07 · Business Analysis & Its 6 Domains

POSTER 07

Section 3 · Business Analysis — The Discipline

Business Analysis & Its Six Domains

Business analysis is the set of activities that determine needs, recommend solutions and enable value delivery. In one line: BA finds the right problem and defines the right solution; the PM then delivers that solution right. The two are partners, not rivals.

Visual Map — The Six Business-Analysis Domains

1 · Needs Assessment
find & justify the right problem ▸ 2 · Stakeholder Engagement
plan BA & engage the right people ▸ 3 · Elicitation
draw out needs & requirements ▸ 4 · Analysis
model, specify & validate ▸ 5 · Traceability & Monitoring
link, baseline & manage change ▸ 6 · Solution Evaluation
prove value vs the need

Stakeholder Engagement and Traceability & Monitoring run continuously across the others; Elicitation ↔ Analysis iterate as a tight loop. The chain is shown left→right but the work is iterative, not strictly sequential.

BA vs PM — Two Roles, One Goal

Lens	Business Analyst	Project Manager
Core question	Are we building the right thing?	Are we building the thing right?
Owns	Needs, requirements, solution scope, value	Time, cost, resources, delivery, risk
Key outputs	Business case, requirements, traceability, evaluation	Charter, plans, baselines, status reports
Shared ground	Scope · stakeholders · change control · quality · communication

Key Concepts

Need ≠ requirement: a need is the problem; a requirement is a stated condition the solution must meet.
BA can be a role or a set of activities anyone may perform.
BA is product-focused; PM is project-focused.
BA spans strategy → delivery → value, including after go-live.

Exam Concepts

Know the 6 domains and their order.
Requirements are the heart of business analysis.
BA precedes & outlives the project (needs → evaluation).
Stakeholder engagement & traceability are continuous.

Executive View

Good BA slashes costly rework by getting requirements right early.
Ties every requirement to a business value.
Bridges strategy and delivery — fewer orphaned features.

Industry Example

Defence

Upgrading a vessel's combat-management system: BA elicits needs from operators & maintainers, defines requirements, traces each to a capability gap, and later evaluates the fielded system against mission outcomes.

Relationships

Feeds the project charter (via the business case) and the PMBOK 7 value delivery system (Poster 4).
Supports portfolio selection — needs assessment justifies the investment.
Solution evaluation links to benefits realisation in programs (Poster 16).

Memory Hooks

"Right problem · right solution · real value."
Domain order — N·S·E·A·T·S: "Never Stop Eliciting And Tracing Solutions."
BA = the "what & why"; PM = the "how & when."

60-sec Review Name the 6 domains in order BA vs PM core question Need vs requirement Which 2 domains are continuous? Where BA outlives the project

PMI Visual Wall · Poster 07 · Business Analysis — Discipline & Domains · original instructional design · A3 landscape