Course: Business Analysis: Process Modeling and Requirements Gathering
Glossary
Welcome! The alphabetized glossary contains many of the terms you'll find within this course. This comprehensive glossary also includes additional industry-recognized terms not used in the videos of the course. These terms are important for you to recognize when working in the industry, participating in user groups, and participating in other certificate programs.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| 100-point method | A brainstorming voting technique where stakeholders are given 100 points to distribute among requirements based on their importance, helping teams clearly visualize priorities. |
| Affinity diagram | A visual tool used to organize information gathered during a brainstorming session. It involves sorting ideas into groups or categories based on their relationships. |
| Agile | A flexible and iterative approach to project management and software development that focuses on collaboration, customer feedback, and rapid delivery of small, incremental improvements. |
| Analytical skill |
The ability to assess and interpret data to solve problems, identify trends, and make informed decisions through logical thinking and critical evaluation. |
| Azure DevOps | A suite of tools and services that support teams in managing development environments. It offers comprehensive project management, including requirements tracking, and allows teams to link user stories to development tasks and test cases, ensuring traceability throughout the project lifecycle. |
| BABOK or Business Analysis Body of Knowledge | A comprehensive guide that sets the standard for business analysis, covering key knowledge areas, tasks, techniques, perspectives, and competencies. It is developed by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). |
| Backlog refinement or backlog grooming | Process of reviewing and updating the product backlog to ensure it contains the appropriate items, prioritized correctly based on business value, stakeholder input, and the team's capacity. |
| Backward traceability | A technique to ensure that all implemented components can be linked back to the original requirements, verifying that nothing has been missed or added without proper approval. |
| Balanced scorecard | A framework that relates a company's vision with its goals, measures, and initiatives. It translates an organization's strategic objectives into a set of performance measures across multiple perspectives (financial, customer, internal processes, learning, and growth). |
| Bidirectional traceability | A technique that combines forward and backward traceability, enabling teams to track the relationships between requirements and their implementations in both directions. |
| Business architecture | A discipline that assists organizations in designing and operating efficiently by mapping and analyzing their business processes, information flows, and organizational structure. As per BABOK, it is one of the perspectives that streamlines business analysis. |
| Business intelligence (BI) | A technology-based process that enables businesses to make informed decisions by analyzing data and converting it into actionable insights. As per BABOK, it is one of the perspectives that streamlines business analysis. |
| Business process management (BPM) | A systematic approach to improving, optimizing, and automating organizational processes to enhance efficiency and achieve business goals. |
| Business Process Model and Notation(BPMN) | A standardized graphical representation used to model business processes, allowing businesses to visualize workflows, understand process logic, and communicate processes across teams clearly. |
| Business process reengineering (BPR) | A strategy that involves the radical redesign of core business processes to achieve significant improvements in productivity, efficiency, and quality. |
| Business Requirements Document(BRD) | A document that outlines the requirements and solutions for a business project. It covers the user's needs, the reason for the solution, and any major constraints that could affect its success. |
| Certified Analytics Professional (CAP) | A globally recognized certification for analytics professionals that validates their ability to transform complex data into valuable insights and informed decisions, ensuring proficiency in the analytics process from data collection to model development and interpretation. |
| Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) | A globally recognized certification awarded by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) to professionals with extensive experience in business analysis who demonstrate expertise in identifying and driving business solutions. |
| Change Control Boards (CCBs) | A team that reviews and determines whether to approve proposed changes to a project. |
| Change management | A structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state, ensuring that changes are implemented smoothly and successfully while minimizing resistance and disruption. |
| Class diagram | A type of UML diagram that shows classes, like customer, order, or product, in a system and their relationships. |
| Complex data | A complex, detailed, and often interrelated information that requires careful analysis to fully understand and interpret due to its multifaceted nature. |
| Customer Relationship Management (CRM) | A system or strategy used by businesses to manage interactions with customers and potential clients, aimed at improving relationships, increasing customer retention, and driving sales growth by organizing, automating, and synchronizing customer service, marketing, and sales processes. |
| Daily stand-up | A short, daily meeting to discuss progress and identify blockers. |
| Data Flow Diagram (DFD) | A visualization tool that depicts how data moves through a system, highlighting inputs, processes, data flows, outputs, and data storage, thereby helping analysts understand information flow and processing within the system. |
