Great Business Analysis Techniques to Make Your Project Unique

Business analysis techniques have come a long way in the past few years, new methodologies have surfaced and brought a lot of changes to the IT field. Every new technique and methodology that is applied in business analysis has just one purpose and that is to make sure that you get only the best possible outcomes for a particular business solution.

Another thing that you need to understand is that it is not necessary to use every possible business analysis technique in a single project. There will be times when you will need to use these techniques in particular phases. There are a lot of BA methodologies out there, and here we are going to talk about the top ten.

CATWOE

This is basically a way of thinking that a business analyst uses to understand what a business is actually trying to do and achieve. With the help of CATWOE, the specialists can understand the problem areas and then study the impact of the solution on the business. CATWOE stands for:

• Clients
• Actors
• Transformation
• Weltanschauung or World View
• Owner
• Environmental Constraints

The main advantage of this technique is that it allows all the stakeholders to come on one platform and put forward their perceptions and understandings regarding the business. With this approach, the business analysts can get a holistic view of business and then prioritize different aspects of it.

User Stories

This is one of the latest business analysis techniques, and it is most commonly used in the Agile model. Here, you use an iteration-based model to gather requirements, build the project, and design it. With this technique, the requirements are collected from the user’s point of view. Since all the requests are gathered from the individuals therefore the final outcome or application is much more user-centric and can easily satisfy the users.

Requirement Analysis

It mainly begins when the stakeholders of business propose solutions for a problem. Requirement analysis is a very important part when it comes to the project lifecycle because, otherwise, you will not be able to build the right project. According to this technique, the analysts will need to hold a series of interviews to get a deeper understanding of the requirements.

Requirement analysis is an informal business analysis technique, but this doesn’t mean that it is less important. If it is not done correctly, the project cannot move forward properly, and that is why it is considered to be one of the main phases of any project.

PESTLE Analysis

A business can be affected by a number of environmental factors, and that is where PESTLE Analysis comes in play. It stands for:

• Political
• Economic
• Social
• Technological
• Legal
• Environmental

If this technique is done properly, it can reduce the potential threats of any organization.

Non-Functional Requirements Analysis

This is mainly done when the technology that was previously used in the project is no longer in use and is replaced by another. In this case, the business analyst focuses on data storage and system performance requirements to understand how a system is going to perform for live data. This phase is usually applied in the project during the design phase. This is perhaps one of the easiest business analysis techniques. But you should not forget about its importance because without Non-Functional Requirements Analysis it can be very difficult to reach positive results in any project.

Brainstorming

This technique is done in a group, and normally, the multiple business analysts are a part of this session. During Brainstorming, every participant generates new ideas and puts forward their solutions for a particular problem. No matter which other business analysis techniques you use, this one is a part of it in the background almost every time.

Use Case Modelling

Another business analysis technique that you need to know is Use Case Modeling. With this one, the business analyst diagrammatically understands how a business needs to work with user interactions. It is very commonly used in software development projects. There are a lot of tools that you can find that will help you draw UML diagrams. With the help of a UML use case diagram, you can understand the scope of functionality.

Business Process Modelling

BPM mainly focuses on a process improvement. This business analysis technique is mainly used during the analysis phase. The business analysts mainly perform the following tasks with this important methodology:

• Technical Analysis;
• Strategic Planning;
• Business Model Analysis;
• Defining Process and Design.

MOST Analysis

This is considered one of the best business analysis techniques that the organizations can use. With the help of MOST Analysis, you can understand the purpose and ability of any company. MOST stands for:

• Mission
• Objective
• Strategy
• Tactics

SWOT Analysis

Lastly, we have SWOT Analysis that is used by a lot of industries out there, and it is quite simple in use. It is not just limited to business analysis as it is an enterprise-level analysis technique. SWOT stands for:

• Strength
• Weakness
• Opportunities
• Threats

Conclusion

These were the top business analysis techniques that you need to know about. Analysis is an important part of any business because it helps you understand it in a much better way. There are a number of business analysis certifications that you can go for. They include PMI-PBA, ECBA, CCBA, and CBAP. If you will have one of these credentials or even several of them and know about the techniques we have explored in this blog post, the additional methodologies or unpopular ones will be much easier for your understanding. The most important thing in this case is not to be afraid of new information and skills that are still unknown to you.