A–Z reference

The language of business analysis

A searchable A–Z reference covering BABOK concepts, techniques, modeling notations, methodologies, and BA roles. Search or filter to find what you need.

Showing 375 terms

A

ACAcceptance Criteria Requirements: Predefined conditions a solution or work item must satisfy to be accepted by a stakeholder or user.
Activity Diagram Modeling: UML diagram that models the flow of activities, decisions, and parallelism in a process or system.
Actor Modeling: A role that interacts with a system, process, or use case from outside its boundary. Actors may be humans, organisational units, or other systems. BABOK treats actor identification as a precondition for use case modelling and scope definition.
Adaptive Approach Process & Methodology: Change-driven BA approach where requirements emerge progressively and are elaborated just-in-time. Best fit for high uncertainty, evolving needs, or where early feedback materially reduces risk.
Affinity Diagram Techniques: Technique for grouping a large number of ideas or items into related categories.
Agile Process & Methodology: Iterative, incremental approach to delivery emphasizing collaboration, adaptability, and customer value, defined by the Agile Manifesto.
Agile Perspective BABOK Core: BABOK lens for BA work in iterative, incremental delivery. Emphasises just-in-time analysis, lightweight artefacts (e.g. user stories), close collaboration with the Product Owner and team, and validation through working product.
AIArtificial Intelligence Data & Analytics: Field of computer science focused on building systems that perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence.
ANDParallel Gateway Modeling: BPMN gateway that splits flow into concurrent paths and joins them when all have completed.
Anonymisation Data & Analytics: Irreversible removal of personally identifying information from a dataset so individuals cannot be re-identified.
APIApplication Programming Interface General BA: Defined interface that allows software components or systems to communicate with one another.
ARPUAverage Revenue Per User Business & Strategy: Total revenue divided by the number of users or accounts over a defined period.
ARRAnnual Recurring Revenue Business & Strategy: Normalised annual value of subscription revenue from existing contracts at a point in time.
As-Is General BA: Description or model of the current state of a process, system, or organization.
As-Is Process Process & Methodology: The current-state representation of a process, modelled as it actually runs today rather than as policy describes it.
Assumption General BA: Factor considered to be true, real, or certain without proof, that influences planning.

B

BABusiness Analyst Roles: Practitioner who identifies business needs and recommends solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.
BA InformationBusiness Analysis Information BABOK Core: All information that BAs elicit, create, compile, and disseminate, including requirements, designs, models, and stakeholder concerns.
BABOKBusiness Analysis Body of Knowledge BABOK Core: The globally recognized standard for the practice of business analysis, published by IIBA. The current edition is BABOK Guide v3.
BACCMBusiness Analysis Core Concept Model BABOK Core: Conceptual framework of six core concepts essential to business analysis: Change, Need, Solution, Stakeholder, Value, and Context.
Backlog Process & Methodology: Ordered list of work items (stories, features, defects, spikes) representing everything currently known that may be needed in the product. The single source of requirements for changes; continuously refined and re-prioritised by the Product Owner.
Backlog Management Techniques: Practice of recording, prioritizing, and refining items to be addressed by the team.
Backlog Refinement Process & Methodology: Ongoing activity of adding detail, estimates, and order to product backlog items.
BAPMBusiness Analysis Planning and Monitoring BABOK Core: Knowledge area abbreviation (KA 1) covering how BA work is organized, governed, and improved across an initiative.
Bar Chart Data & Analytics: Chart that uses rectangular bars whose lengths are proportional to the values they represent. Best for comparing discrete categories or ranking. BABOK convention: start the value axis at zero to avoid misleading comparisons.
Baseline General BA: Approved version of a work product used as a basis for comparison and change control.
Benchmarking Techniques: Comparing organizational practices, performance, or processes against peers or industry leaders.
Benefits Realisation Business & Strategy: The discipline of identifying, planning, measuring, and confirming the benefits expected from a change. Linked in BABOK to Solution Evaluation (KA 6) and to logic models / benefits dependency networks.
BIBusiness Intelligence General BA: Technologies and practices for collecting, integrating, analyzing, and presenting business information.
Big Data Data & Analytics: Datasets too large or complex for traditional tools, typically characterised by volume, velocity, variety, veracity, and value.
BMCBusiness Model Canvas Business & Strategy: One-page strategic template describing nine building blocks of a business: customer segments, value propositions, channels, relationships, revenue, resources, activities, partners, and costs.
Bottleneck Process & Methodology: The step that constrains the throughput of an entire process; improving non-bottleneck steps yields no end-to-end gain.
BPMBusiness Process Management Business & Strategy: Discipline that uses methods to discover, model, analyze, measure, improve, optimize, and automate business processes end-to-end.
BPMNBusiness Process Model and Notation Modeling: Standard graphical notation maintained by OMG for modeling business processes.
BPOBusiness Process Outsourcing Business & Strategy: Contracting a third-party service provider to perform specific business processes such as payroll, support, or accounting.
BPRBusiness Process Re-engineering Business & Strategy: Radical redesign of core business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in productivity, cycle time, quality, and customer satisfaction.
Brainstorming Techniques: Group creativity technique for generating a large number of ideas in a short time without immediate judgment.
Burndown Chart Process & Methodology: Chart showing the amount of work remaining over time in a sprint or release.
Burnup Chart Process & Methodology: Chart showing work completed and total scope over time, useful for tracking scope changes.
Business Analysis Approach BABOK Core: The set of methods and techniques used to perform BA work on an initiative, ranging from predictive to adaptive.
Business Analysis Information Management BABOK Core: Defines how BA information is captured, stored, integrated, accessed, and reused across the initiative.
Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring BABOK Core: The knowledge area that organizes and coordinates BA work, defining how it will be performed, governed, and improved.
Business Architecture Perspective BABOK Core: BABOK lens that takes an enterprise-wide view, framing the organisation in terms of capabilities, value streams, information, and operating model. Used to align change initiatives with strategy and avoid local optimisation that fragments the whole.
Business Capability Business & Strategy: What an organization does — a stable building block of the business expressed as a noun phrase, independent of how or where it is performed.
Business Case General BA: Justification for a proposed change based on expected benefits, costs, risks, and alternatives.
Business Intelligence Perspective BABOK Core: BABOK lens for BA work focused on transforming data into decisions. Covers data sourcing, modelling, quality, KPIs, dashboards, and governance — starting from the decision a stakeholder needs to make.
Business Requirement Requirements: Higher-level statement of the goals, objectives, or needs of the enterprise. Describes why a change is being undertaken.
Business Rule Modeling: A statement that defines or constrains some aspect of the business; rules are typically extracted from process tasks into decision tables or DMN.

