Business analysis is a set of techniques that are needed to study a business. It also helps to find existing and potential problems and opportunities for growth.
Business analysis is common in the IT field – it is carried out in order to introduce automation programs into business processes. But this is not necessary, an entrepreneur or company leader can do an analysis to improve work efficiency.
What is Business Analysis in Simple Words?
Business analysis (BA) is usually understood as a set of tools with which you can understand the company’s business processes. The BA shows how an organization can achieve results. It also describes what potential growth areas exist, and what challenges the business may face in the future.
Business analysis is carried out to specify goals, turn strategic objectives into a tactical plan. BA can be dealt with both by the manager himself, if he has the necessary competencies, or by a special employee-analyst. It can be used in the online gambling industry as well and casinos like Hellspin can turn to the analysis in case they need something.
Universal Business Analysis Algorithm
BA is an abstract concept that can be understood as both a strategic analysis of a company and a specific analysis of requirements for the implementation of a project. In general, BA as a technique consists of several blocks of work. With their help, analysts are immersed in the processes of the company as much as possible and can study the processes in detail:
- Financial analysis – studying the financial model, determining the break-even point of a company or project;
- Investment analysis – how the company develops, what resources it invests in its growth, where it takes investments for growth;
- Marketing analysis – how the company works to attract customers;
- Marginal analysis – what does a company have with a business model and profit;
- Analysis of human resources – the current situation with employees and their capabilities.
Depending on the characteristics of the company, BA includes other blocks to study. For example, for a manufacturing business, the processes associated with the receipt of resources and equipment upgrades will obviously also be important.
Another option is to analyze the customer journey. This block consists of studying the interaction between the client and the company’s products. The analyst must build a CJM – a map of the customer’s journey with segments and stages, along which he goes from getting to know the product to repeat sales.
Conducting Business Analysis in Projects
If we consider business analysis not as part of ongoing business management, but as a tool for project implementation, then we can take the BA algorithm for IT projects as its basis. It looks like this:
Description of the Business Need
It is necessary to determine the feasibility of creating a project as a whole, to find all interested parties, to understand what strategic goals are set for the project. If this is not a new product, it is important to understand how changes in the company’s work will affect other processes.
Needs Analytics
At this stage, the analyst collects the requirements for the product, studies, structures and documents them. The risk of the project is assessed, and a communication model is created between all interested parties. There is a formation of indicators that are required to evaluate the product.
Formation of Requirements
At this stage, the collected information is expanded with the help of other business analysis techniques, the requirements are detailed. Possible solutions are being evaluated. The cost is determined, the project requirements and potential benefits are compared.
Creation of Architecture
This is the name of the stage at which the final work plan for the project, its business model, is formed. A concept is created for each step towards achieving the goals.
Monitoring the Implementation of Requirements
At this stage, the analyst accompanies the development of the project at each stage. He studies how the result is comparable to the initial requirements for the product.
Product rating
The last stage is the assessment of customer satisfaction, identifying flaws in the product.
This business analysis plan is conditional; when developing a project, it should be optimized for the tasks. You can combine business analysis of the company as a whole and product development. For example, you can consider some business area as a project and conduct it as a BA.
For business analysis, you can use methods and tools from related disciplines. These are marketing, sociological, and psychological. Methods of financial analysis are also applied. The key is that the tool should help collect information and offer a clear methodology for processing data and making decisions.