Hello,

I don't have any experience with business analysis but i'm wondering about something:

When you start the analysis of a business process, you want to have clear goals and objectives etc. After you have defined these objectives and goals you can start with modelling your AS-IS process, and identify areas of improvements. My opinion is that the best way to start modelling your process is to begin with identifying the bussiness functions/capabilities and the decomposition (the WHAT of the business process), so you have a clear understanding what the business process does, instead of starting with modelling the HOW and get into the details.

My question is how do you get a clear link between your objectives/goals/strategy and your AS-IS model. Is this possible when you have modelled the WHAT of the business process and by this identify the areas of improvement? By this i mean is it possible to map these objectives and goals early in the analysis phase, before modelling the details (the HOW).

Also if this is possible what is the best way to document this? Are there any methodologies to make this clear and how?

Thank you for your reply. I think i wasn't really clear about my question (english is not my best language).

In my first post i talk about decomposition of business functions of the business process. Reason why i mentioned this is because these are stable components for AS-IS and TO-BE of the business process, and show what the business process does and how all the functions create value in the business process. Like i said before i thought this could be a method of identifying the business functions that relate with your projects objectives. Is this possible?

So what i try to say here, is how/when do you get a clear picture of the objectives/problems of your project and how they relate with your business process and in what areas of the business process these objectives should/could be solved. Is it really necessary to model the process into details (the how and different levels) to identify this, or could you do this on a much easier way.

Paul.H wrote Hello, I don't have any experience with business analysis but i'm wondering about something: When you start the analysis of a business process, you want to have clear goals and objectives etc. Sure. much better than not having them, usually helps most with defining scope of area you want to analyze.. After you have defined these objectives and goals you can start with modelling your AS-IS process Don't do specific AS-IS, as the people you have involved will often ask "why are you just writing down what we do today?". Model the future, what the business wants to be doing in the future. A lot of of it will still be the same as is done today but you will already be capturing what changes are needed too. , and identify areas of improvements. My opinion is that the best way to start modelling your process is to begin with identifying the bussiness functions/capabilities and the decomposition (the WHAT of the business process), so you have a clear understanding what the business process does, instead of starting with modelling the HOW and get into the details. BA 101: Analysis is "what"... 'how' is design. My question is how do you get a clear link between your objectives/goals/strategy and your AS-IS model. So, if you model the future, the mapping will be clear. They will have already been used in defining the future. ........ Also if this is possible what is the best way to document this? Are there any methodologies to make this clear and how? process models for the process steps, use cases for the details of each steps. If you are looking for training/consulting on all this, see www.iag.biz .