C

CACCustomer Acquisition Cost Business & Strategy: Average cost of acquiring a new customer, including marketing and sales spend, divided by new customers won.
Call Activity Modeling: BPMN element that invokes a re-usable process defined elsewhere, supporting process composition and re-use.
CBACost-Benefit Analysis Techniques: Comparison of expected costs and benefits of a solution to assess its overall value.
CBAPCertified Business Analysis Professional BABOK Core: Senior IIBA certification requiring at least 7,500 hours of BA work experience within the past ten years.
CCBChange Control Board Process & Methodology: Group authorized to review, evaluate, approve, defer, or reject change requests.
CCBACertification of Capability in Business Analysis BABOK Core: Mid-level IIBA certification requiring at least 3,750 hours of BA work experience within the past seven years.
CDContinuous Delivery Process & Methodology: Practice of keeping software in a deployable state at all times, with automated release to staging or production.
CDCChange Data Capture Data & Analytics: Technique for tracking and propagating only the data that has changed in a source system.
CESCustomer Effort Score Business & Strategy: Metric measuring how easy it was for a customer to get an issue resolved or a task completed.
Change Strategy General BA: High-level approach for moving from the current state to the future state, including timing and risks.
Churn Rate Business & Strategy: Percentage of customers, accounts, or revenue lost over a given period.
CIContinuous Integration Process & Methodology: Practice of frequently merging code changes into a shared branch and automatically building and testing them.
Class Diagram Modeling: UML diagram that shows the static structure of a system: classes, attributes, operations, and relationships.
CLVCustomer Lifetime Value Business & Strategy: Total revenue a business can reasonably expect from a single customer account throughout the business relationship.
CMMICapability Maturity Model Integration Process & Methodology: Process improvement framework that rates organizational maturity across five levels.
CMMNCase Management Model and Notation Modeling: OMG-standard notation for modeling knowledge-intensive, event-driven case work that does not follow a fixed flow.
Concept Model Modeling: Model showing key business concepts, their definitions, and the relationships between them.
Conceptual Data Model Data & Analytics: High-level model that describes business entities and their relationships, free of technical detail.
Conceptual Model Modeling: Highest-abstraction model focused on business meaning — entities, concepts, or processes — with no implementation detail.
Constraint General BA: Limitation or restriction imposed on the solution or on the BA work itself.
Constraint (Requirement) Requirements: A restriction on the design or implementation of the solution, often technical, regulatory, or budgetary.
Context Diagram Modeling: High-level diagram showing a system as a single process and its interactions with external entities.
Continuous Deployment Process & Methodology: Extension of continuous delivery in which every change passing automated checks is released to production automatically.
Correlation Data & Analytics: A statistical relationship between two variables in which they tend to move together. Visualised on scatterplots; BAs must remember correlation does not imply causation.
CRChange Request Process & Methodology: Formal proposal to modify a product, system, requirement, or other baselined item.
CRMCustomer Relationship Management General BA: Strategy and software for managing an organization's interactions with current and prospective customers.
CSATCustomer Satisfaction Score Business & Strategy: Metric capturing customers' satisfaction with a specific interaction, product, or service, typically on a 1–5 scale.
CSFCritical Success Factor Business & Strategy: Element required for an organization or initiative to achieve its mission or strategic objectives.
Current State General BA: The way the enterprise operates and performs today, before the change is implemented.
Customer Roles: The stakeholder who consumes a product or service produced by the enterprise.
Customer Journey Map Modeling: Visualisation of the steps, touchpoints, emotions, and pain points a customer experiences while achieving a goal with an organization.
Cycle Time Process & Methodology: Elapsed time from the start to the end of a process or step, including waits and rework — a primary BPM metric.

