Statista experts forecast that the IT services market will reach a value of over $1.771 trillion by 2028. This indicates that the demand for the development and support of digital products will only continue to grow in the short term.

However, does it mean every product will have demand in the market? Only business analysis strategies can answer this question.

Next, you’ll learn from the AdvantISS team about the most relevant and effective BA techniques you can apply to make data-driven decisions:

• Business Process Modeling (BPM)
• Brainstorming
• CATWOE
• MoSCoW (Must or Should, Could or Would)
• MOST (Mission, Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics) Analysis
• PESTLE Analysis
• SWOT Analysis
• Six Thinking Hats

If you are interested in business analysis for modernizing legacy systems, please take a look at this article.

Why bother with business analysis processes in the first place? To minimize errors during the planning and scaling of your digital product.

Imagine this. You’ve got a sure-thing idea, so you quickly pull together a team and set them on developing your product. You skip the Discovery phase, absolutely confident that your concept is 100% successful. But are you really safe from trouble? Not at all, because even the smallest mistake could burn your budget and ruin all efforts, including the idea itself.

But if you had previously used available business analyst methods, researched the market, and optimized the concept, you would greatly increase the project’s chances of success.

Note: Here (and nowhere else), you won’t find a universal business analysis technique that covers all your project needs at once. Such a thing just doesn’t exist.

However, we have gathered the best methodologies and approaches to help you obtain critical data and make informed decisions based on it. And yes, this is the minimum that your in-house BA should know to cover all project analysis needs.

So, let’s delve into a brief overview of eight of the most well-known and effective techniques.

Business Process Modeling (BPM)

This is a fundamental technique applied by probably all types and scales of businesses. It encompasses all aspects of a corporation’s internal processes and focuses on comparing actual and potential business activity algorithms.

Traditionally, it consists of four components:

• Strategic planning (covering all aspects of the business).
• Business model analysis (calculating potential innovations).
• Process design (modeling new algorithms).
• Feasibility assessment (identifying prospects and improvements).

BPM allows for validating innovation concepts through modeling changes and presenting them to stakeholders in a convenient digital format or the form of diagrams.

Brainstorming

This business analysis model is suitable for solving current or local issues, generating ideas, and testing concepts. It can be conducted by the team and accompanied by creative elements, such as:

• Gamification of the process.
• Visualization of ideas through drawings, tables, etc.
• Collective discussions, where each participant emphasizes the advantages while the rest identifies the drawbacks.

Overall, this technique has numerous variations and is sometimes used in addition to other business analytics techniques. It is primitive and simple but effective when you need to quickly find a solution to a minor problem, such as one related to task organization.

CATWOE

An advanced BA model that centralizes decision-making processes using data collected from stakeholders. For example, the opinions of clients, stakeholders, development teams, QA, investors, etc.

The methodology considers positions and consequences for six key parties affected by potential changes:

• Customers. Who benefits from the innovations/transformation.
• Actors. Who participates in the change processes.
• Transformation. The fundamental impact on the brand and its operations.
• Worldview. What global changes innovations bring.
• PO. How the transformation benefits the key stakeholder.
• Environment. What limitations arise as a result of actions.

In essence, we have a comprehensive business analysis algorithm for making significant decisions for the company.

MoSCoW (Must or Should, Could or Would)

This BA method is quite complex to implement. The key concept lies in creating a comparative structure that correlates several elements.

The resulting matrix answers a series of critical questions:

• How critical is the product?
• Does the market have relevant analogs, or is the idea unique?
• Is there potential in this solution?
• Does the product meet needs? Can it do so in the future?
• How significant (in numbers) is the demand for this product?

Thus, we obtain comprehensive data (supported by facts and statistics) that influence the adoption of a specific, well-founded decision.

MOST (Mission, Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics) Analysis

This is one of the fundamental types of business analyst diagrams that allow professionals to visualize models of potential company activities and justify each of the options.

MOST is based on four key pillars:

• Mission. Establishes the global direction of the organization.
• Objectives. Describes the goal the business aims to achieve in a certain area.
• Strategies. Variants for achieving the objectives and their potential outcomes.
• Tactics. Processes through which the business can achieve a certain goal.

This method and type of business analysis data cover the strategic component of the company and focus on quite voluminous concepts without detailing.

PESTLE Analysis

This BA technique evaluates the potential impact of decisions on specific aspects of a company’s operations. It is based on a centered approach to analysis, where actions are considered in the context of their consequences for the organization and the reactions of various actors.

The model focuses on six aspects:

• Politics. External programs, government assistance, subsidies, etc.
• Economy. Financial impact on the organization, rates, and cost.
• Sociology. Potential changes in the information space.
• Technology. The value of innovations in the context of novelties.
• Legislation. Compliance with regional norms and rules.
• Environment. Potential impact on the external environment.

It is a predictive BA model that preemptively assesses the potential impact of actions and changes on the external and internal business environment.

SWOT Analysis

This widely used analysis method is applied at all levels of business, including the smallest structural units. This means you can conduct a BA focusing on local needs and opportunities.

The abbreviation stands for:

• Strengths. What makes us better than our competitors?
• Weaknesses. What makes us worse than our competitors; in what area?
• Opportunities. What can we use to improve the project?
• Threats. What can negatively affect the project?

It is a fairly simple analysis based on four corresponding quadrants, each providing a comprehensive answer to the questions posed.

Six Thinking Hats

This is more of a subtype and tool of the brainstorming model, where participants play different roles, considering and modeling situations in various contexts. The key actors are colors symbolizing specific meanings:

• White. Logical perspective on the situation.
• Red. Emotional player, focusing on subjective matters.
• Black. Typical pessimist, offering various negative scenarios.
• Yellow. Optimist, building counterarguments and advocating for a positive scenario.
• Green. Creative player, proposing unconventional solutions.
• Blue. Overall perception of the idea.

The circulation of “hats” among participants of the analysis lets you look at the situation from different angles and take into account many thoughts.

But what if choosing overall is not necessary?

Each type of business analysis (including the 5 “Whys,” non-functional requirements analysis, etc.) focuses on specific segments of company activity. While MOST or BPM covers business activity as a whole, a conditional SWOT focuses on local issues. Each technique is designed to achieve specific goals.

The key thesis of this material is that your BA must know and be able to use all the listed business analysis techniques and then some more.

Otherwise, you may lack data, which usually leads to the adoption of unfounded (risky) decisions that could cause trouble for the organization.