SWOT Analysis

Purpose

A SWOT analysis is a valuable tool to quickly analyze various aspects of the current state of the business process undergoing change.

Description

SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. SWOT analysis is a framework for strategic planning, opportunity analysis, competitive analysis, business and product development.

Elements

The steps to conduct a SWOT analysis are as follows:

• Draw a grid or matrix.
• Describe the issue or problem under discussion at the top of the grid.
• Conduct a brainstorming session to complete each section in the grid. Strengths and Weaknesses are factors internal to the organization, organizational unit, or solution, while Opportunities and Threats are external factors.
  • Strengths: Anything that the assessed group does well. May include experienced personnel, effective processes, IT systems, customer relationships, or any other internal factor that leads to success.
  • Weaknesses. Those things that the assessed group does poorly or not at all. Weaknesses are also internal.
  • Opportunities. External factors that the assessed group may be able to take advantage of. May include new markets, new technology, changes in the competitive marketplace, or other forces. Opportunities exist beyond the scope of control of the assessed group; the choice is whether or not to take advantage of one when it is identified.
  • Threats. External factors that can negatively affect the assessed group. They may include factors such as the entrance into the market of a new competitor, economic downturns, or other forces. Threats are also outside of the group’s control.
• Facilitate a discussion to analyze the results. Remember that the group has identified only potential characteristics of the problem. Further analysis is needed to validate the actual characteristics, ideally confirmed with data.
• Once the characteristics of the issue or problem have been validated, the group brainstorms potential solutions to solve the problem. A standard practice for this is to compare internal strengths and weaknesses against external opportunities and threats and try to define strategies for each cell in the matrix.

SWOT Matrix

Usage Considerations

Advantages

The SWOT analysis helps quickly analyze various aspects of the current state of the organization and its environment prior to identifying potential solution options.

Disadvantages

The SWOT analysis is a very high-level view; more detailed analysis is almost always needed.

IIBA ® был основан в Торонто, Канаде, в октябре 2003 года для поддержки сообщества по бизнес-анализу:
• Создание и развитие осведомленности и признания ценности и вклада Бизнес-аналитика.
• Установление свода знаний по бизнес-анализу (BABOK®).
• Обеспечение форума для обмена знаниями и вклад в профессию бизнес-анализа.
• Публичное признание и сертифицирование квалифицированных практиков через признанную на международном уровне программу сертификации.

Комитет по Своду знаний был сформирован в октябре 2004 года, чтобы определить и разработать глобальный стандарт для практики бизнес-анализа. В январе 2005 года IIBA ® выпустила версию 1.0 Руководство к Своду бизнес-анализа знаний ® (BABOK ® Guide) для обратной связи и комментариев. В этой версии включена наброски предлагаемого контента и некоторых ключевых определений. Версия 1.4 была выпущена в октябре 2005 года, с проектом содержания в некоторых областях знаний. Версия 1.6, которая включает подробную информацию о большинстве областей знаний, были опубликованы в виде проекта в июне 2006 года и обновлены, включая исправления, в октябре 2008 года.

This publication supersedes A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge®, Version 1.6. Following the publication of version 1.6, IIBA® sought out a number of recognized experts in business analysis and related fields and solicited their feedback on the content of that edition. Their comments were used to plan the scope of this revision. IIBA® volunteers then worked to define a structure for version 2.0 and developed the revised text, which was made available to the business analysis community for review in 2008. During that exposure period, IIBA® also solicited feedback from industry experts and business analysis practitioners through a formal review process. IIBA® received thousands of comments during this process, and this document has been revised to incorporate as many of those comments as possible.

The BABOK® Guide contains a description of generally accepted practices in the field of business analysis. The content included in this release has been verified through reviews by practitioners, surveys of the business analysis community, and consultations with recognized experts in the field. The data available to IIBA® demonstrate that the tasks and techniques described in this publication are in use by a majority of business analysis practitioners. As a result, we can have confidence that the tasks and techniques described in the BABOK® Guide should be applicable in most contexts where business analysis is performed, most of the time.

The BABOK® Guide should not be construed to mandate that the practices described in this publication should be followed under all circumstances. Any set of practices must be tailored to the specific conditions under which business analysis is being performed. In addition, practices which are not generally accepted by the business analysis community at the time of publication may be equally effective, or more effective, than the practices described in the BABOK® Guide. As such practices become generally accepted, and as data is collected to verify their effectiveness, they will be incorporated into future editions of this publication. IIBA® encourages all practitioners of business analysis to be open to new approaches and new ideas, and wishes to encourage innovation in the practice of business analysis.

The goal of this revision was to:
• Complete the description of all knowledge areas.
• Simplify the structure to make it easier to understand and apply.
• Improve the consistency and quality of text and illustrations.
• Integrate the knowledge areas and eliminate areas of overlap.
• Improve consistency with other generally accepted standards relating to the practice of business analysis.
• Extend the coverage of the BABOK® Guide to describe business analysis in contexts beyond traditional approaches to custom software application development, including but not limited to agile methodologies, Business Process Management, and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) application assessment and implementation.
• Clarify the relationship between business analysis and other disciplines, particularly project management, testing, and usability and information architecture.
• Focus on the practice of business analysis in the context of the individual initiative, with material on strategic or enterprise-wide business analysis separated for inclusion in a future application extension.

The major changes in this release include:
• Changes throughout to address the goals described above.
• All content has been revised and edited, and much of it has been rewritten.
• Many of the tasks found in version 1.6 have been consolidated, resulting in a reduction from 77 tasks to 32.
• Tasks in the Requirements Planning and Management Knowledge Area have been reallocated to Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring and Requirements Management and Communication.
• Three other knowledge areas have been renamed to better reflect their purpose.
• Techniques apply across multiple Knowledge Areas.
• Inputs and Outputs have been defined for all tasks.

IIBA® would like to extend its thanks and the thanks of the business analysis community to all those who volunteered their time and effort to the development of this revision, as well as those who provided informal feedback to us in other ways.