Business Analysis Glossary

Activity
 A process that takes place over time
 Also known as a Use Case
 A group of functions that must be performed in order for the business to operate successfully

Assumption
 A decision or stand that has been taken in order to proceed

Business Condition
 A Business Condition is a situation or state of the business environment which has either caused the problem or made the opportunity possible

Business Requirement
 A statement of business need that forms the basis of an agreement between the business client and the solution provider
 A condition or capability needed to solve a problem or achieve an objective

Constraint
 Something that may inhibit the team’s ability to deliver on the project’s objectives

Context Diagram
 A diagram that shows how the system interacts with the world beyond its borders
 Graphically depicts the entities external to the system that communicate with the system for some purpose and shows what information flows between the system and these external entities

Data Element
 Something we need to know about an Entity

Data Flow Diagram
 Models the flow of information for a particular process or activity

Data Item
 A type of data element representing specific information about an object
 Often referred to as an attribute

Dependency
 A critical business need that the project completion is contingent upon.

Entity
 Information the business needs access to
 A person, place or thing – a noun
 Often referred to as an object

Entity Relationship Diagram
 Illustrates the relationship between any two entities (or objects) that are used in the system

External Entity
 A person, group, department or system outside the business or target system that has direct interaction with the business and that we cannot control

Normalization
 The process of organizing information in order to allow the most effective use of the information, minimize redundancy and minimize the potential for data inconsistencies and errors

Objective
 Defines what is expected to be achieved
 A statement that reflects goals or purpose

Opportunity
 A favorable combination of business circumstances … a situation that the business may want to use to grow

Outcome
 The result or output of an activity

Problem
 An adverse business situation or result … something that may be causing the business to not realize possible gains

Relationship
 A type of data element representing relationships with other entities
 Often referred to as a foreign key

Requirements Discovery Process
 A process that involves using Best Business Requirements Practices™ (BBRP) in a Requirements Discovery Session™ (RDS) with the goal of discovering and describing the Business Requirements and documenting them in the form of a Business Requirement Specification (BRS)

Requirements Discovery Session
 An interactive session with key business representatives (also known as Subject Matter Experts) to elicit and gain consensus and agreement to business requirements

Requirements Maturity
 The relative level of business analysis discipline in an organization

Scenario
 A scenario represents a logically ordered sequence of events (see Use Case Scenario)
 A scenario describes a process in familiar business terms

Scope
 Defines what is and what is not part of a system

Trigger
 A business event that causes an activity to begin

Use Case
 A collection of possible sequences of interactions between the system and its actors, related to a particular goal

Use Case Scenario
 A specific sequence of events that take place in the Use Case
 A single path through a Use Case (see Scenario)

Variation
 Something that deviates from the normal process