In today’s data-driven world, particularly for organizations dealing with large amounts of data, business analysis has played an important role in analyzing the data to provide valuable business insights, which have been known to drive increased sales, provide better customer service, and facilitate business expansion, thus ensuring the overall smooth operation of business processes.
Because of their potential to bring game-changing strategies and tactics to the table, business analysts are proving to be an essential cog in the corporate hierarchy. It is unsurprising that when it comes to the top skills to have in the last few years, business analyst skills are consistently at the top of every search result.
Therefore, if you are looking to charter a successful career as a business analyst, then enrolling in a business analyst certification is the best course of action you can take. These courses are well-formulated and meticulously planned out in such a way as to teach you the fundamentals and essential skills of business analysis while also assisting you in developing a firm understanding of the core concepts and strategies that will help you prosper in a business environment. This article provides a brief overview of the fundamental concepts and techniques involved in business analysis.
What is business analysis?
According to The International Institute for Business Analysis (IIBA), Business Analysis is the practice of bringing change in an enterprise by identifying and clearly defining needs and suggesting solutions that deliver value to stakeholders. It further elucidates that Business analysis helps an enterprise to articulate needs and the logical reasons for change and to design and present solutions that can deliver value.
Simply said, business analysis identifies organizational needs and issues and offers insightful, practical solutions to support smooth business operations.
BUSINESS ANALYSIS CORE CONCEPTS
The Business Analysis Core Concept Model (BACCM) outlays six core concepts that serve as the foundation for business analysis:
- Change
- Need
- Solution
- Context
- Stakeholder
- Value
The BACCM is defined by the IIBA and is laid out in the book – ‘A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge’ (the BABOK guide), which is a globally recognized standard for learning the concepts and practice of business analysis and is meant for professionals who perform business analysis tasks. The BACCM defines these basic concepts’ linkages in a dynamic conceptual system that serves as the functional underpinning for any typical business analysis activity. Furthermore, according to BACCM, there is no prime concept, and they are all defined by one another. As a result, no essential concept can be fully understood without comprehending the others, and they are mutually exclusive. Any modification to one of the core concepts necessitates a re-evaluation of the other five concepts and their interdependence.
THE BEST BUSINESS ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES
Business analysts assess various processes and enhance overall performance using a wide range of diverse techniques. Some of the most crucial and popular techniques a business analyst should be familiar with are listed below:
1. MOST Analysis
MOST is one of the most effective and extensively used business analysis techniques that enable business analysts to acquire a full grasp of an organization’s purpose, capabilities, and best methods for achieving their objectives. MOST is an acronym that can be expanded to:
- Mission is associated with determining the organization’s future goals and purpose. If the mission is specific, it becomes easy to analyze the remainder of the critical components.
- Objectives are individual goals that aid a company in fulfilling its mission. An objective must satisfy all four SMART criteria: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.
- Strategies are the steps taken to meet the objectives and accomplish the mission.
- Tactics are the measures taken by the organization to put the strategies into action.
2. SWOT Analysis
One popular business analysis technique utilized today is SWOT analysis. It is an abbreviated form of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats; Analysis of these elements forms the main aspect of a SWOT analysis. While Strengths and Weaknesses are “internal” aspects, and Threats and Opportunities are “external” factors, the SWOT analysis fully examines these factors, with each element assigned to a quadrant and data provided as responses for each quadrant. This strategy assists you in identifying areas of strength and weakness.
3. PESTLE Analysis
PESTLE is an abbreviation that stands for Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, and Environmental, all of which can impact corporate operations. Business analysts can use the PESTLE analysis model to examine these aspects in the real-world business atmosphere and determine the impact on the organization’s future performance. PESTLE analysis, in conjunction with SWOT, can be used to identify an organization’s weak points in dealing with external threats and suggest ways to solve them.
4. MoSCoW
MoSCoW, which elaborated on Must or Should, Could or Would, establishes priorities by giving an overview for comparing each demand to the other needs. The technique prompts business analysts to consider the necessity of a specific component. It forces one to consider whether a given product is an absolute ‘must-have’ or something that ‘should’ be considered. Is there a demand for the product that ‘could’ be improved or that ‘would’ be prudent to address in the future?
5. CATWOE
Customers, Actors, Transformation Process, Worldview, Owner, and Environmental Constraints (CATWOE) analysis is a critical business analysis technique.
- Customers are the ones who benefit from the company’s operations.
- Actors are participants in the process.
- Transformation suggests what type of transformation occurs at the center of the system
- World view is simply an evaluation of the overall situation and the potential consequences.
- Owner delves into the relationship between the system’s owner and their connection to the system
- Environmental focuses on the constraints and the overall impact they can have on the process.
Business analysts utilize this technique to examine how each proposed change would affect the various parties involved as well to aggregate the perspectives of the major participants such as key stakeholders and beneficiaries, onto one consolidated platform.
6. Six Thinking Hats
The six thinking hats are a method for analyzing a certain issue from various angles while maintaining a clear, conflict-free approach. By putting on several thinking hats and stepping outside of their typical thinking comfort zone, this technique aids business analysts in reaching constructive conclusions about how to proceed, thus bringing different perspectives and ideas to the table. The ‘six hats’ are as follows:
- Yellow encourages optimistic thinking focused mostly on positive aspects.
- White fosters rational and data-driven thinking.
- Green encourages originality and outside-the-box thinking.
- Blue focuses on the large picture and overall management.
- Red employs an emotive approach, considering one’s emotions, intuition, and instincts.
- Black focuses on the potential negative effects, mostly the cons.
7. Brainstorming
As the name implies, brainstorming is the time-tested method in which a group of specialists gathers to assess a problem, identify the core cause, and propose ideas and solutions to resolve a business issue. Brainstorming sessions are carried out in tandem with other business analysis approaches such as SWOT analysis and MOST Analysis.
8. Business Process Modeling
Business process modeling is employed to improve company processes. It is a legacy technique that is typically utilized during the project evaluation stage to detect disparities between existing and future business processes.
The BPM is made up of four tasks:
- Strategic planning
- Analyses of business models
- Defining and designing the process
- Technical evaluation for sophisticated business solutions
Now that we have discussed all the popular concepts in Business Analysis, it is time for you to decide which of these suits your company or business. Click on the link given in the introduction of this article to join the best Business Analysis course available online.
