A project’s ability to deliver a requested feature, function, or capability. Often times, your customer or end-user will request a feature or a function that cannot be supported by your project’s budget or by the constraints that exist within your organization. As a business analyst, you may be …
Business Analysis Terms and Definitions
Customer
The stakeholder who’s business needs must be addressed by the solution that the business analyst is helping deliver, The customer is normally the person on the business side of the organization who is sponsoring the initiative you’re working on. They are often at the leadership level and may not …
End-User
The stakeholder who represents the needs of the people at the operational level that will use the solution that is delivered. The end-user is the person who will actually be using the solution on a regular basis as part of their day to day work, once it has been released the project team. The …
Agile
A software development philosophy that encourages the team to release the solution in increments throughout the project instead of delivering the solution all in one release at the end of the project. Software projects have traditionally taken a waterfall approach. The restrictive nature of …
Constraint
A condition or event that prevents the project from fully delivering the ideal solution to customers and end-users. Customers and end-users will request an ideal version of a solution from the project team. This ideal solution can only be achievable under ideal conditions where the organization and …
Business Constraint
A business-related condition or event that prevents the project from fully delivering the ideal solution to customers and end-users. The business analyst must ensure that they are on the lookout for constraints that will prevent the project team from delivering the ideal solution. Many of these …
Technical Constraint
A technology-related condition or event that prevents the project from fully delivering the ideal solution to customers and end-users. The business analyst must ensure that they are on the lookout for technology-related constraints that will prevent the project team from delivering the ideal …
Current State Analysis
The activities that the business analyst performs in order to understand the business and technical circumstances that exist before a solution is designed and implemented. On larger initiatives, it becomes very important to establish a baseline of the business operations and systems that exist in …
Product Backlog
The list of requested features and functions that remain for the project team to deliver to the customer. In agile software development, features and functions are bundled up into an MVP and subsequent releases. The product backlog is the list of customer requests that have not yet been …
Minimum Viable Product
The bare minimum set of functions and features that the customer needs to have a useful product delivered to them. The purpose of going agile is to make sure the project team can get a product out to the customer as early as possible. At this early stage, the product is nowhere near being …
Business Analyst
A business analyst is a professional that helps their employer design, deliver, and support the solutions that the organization needs. Organizations are constantly evolving. This constant evolution requires the organization to regularly assess its current operations, and make investments into …