D

Daily Scrum Process & Methodology: 15-minute daily Scrum event where developers inspect progress and adapt the plan for the day.
Dashboard Data & Analytics: Curated visual display of the most important information needed to monitor performance against objectives, consolidated and arranged on a single screen so it can be monitored at a glance. Distinct from a report by its focus on monitoring over analysis.
Data Catalog Data & Analytics: Inventory of data assets in an organization, with metadata describing meaning, ownership, lineage, and usage.
Data Cleansing Data & Analytics: Process of detecting and correcting (or removing) corrupt, inaccurate, or irrelevant records from a dataset.
Data Dictionary Modeling: Centralized repository defining the meaning, structure, and usage of data elements in a system.
Data Fabric Data & Analytics: Architectural approach that integrates data services and metadata across distributed environments to provide unified access.
Data Governance Data & Analytics: Framework of policies, roles, and processes that ensures data is accurate, available, secure, and used responsibly across an organization.
Data Lake Data & Analytics: Centralized repository that stores large volumes of raw structured and unstructured data in its native format.
Data Lineage Data & Analytics: End-to-end record of where data comes from, how it moves, and how it is transformed across systems.
Data Mart Data & Analytics: Subset of a data warehouse focused on a specific business area or function (e.g. sales, finance).
Data Mesh Data & Analytics: Decentralized data architecture where domain teams own and serve their data as discoverable, interoperable products.
Data Modeling Data & Analytics: Process of creating a visual representation of data and the relationships between data elements, at conceptual, logical, or physical level.
Data Object Modeling: BPMN artefact representing information consumed or produced by a task; should change the reader's understanding of the flow, not just decorate it.
Data Owner Data & Analytics: Senior role accountable for a data domain, including its protection, integrity, and value to the business.
Data Pipeline Data & Analytics: Series of automated steps that move and transform data from source systems to a destination, such as a warehouse or report.
Data Privacy Data & Analytics: Discipline concerned with how personal data is collected, used, stored, and shared in line with regulation and ethics.
Data Profiling Data & Analytics: Examining data to collect statistics and information about its structure, content, and quality.
Data Quality Data & Analytics: Degree to which data is fit for its intended use — measured by accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness, validity, and uniqueness.
Data Steward Data & Analytics: Role accountable for the quality, definition, and proper use of a specific data domain or dataset.
Data Table Data & Analytics: Structured tabular display of data in rows and columns. Preferred when readers need to look up exact values, compare many attributes, or perform their own analysis — chosen over charts when precision outweighs pattern recognition.
Data Visualisation Data & Analytics: The graphical representation of data to support understanding, decision-making, and communication. BABOK lists data visualisation among RADD techniques; effective practice matches chart type to the analytical question (comparison, trend, distribution, relationship, composition).
Decision Analysis Techniques: Formal evaluation of a problem and possible decisions, often using techniques like decision trees or pros/cons.
Decision Modeling Modeling: BABOK v3 technique that depicts how operational business decisions are made, decomposing them into sub-decisions, input data, and the business knowledge (rules) that produce an outcome. Commonly expressed using DMN decision requirements diagrams and decision tables.
Decision Table Modeling: Table mapping combinations of conditions to the actions or outcomes they produce.
Decision Tree Modeling: Tree-shaped diagram used to model decisions and their possible consequences, often with probabilities and values.
Deliverable General BA: Any tangible or intangible output produced as a result of project work.
Dependency General BA: Relationship in which one item, task, or requirement relies on another.
Descriptive Analytics Data & Analytics: Analytics that summarises what has happened, typically through dashboards and reports.
Design Requirements: A usable representation of a solution. Designs focus on how value is realized; requirements focus on what is needed.
DevOps Process & Methodology: Set of practices combining software development and IT operations to shorten the delivery life cycle.
DFDData Flow Diagram Modeling: Graphical representation of how data moves through a system between processes, stores, and external entities.
Diagnostic Analytics Data & Analytics: Analytics that explores why something happened, often through drill-down, segmentation, and root-cause analysis.
Dimension Table Data & Analytics: Table in a dimensional model that holds descriptive attributes (e.g. time, product, customer) used to slice facts.
DMAICDefine, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control Process & Methodology: Six Sigma improvement cycle for existing processes: define the problem, measure performance, analyze causes, improve, and control gains.
DMNDecision Model and Notation Modeling: OMG-standard notation for modeling business decisions and the rules behind them, often paired with BPMN.
Document Analysis Techniques: Reviewing existing documentation to elicit information about the business, system, or domain.
DoDDefinition of Done Requirements: Shared agreement on the criteria a work item must satisfy to be considered complete.
Domain SMEDomain Subject Matter Expert Roles: Stakeholder with expertise in some aspect of the business domain affected by the change.
DoRDefinition of Ready Requirements: Criteria a backlog item must meet before a team will commit to working on it in a sprint.
DRDDecision Requirements Diagram Modeling: DMN diagram showing how decisions depend on sub-decisions, input data, and business knowledge — the top-level view of a decision model.
DWData Warehouse Data & Analytics: Centralized, structured store of integrated data from multiple sources, optimized for reporting and analytics.

E

EAEnterprise Architecture General BA: Conceptual blueprint of an organization's structure, processes, information, and IT systems.
ECElicitation and Collaboration BABOK Core: Knowledge area abbreviation (KA 2) covering tasks to draw out, confirm, and communicate BA information with stakeholders.
ECBAEntry Certificate in Business Analysis BABOK Core: IIBA's entry-level certification for individuals beginning a career in business analysis. No prior BA work experience is required.
Elicitation General BA: Iterative process of drawing out information from stakeholders and other sources.
Elicitation and Collaboration BABOK Core: The knowledge area covering tasks performed to obtain information from stakeholders, confirm results, and communicate BA information.
ELTExtract, Load, Transform Data & Analytics: Modern variant of ETL where raw data is loaded into the target store first and then transformed in-place.
End Event Modeling: BPMN thick-bordered circle that terminates a process path; multiple distinct end events (e.g. success, cancelled, error) are often clearer than one.
End User Roles: The person who will ultimately interact with the solution to perform their work.
Epic Requirements: A large body of work that can be broken down into smaller user stories.
ERDEntity Relationship Diagram Modeling: Diagram showing data entities, their attributes, and the relationships between them.
ERPEnterprise Resource Planning General BA: Integrated software system that manages core business processes such as finance, HR, supply chain, and operations.
Estimation Techniques: Forecasting the cost, effort, duration, or resources needed for work. Techniques include analogous, parametric, and three-point.
ETLExtract, Transform, Load General BA: Data integration process that extracts data from sources, transforms it, and loads it into a target system.

F

Fact Table Data & Analytics: Central table in a dimensional model that stores measurable events, transactions, or metrics.
Feature Requirements: A distinct piece of functionality that delivers value to users or the business.
Fishbone Diagram Techniques: Cause-and-effect (Ishikawa) diagram used to identify possible causes of a problem grouped by category.
Focus Group Techniques: Facilitated discussion with a selected group of stakeholders to gather opinions, attitudes, and ideas.
Functional Requirement Requirements: Behavior the solution must perform and information it must manage.
Future State General BA: The way the enterprise will operate after the change has been implemented.

