business-analyst

Business Analyst

Overview

Run a structured business analysis workflow for requirements elicitation, process modeling, stakeholder alignment, and solution validation. This skill covers BRD/FRD creation, user stories, acceptance criteria, BPMN diagrams, gap analysis, and change impact assessment.

Features

• Requirements elicitation techniques (interviews, workshops, observation, document analysis)
• BRD and FRD document templates with section-by-section guidance
• User story writing with INVEST criteria and acceptance criteria patterns
• BPMN process modeling with swimlane diagrams
• Gap analysis framework and change impact assessment templates

Usage

1. Identify the user's BA need (requirements, process modeling, user stories, or solution validation)
2. Follow the corresponding workflow below
3. Produce structured outputs: BRD/FRD documents, user stories, BPMN diagrams, or gap analysis reports

Examples

• User: "Gather requirements for a new feature" Agent: Runs Requirements Elicitation workflow, conducts stakeholder interviews, produces BRD with functional and non-functional requirements

• User: "Map our order fulfillment process" Agent: Runs Process Modeling workflow, creates BPMN diagram with swimlanes, identifies bottlenecks and handoff points

• User: "Write user stories for login" Agent: Runs User Story Writing workflow, produces stories with INVEST criteria and Given/When/Then acceptance criteria

When to Use

• Elicit and document business requirements (BRD, FRD, user stories)
• Map as-is/to-be processes and run gap or impact analysis
• Facilitate workshops and translate between business and technical teams
• Produce cost-benefit, SWOT, or root-cause analysis for business decisions

Workflow Selection

• User wants to gather or document requirements → Workflow 1: Requirements Elicitation
• User wants to map or improve a process → Workflow 2: Business Process Analysis
• User wants to evaluate a business decision → Workflow 3: Data-Driven Business Analysis
• User wants to produce documentation → Workflow 4: Documentation & Communication

When NOT to Use

• Dashboard design, metric catalogs, or analytical SQL → use bi-analyst
• Data platform or enterprise architecture decisions → use data-architect
• Cross-service system design, ADRs, architecture review → use senior-system-architecture
• Customer support SLAs, billing ops, or CS health scoring → use customer-ops-specialist
• Revenue recognition, month-end close, or ASC 606 contract analysis → use senior-revenue-accountant
• UX flows, wireframes, and design handoff → use product-designer
• Labeling/RLHF platform product roadmap and quality systems → use product-management-human-data-platform
• Cross-team program execution, RAID, exec status → use technical-program-manager
• MSA, SaaS, vendor/customer contract redlines → use commercial-counsel
• HR operational processes and employee lifecycle checklists → use people-operations-specialist
• Strategy, issue trees, steerCo business cases → use business-consultant
• Business model research, TAM, competitor monetization → use business-model-researcher

Core Workflows

1. Requirements Elicitation

Step-by-step process:

1. Prepare

   • Review existing documentation, systems, and pain points
   • Identify stakeholders (sponsors, users, implementers)
   • Define scope boundaries (in-scope, out-of-scope)

2. Elicit

   • Interview key stakeholders using open-ended questions
   • Observe users in their current workflow (shadowing)
   • Review existing reports, data, and system outputs
   • Run workshops for complex or cross-functional needs

3. Analyze & consolidate

   • Group requirements by theme (functional, non-functional, technical)
   • Resolve conflicts between stakeholders
   • Prioritize using MoSCoW or weighted scoring

4. Validate

   • Walk through requirements with stakeholders
   • Confirm understanding with prototypes or examples
   • Get formal sign-off before proceeding

2. Business Process Analysis

Analysis workflow:

1. Map the current state (as-is)

   • Identify actors, steps, decisions, and handoffs
   • Note time spent, pain points, and error rates
   • Document data inputs and outputs at each step

2. Identify gaps and inefficiencies

   • Redundancies, manual workarounds, bottlenecks
   • Missing integrations, duplicate data entry
   • Compliance risks or audit gaps

3. Design the future state (to-be)

   • Streamline or automate steps
   • Eliminate non-value-add activities
   • Define new roles, systems, and data flows

4. Plan the transition

   • Phased rollout vs big-bang
   • Change impact assessment
   • Training and communication plan

3. Data-Driven Business Analysis

Analytical techniques:

Technique	When to Use	Output
Cost-benefit analysis	Evaluate initiatives	ROI, payback period, NPV
SWOT analysis	Strategic planning	Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
Root cause analysis	Problem diagnosis	5 Whys, fishbone diagram
Process mining	Understand actual vs documented process	Bottleneck map, variant analysis
Benchmarking	Compare performance	Gap vs industry leaders

4. Documentation & Communication

Key documents:

Document	Purpose	Audience
Business Requirements Document (BRD)	What the business needs and why	Business stakeholders, project sponsor
Functional Requirements Document (FRD)	How the system should behave	Developers, QA, solution architects
User Stories	Feature from user perspective	Agile team, product owner
Process Flow	Visual step-by-step workflow	All stakeholders
Data Dictionary	Definitions of fields and terms	Technical team, data consumers