Choosing the Best Analysis Technique
INFOGRAPHIC
The four key things that must be described in order to fully detail the functionality needed in a solution are:
- Data
- Processes
- People & Systems (also sometimes called External Agents or Actors)
- Business Rules
Each of the tools in your BA toolkit can help you analyze and represent one or more of these components. And since you’re not usually going to use all of these tools on a single project — how do you pick?
- Think through the core components — draft a quick list of what you think will be impacted by your project.
- Assess where to spend your time by identifying areas where you need to focus. As examples, look for areas of high risk, things that are complex, or things that might be new. This is where you should spend your time as an analyst.
- Select tools that are well-suited for analyzing your focus areas — so for a reporting project, as an example, tools like report prototypes, attribute metadata, and (maybe) something to represent rules for any relevant calculations would be useful.
- Be prepared to replan! You may learn something alone the way that will cause you to re-assess your tool selection.Since you’re not usually going to use all
This infographic provides a handy summary of the core components along with information about when various tools and techniques would be appropriate.
