5 Easy-to-Learn But Powerful Business Analysis Tools

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5 Easy-to-Learn But Powerful Business Analysis
Tools
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• There are a myriad of tools and techniques that
  can be used for analyzing the performance of a
  business.
• Some business analysis tools are more useful than
  others and knowing which tool to use in what
  situation adds an additional complication.
• Put all this together and for someone just
  starting out in consulting, contracting, advisory
  or business analysis it can be overwhelming.

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• The most important thing to do here is to not get
  caught in an analysis-paralysis trap.
• Seek out those with more experience, those you
  have seen operate effectively, do some research,
  use some judgement, pick a few and start trying
  them out, even if you do it behind the scenes
  where no-one can see you.
• Practice, try them out, see what happens. You
  will surely make some mistakes - but you will
  learn from these mistakes and they will make you
  more proficient and better educated.

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• To make things easier, the team at Expert Toolkit
  have put their heads together to agree on 5
  simple but disproportionately powerful business
  analysis tools that every analyst worth their
  salt should know and know how to use
  proficiently.
• These business analysis tools are versatile,
  powerful, easy to learn and easy to use. Learn
  these, use them, master them and we are confident
  youll come back to them again and again. And
  yes, you will make a greater impact!

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The Five Whys

• One of our favorites. Five Whys helps to get
  beyond the superficial into the heart of whats
  really going on. Pick a business problem and take
  a handful of people who have unique perspectives
  on the problem and walk through the Five Whys
  with them. It will be a rare situation that you
  dont come out of that process with a sound
  understanding of whats really causing the
  problem. From here you can start developing ideas
  for remedial solutions and business improvement
  strategies.

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SIPOC

• We love the SIPOC method not for its power in
  diagnosing problems but framing them. Problems
  quite often manifest in business due to
  misunderstandings between distinct siloed parts
  of a business. One part of the business doesnt
  realize what role they play in the process and
  how their piece of the puzzle fits into
  delivering what the customer needs. Leverage
  SIPOC to bring people together and drive clarity
  around a business situation thats performing
  sub-optimally.

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Root Cause Analysis

• Also known as the Fishbone Method. This is a very
  complementary business analysis method to Five
  Whys and similarly it is aimed at getting beneath
  the apparent problem (the symptom).
• One of the best applications of the Fishbone Root
  Cause Analysis method is in a group setting
  which is different to Five Whys which tends to be
  more powerful when performed in one-on-one
  focused interviews.

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• Use the Fishbone in a workshop and start
  brainstorming deeper into problems and
  sub-problems from here you can prioritize
  problems (based on impact they are having) and
  solutions (based on their ability to address the
  business problem without introducing new ones).

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SWOT Analysis

• A tool that brings value at the more strategic
  level, SWOT Analysis is powerful but often not
  understood or poorly used. There really are 3
  parts to doing SWOT Analysis effectively most
  people only do the first two. Step 1 identify
  the internal strengths and weaknesses. This could
  be for a business unit, product line,
  organization.
• Step 2 identify the external market
  opportunities and threats that apply to everyone
  in the market (not just the company you are
  analyzing). Step 3 hypothesize the potential
  strategies that can be utilized by matching
  strength opportunity (offensive), strength
  threat (utilization), weakness opportunity
  (conversion) and weakness threat (defensive).
  Step 3 is the harder, more valuable and often
  neglected part of SWOT analysis.

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Process Mapping

• Specifically, Brown Paper Process Mapping. Its a
  simple, powerful and incredibly impactful
  business analysis tool. It has the power of SIPOC
  for framing and driving shared understanding, but
  it goes to a deeper level and facilitates problem
  identification and solution development.
• Get comfortable with process mapping in general
  before running a brown paper process mapping
  session and start in a small group for your
  first venture. Youll be amazed at the engagement
  from participants and the opportunities that
  emerge from an effective brown paper process
  mapping session.

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• There you have it. 5 powerful business analysis
  tools that more people need to know about, need
  to know how to use and need to have the
  confidence to use! 
• Go make a greater impact!The team at Expert
  Toolkit

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