G

Gap Analysis General BA: Comparison of current state and future state to identify capabilities that are missing or need to change.
Gateway (BPMN) Modeling: BPMN diamond used to control divergence and convergence of flow — exclusive (XOR), parallel (AND), inclusive (OR), event-based, or complex.
GDPRGeneral Data Protection Regulation General BA: European Union regulation governing the protection of personal data and privacy.
Glossary Modeling: Collection of business terms with agreed definitions, used to ensure consistent understanding.
Governance Business & Strategy: The framework of decisions, accountability, and oversight that directs how an organization or initiative is run.
GUIGraphical User Interface General BA: Visual interface using elements like windows, icons, and buttons that allows users to interact with software.

H

Hand-off Process & Methodology: Transfer of work between actors or systems; a primary source of delay, error, and lost context in business processes.
Heat Map Data & Analytics: Two-dimensional matrix in which cell colour intensity encodes a quantitative value. Used in BA work to visualise risk (likelihood × impact), capability maturity, process performance, or any value across two categorical dimensions. Clear legend and consistent colour scale are essential to avoid misreading.
Hybrid Process & Methodology: Combination of predictive (waterfall-style) and adaptive (agile) approaches tailored to an initiative.

I

IaaSInfrastructure as a Service General BA: Cloud service offering virtualized computing resources over the internet.
IIBAInternational Institute of Business Analysis BABOK Core: The professional association that maintains the BABOK Guide and the ECBA, CCBA, and CBAP certifications.
Implementation SMEImplementation Subject Matter Expert Roles: Stakeholder with expertise in the implementation of solution components, e.g., developers, architects, testers.
In Scope General BA: Items, capabilities, processes, or stakeholders explicitly included in the scope of analysis or delivery. Listed alongside out-of-scope items on scope models to prevent later disputes.
Increment Process & Methodology: A working, potentially releasable piece of the product produced during an iteration. The Scrum increment must meet the Definition of Done and add to all prior increments.
Incremental Development Process & Methodology: Approach in which a solution is delivered in successive pieces, each adding usable functionality.
Influence/Interest Grid Techniques: Two-by-two matrix plotting stakeholders by their influence over the change against their interest in it. Quadrants (Manage Closely, Keep Satisfied, Keep Informed, Monitor) drive engagement strategy. Referenced by BABOK as a stakeholder-analysis aid.
Information Technology Perspective BABOK Core: BABOK lens for BA work performed within or for the IT function — implementing, integrating, modifying, or retiring software and infrastructure. Emphasises functional/non-functional requirements, interfaces, and enterprise architecture alignment.
Interface Analysis Techniques: BABOK v3 technique used to identify and define interactions between systems, organisational units, or solution components — including data exchanged, format, frequency, triggers, and protocols. Output typically captured on context diagrams or interface specifications.
Intermediate Event Modeling: BPMN double-bordered circle representing something that happens during a flow — typically a timer, message receipt, escalation, or signal.
Interview Techniques: Direct conversation, structured or unstructured, used to elicit information from a stakeholder.
INVESTINVEST Requirements: Quality criteria for user stories: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable.
IRRInternal Rate of Return Techniques: Discount rate at which the net present value of an investment's cash flows equals zero.
Issue General BA: A risk that has materialized or a current problem that requires action and tracking.
Item Tracking Techniques: Capturing and managing stakeholder concerns, issues, risks, action items, and decisions through to resolution.
Iterative Development Process & Methodology: Approach in which a solution is built and refined through repeated cycles of planning, building, and evaluating.
ITILITIL Process & Methodology: Information Technology Infrastructure Library — a framework of best practices for IT service management.

J

JTBDJobs To Be Done Business & Strategy: Framework describing what customers are trying to accomplish ('the job they hire a product to do'), independent of features.

K

KAKnowledge Area BABOK Core: A grouping of related BA tasks. BABOK v3 defines six knowledge areas, each containing a set of tasks.
Kanban Process & Methodology: Lean method that visualizes work on a board, limits work in progress, and manages flow.
KPIKey Performance Indicator Techniques: A measurable value that shows how effectively an objective is being achieved.
KRIKey Risk Indicator Data & Analytics: Metric used to signal increasing risk exposure in an activity, process, or organization.

L

Lane (BPMN) Modeling: Sub-division of a BPMN pool used to assign responsibility for tasks to a role, department, or system within the same participant.
Lead Time Process & Methodology: Elapsed time from a customer request to the customer receiving the outcome; usually longer than cycle time because it includes upstream queueing.
Lean Process & Methodology: Philosophy and practices focused on maximizing customer value while minimizing waste.
Lean Canvas Business & Strategy: Adaptation of the Business Model Canvas for startups, replacing partner/relationship blocks with problem, solution, key metrics, and unfair advantage.
Lessons Learned Techniques: Information gained from an initiative used to improve future performance.
Logical Data Model Data & Analytics: Detailed model of entities, attributes, keys, and relationships, independent of any specific database technology.
Logical Model Modeling: Detailed model that fully specifies structure or behaviour while remaining independent of any specific technology platform.

M

Market Analysis Techniques: Studying customers, competitors, and market conditions to inform decisions about products and services.
MDAModel-Driven Architecture Modeling: OMG approach in which models at successive levels of abstraction (CIM, PIM, PSM) are progressively transformed toward implementation.
MDMMaster Data Management General BA: Discipline for defining and managing an organization's critical shared data to provide a single trusted view.
Message Flow Modeling: BPMN dashed connector showing communication between two pools (separate participants).
Milestone General BA: Significant point or event in a project, often marking completion of a major deliverable.
Mind Mapping Techniques: Visual diagram used to organize information around a central concept and explore relationships.
Mitigation Process & Methodology: A risk response that reduces the likelihood or impact of a risk to an acceptable level. One of four standard responses alongside avoid, transfer, and accept.
MLMachine Learning Data & Analytics: Branch of AI in which systems learn patterns from data to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed.
MMPMinimum Marketable Product Process & Methodology: Smallest product that can be released to customers and generate value in the market.
Mockup Modeling: Higher-fidelity static design of a user interface showing visual style and content.
MoSCoWMust, Should, Could, Won't Techniques: Prioritization technique categorizing requirements as Must have, Should have, Could have, or Won't have this time.
MoSCoW Prioritisation Techniques: Prioritisation method that classifies items as Must have, Should have, Could have, or Won't have (this time). Originating in DSDM and widely adopted in BABOK practice; the 'Won't have' category is critical for managing scope.
MRRMonthly Recurring Revenue Business & Strategy: Normalised monthly value of subscription revenue, used widely in SaaS finance and product analytics.
MVPMinimum Viable Product Process & Methodology: Version of a product with just enough features to satisfy early users and validate learning.

