Gap Analysis is the process of comparing two things in order to determine the difference or “gap” that exists between them.   Once the gap is understood, the steps required to bridge the gap can be determined.

Most often gap analysis is used to compare two different states of something; the current state and the future state. 

Gap analysis can be conducted on:

• a system – features that exist in the system now versus the features that need to exist in the future
• a system interface – data that a system provides to an interface now versus data that will need to be provided in the future
• a business process – activities and steps of a current business process versus the activities and steps that will be supported by the business process in the future
• business goals and  metrics – how well a business meets certain goals and metrics now versus the targeted goals and metrics at some point in the future.