Interface analysis for Business Analysts

An interface is an association between two or more solutions or components.
Interface analysis is used to recognise why, where, when, what, whom, and for how information is dealt between solution elements.

Most solutions require one or more interfaces to trade information with other business processes, solution elements or organisational units.

There are different types of interfaces:

1. User interfaces: in this type of interface external & internal end users have to report directly with the solution. External end users include auditors and industry regulators while Internal users are the organisational staff.
2. Non-user interfaces: these include application programming interfaces (APIs), hardware devices, data interfaces between systems, and business processes.

The following questions are answered using Interface analysis:

1. How the interface should be implemented.
2. When the information will be exchanged and how often it would be exchanged.
3. What information is being exchanged through the interface.
4. The amount of information being exchanged
5. Who would use the interface.
6. Why the interface is needed.
7. Where the information exchange would happen.

Interfaces should be recognised beforehand in the initiative to permit the BA to provide the situations for gathering more comprehensive stakeholder requirements, and determining on appropriate functional analysis of the solution to meet the stakeholder needs.

Prompt identification of interfaces needs indicates which stakeholders will gain from the different elements of the solution, It helps BA to decide which stakeholders should be existing for other elicitation techniques.