Want to find the next big idea for your company? Here is a great technique to help you with.

December 22, 2020December 22, 2020 TBN Editor

Business analysis is a truly fascinating subject. As a business analyst, one has the opportunity to use 100+ fabulous techniques. As a leading provider of business analysis training, we decided to write about business analysis techniques accompanied with a real project example.

In this blog, we will be describing ‘Benchmarking and Market Analysis Technique’.

Benchmarking technique compares organizational practices against best-in-class practices from competitors, government, industry associations or standards. Market analysis understands customers’ needs, factors influencing purchase decisions, and studies competitors.

Identify areas to study.
Identify benchmarking sources.
Conduct survey / visit enterprises.
Determine gaps between best and current practices.
Develop proposals to implement gaps.

Identify (target) customers and understand their preferences.
Identify opportunities to increase stakeholder value.
Identify competitors and investigate their operations.
Look for trends in market, anticipate growth rate, and estimate potential profit.
Gather market data and use existing resources such as company records, research studies, books to answer questions at hand.
Determine trends and draw conclusions.
Define appropriate business strategies.

Provides information about new methods, ideas, and tools to improve.
Market analysis.
Target specific groups and products to answer specific needs.
Determine when to enter or exit a market.
Expose weaknesses within a certain company or industry.
Identify differences in product offerings and services available from competitors.

Time-consuming and expensive.
Need expertise to conduct analyze gathered information.
Benchmarking cannot produce innovative solutions.
Needs proper market segmentation.

Worked out example of benchmarking against a competing product

– Rational Portfolio Manager

Requirement	Rational Portfolio manager
Performance/response time (performance engineering)	Less than 5 seconds for 200 concurrent users, Less than 8 seconds for 1000 concurrent users
Scalability	Upto 15000 users on a single server
Security (Confidentiality – Integrity – Availability)	Supports ISO 27001 requirements
Software, tools, standards etc. compatibility	Integrates with MS-Excel, MS-Word, MS Project
Price	10 USD per month per user
Portability	Must work on IE, Chrome, Firefox
Certification	Must be certified on Windows Azure
Internationalization	Supports multiple languages (English, Chinese, Arabic) and multiple currencies

Adaptive US is world’s #1 leading IIBA EEP. It is the only training organization that provides IIBA certification training with Success Guarantee. Adaptive is a World Leader in CBAP training, IIBA CCBA training, ECBA training, IIBA CBDA training, IIBA CCA training and IIBA AAC training.

Adaptive is a global leader in business analysis certification training with 800+ internationally certified professionals. It also conducts regular BA skill training on Jira, BPM, MS Visio, Balsamiq, UML, Interview Preparation as well as Resume Preparation.

Adaptive has published following books on business analysis: