Fundamentals of Business

Where we are

Business Analysts are not born and neither (unfortunately) are they made: anyone who wants to call themselves a Business Analyst can and there is no rationale for disputing their claim. Worse still, people can be put in to the role of Business Analyst and simply told they are one and they have no way to contradict the statement even if they wanted to. Consequently, it is not uncommon for Business Analysts to think that because they have been doing the job for a number of years then they must know how to do it. This is a bit like saying that because I have done DIY for a number of years that I know how to build a house. Of course I can't build a house: I would need training to be able to do the job properly. What (for a Business Analyst) is "doing the job properly"?

Analysis is defined as "the process of breaking a concept down into more simple parts, so that its logical structure is displayed" (OED) or a : an examination of a complex, its elements, and their relations and b : a statement of such an analysis (Merriam Webster).

So Business Analysts must analyse business problems in order to be able to find the correct solutions by breaking the problem down and establishing the logical connections - like links in a chain. To prove they are correct they need to follow some kind of logical rationale that proceeds from the precise definition of a problem and/or opportunity (the first link in the Business Analyst chain) to the precise definition of requirements that address the problem/capitalize on the opportunity (the last link in the Business Analysis chain).

This is what the philosopher Hume called a "chain of reasoning" that informs Business Analysts at every point they have to make a choice. But what are the 'links' this chain of reasoning must have? If it is an analysis of a change to business requirements (and what, in the Business Analyst world, isn't?) then it must cover the analysis of:
. business drivers (reasons for change)
. business vision (ideal state of the business post change)
. business objectives (the measures that prove the vision has been realised)
. business deliverables (what components will change the measures defined in the objectives)
. business requirements (what needs the business have that are in scope)
. business rules (what rules must be enforced as part of the requirements)
...and the valid intersections of these elements.

The following diagram formalises this idea:

So now we have it: all methods and approaches and practices must have elements in them that cover all the links in the chain of reasoning or they cannot be executing a provable analysis of a business problem. They may have more besides, but at the very least they must have the components in the above diagram. They can call these links anything they like and they can conduct the process of analysis using any method that works (and we will know it works if the analysis is provable - and it is provable if every link in the chain of reasoning is in place and consistent with the links it touches).