BCD cheat sheet

PESTLE analyses macro-environmental factors: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental.

Porter's Five Forces: threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of substitutes, industry rivalry.

SWOT combines internal Strengths and Weaknesses with external Opportunities and Threats; use to derive strategic options.

Value chain (Porter) separates primary activities (inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, service) from support activities (firm infrastructure, HR, technology, procurement).

Business analysis is the set of tasks and techniques to understand business problems and recommend solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.

The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) defines knowledge areas including strategy analysis, elicitation, requirements analysis, and solution evaluation.

Strategic analysis outputs include vision, goals, objectives, and critical success factors that constrain later requirements.

A business analyst's role in strategy is to bridge strategic intent and operational execution by identifying change options.

Stakeholder: any individual or group with an interest in or influence over the project or solution.

Power/Interest grid classifies stakeholders into high/low power and high/low interest, guiding engagement strategy.

Stakeholder salience model uses power, legitimacy, and urgency to classify stakeholders as latent, expectant, or definitive.

Stakeholder analysis steps: identify, analyse (influence, interest, attitude), plan engagement, and monitor.

RACI matrix maps roles to activities: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed.

Engagement plan records stakeholder communication needs, frequency, method, and owner.

Stakeholder attitudes can be champion, supporter, neutral, critic, or blocker; attitude affects engagement approach.

Onion model layers stakeholders by relationship: inner circle (direct team), wider circle (affected), outer circle (external).

Techniques for investigating: interviews, workshops, observation, document analysis, surveys, focus groups, and prototyping.

Rich picture captures the messy, real-world situation including structures, processes, and concerns.

CATWOE (Customers, Actors, Transformation, Worldview, Owner, Environment) defines a root definition in soft systems methodology.

The '5 Whys' technique drills down to root causes by repeatedly asking why.

Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram organises potential causes into categories such as people, process, technology, and environment.

Process observation (shadowing) reveals actual work practices that differ from documented procedures.

Document analysis reviews existing policies, procedures, reports, and systems documentation to understand the current state.

Surveys are useful for gathering quantitative data from a large, dispersed stakeholder group.

A process model shows the sequence of activities, events, decisions, and actors that transform inputs to outputs.

BPMN core elements: events (start, intermediate, end), activities, gateways (exclusive, inclusive, parallel), sequence flows, and pools/lanes.

A swimlane (pool/lane) diagram assigns activities to roles or systems, clarifying responsibility.

AS-IS model represents the current process; TO-BE model represents the proposed future process.

Process analysis techniques include value-added analysis, bottleneck analysis, cycle time analysis, and root-cause analysis.

Value stream mapping distinguishes value-adding from non-value-adding steps and identifies waste.

A business process may be modelled at different levels: enterprise, process group, process, and task.

Process performance measures include cycle time, throughput, cost per transaction, error rate, and customer satisfaction.

Options analysis compares alternative solutions against agreed criteria such as cost, benefit, risk, and fit with strategy.

Feasibility categories: technical, economic, operational, schedule, legal, and environmental.

Cost-benefit analysis compares total cost of ownership with expected benefits over the solution's life.

Weighted scoring matrix ranks options by assigning weights to criteria and scoring each option.

Do-nothing option is a baseline against which all other options should be compared.

Options may include business process change, off-the-shelf software, custom build, outsourcing, or a combination.

Risk assessment of options considers likelihood and impact of identified risks.

Evaluation criteria should be agreed with stakeholders before scoring to reduce bias.

Requirements types: business requirements, stakeholder requirements, solution requirements (functional and non-functional), and transition requirements.

Functional requirements describe what the solution must do; non-functional requirements describe qualities such as performance, security, and usability.

A requirement must be unambiguous, testable, traceable, and agreed by stakeholders.

Use cases describe interactions between actors and the system to achieve a goal.

User stories follow the format: As a , I want so that .

Requirements traceability matrix links requirements to their source, design, and test cases.

MoSCoW prioritisation classifies requirements as Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won't have.

Solution scope defines what is in and out of the solution boundary.

A business case justifies the investment by comparing costs, benefits, risks, and strategic alignment.

Common business case contents: executive summary, problem/opportunity, options analysis, costs, benefits, risks, recommendation, and implementation plan.

Benefits may be tangible (cost savings, revenue increase) or intangible (brand, morale, compliance).

Payback period is the time to recover the initial investment from net cash inflows.

Net Present Value (NPV) discounts future cash flows to present value; positive NPV indicates a viable investment.

Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is the discount rate at which NPV equals zero.

Return on Investment (ROI) = (net benefit / cost) × 100%.

Approval gates require sign-off from the sponsor and key stakeholders at defined stages.