You just started at company X, besides the nice website and the great interviewing experience what do you know about this new company your about to “work on”? A BA must be prepared to do extreme DNA engineering- The corporate DNA! Your company’s DNA will best be encapsulated in its business process. Thus, the best way to fix a defective gene is to have a map of what a good [preferably] looks like, find the defective gene [process/sub-process], and rewrite it with the good/improved genetic information.

My description might be a stretch to any geneticist but the concepts are sound. So let’s start working on that corporate genome!

STEP 1: Gather the following documents and read/scan through them…

1. The Mission and or Vision statement
2. Any strategy documents you can get your hands on

a) Corporate

b) Enterprise

c) Marketing

3. Org Chart
4. Financial statements that plainly indicates where the revenue streams are coming from
5. Operating Procedures
6. Quality Manual
7. ISO documentation
8. Network Diagrams
9. Software Audit/inventory
10. Software application (unique to your company) user guides
11. Any functional, technical, development documentation

STEP 2: Now conduct some informal interviews around the scuttlebutt. Ask some of the following questions. Rephrase them based on the audience.

1. Ask at least 5 people what is the best thing about the company
2. Ask those same 5 what would be the first thing they would fix
3. Ask any manger when is the last time they audited any process

Armed with raw info, rumors, manuals, documents, and diagrams start white boarding how products and or services get from one end of the company to the other side- the customer. Do not cheat and go digging up info, just try to hash it out in a day or two based on all the stuff you gathered. Once this is done transfer to a business map (UML, BPMN, other) using your favorite diagramming tool. Add balloons/notes to identified pain points. This document is now YOUR baseline document for reference only. It will help you focus on the real issues you encounter as you try to re-engineer the company on-demand.