As business analysts, we deal with people, processes, and technology. We have to listen to user stories and understand their needs. Separate their wants from their needs. What is actually required as compared to their wants? Most importantly, what is actually possible with respect to their budget?
During communication between professionals as well as end users, we use different terms and jurgans. I listed some of them here.
Here is a list of some common terminology that you might come across in a business analysis glossary:
- Business Analyst: Consider a specialist who understands the organization’s processes, procedures, existing systems, and goals and provides the solution.
- Stakeholders: people or groups of people who have involvement in both ownership and investment and direct efficacy of the success or failure of the system.
- Requirements: detailed statements that explain the functions, processes, and pain areas of the end user or group of users.
- SWOT Analysis: Decision-making tools that help organizations identify their strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities
- Use Case: A use case is a sample event or process, or an example of documenting the interaction of a system or process with actors, users, or systems.
- Gap Analysis: difference between the actual system functionality provided by the system and the requirements that come from stakeholders
- Agile: A project management approach for requirement gathering, development, testing, and delivery to the end user that focuses on flexibility, collaboration, and customer feedback.
- Waterfall: A transition to requirement gathering, software development, and implementation Linear and sequential framework.
- Business Process Modeling: The graphical representation of business processes for the purposes of understanding, analyzing, and improving them.
- ROI (Return on Investment): measure the profit or value gained from an investment.
- KPI (Key Performance Indicator): measurement of key factors for success in implementation or success in requirement gathering. or preformance.
- RACI Matrix: A technique for clarifying project or process roles and responsibilities (responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed).
- Scope creep: uncontrolled changes and additions to the scope of a project. This leads to delays and overbudgeting for the project.
- Change Management: The process of planning, implementing, and managing organizational changes
- BRD (Business Needs Document): A document that outlines a project’s high-level business needs.
- User Story: Understanding and documentation of presepective end uses; this term is widely used in Agile.
- Decision Matrix: requirements and their solutions vs. possibilities based on established criteria
- Feasibility Study: Documentation for the proposed solution: is it viable or possible, both in terms of cost and time?
- Sprint: what will be delivered, requirement gathering, and development within a 2-4 week period for a defined requirement or set of features.