The word ‘liaison‘ potentially reduces the role of business analysis to that of translation, note-taking, or courier — and says nothing about the value that should be added — and that’s why we started this discussion about a definition to replace that.

So perhaps:

Business analysis facilitates the definition and development of business capabilities that enable an organization to achieve its goals

I don’t have a definition to suggest – I can only offer my own perspective and preferences. I think I have been most effective at catalyzing change when I have served as a facilitator. In that role, I help to structure and shape conversations among stakeholders as part of an analysis phase of some kind.

The formal deliverables of these conversations might take the form of process models, data models, use case models, and so on. But to me, these are secondary to the person-to-person agreements and promises they represent.

I can no longer separate my role as a facilitator from my role as an analyst. Together these roles support a single primary purpose: to enable all the stakeholders of a business domain agree on how they will work together to achieve the goals of the business. They work out and express these agreements using analytical methods and models.

The initial suggested definition of business analysis at the start of this thread used the word “liaison.” I have misgivings about this word. I don’t like to be a go-between, shuttling from one constituency to another. I think I’m more effective when the constituencies are in direct communication with one another, and I am there to help structure and focus the discussions, to clarify and confirm through the use of models, and to help ensure that all voices are heard.

I’d welcome feedback.

This ultimately descends into a word game — trying to capture the essence of the breadth and depth of a discipline in a single verb. ‘Catalyze’ is more what a coach would do, and as you pointed out, only the enterprise BAs are in a space to be able to do that. So we either use the slightly prosaic ‘analyse’ or the better ‘define’ (as it’s more proactive).

So thinking of control is naughty and undesirable is akin to asserting that fire can only be used for evil.

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*I’d use ‘Invent’ for design, and ‘build’ for development.

Perhaps for QAs: ‘assure‘ would describe the value they add rather than just the work they do (touching on the ‘why‘ you were looking for).

Also, many PMs may be uncomfortable with ‘control’ (as this speaks to the less positive aspects of project management) — perhaps ‘enable‘ would describe the value they add?

For developers I think ‘build‘ is fine; perhaps for designers it would be ‘design‘?

I also like your suggestion of a set of complimentary definitions: what it is, why it’s needed, what we do to achieve it, and how we do that.

From that perspective, I still think ‘business capabilities’ is a useful term to define what business analysis is — we should probably stick to ‘competencies’ when we’re talking about the skills, knowledge, and aptitude of business analysts.

• · BAs deliver services that catalyse organizational change, to benefit organizational stakeholders.
• ·PMs deliver services that control organizational change, to benefit organizational stakeholders.
• ·DEVs deliver services that build organizational change, to benefit organizational stakeholders.
• ·QAs deliver services that test organizational change, to benefit organizational stakeholders.

(I like the PM/control bit, but I’m less certain of DEV and QA, and think DESign needs it’s own line.)

For BAs, the enterprise BAs are on the initiate side of the catalyst, while transition and project BAs have more of the “faster” and “less effort” senses of the word.

As for capabilities and what they apply to, I thought that ‘capabilities of the business’ and ‘capabilities of the BA’ were too easily confused, so I picked one. Whether that’s the best choice is another matter entirely.

I’m starting to think that we need a set of definitions that are complementary: what business analysis is, what business analysts do, and why both are needed.