Blog | Business Analysis

Analysis Before Synthesis; Information Before Requirements

BA Mindset principle #5

Image by Yulia Kosarenko from the Business Analyst Mindset Digital Toolkit

One of the most important points you have to keep in mind when practicing business analysis is that:

📢 Requirements don’t come from business.
💭 They come from business analysis.

This is reflected in the 5th principle of the BA Mindset:

💡 Analysis before synthesis; information before requirements 💡

We must analyze what we hear:

• Compare information
• Break concepts and ideas down
• Consider implications
• Detect gaps
• Look for missing parts
• Understand what, why, when, and where

Business analysts use various analysis techniques to understand the problem before knowing “what to document”:

• Artifact analysis
• Asking questions
• Immersion
• Process analysis
• Root cause analysis
• Modelling

As part of the business analysis process, an analyst must collect information from multiple…