Business Analyst is a tool for building graph-based models of business processes, based on flow charts. A 'model' of a business process is different from a pure drawing chart, because it captures detailed parameters of the interactions between people, time, external events and the business process itself. These parameters are then used by Business Analyst to generate likely performance figures for the process. For example, you can see how much work each person involved with the process is doing, and what the time to complete a process is.
There are three stages in any process reengineering task:
When processes are described in Business Analyst, they can be verified. Business Analyst generates performance figures which can be compared to how your processes behave in reality. If these do not match, then its likely that some part of the process , or parameter is incorrect. So, accuracy is verified.
Business Analyst generates extensive analysis results in the form of a report, with charts and tables each with a text description and hints for improvement. You can therefore quickly identify breaks, bottlenecks , uneven work distribution and high costs at each stage of the process. This lets you improve processes immediately. Business Analyst thus becomes the basis of a methodical approach to business process reengineering.
A comparison of results, before and after improvement, also becomes easy. You can compare the analysis report of 'before' processes to 'after' ones, or compare the new processes against how well they do in reality
Finally, the in-depth process diagrams and results of the analysis can be used to generate and share PDF reports. These then become essential documentation about your processes and how to improve them
Business Analyst currently contains four different analysis modules, which generate sixteen different charts and tables. These cover metrics such as time, cost, delays, resource load, and work distribution by resource, process or cost.
Click here to view a short on-line presentation that shows how Business Analyst is used to generate just some of these analysis results.