N

NFRNon-Functional Requirement Requirements: Quality attribute or constraint such as performance, security, usability, reliability, or maintainability.
NoSQL Data & Analytics: Family of non-relational databases (document, key-value, column-family, graph) optimized for flexibility and scale.
Notation Modeling: The graphical and lexical conventions used by a modelling language (e.g. BPMN, DMN, UML) — the rules that make a diagram unambiguous.
NPSNet Promoter Score Business & Strategy: Customer-loyalty metric calculated from responses to: 'How likely are you to recommend us?' on a 0–10 scale.
NPVNet Present Value Techniques: Current value of expected future cash flows from an investment, discounted to today using a required rate of return.

O

Observation Techniques: Studying people performing work to understand processes, environments, and unstated needs. May be active or passive.
OKRObjectives and Key Results Business & Strategy: Goal-setting framework pairing a qualitative Objective with measurable Key Results that show progress toward it.
OLAOperational Level Agreement Techniques: Internal agreement between IT teams that supports delivery of an SLA to the customer.
OLAPOnline Analytical Processing General BA: Class of systems optimized for complex queries and multidimensional analysis of business data.
OLTPOnline Transaction Processing General BA: Class of systems optimized for managing transaction-oriented workloads such as order entry.
OMGOMG Modeling: Object Management Group — the international standards consortium that maintains BPMN, DMN, UML, SysML, and CMMN, the notations most commonly cited by BABOK for modelling processes, decisions, and systems.
Operating Model Business & Strategy: Description of how an organization delivers value, integrating people, process, technology, data, and governance.
Operational Support Roles: Stakeholder group responsible for the day-to-day management and maintenance of the solution after deployment.
ORInclusive Gateway Modeling: BPMN gateway that activates one or more outgoing paths based on conditions and joins waiting only for the activated paths.
Organizational Modeling Modeling: Modeling of an organization's roles, responsibilities, and reporting structures.
Out of Scope General BA: Items, capabilities, processes, or stakeholders explicitly excluded from the scope of analysis or delivery. Documenting exclusions is as important as documenting inclusions and is a standard element of a scope model.
Outcome Business & Strategy: A measurable change in stakeholder behaviour, capability, or condition that results from delivered outputs. BABOK distinguishes outputs (what is produced) from outcomes (the change those outputs cause), with value realised only when outcomes occur.

P

PaaSPlatform as a Service General BA: Cloud service that provides a platform for developing, running, and managing applications.
Pain Point General BA: Specific problem or frustration experienced by a stakeholder that the solution aims to address.
Payback Period Techniques: Time required for an investment's cumulative cash inflows to equal its initial outlay.
PDCAPlan-Do-Check-Act Process & Methodology: Iterative four-step management method for the control and continuous improvement of processes and products.
Perspective BABOK Core: A view of business analysis used in a specific context. BABOK v3 defines five: Agile, Business Intelligence, Information Technology, Business Architecture, and Business Process Management.
Perspectives BABOK Core: Five lenses in BABOK v3 — Agile, Business Intelligence, Information Technology, Business Architecture, Business Process Management — through which BA work is performed. They describe context, not methodology, and most initiatives blend several.
PESTLEPolitical, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental Techniques: Framework for analyzing macro-environmental factors affecting an organization. Variants include PEST and STEEPLE.
Physical Data Model Data & Analytics: Database-specific model showing tables, columns, data types, indexes, and constraints as they will be implemented.
Physical Model Modeling: Implementation-ready model expressed in the constructs of a specific platform — tables, columns, services, executable BPMN.
Pie Chart Data & Analytics: Circular chart divided into sectors illustrating numerical proportion. Appropriate only for showing parts of a single whole with a small number of categories; bar charts are usually preferred for comparison.
PIIPersonally Identifiable Information General BA: Information that can be used on its own or with other data to identify an individual.
Plan Business Analysis Approach BABOK Core: First task of Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring (KA 1). Selects the point on the predictive–adaptive spectrum and defines deliverables, activities, complexity, and change-management approach for the BA work.
Planning Poker Techniques: Consensus-based estimation technique used in agile teams, often using a Fibonacci-like scale.
PMProject Manager Roles: Person responsible for planning, executing, monitoring, and closing a project within scope, time, and budget.
PMBOKProject Management Body of Knowledge Process & Methodology: PMI's standard for project management knowledge and practices.
PMIProject Management Institute Process & Methodology: Global professional association for project, programme, and portfolio managers; publisher of the PMBOK Guide and PMP credential.
PMPProject Management Professional Process & Methodology: Globally recognized PMI certification for experienced project managers.
POProduct Owner Roles: Scrum role accountable for maximizing product value and managing the product backlog.
POCProof of Concept Process & Methodology: Small exercise to verify that a concept, technology, or design is feasible.
Pool (BPMN) Modeling: BPMN container representing a participant — typically a separate organisation or system with its own process; pools communicate via message flows.
Power/Interest Grid Techniques: Stakeholder analysis matrix that classifies stakeholders by their level of power and interest in the change.
Predictive Analytics Data & Analytics: Analytics that uses historical data and statistical or ML techniques to forecast likely future outcomes.
Predictive Approach Process & Methodology: Plan-driven BA approach where requirements are defined in detail upfront, baselined, and managed through formal change control. Best fit for regulatory, safety-critical, or fixed-price contexts with stable scope.
Prescriptive Analytics Data & Analytics: Analytics that recommends actions, often combining predictive models with optimisation or decision rules.
PRINCE2PRojects IN Controlled Environments Process & Methodology: Process-based project management methodology widely used in the UK public sector and globally.
Prioritisation Techniques: BABOK v3 technique for ranking requirements, designs, or options to determine relative importance. Common methods include MoSCoW, weighted scoring, Kano, value-vs-effort, and WSJF.
Process Map Modeling: Visual representation of the steps, actors, and decisions in a business process.
Process Modeling Modeling: BABOK v3 technique that visually depicts a sequence of activities, decisions, and hand-offs that transform inputs into outputs. Used to understand current operations (as-is), design future operations (to-be), surface bottlenecks, and align stakeholders on scope. Notations include flowcharts, swimlanes, BPMN, and value stream maps.
Process Owner Roles: The single accountable individual for end-to-end performance of a business process across the functions it crosses.
Product Backlog Process & Methodology: Ordered list of everything that might be needed in the product, owned by the Product Owner.
Product Manager Roles: Role responsible for the strategy, roadmap, and feature definition of a product over its life cycle.
Project Scope Process & Methodology: The work that must be performed to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and functions. BABOK distinguishes project scope (the work) from solution scope (the capabilities of the resulting solution).
Prototyping Techniques: Building an early model of a solution to elicit, validate, and refine requirements.
Pseudonymisation Data & Analytics: Replacing identifying fields with reversible tokens so data can be processed without exposing identity.

