoring the progress, developers, architect and testers responsible for delivering the project.  If any regulators involved that monitor adherence to rules.

Business Objectives:

Once we recognize the business objective and putting them into the plan of action will help the business analyst and project managers to stay focused on the project.  It is important to monitor the progress of the project and make any changes or corrections if required so.  Before we get into the completion state of the project, we need to conduct an analysis to conclude on the strength and weakness of the project.

Evaluate Options:

To accomplish the objective of the project, it’s important to make out the various options available.   Brainstorming and focus group meetings will help us to establish a range of opportunities available.  A business analyst can prepare a business case based on the information available, using the industry standard analysis like, Cost-benefit analysis, Impact analysis & Risk analysis.

Scope Definition:

We need to make out the scope of the project, based on the objective of the project and a team discussion.  Also we need to prepare a list of project development goals in detailed, along with a list of items that are not included in the project.

Delivery Plan:

The Project manager and business analyst will provide a detailed timelines for delivering the requirements to the development team.  Timelines will be arrived based on the stakeholders and their availability, project scope & project methodology.  Split the requirements will help to plan resources and project timelines consequently.

Define Project Requirements:

Requirements can be divided into functional and non-functional. Non-functional requirements can be documented in a business requirement document that covers performance, scalability and security. Functional requirements are provided in terms of use cases, story boards, prototypes and wire frames. Checking with stake holders how, when, where, and what is supposed to be achieved by the user will assist to arrive at requirements.

Support Implementation:

It is very much important that a business analyst should involve in the technical implementation of requirements to ensure that everything aligns.  Reviewing the technical deliverables to align with requirements, based on feedback received from the development team, update or fill in requirements to facilitate implementation.  Engage with quality analysts to ensure requirements are tested and requirements are understood and manage changes from the business owner that are requested once the initial requirements are delivered and implemented.  Facilitate user acceptance once the requirement implementation is done.

As a Business Analyst, we need to conduct thorough analysis of the business requirements of the project that we are working on it.  Basis on the analysis, make out an appropriate plan to accomplish the objective of the project.