| Data modeling | A technique that involves creating a data object's visual representation, their relationships, and rules. It helps in understanding data requirements and designing effective data management solutions. |
| Deployment diagrams | A type of UML diagram that displays components and their dependencies within a system. |
| Entity-relationship diagram (ERD) | A visual representation of the relationships between entities in a database, illustrating how data is structured and how entities such as people, objects, or concepts interact within a system. |
| Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA) | An entry-level certification offered by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) that validates foundational knowledge in business analysis and is ideal for individuals new to the field. |
| Evolutionary prototype | A gradually refined version of a product created based on stakeholder feedback until it ultimately becomes the final product. |
| Flowchart | A visual representation of the sequence of steps and decisions in a process, using diagram shapes connected by lines and arrows to show the flow. |
| Forward traceability | A technique to track a requirement's implementation through the design, development, and testing phases, ensuring the team completes all steps needed to fulfill it. |
| Functional requirements | Requirements, actions, or behaviors a system or its components must perform, outlining the features that meet business and stakeholder. |
| Gantt chart | A horizontal bar chart used to visually represent a project schedule. |
| Helix RM | A requirements management software that helps businesses capture, track, review, prioritize, and decompose requirements. It enables managers to link requirements with development artifacts, ensuring traceability and smooth implementation of changes. |
| High-fidelity prototype | A refined and interactive version of a product, closely resembling the final product, and can be created with tools that allow users to click through functionalities and simulate interactions. |
| Incremental delivery | A core principle of Agile development, where work is delivered in small, usable increments on a regular basis. |
| Jira | A project management and issue-tracking tool developed by Atlassian, primarily used by software development teams to manage tasks, track bugs, and oversee workflows in Agile environments. |
| Kanban board | A visual management tool that organizes work by displaying tasks as cards on a board, with columns representing the various stages of a process. |
| Kano model | A model for prioritizing product features based on their potential to satisfy customers. It classifies features into three categories: basic needs, performance needs, and excitement needs. |
| Lean | A methodology focused on maximizing value and minimizing waste in processes by continuously improving workflows, commonly used in manufacturing, project management, and software development. |
| Low-fidelity prototype | A simple representation of a product, typically made up of paper sketches, wireframes, or basic mockups. They are quick to create and modify, making them ideal for brainstorming and initial discussions. |
| Lucidchart | A cloud-based diagramming and visual collaboration tool that allows users to create flowcharts, process maps, entity-relationship (ER) diagrams, and other visual representations to simplify complex ideas and processes. |
| Microsoft Excel | A powerful spreadsheet application developed by Microsoft that allows users to organize, analyze, and manipulate data through functions, charts, and formulas, making it essential for tasks ranging from simple data entry to complex financial modeling. |
| Microsoft PowerPoint | A presentation software that allows users to create, edit, and display slideshows consisting of text, images, videos, charts, and other media, often used for business, education, and personal presentations. |
| Microsoft Project | A project management software designed to help teams plan, schedule, and track the progress of projects, allocate resources, and manage tasks across multiple projects. |
| Microsoft Teams | A collaboration platform that integrates workplace chat, meetings, file sharing, and app integration, enabling seamless communication and teamwork across organizations. |
| Microsoft Visio | A diagramming and vector graphics application that helps users create detailed flowcharts, organizational charts, network diagrams, and other visual representations of complex processes or systems. |
| MoSCoW prioritization | A method used in business analysis and project management to categorize requirements into four priority groups: Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, and Won't Have, helping teams focus on the most critical tasks for a successful project. |
| Non-functional requirements | Requirements that define how a system should operate, focusing on quality attributes like performance, security, usability, and reliability, rather than specifying its actions. |
| PESTLE analysis | A strategic framework that examines the external factors—Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental—that influence an organization or industry. |
| Porter's five forces | A framework for analyzing an industry's competitive forces. The five forces are Competitive Rivalry, Supplier Power, Buyer Power, Threat of Substitution, and Threat of New Entry. |
| Power BI | A business analytics tool by Microsoft that allows users to visualize data, create interactive dashboards, and generate insights to support data-driven decision-making. |
| Process Map | A business analytics tool by Microsoft that allows users to visualize data, create interactive dashboards, and generate insights to support data-driven decision-making. |
| Process modeling | A BPM technique that visually represents business processes to help stakeholders understand their current and future states. |
| Product backlog | A product backlog is a prioritized list of tasks, including features, bug fixes, technical work, and knowledge acquisition, that a team may complete to achieve a specific goal. |
| Prototype | An initial version of a product or system to showcase its functionality and design. It is created to facilitate communication among stakeholders and gather feedback to improve the requirements. |
