Artifact: Business Analysis Model |
This artifact is an abstraction of how elements of the business are related and how they collaborate to perform the business use cases. It also defines the external business services that are invoked by business actors in the performance of business use cases.
Domains: Business Modeling
Purpose
To abstractly describe how the business works to provide that which is described by the business use cases.
Relationships
Container Artifact | Business Model
Description
Main Description | This artifact abstractly defines the business offerings, the internal business workers, the information they use (the business entities), and the structure of the organization. It also defines how these elements interact to realize the behavior described in the business requirements. The internal structure and interaction of the business can be described without necessarily prescribing design choices for business workers and business entities in terms of role bindings (to human workers or automated systems). That is the purpose of the Business Design Model, into which the Business Analysis Model evolves, as automation and refactoring options are explored. Stakeholders and business analysts use this artifact to understand how the business currently works (in as-is form), and to analyze the effect of changes to the business (in to-be form). The business analyst is responsible for the structure and integrity of the model as well as for detailing elements within the model.
Brief Outline | The Business Analysis Model can have the following properties: Introduction: A textual description that serves as a brief introduction to the model. Business Systems: Components in the model, representing a hierarchy*. Business Workers: The Business Worker classes in the model, owned by the Business Systems. Business Entities: The Business Entity classes in the model, owned by the Business Systems. Business Events: The Business Event classes in the model, owned by the Business Systems. Business Rules: The Business Rules captured in the model. These are not the Business Rules that are captured in document form in a separate artifact. Relationships: The relationships in the model, owned by the Business Systems. Business Use-Case Realizations: The Business Use-Case Realizations in the model, owned by the Business Systems. Business Context Collaboration: The external realization of the interactions between the business and the business actors, showing the services provided by the top-level Business System (that is, the business itself), the interfaces for these services, the connections to the business actors, and the Business Entities input and output. Diagrams: The diagrams in the model, owned by the Business Systems. *Note that the business itself is the top-level component (Business System), and directly encapsulate business workers, business entities etc.
Tailoring
Impact of not having | Not utilizing a business analysis model makes it difficult to reason about the business at a high-level. Teams can become mired in the details which negatively affects analysis tasks.
Reasons for not needing | If the business analysis is well understood by all stakeholders and the project team, the benefits of developing a Business Analysis Model are significantly diminished. Where this occurs, the Business Analysis Model can be omitted entirely. However, it is usually a good idea to develop at least a minimal Business Analysis Model to improve understanding of the way the business works among stakeholders.
Representation Options | UML Representation: Model, stereotyped as <<business analysis>>.
More Information
Concepts | Business Entity Business Use-Case Realization
Whitepapers | Effective Business Modeling with UML: Describing Business Use Cases and Realizations
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