The Basics of Proper Business Analysis

As a PM, you are charged with executing things well. In order to ascertain whether "what" you are executing is "what" the customer really needs, you need to have very good Business Analysis completed. It is your job as a PM to ensure that this has been accomplished.

Business Analysts are charged with the task of bridging "states". There is a problem state, and a solution state, and in order to ensure that we have a strong migration from problem to solution, Business Analysts do the following:

- Elicit (Get information from the customer)

- Analyze (Use analytical means to determine current state, future state, proven ways to achieve end result)

- Communicate (Discuss the analysis with team members, SME's and iteratively improve, refine the Business Requirements to ensure communication is as close to perfect as possible.

- Validate - Final walkthrough with the customer after iterative analysis to determine that the solution meets the problem.

Many times, this Business Analysis is done for the purpose of only two things:

- Increasing performance (of a system, group, process, mechanism, activity)

- Decreasing Cost with no adverse effect on overall performance (of system, group, process, mechanism, activity)