Outsource The Business Modeling Process at O2I

Business Analysis or Business Modeling helps the analyst understand and visually depict a business. It also helps in developing Business Use Case Models, Business Analysis Models, Domain Models and the organizational context for the Business.

1. Assess Business Status

   The goal of assessing business status in the Early Inception Phase is to get a strong indicator of where your organization or organization processes currently stand in relationship to the vision statement you have articulated. Your software implementation strategy will be based on the gap between the current status of your organization or organization processes and your vision.

   Assessing your business status is not a one-time event. It is important that you continually assess your current software business status. Don't assume that there is a clear end-point in the process. It is important to stop and look at pre-determined points to judge the extent to which the plan has been successful.

   These are the following activities and results carried out during this phase.

   Activities

   Key Resulting Factors

   Activities

   • Capture a Common Business Vocabulary
   • Maintain Business Rules
   • Assess Target Organization
   • Set and Adjust Objectives
   • Identify Business Goals
   • Define the Business Architecture

   Key Resulting Factors

   • Business Vision
   • Target Organization Assessment
   • Business Glossary
   • Business Rules
   • Business Goals

2. Describe Current Business

   The goal of this process is to understand your current business. It looks at what the vision statement of your business is and identifies your target audience. It also studies the plans made to achieve your business vision.

   This process also identifies the users of the system and the functions that each user executes that would contribute to the success of your business. It also considers the business goals for each user within the system and the rules that govern the user in achieving these goals as defined in the Business.

   These are the following activities and results carried out during this phase.

   Activities

   Key Resulting Factors

   Activities

   • Assess Target Organization
   • Find Business Actors and Use cases
   • Set and Adjust Objectives
   • Find Business Workers and Entities
   • Capture a Common Business Vocabulary
   • Define the Business Architecture
   • Maintain Business Rules
   • Identify Business Goals

   Key Resulting Factors

   • Target Organization Assessment
   • Business Vision
   • Business Analysis Model
   • Business Architecture Document
   • Business Use Case Model
   • Business Use Cases
   • Business Use Cases Realization
   • Supplementary Business Specifications
   • Business Glossary
   • Business Rules
   • Business Goals

3. Identify Business Process

   The goal of this process is to clearly articulate the business processes that are defined to help an organization achieve their business objective and business vision. This process is essential for the management to effectively identify real organizational constraints, and allocate appropriate resources to relieve those constraints.

   Once these business processes are identified and well defined, it provides a powerful means to reproduce the company's goals and objectives. This in turn aligns the thinking of the personnel and management accordingly.

   The purpose of any business is to convert investment into profit. An organization that invests its time in defining these business processes has covered half of its investment in profit.

   These are the following activities and results carried out during this phase.

   Activities

   Key Resulting Factors

   Activities

   • Maintain Business Rules
   • Set and Adjust Objectives
   • Define the Business Architecture
   • Capture a Common Business Vocabulary
   • Find Business Actors and Use cases
   • Identify Business Goals

   Key Resulting Factors

   • Business Vision
   • Business Architecture Document
   • Business Use Case Model
   • Business Use Cases
   • Supplementary Business Specifications
   • Business Glossary
   • Business Rules
   • Business Goals

4. Refine Business Process Definitions

   The goal of this step is a more detailed definition of the business processes, that can be understood by someone outside the organization. This step describes from an external viewpoint what the processes are, without including internal details such as information structures or the roles involved. Typically, this is done through text documents, although some also illustrate business process flows with simple activity diagrams.

   These are the following activities and results carried out during this phase.

   Activities

   Key Resulting Factors

   Activities

   • Detail a Business Use Case
   • Review Business Use Case Model
   • Structure the Business Use Case Model

   Key Resulting Factors

   • Business Use Case Model
   • Business Use Cases
   • Supplementary Business Specifications
   • Review Record

5. Design Business Process Realizations

   The goal of this step is a description of how roles collaborate to perform the process, and what information objects are used, managed, or produced. This is where you get into the details of the process and start building the business analysis model.

   These are the following activities and results carried out during this phase.

   Activities

   Key Resulting Factors

   Activities

   • Capture a Common Business Vocabulary
   • Find Business Workers and Entities
   • Define the Business Architecture
   • Maintain Business Rules

   Key Resulting Factors

   • Business Glossary
   • Business Analysis Model
   • Business Use Cases Realization
   • Business Architecture Document
   • Business Rules

6. Refine Roles and Responsibilities

   The goal of this step is to identify all the key business roles and responsibilities in every identified business process. The following are the activities and results carried out during this phase.

   Activities

   Key Resulting Factors

   Activities

   • Define a Business Entity
   • Review Business Analysis Model

   Key Resulting Factors

   • Business Worker
   • Business Entity
   • Business Event
   • Review Record

7. Explore Process Automation

   The goals of this step are to identify possible business process automations (BPA). BPA is the process of integrating enterprise applications, reducing human intervention wherever possible, and assembling IT services into end-to-end process flows. As a significant part of business process reengineering, BPA improves operational efficiencies and reduces risks.

   These are the following activities and results carried out during this phase.

   Activities

   Key Resulting Factors

   Activities

   • Set and Adjust Objectives
   • Define Automation Requirements

   Key Resulting Factors

   • Business Vision
   • Business Analysis Model
   • Business Use Case Model
   • Supplementary Business Specifications

8. Develop a Domain Model

   The goals of this step are to create and validate a domain model that matches the business needs to the real life scenario. Developing a domain model also captures the most critical business rules for the Business Process. Modeling key concepts or business entities and their relationships clarifies the team's understanding of the problem to be solved. It allows the team to uncover subtle complexities early on, as well as establishes a common vocabulary.

   A domain is an area of knowledge or activity characterized by a family of related systems. The domain model is a subset of the Business Object Model. A domain model captures the most important Business Entity abstractions (modeled as UML classes) within the context of the domain. A domain model does not include any business worker definitions.

   These are the following activities and results carried out during this phase.

   Activities

   Key Resulting Factors

   Activities

   • Maintain Business Rules
   • Capture a Common Business Vocabulary
   • Define a Business Entity
   • Find Business Workers and Entities
   • Review Business Analysis Model

   Key Resulting Factors

   • Business Rules
   • Business Glossary
   • Business Entity
   • Business Analysis Model
   • Review Record

   The function of business analysis is critical in the success of a software project. The process needs to be continuous, from the start to the finish.
   The business analyst plays an important role in every stage of the software development life cycle and ensures that the solution that emerges out of the whole process meets the business goals of all the stakeholders involved.

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Read more about the Importance of Requirement Analysis.