Q

QAQuality Assurance Process & Methodology: Process-oriented activities ensuring that the methods used to deliver products are effective and produce quality outcomes.
QCQuality Control Process & Methodology: Product-oriented activities focused on identifying defects in deliverables.
Quick Win General BA: An item with high value and low effort or cost, deliverable in a short time frame. Quick wins occupy the high-value/low-effort quadrant of an impact-effort matrix and are typically scheduled early to build momentum and demonstrate progress.

R

RACIResponsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed Techniques: Responsibility assignment matrix mapping each task or decision to one Accountable party and one or more Responsible, Consulted, and Informed roles.
RACI Matrix Techniques: Roles and Responsibilities matrix mapping stakeholders to tasks or deliverables as Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, or Informed. BABOK technique used to clarify hand-offs and approval authority across a process or project.
RADDRequirements Analysis and Design Definition BABOK Core: Knowledge area abbreviation (KA 5) covering specifying and modeling requirements, verifying and validating them, and defining design options. Heaviest ECBA weighting (~30%).
RCARoot Cause Analysis Techniques: Method to identify the underlying cause of a problem rather than its symptoms. Common tools: 5 Whys, Fishbone diagram.
Regression Testing Process & Methodology: Re-testing of unchanged areas of a solution to ensure existing functionality still works after changes.
Regulator Roles: Stakeholder responsible for defining and enforcing standards or rules that the solution must comply with.
Regulatory Requirement Requirements: An externally imposed obligation from law, regulation, standard, or contract that the solution must satisfy (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, PCI-DSS, WCAG, ISO 27001). Often realised as a mix of functional behaviour, NFRs, and constraints.
Release Planning Process & Methodology: The activity of grouping backlog items into releases that deliver coherent increments of value, balancing scope, capacity, dependencies, and stakeholder expectations.
Reporting Data & Analytics: The systematic production and distribution of information about performance, status, or compliance to defined audiences on a defined schedule. Distinguished from dashboards by its retrospective, narrative orientation.
Requirement Requirements: A usable representation of a need, focused on understanding what kind of value could be delivered if the requirement is fulfilled.
Requirements Analysis and Design Definition BABOK Core: The knowledge area for structuring, specifying, modeling, validating, and recommending solution options. Carries the highest ECBA weighting.
Requirements Life Cycle Management BABOK Core: The knowledge area for managing and maintaining requirements and design information from inception through retirement.
Retrospective Process & Methodology: Scrum event where the team reflects on the past sprint and identifies improvements for the next one.
Rework Loop Process & Methodology: Path in a process where work is returned to an earlier step due to defects or missing information; a key target for process improvement.
RFIRequest for Information Process & Methodology: Document used to gather general information about vendor capabilities before issuing an RFP.
RFPRequest for Proposal Process & Methodology: Document soliciting proposals from vendors for a product or service, with selection criteria.
RFQRequest for Quotation Process & Methodology: Document inviting vendors to bid prices on specified products or services.
Risk General BA: Uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on objectives.
Risk Analysis Techniques: BABOK v3 technique (Risk Analysis and Management) for identifying risks, assessing their likelihood and impact, and determining responses (avoid, transfer, mitigate, accept). Output is typically captured in a risk register and visualised on a risk matrix.
Risk Analysis and Management Techniques: Identifying, assessing, and treating uncertainties that may affect outcomes.
Risk Matrix Techniques: Two-dimensional grid plotting risks by likelihood against impact, with cell colour denoting severity. Used to prioritise risk responses; meaning of axes and thresholds must be defined explicitly to support consistent assessment.
RLCMRequirements Life Cycle Management BABOK Core: Knowledge area abbreviation (KA 3) for managing requirements and designs from inception through retirement, including tracing, prioritizing, and approving.
RLMRequirements Life Cycle Management BABOK Core: Common short form for Requirements Life Cycle Management (KA 3). Same knowledge area as RLCM.
Roadmap Process & Methodology: Time-oriented visual plan showing how a product, capability, or change will evolve across releases, quarters, or themes. Communicates direction and sequencing without committing to detailed dates.
ROIReturn on Investment Techniques: Ratio measuring financial return relative to the cost of an investment, expressed as a percentage.
Roles and Permissions Matrix Modeling: Matrix that maps user roles to the actions or data they are allowed to access.
RPARobotic Process Automation Process & Methodology: Software 'robots' that mimic human interactions with systems to automate rule-based, repetitive tasks; a tactical option within BPM, not a substitute for redesign.
RTMRequirements Traceability Matrix Requirements: A grid linking requirements to their origin, related requirements, design elements, and the test cases that verify them.

