Business analysis helps organisations understand needs, define problems and opportunities, improve processes and specify changes that deliver value. This A–Z glossary explains common business analysis, requirements, process modelling and change terminology in clear, practical language.
A
Acceptance Criteria
Conditions that a solution, requirement or deliverable must satisfy before stakeholders consider it acceptable.
Actor
A person, role, organisation or system that interacts with a business process or solution.
B
BPMN
Business Process Model and Notation, a standard visual language used to represent business processes and workflows.
Business Case
A structured justification for investment or change, normally covering benefits, costs, risks and available options.
C
CATWOE
A technique for examining a business situation through Customers, Actors, Transformation, Worldview, Owners and Environmental constraints.
Change Requirement
A requirement describing what must change in people, processes, technology or organisation to move from the current state to a desired future state.
D
Data Model
A structured representation of data entities, attributes and relationships used to clarify information needs.
Decision Table
A table that maps combinations of conditions to resulting actions, useful for documenting complex business rules.
E
Elicitation
The process of discovering information and requirements from stakeholders and other sources through interviews, workshops, observation and similar techniques.
Entity Relationship Diagram
A diagram showing data entities and the relationships between them.
F
Functional Requirement
A statement describing a function, behaviour or capability that a solution must provide.
Future State
The desired situation after a proposed business change has been implemented.
G
Gap Analysis
A comparison of the current state and desired future state to identify the changes required to close the gap.
Goal
A broad outcome an organisation or change initiative intends to achieve.
H
Happy Path
The normal successful route through a process or use case when no exceptions or errors occur.
I
Impact Analysis
Assessment of how a proposed change could affect processes, systems, people, data, costs and other areas.
Interview
A structured or semi-structured discussion used to gather information from stakeholders.
J
Journey Map
A visual representation of the stages, interactions and experiences a customer or user goes through when achieving an outcome.
K
KPI (Key Performance Indicator)
A measurable indicator used to assess progress towards an important business objective or outcome.
L
Logical Data Model
A technology-independent representation of business data and relationships, focused on what information is required rather than how it is physically stored.
M
MoSCoW Prioritisation
A method for classifying requirements as Must have, Should have, Could have or Won’t have for the current scope.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
A usable version of a product containing enough capability to deliver value and support learning from real users.
N
Non-functional Requirement
A requirement describing qualities or constraints such as performance, security, accessibility, reliability or usability.
Need
A problem, opportunity or desired outcome that creates a reason for change.
O
Objective
A specific result intended to contribute towards a broader business goal, ideally expressed in measurable terms.
Observation
An elicitation technique in which the analyst watches people perform real work to understand tasks, behaviours and issues.
P
Persona
A representative profile used to describe the needs, behaviours and goals of a particular type of user or customer.
Process Model
A visual or structured representation of how work flows through activities, decisions, roles and systems.
Prototype
An early representation of a solution used to explore ideas, clarify requirements and obtain feedback.
Q
Qualitative Analysis
Analysis based mainly on descriptive or non-numerical information such as interviews, observations and stakeholder feedback.
Quantitative Analysis
Analysis based on numerical data, measurements and statistical evidence.
R
Requirement
A documented need, capability, condition or quality that must be satisfied to support a business objective.
Requirements Traceability
The ability to follow a requirement from its source through analysis, design, implementation and testing.
Root Cause Analysis
Techniques used to identify the underlying cause of a problem rather than only addressing its symptoms.
S
Stakeholder
A person, group or organisation that can affect, is affected by, or has an interest in a change or solution.
SWOT Analysis
A structured assessment of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Scope
The agreed boundaries of the work, including what is included and excluded from an initiative or analysis activity.
T
Target Operating Model
A description of how an organisation intends to operate in the future across areas such as people, process, technology, information and governance.
Traceability Matrix
A table that links requirements to sources, objectives, solution components, test cases or other related items.
U
Use Case
A description of interactions between an actor and a system or process to achieve a particular goal.
User Story
A short Agile description of a requirement from a user perspective, commonly expressed as who needs something, what they need and why.
V
Value Stream
The end-to-end sequence of activities required to deliver value to a customer or other stakeholder.
Validation
Checking that requirements and proposed solutions address the correct business need and are likely to deliver the intended value.
W
Workshop
A facilitated collaborative session used to explore problems, gather requirements, make decisions or reach agreement among stakeholders.
X
XOR Gateway
An exclusive decision point in BPMN where only one of several alternative process paths is taken.
Y
Year-on-Year (YoY)
A comparison of a business measure with the equivalent period in the previous year, often used when analysing trends and performance.
Z
Zachman Framework
An enterprise architecture classification framework that organises different perspectives and descriptions of an organisation and its systems.
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