Kate McGoey

Reverse engineering refers to looking at the solution to figure out how it works. Basically, you you’re your business analysis backward from the solution to understand the data, processes, and business rules. Reverse engineering is more common than you think. Have you ever looked into a Microsoft Excel formula to figure out where it’s coming up with the calculation?

Business analysis projects all follow the same basic life cycle. A project is a set of steps that accomplish something, so describing business analysis activities as part of a project life cycle makes sense. Although each project you undertake is different, and you must always remain fluid and flexible to some degree, business analysis tasks follow a general order: Plan the project.

The genuine problem or opportunity that the business seeks to address in their analysis is the root cause problem, and it’s not always that easy to uncover. You typically have to ask a lot of questions to get down to that root cause because your stakeholders often report symptoms rather than the real cause. A business analyst’s best question is “why?

Business requirements are derived from the needs of the business; a good business analyst will recognize that they’re the things that must be in place to benefit the business or enterprise as a whole. They characterize and quantify outcomes desired for the business, and document what business the business decides to be in, what products the business will offer, or what markets the business will expand into or exit.

Aside from fulfilling a business analyst (BA) role at a company, you may have the opportunity apply your various business analysis skills to other roles. You can parse out individual business analysis skills to make yourself more marketable, take advantage of opportunities, and meet a company’s specific needs for growth and improvement.

When verifying and validating solutions, you perform a requirements review, a structured audit in which you give participants the opportunity to ask questions and make suggestions in order to improve the quality of the product being reviewed. Keeping the requirements review session moving forward is the facilitator’s job; because you may be wearing that hat during the meeting, here are some tips for conducting the requirements review session: Put on a thick skin when documents you authored are being reviewed.

On new development or mission-critical projects, several people may perform business analysis work. If so, business analysis planning may be divided among different business analysts. In these cases, the lead or senior BA should work with the sponsor, who has acquired funds to do the project and ensures project alignment with strategic goals.

Although many teams nowadays have one person function as both the project manager (PM) and business analyst (BA), a lot of teams still have different people performing those roles. One of the challenges on a project with a separate BA and PM is clarifying the responsibilities between the individuals. Because you and the PM interact with the same stakeholders, you both need to be very clear on what roles each of you’ll play during a project.

“Why” is such a powerful question that it’s the basis for a root cause analysis technique called the 5 whys. The thought is that by the time you ask a stakeholder “Why?” 5 times, you generally have arrived at the root cause. Consider this example: Q: “Why did you submit a purchase requisition for $750?” A: “Because we need to purchase 150 staplers!