| Regulatory requirements | Legal or industry standards that a project must adhere to, particularly in sectors like finance, healthcare, and telecommunications. |
| ReqView | A cloud-based and on-premise requirements management software that helps businesses of all sizes manage software and system requirements. It allows teams to create and manage requirements while offering traceability features. |
| Requirements analysis and design definition | A set of tasks performed by business analysts to ensure that a project's requirements are well understood, documented, and meet business needs. It is a knowledge area defined in BABOK. |
| Requirements elicitation | A structured approach used by business analysts to collect, assess, and record the needs and expectations of stakeholders for a project. |
| Requirements lifecycle management | Involves tasks that a business analyst performs to manage and maintain requirements. It is a knowledge area defined in BABOK. |
| Retrospectives in Agile | Meetings held at the end of each iteration or sprint in which a team reflects on their work, plans for improvement, and refine the processes for future sprints. |
| Robotic process automation (RPA) | A technology that automates repetitive, rule-based tasks by using software robots or “bots” to perform processes that were traditionally carried out by humans. |
| Scope creep | The uncontrolled expansion of a project's scope due to changes or additional requirements being introduced without proper management, leading to delays, increased costs, and potential project failure. |
| Sequence diagrams | A type of UML diagram that shows the interactions between objects in a specific order, detailing the sequence of messages exchanged over time. |
| Shadowing | A technique to observe users' workflows over time, enabling analysts to gather detailed data on task performance and role interactions. |
| SIPOC diagram | A high-level view of a process by outlining its suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, and customers, helping to visualize material or data flow and improve processes affecting customer experience. |
| Six Sigma | A data-driven methodology aimed at improving processes by identifying and eliminating defects or inefficiencies, using statistical tools and techniques to achieve near-perfection in quality and performance. |
| Slack | A communication and collaboration platform that allows teams to send messages, share files, and integrate with other tools to streamline workflows and improve team productivity. |
| SMART goals | A framework for setting clear and achievable objectives by ensuring they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. |
| Sprint in Agile | A short, fixed-duration timeframe during which a team focuses on completing a defined set of tasks. |
| Sprint planning | A collaborative meeting in which the scrum team defines the sprint goal and selects the work to be completed in the upcoming sprint. |
| Structured System Analysis and Design Method (SSADM) | A methodology used in system development that provides a structured approach to analyzing and designing information systems through stages such as requirements gathering, system modeling, and implementation planning. |
| Supply chain management (SCM) | The management and oversight of the flow of goods, information, and finances related to a product or service, from the acquisition of raw materials to the delivery of the finished product to the end consumer. |
| Swimlane diagram | A type of flowchart that depicts who is responsible for each step in a process. |
| SWOT analysis | A strategic planning tool used to evaluate an organization's internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats, to informed decision-making and strategy development. |
| Tableau | A powerful data visualization and BI tool that allows users to create interactive dashboards and reports, making it easier to analyze large data sets and present insights visually. |
| Throwaway prototype | An initial version of a product is created to understand requirements and is not meant for long-term use. It is discarded once the necessary information is gathered. |
| Traceability | Ability to track and monitor the origin and progression of requirements throughout the project lifecycle. It acts as a roadmap, following a requirement from inception to delivery, ensuring fulfillment, and identifying changes and their impact on other requirements. |
| Transition requirements | Requirements that outline the conditions needed to shift from the current state to the desired state, often covering training, data migration, and deployment plans. |
| Unified Modeling Language (UML) | A general-purpose visual language that provides standard notations for designing systems through use cases, classes, and sequence diagrams. |
| Use case | A key component of Unified Modeling Language (UML) that depicts specific functions or actions that the system performs in response to an actor's interaction. It summarizes the system's users (actors) and their interactions with the system. |
| Use case diagram | A type of UML diagram that models system behavior, capturing high-level functions, scope, and interactions between the system and its actors. |
| User acceptance testing (UAT) | The final phase of the software testing process where users test the system to ensure it meets their business requirements and functions as expected before its official release. |
| User story | An informal, short description of a feature conveyed from the perspective of the user. User stories typically follow the format “As a [user], I want [goal] so that [reason].” |
| Weighted scoring | A decision-making tool that prioritizes tasks or projects by assigning a numeric score, which is multiplied by its importance. Requirements are scored based on factors like business value, risk reduction, and cost of delay, then weighted to determine an overall ranking. |
| Wireframe | A simple visual outline of an app or product layout that shows how it will function and how users will interact with it. |