Business Analysis Glossary
-AActivity diagram
A type of flowchart, part of the UML standard, that depicts activities, their sequence, and the flow
of control.
Analysis paralysis
An informal phrase applied to when the opportunity cost of decision analysis exceeds the
benefits. In software development, analysis paralysis manifests itself through exceedingly long
phases of project planning, requirements gathering, program design and modeling, with little or
no extra value created by those steps.
Artifact
As-is modeling
Refers to gathering information about the current state of the business area being analyzed; e.g.,
current processes and data.
Assumptions and Constraints
Assumptions and constraints identify aspects of the problem domain that are not functional
requirements of a solution, and will limit or impact the design of the solution.
-BBA
Business Analyst or Business Analysis
BA Bok
Business Analysis Body of Knowledge
BA-COP
Business Analysis Community of Practice
BA CoE
Business Analysis Center of Excellence
BP/LL
Best Practices/Lessons Learned
BRD
Business Analysis Requirements Document
Business analysis
Business analysis is the set of tasks, knowledge, and techniques required to identify business
needs and determine solutions to business problems. Solutions often include a systems
development component, but may also consist of process improvement or organizational change.
Business analyst
A business analyst works as a liaison among stakeholders in order to elicit, analyze,
communicate and validate requirements for changes to business processes, policies and
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information systems. The business analyst understands business problems and opportunities in
the context of the requirements and recommends solutions that enable the organization to
achieve its goals
Business area
A naturally cohesive group of activities that share data and may cross organizational boundaries.
Business case
The first document completed during project initiation; it contains the analysis and results of
business assessments providing the justification to pursue a project opportunity.
Business process improvement
Analyzing a business process to increase its efficiency and effectiveness; identifying and
eliminating causes of poor quality, process variation, and non-value-added activities.
Business requirements
Higher-level statements of the goals, objectives, or needs of the enterprise. They describe such
things as the reason a project was initiated and the things the project will achieve.
Business requirements document
The document or artifact that captures gathered requirements and serves to communicate them.
-CCandidate solution
A suggestion that might be a good thing to do
Context diagram
Represents the entire system as if it were a single process; often used to determine a system
boundary or solution scope with stakeholders or SME’s.
Customer
The business units at all levels of the organization that identified the need for the product or
service the project will develop.
-DData flow diagram
Graphical representation of the flow of data through a manual or automated information system
which Illustrates the processes, data stores, and external entities in a business or other system
and the connecting data flows.
Data model
A model showing data requirements of a business area. An Entity Relationship Diagram is a
common type of data model.
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Elicit
The process of drawing requirements from stakeholders and SME’s
-FFeatures
A service a solution provides to meet a need. Typically high-level abstractions of solution that will
turn into functional or non-functional requirements. They allow for early prioritization and scope
management, and for getting a high-level sense of the stakeholders view of the solution.
Functional requirements
What the systems/products are, do, or provide from the customer’s point of view.
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-H- I-J–
JAD
Joint application development
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-M-
-NNon-functional requirements
Requirements that do not directly relate to the behavior or functionality of the solution, but rather
describe environmental conditions under which the solution must remain effective or qualities that
the systems must have.
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-OObject-oriented modeling
An approach to business or software engineering in which components are made up of
encapsulated groups of data and functions which can inherit behavior and attributes from other
components, and whose components communicate via messages to one another.
-PPains and pleasures
Pain – something that is currently causing frustration, lack of productivity, poor quality, etc.
Pleasure – something that is currently working well. It would be good to continue it.
Product scope
The functions or features that characterize a product or service.
Project scope
The work that must be done to deliver a product with the specified features and functions.
-QQA
Quality assurance
QC
Quality control
-RRequirements
Conditions or capabilities needed by a stakeholder to solve a problem or achieve an objective.
RFP
Request for proposal
RFQ
Request for quotations
Requirements work plan
Documents the requirements activities a business analyst will perform on a particular project,
what deliverables they will produce, and how they will control and manage changes to the
deliverables.
-SSchedule
Planned dates for performing activities and for meeting deliverables.
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Scope Creep
Gradual addition of new requirements to the original product specifications.
System development life cycle (SDLC)
Subject matter expert
A person expert in the particular business area being analyzed. SME’s are often the primary
source of requirements for a business analyst.
Solution
Something that fills a business need. Solutions do not always involve automation; they could
involve streamlining a business process, etc.
Statement of work
A narrative description of products or services to be supplied under contract
Stakeholder
Individuals and organizations that are involved in, or may be affected by, project activities.
-TTo-be modeling
Refers to analyzing and documenting the potential future state of the business area being
analyzed; processes, data, activities, how the activities would be accomplished.
Traceability
The ability to map solution components and requirements backward and forward through the
development cycle.
-UUnified modeling language (UML)
An object-oriented modeling language governed by the Object Management Group
(www.omg.org).
Use case diagram
An analytical tool consisting of text and models that describes the tasks a system will perform for
actors, and the goals the system achieves for those actors along the way.
User acceptance testing
User Acceptance Testing is typically the final phase in a software development process in which
the software is given to the intended audience to be tested for functionality. UAT is also called
beta testing, end-user testing or application testing.
- VValidate
Reviewing requirements to ensure they are correct.
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-W–
WBS
Work breakdown structure
Workflow model
Describes the tasks, decisions, inputs and outputs, people and tools involved in a specific
process.
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