Document Analysis

Document analysis is an elicitation technique where the business analyst reviews existing documentation to gather information about the current state of an organization, its processes, and systems. This can include a wide range of documents such as business plans, process flows, system specifications, user manuals, regulatory guidelines, and previous project documentation. By examining these documents, analysts can extract relevant details about existing requirements, business rules, and constraints. Document analysis helps in understanding the historical context, identifying any gaps or inconsistencies in current documentation, and providing a foundation for validating new requirements with stakeholders. This technique is especially useful at the beginning of a project to gain background knowledge and to prepare for more interactive elicitation techniques like interviews or workshops. It can also uncover previously unidentified stakeholders or discover legacy issues that need to be addressed. One of the advantages of document analysis is that it provides factual information that can be referenced throughout the project. It can save time by leveraging existing knowledge and avoiding duplication of effort. Additionally, it helps ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements by identifying obligations documented in official sources. However, reliance on document analysis alone has limitations. Documents may be outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate due to changes that were not recorded. Therefore, findings from document analysis should be validated with stakeholders to confirm their current applicability. In practice, document analysis should be combined with other elicitation techniques to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the requirements. It sets the groundwork for effective stakeholder engagement and helps the analyst to ask informed questions during interactive sessions. Overall, document analysis is a fundamental elicitation technique in business analysis that complements other methods by providing a detailed understanding of existing processes and requirements through the examination of available documentation.