S

SAStrategy Analysis BABOK Core: Knowledge area abbreviation (KA 4) for identifying business need, assessing capabilities, and defining the change strategy.
SaaSSoftware as a Service General BA: Software licensing and delivery model in which software is hosted centrally and accessed over the internet.
SAMServiceable Available Market Business & Strategy: Portion of the TAM that a company's products and services can realistically serve.
Scatterplot Data & Analytics: Chart plotting two quantitative variables as points on Cartesian axes to reveal correlation, clusters, and outliers. The standard visual for exploring relationships between variables.
SCDSlowly Changing Dimension Data & Analytics: Pattern for handling changes to dimension attributes over time (Type 1 overwrite, Type 2 history, Type 3 limited history).
Schema Data & Analytics: Formal definition of the structure of data, including tables, fields, types, and relationships.
Scope General BA: The boundaries of what a solution, product, or project will and will not include.
Scope Creep General BA: Uncontrolled expansion of scope without corresponding adjustments to time, cost, or resources.
Scope Modeling Modeling: Techniques such as context diagrams or feature lists used to define solution and project boundaries.
Scrum Process & Methodology: Lightweight agile framework with defined roles (Product Owner, Scrum Master, Developers), events, and artifacts, organized into sprints.
Scrum Master Roles: Scrum role that serves the team by removing impediments and ensuring Scrum is understood and enacted.
SCVSingle Customer View Data & Analytics: Consolidated, consistent record of all data an organization holds about an individual customer.
SDLCSoftware Development Life Cycle Process & Methodology: Structured process used to plan, design, build, test, deploy, and maintain software.
SESolution Evaluation BABOK Core: Knowledge area abbreviation (KA 6) for assessing solution performance and value and recommending improvements.
Sequence Diagram Modeling: UML diagram that shows how objects interact over time through ordered messages.
Sequence Flow Modeling: BPMN connector showing the order in which tasks are performed within a single pool.
Service Blueprint Modeling: Diagram extending a customer journey with the front-stage, back-stage, and supporting processes that deliver the service.
Service Level Business & Strategy: A measurable commitment to a level of service performance (availability, response time, throughput, resolution time). The unit measured by service-level indicators and contracted in service-level agreements.
SIPOCSIPOC Process & Methodology: High-level process framing showing Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, and Customers; used to scope a process before detailed modelling.
SITSystem Integration Testing Process & Methodology: Testing performed to verify that integrated components or systems interact correctly.
Six Sigma Process & Methodology: Data-driven methodology for reducing process variation and defects, often using the DMAIC improvement cycle.
SLAService Level Agreement Techniques: Formal agreement defining the expected level of service between a provider and a consumer, including metrics and remedies.
SLIService-Level Indicator Business & Strategy: A measured value of a service attribute (e.g. latency, uptime) compared against the SLO and SLA.
SLOService Level Objective General BA: Specific measurable target for a service attribute, supporting the broader SLA.
SMARTSpecific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound Techniques: Criteria for writing clear, actionable objectives or goals.
SMESubject Matter Expert Roles: Individual with deep, specialized knowledge of a domain, process, product, or system.
Snowflake Schema Data & Analytics: Variation of the star schema where dimension tables are normalized into multiple related tables.
SOAService-Oriented Architecture General BA: Architectural style in which services are provided to other components over a network through standard interfaces.
Solution Evaluation BABOK Core: The knowledge area covering tasks to assess solution performance and value, and recommend ways to increase value.
Solution Requirement Requirements: Capabilities and qualities of a solution that meet stakeholder requirements. Split into functional and non-functional.
Solution Scope General BA: The set of capabilities a solution must deliver to meet the business need.
SOMServiceable Obtainable Market Business & Strategy: Realistic share of the SAM a business can capture in the short to medium term.
SOWStatement of Work Process & Methodology: Document defining the activities, deliverables, timelines, and acceptance criteria for project work.
Spiral Model Process & Methodology: Risk-driven life cycle that combines iterative development with the systematic aspects of waterfall.
Sponsor Roles: The stakeholder who authorizes the change and provides resources, funding, and high-level direction.
Sprint Process & Methodology: Time-boxed iteration in Scrum, typically 1–4 weeks, that produces a potentially releasable increment.
Sprint Backlog Process & Methodology: Set of product backlog items selected for a sprint, plus the plan to deliver them.
Sprint Planning Process & Methodology: Scrum event at the start of a sprint where the team plans the work to be performed.
Sprint Review Process & Methodology: Scrum event at the end of a sprint where the increment is inspected with stakeholders.
SQLStructured Query Language Data & Analytics: Standard language for querying, manipulating, and managing data in relational databases.
SRESite Reliability Engineering Process & Methodology: Discipline applying software engineering practices to operations problems, balancing reliability with feature velocity through SLOs and error budgets.
SSOTSingle Source of Truth General BA: Practice of structuring information so that every data element is stored exactly once in an authoritative location.
Stakeholder General BA: Any individual or group affected by, or who can affect, the change, the need, or the solution.
Stakeholder Analysis Techniques: Identifying and assessing stakeholders by attributes such as influence, interest, attitude, and authority.
Stakeholder Engagement Techniques: Planned, ongoing collaboration with stakeholders to ensure their needs, concerns, and authority are appropriately reflected in BA work. A core output of Plan Stakeholder Engagement (BABOK KA 1.4).
Stakeholder List, Map, or Personas Techniques: Tools used to record stakeholders, visualize their relationships, and represent typical user types.
Stakeholder Map Techniques: Visual representation of stakeholders and their relationships to the change, the solution, and one another. BABOK lists stakeholder maps among the outputs of stakeholder analysis; common forms include onion diagrams and matrix grids.
Stakeholder Requirement Requirements: Needs of a stakeholder or stakeholder group that must be met to achieve a business requirement.
Star Schema Data & Analytics: Dimensional modeling pattern with a central fact table connected to descriptive dimension tables.
Start Event Modeling: BPMN thin-bordered circle that triggers a process; can be none, message, timer, signal, conditional, or other event types.
State Diagram Modeling: Diagram showing the states an object can be in and the events that cause transitions between them.
Story Points Techniques: Unitless measure of relative effort, complexity, and risk used to size user stories in agile.
Strategy Analysis BABOK Core: The knowledge area focused on identifying business need, gaps in current capabilities, and the change strategy to reach a future state.
Sub-process Modeling: BPMN task that hides further detail and can be expanded into its own diagram; the standard way to manage diagram complexity.
Supplier Roles: External stakeholder who provides products or services to the organization.
Survey or Questionnaire Techniques: Set of written questions used to elicit information from a large group of stakeholders.
Swimlane Modeling: Generic term for the horizontal or vertical bands in a process diagram that allocate tasks to actors; in BPMN, implemented as pools and lanes.
Swimlane Diagram Modeling: Process diagram that uses lanes to show which actor or system is responsible for each step.
SWOTStrengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats Techniques: Strategic analysis framework evaluating internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats.
SWOT Analysis Techniques: BABOK v3 strategy-analysis technique that classifies internal Strengths and Weaknesses against external Opportunities and Threats. Used to frame strategic options and inform the change strategy.

