SFIA Business Analysis BUAN

This page provides deep dive guidance and additional material to help individuals and organisations use and apply this SFIA skill effectively. It supplements the SFIA reference material.

SFIA v6 definition of Business Analysis

The methodical investigation, analysis, review and documentation of all or part of a business in terms of business functions and processes, the information used and the data on which the information is based. The definition of requirements for improving processes and systems, reducing their costs, enhancing their sustainability, and the quantification of potential business benefits. The collaborative creation and iteration of viable specifications and acceptance criteria in preparation for the deployment of information and communication systems.

© Copyright SFIA Foundation

• This is a wide-ranging SFIA skill from level 3 to level 6
• Remeber that this describes the skill of Business analysis not the job/role of a Business Analyst. Other SFIA skills are usually required to fully describe the typical Business Analysts role (for example see associated skills below)
• Although “consultancy” is often seen as part of the BA role - there is no need to apply it to a Business analyst role - only do so if you specifically need to capture those responsibilities.

If you are looking for skills relating to:

• specification and management of business requirements; try SFIA Requirements definition and management
• the identification of new and alternative approaches to performing business activities; try SFIA Business process improvement
• deploying and integrating new digital capabilities into business operations; try SFIA Change implementation planning and management
• the creation, iteration, and maintenance of a business architecture; try SFIA Enterprise and business architecture STPL
• planning, design, management, execution and reporting of business process tests and usability evaluations SFIA Business process testing
• corporate data requirements, data analysis and data modelling; try SFIA Data analysis
• analysis and prioritisation of stakeholders’ “user experience” needs SFIA User experience analysis
• development of user tasks, interaction and interfaces to meet user requirements SFIA User experience design
• modelling representations of processes, roles, data, organisation and time; try SFIA Business modelling
• managing and/or delivering consulting assignments SFIA Consultancy CNSL
• exploiting business opportunities from the use of technology; try SFIA Innovation

• International Institute of Business Analysis
• A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK® Guide)
• Business Balls - free ethical learning and development resource for people and organizations
• BA Manager Forum - for anyone with managerial responsibility for Business Analysis to engage with their peers and share information at a strategic level.
• Business Analysis Maturity Model
• Consultant's toolkit - library of consulting frameworks for Powerpoint (not free)

• Business Consulting
• Business Partners
• Business Analysis

By focussing on work outputs/work products we can move the focus from activity/knowledge to performance and provide a direct link to business results. See 6 boxes model.

Leading

• senior stakeholder relationships and relationship management plan
• executive commitment to business analysis recommendations and plans
• thought leadership
• sufficient resources and capability to enact business analysis projects
• organisational model for provision of business analysis
• business analysis practice vision and principles

Managing

• plan for business analysis projects/phases
• agreed approach for business analysis project/phase
• client relationships
• capable business analysts
• tools and performance support for business analysis
• business analysis assignment management
• effective business analysis team
• business analysis performance reports (e.g. progress, quality of deliverables, compliance to standards)
• knowledge management
• reviews to ensure quality deliverables

Doing

• facilitated workshops
• engaged stakeholders
• validated requirements
• prioritised requirements
• log of conflicts and issues
• action plan to resolve issues
• stakeholder analysis
• current state analysis
• gap analysis
• solution scope
• validated solution
• evaluation of solution performance
• reports
• presentations
• business case
• up to date knowledge and awareness in own area