Performing Business Requirements analysis involves a comprehensive examination of a business or organization to understand its processes, workflows, and systems. IOG uses the following process flow, but can adapt and customize it depending on our engagement based on the customer's current state or urgency*.
Understanding the Business Context: This step is to gain a deep understanding of the business's goals, objectives, and operations. This involves studying its mission, vision, and values, as well as its products or services, target market, and competitive landscape.
Identifying Stakeholders: It is essential to identify all stakeholders involved in the business processes or activity being analyzed. This includes employees at various levels, management, customers, suppliers, and any other parties that are directly or indirectly involved.
Gathering Data: Gathering data can involve a variety of methods such as interviews, surveys, observations, and document analysis. The goal is to capture a comprehensive picture of how the business operates.
Documenting Current Processes: Once the data is collected, we document current processes and workflows. This typically involves creating flowcharts, diagrams, or written descriptions to illustrate how tasks are performed, who is responsible for each step, and what systems or tools are used.
Analyzing Data and Processes: With the data collected and processes documented, the analysis begins. This involves identifying inefficiencies, bottlenecks, redundancies, and areas where processes can be streamlined or automated. Stakeholder input and industry best practices often inform this analysis.
Defining Requirements: Based on the analysis, the next step is to define requirements for any changes or improvements to the systems. This includes specifying functionality, performance criteria, usability requirements, and any other factors that will guide the design and implementation of new systems or processes.
Developing Solutions: Once requirements are defined, potential solutions are developed. This may involve brainstorming ideas, conducting research, evaluating software or technology options, and designing prototypes or mockups to visualize how the proposed solutions will work.
Evaluating Alternatives: Multiple solutions may be considered, and it's important to evaluate each one carefully, weighing factors such as cost, feasibility, scalability, and alignment with business goals. Stakeholder input and feedback play a crucial role in this evaluation process.
Creating Implementation Plans: Once a solution is chosen, an implementation plan is developed. This plan outlines the steps, timeline, resources, and responsibilities required to deploy the new systems or processes effectively while minimizing disruption to ongoing operations.
Continuous Improvement: Systems analysis is not a one-time activity but rather an ongoing process of continuous improvement. Regular monitoring, feedback collection, and performance evaluation help ensure that implemented changes are effective and that further optimizations can be made as needed.
* If used as a precursor to our Decision Optimization Services, IOG uses a specialized, rapid data gathering approach to filter out the unnecessary data to expedite the Decision Optimization process.
