STRATEGIC BUSINESS ANALYSIS

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

MODULE 2 PART 3

1. Enumerate the elements under Task 2  and briefly describe each.

Task 2
 Business Goals and Objectives – Business goals represent the direction in which a company
intends to go and define what the organization wants to achieve. A business objective
specifies the methods and paths that can help a business achieve that goal.
 Scope of Solution Space – The scope of the solution space defines which kinds of options
will be considered when investigating possible solutions, including changes to the
organisational structure or culture, capabilities and processes, technology and infrastructure,
policies, products, or services, or even creating or changing relationships with organisations
currently outside the scope of the extended enterprise.
 Constraints – describes aspects of the current state and planned future state that may not be
changed.
 Organisational Structure and Culture – Organizational structure refers to the norms, rules,
policies formed by the company to achieve the objectives. Organizational Culture includes
the value, behaviour and attitudes of the employees. Both of these are equally important for
the success of the organization.
 Capabilities and Processes – A capability describes what an organization or team can do. A
process describes how they get it done. It is common for organizations to document both
capabilities and processes as part of their architecture.
 Technology and Infrastructure – for Information systems it is used by the enterprise support
people in executing processes, making decisions, and in interactions with suppliers and
customers. While for Infrastructure it is the enterprise’s environment in terms of physical
components and capabilities. I.e. servers, physical machines/plants, etc.
 Policies – it is define the scope of decision making at different levels of an enterprise.
 Business Architecture – The elements of the future state must support one another and all
contribute to meet the business goals and objectives.
 Internal Assets – refers to tangible and intangible assets such as financial resources,
patents, reputations and brand names. These should be considered in the context of the
current state when performing your analysis. Identify
 Assumptions – Most strategies are predicated on a set of assumptions that will determine
whether or not the strategy can succeed, particularly when operating in a highly uncertain
environment.
 Potential Value – of the future state is the net benefit of the solution after operating costs are
accounted for.

2. Enumerate the elements under Task 3 & 4 and briefly describe each.

Task 3
 Unknowns – This consideration is about accepting that there will be uncertainty in the
likelihood of a risk occurring and the impact of the risk when it occurs. It is however still
possible to estimate these aspects based on expertise and collaboration with stakeholders.
 Constraints, Assumptions and Dependencies – You should consider whether the constraints,
assumptions or dependencies are risks themselves and it also play an important role in
controlling organizational changes.
 Negative Impact on Value – Risks are expressed as conditions that increase the likelihood or
severity of a negative impact to value. As the Business Analyst you should identify each
risk’s likelihood and impact in order to determine the level of the risk.
 Risk Tolerance – This is the amount f uncertainty a stakeholder or an enterprise is willing to
take on in exchange for potential value.
 Recommendations – Business Analysts work with stakeholders to understand the overall risk
level and their tolerance for risk. Additionally, pursue the benefits of a change regardless of
the risk is one of the recommendation of the category.
Task 4
 Solution Scope – This is the outcome of a change that allows an enterprise to satisfy a need.
 Gap Analysis – identifies the difference between current state and future state capabilities.
 Enterprise Readiness Assessment – This is about analyzing the enterprise to assess its
capacity to make the change and the sustain the change in the future state. This also
includes assessing the ability to realize value from the solution once it is implemented.
 Change Strategy – is a high level plan of key activities and events that will be used to
transform the enterprise from the current state to the future state. Transition States and
 Release Planning – A transition state is where the organization has to keep operating within
a state where the change has not been fully implemented yet. It ultimately the Business
Analyst assist in planning the timing of the implementation on order to cause minimal
disruption to business activities, and to ensure all parties understand the impact to the
organization.