Basic Elements

Let’s first remind what is actually the goal of analysis and what are the typical outputs. No matter if we talk in the context of business analysis or systems analysis, the goal is always to find and specify a solution that solves the identified need. Although analysts might be asked only to describe the current state of things or to assess the feasibility of the solution, these are always just individual components of the final goal, which is implementing a solution that solves a problem.

So does it mean each analysis results in a solution description? Yes, but the solution specification is just the tip of the iceberg, as there are usually many intermediate steps along the way. The analyst must understand the need itself together with the goals and objectives the stakeholders want to achieve and must also outline the general change strategy along with the impacts it will have. Only then it is possible to select and describe the solution. The important part is that analysts always deal with different needs, which leads to different solutions, so there cannot be a single universal analysis approach. As a result, each analysis is a unique set of activities producing unique outputs.

Facing such diversity, it might look there is no focal point within the analysis discipline. Luckily, even though each analysis could be different, it is usually composed of the same building blocks, which in the last decades have been identified, and the ways of using them have been described. For example, the business domain is usually defined by domain terms, processes, or business rules, and software solution typically consists of a user interface, functions, or data entities. While it is not possible to say how exactly the analysis will look like, it will certainly be a combination of the common components which could be described in a unified way.

Effective Analysis calls these components artifacts, and together with standard modeling techniques, they form the foundations for the principles and practices introduced in this part. Since each artifact and model will be elaborated in detail in its own chapter, the goal of this section is to provide just a quick overview so that the meaning is clear even if the term is used before it is explained in the dedicated chapter.