The strategic analysis knowledge area describes the business analysis work that identifies a strategic need, addresses that need and aligns the strategic of the organization with the necessary change.
A strategy is the most effective way of applying the capabilities of an enterprise to achieve a set of objectives.
Strategic analysis defines the future and transition needs needed to address the business need.
It also used to discovery the possible solutions which would create value for the stakeholders.
Strategic analysis is an ongoing activity that assesses the need that could lead to a change in organizational strategy.
there are two ways in which strategic analysis can be used and they are:
i. If the change has a predictable outcome, a clear strategy and future state can be clearly defined.
ii. But if the outcome is difficult to predict then the focus should be on mitigating risks and changing course until the business goals are initiated.
There are four tasks in the strategic analysis knowledge area and they are :
1. Analyze current state : this task discusses understanding the need and how it relates to the enterprise. It is also discusses setting a base line of the current state of the organization.
2. Define future state : this task defines setting the goals and objectives that would satisfy the business need and what needs to change to satisfy that need.
3. Assess risks : this task defines the risk surrounding the change, the effect of those risks on the delivery of the change and the recommended actions which would minimize those risks.
4. Define change strategy : this task defines performing a gap analysis between the current and future states to assess various options for achieving the future state and recommending the best approach for achieving this future state.