T

Takt Time Process & Methodology: The pace at which a process must produce output to meet customer demand; available time divided by required units.
TAMTotal Addressable Market Business & Strategy: Total revenue opportunity available if a product or service achieved 100% market share.
TCOTotal Cost of Ownership General BA: Estimate of all direct and indirect costs of acquiring and operating a system over its life cycle.
Tester Roles: Stakeholder responsible for verifying that the solution meets requirements and quality standards.
Theme Process & Methodology: A high-level container that groups related epics, features, or backlog items around a common business objective. Used on roadmaps to communicate intent at a strategic level.
Theory of Change Business & Strategy: A structured articulation of how and why a desired change is expected to occur, mapping inputs → activities → outputs → outcomes → impact, together with the assumptions linking each step. Used in strategy analysis and benefits realisation to make causal logic explicit and testable.
Three Amigos General BA: Practice of bringing together a business representative, developer, and tester to discuss and clarify a story before development.
Three-Point Estimation Techniques: Estimation using optimistic, most likely, and pessimistic values to derive a weighted average.
Time Series Data & Analytics: A sequence of data points indexed in time order, typically at uniform intervals. Visualised with line charts to expose trend, seasonality, and anomalies.
To-Be General BA: Description or model of the desired future state of a process, system, or organization.
To-Be Process Process & Methodology: The future-state representation of a process after the planned change, used to drive transition requirements and acceptance criteria.
TOCTheory of Constraints Process & Methodology: Management paradigm that views any system as limited by a small number of constraints and focuses improvement on identifying and elevating them.
TOMTarget Operating Model Business & Strategy: The desired future-state operating model that supports a strategic change.
Transition Requirement Requirements: Temporary capability needed only to move from current to future state, e.g., data migration, training, or parallel running.
Transition State General BA: Intermediate state between current and future state during the change.
Trend Data & Analytics: The general direction in which a measure is moving over time, separated from short-term fluctuation and seasonality. Identified through time-series analysis and used to forecast future performance.

U

UATUser Acceptance Testing Process & Methodology: Final testing performed by end users to validate that the solution meets their business needs.
UIUser Interface General BA: The visual and interactive elements through which a user interacts with a product.
UMLUnified Modeling Language Modeling: Standardized general-purpose modeling language used to specify, visualize, and document software systems.
Underlying Competencies BABOK Core: Behaviors, characteristics, knowledge, and personal qualities supporting the practice of business analysis (per BABOK v3).
Unit Testing Process & Methodology: Testing of individual code units in isolation, typically performed by developers.
Use Case Requirements: Description of the interactions between an actor and a system to achieve a goal, including main and alternate flows.
Use Case Diagram Modeling: UML diagram that shows actors, use cases, and their relationships within a system boundary.
User Story Requirements: Short description of functionality from a user's perspective, typically: As a <role>, I want <goal>, so that <benefit>.
UXUser Experience General BA: The overall experience a person has when interacting with a product, system, or service.

V

V-Model Process & Methodology: Variation of waterfall in which each development phase has a corresponding testing phase, drawn as a V.
Validated Requirement Requirements: A requirement confirmed to deliver business value and meet a stakeholder need (built the right thing).
Value Proposition Business & Strategy: Clear statement of the benefits a product or service delivers to a customer segment, and why it is better than alternatives.
Value Stream Business & Strategy: End-to-end set of activities that delivers a specific result of value to a stakeholder, used in lean and business architecture.
Velocity Process & Methodology: Average amount of work (often in story points) a Scrum team completes per sprint, used for forecasting.
Verified Requirement Requirements: A requirement confirmed to be well-formed, clear, and of high quality (built right).
VoCVoice of the Customer Business & Strategy: Structured collection of customers' explicit and implicit needs, expectations, and preferences.
VSMValue Stream Map Process & Methodology: Lean visualisation of the steps, lead time, and value-add ratio of an end-to-end process from trigger to value delivered.

W

Waterfall Process & Methodology: Sequential SDLC model where each phase (requirements, design, build, test, deploy) is completed before the next begins.
WBSWork Breakdown Structure Process & Methodology: Hierarchical decomposition of project work into manageable deliverables and work packages.
WIPWork in Progress Process & Methodology: Items that have been started but not yet completed. Kanban systems impose explicit WIP limits per workflow column to expose bottlenecks, reduce cycle time, and improve flow.
Wireframe Modeling: Low-fidelity sketch of a user interface layout focused on structure and content placement.
Workaround General BA: Temporary or alternative method of achieving a task when the standard approach is unavailable or inadequate.
Workshop Techniques: Structured working session with stakeholders to elicit, refine, model, or validate requirements.

X

XORExclusive Gateway Modeling: BPMN gateway that routes the token down exactly one outgoing path based on a condition; the most common decision shape.