Business Analysis (BA) Tasks & Techniques: Foundation - 6

Mathieu Gouanou's Foreword:

Techniques  (IIBA® BABOK® v2.0)

Techniques provide additional information on different ways that a task may be performed or different forms the output of the task may take. A task may have none, one, or more related techniques. A technique must be related to at least one task.

Th BABOK® Guide does not prescribe a set of analysis techniques that must be used. The techniques described in this document are those that have been demonstrated to be of value and in use by a majority of the business analysis community. Business analysts who are familiar with these techniques are therefore likely to be able to perform effectively under most circumstances that they are likely to encounter. However, these techniques are not necessarily the best possible ones to use in any given situation, nor are they necessarily able to address every situation effectively. Similarly, it is unlikely that a business analyst will be called on to demonstrate expertise with every technique defined in the BABOK® Guide.

A subset of the techniques in the BABOK® Guide can be described as being in widespread use. These techniques are in regular use by a majority of business analysts and see occasional use by the vast majority of practitioners, and it is likely that many if not most organizations will expect business analysts to have a working knowledge of these techniques. Th techniques that fall into this category are:

• Acceptance and Evaluation Criteria Definition (9.1)
• Brainstorming (9.3)
• Business Rules Analysis (9.4)
• Data Dictionary and Glossary (9.5)
• Data Flow Diagrams (9.6)
• Data Modeling (9.7)
• Decision Analysis (9.8)
• Document Analysis (9.9)
• Interviews (9.14)
• Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (9.16)
• Non-functional Requirements Analysis (9.17)
• Organization Modeling (9.19)
• Problem Tracking (9.20)
• Process Modeling (9.21)
• Requirements Workshops (9.23)
• Scenarios and Use Cases (9.26)

More details about the IIBA® BABOK® v2.0 techniques can be found under chapter 9.

The BABOK® Guide may in some cases group similar techniques, or techniques that share a single purpose, under a single heading. For example, the Data Modeling (9.7) technique covers class models and entity-relationship diagrams and could in principle cover concept maps, term and fact models, object role models, and other less widely-adopted analysis techniques.

Each technique in the BABOK® Guide is presented in the following format:

Purpose:

Defines what the technique is used for, and the circumstances under which it is most

likely to be applicable.

Description:

Describes what the technique is and how it is used.

Elements:

The format and structure of this section is unique to each technique. Th elements section

describes key concepts that are needed to understand how to use the technique.

Usage Considerations:

Describes conditions under which the technique may be more or less effective.

Source for Business Analysis Tasks and Techniques: IIBA® BABOK® v2.0 or IIBA® BABOK® v3.0. For additional information, please visit http://www.theiiba.org. 

IIBA® is a trademark owned by International Institute of Business Analysis.

Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® and BABOK® are registered trademarks owned by International Institute of Business Analysis.