Introduction

• Knowledge areas define what a practitioner of Business Analysis needs to understand and the tasks a practitioner must be able to perform.
• Business Analysts are likely to perform tasks from all knowledge areas in rapid succession, iteratively, or simultaneously.
• Tasks may be performed in any order as long as the required inputs are available.
• In principle, a Business Analysis effort may start with any task, although the most likely candidates are Define Business Need or Evaluate Solution Performance.
• Knowledge areas are not intended to represent phases in a project. It is certainly possible and permissible to proceed from performing enterprise analysis activities, to requirements analysis activities, to solution assessment and validation activities, and treat each as a distinct phase in a project.
• However, the BABOK^® Guide does not require that you do so, and it should not be construed as a methodology for the performance of Business Analysis.