BSA Terms

Business Systems Analyst

A professional who acts as a bridge between business teams and technical teams by analyzing business problems, gathering requirements, and helping create technology solutions.

Stakeholder 

Any person, group, or organization affected by, interested in, or able to influence a business, project, or decision.

End User 

The person who actually uses a software system or product.

Project Manager (PM) 

The person responsible for planning, coordinating, and keeping a project on schedule and within budget.

Product Owner (PO) 

The person responsible for defining product goals, prioritizing features, and making sure development creates business value.

Developer 

A person who writes code and builds software solutions based on requirements.

QA Tester (Quality Assurance Tester) 

A person who tests software to make sure it works correctly and meets requirements. 

Requirement 

A description of what a system needs to do or what a business needs from a solution.

Requirements Gathering 

The process of discovering and documenting what users and stakeholders need from a system.

Business Requirement 

A high-level statement explaining the business goal or problem that needs to be solved.

Functional Requirement 

Describes what a system should do.

Non-Functional Requirement 

Describes how well a system should perform.

User Story 

A requirement written from the user's perspective that explains a feature and its business value.

Acceptance Criteria 

Conditions that must be met for a feature to be considered complete.

Business Process 

A series of steps a business follows to complete a task.

Business Process Modeling 

Creating a visual representation of how a business process works.

Process Improvement 

Finding ways to make business processes faster, cheaper, or more effective.

Root Cause Analysis 

Finding the actual reason a problem is happening instead of only fixing the symptoms.

MAU (Monthly Active Users) 

The number of unique users who use a product or service in a month.

DAU (Daily Active Users) 

The number of unique users who use a product in a single day.

WAU (Weekly Active Users) 

The number of unique users who use a product in a week.

Churn Rate 

The percentage of customers who stop using a product or cancel their subscription over a period of time.

Retention Rate 

The percentage of customers who continue using a product over time.

Conversion Rate 

The percentage of users who complete a desired action.

KPI (Key Performance Indicator) 

A measurable value used to determine whether a business is meeting its goals.

ROI (Return on Investment) 

A measure of how much value or profit is gained compared to the cost of an investment.

Revenue 

The total money a business earns before expenses.

Profit 

The money left after all expenses are paid.

Operating Cost 

The expenses required to run a business.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV or LTV) 

The estimated total revenue a customer generates during their relationship with a business.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) 

The average cost to acquire one new customer.

NPS (Net Promoter Score) 

A customer satisfaction metric that measures how likely customers are to recommend a product or company.

SLA (Service Level Agreement) 

A documented agreement that defines expected service performance.

SLA Breach 

When the agreed response or resolution time is missed.

Workflow 

The sequence of steps required to complete a business process.

Bottleneck 

A step in a process that slows everything down.

Automation 

Using technology to perform repetitive tasks without manual work.

Business Rule 

A policy or condition the system must follow.

Use Case 

A description of how a user interacts with a system to accomplish a goal.

MVP (Minimum Viable Product) 

The simplest version of a product that delivers enough value to users while allowing the business to gather feedback before adding more features.

SQL (Structured Query Language) 

A language used to communicate with databases to retrieve, add, update, or delete data.

Database 

A system used to store, organize, and manage data.

Database Table 

A structure inside a database that stores related information in rows and columns.

API (Application Programming Interface) 

A way for different software systems to communicate and exchange information. 

Integration 

Connecting different systems so they can share information and work together.

Software Development Concepts 

Understanding how software is planned, built, tested, and released.

SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) 

A structured process used to create and maintain software.

Stages: 

1. Planning.  

2. Requirements.  

3. Design.  

4. Development.  

5. Testing.  

6. Deployment.  

7. Maintenance.

Agile 

A software development approach where teams build and release smaller improvements frequently.

Waterfall 

A software development approach where each phase is completed before moving to the next.

Sprint 

A short development cycle where a team completes a set amount of work. 

Backlog 

A prioritized list of features, requirements, and tasks that need to be completed.

Bug 

An error or issue in software that causes incorrect behavior.

Deployment 

Releasing software changes so users can access them.

Maintenance 

Updating software after release to fix bugs, improve features, and keep systems running.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) 

Software used to manage customer relationships, sales, and interactions.

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) 

Software that manages company-wide resources and operations.

HRIS (Human Resources Information System) 

Software used to manage employee information and HR processes.

Help Desk System 

Software used to track and manage customer or employee support issues.

Inventory System 

Software used to track products, stock levels, and warehouse information.

Scope 

The boundaries of what a project will and will not include.

Deliverable 

A completed item produced during a project.

Testing 

The process of checking whether software works correctly and meets requirements.

UAT (User Acceptance Testing) 

Testing performed by actual users or business teams to confirm the system meets their needs.

Documentation 

Written information explaining requirements, processes, systems, or solutions.

BRD (Business Requirements Document)

A document that describes the business problem, objectives, stakeholders, and high-level business requirements.

As-Is Process

The current way a business process works before improvements.

To-Be Process

The future improved version of a business process after changes are implemented.

Gap Analysis

The process of comparing the current state (As-Is) with the desired future state (To-Be) to identify what needs to change.

Constraints

Limitations or restrictions affecting a project.

Dependencies

Tasks or features that rely on something else being completed first.

Change Request

A formal request to modify project scope, requirements, or functionality after work has started.

Scope Creep

When additional features or requirements are added without adjusting time, cost, or resources.

Primary Key

A unique identifier for each record in a table.

Foreign Key

A field in one database table that links to the primary key of another table, creating a relationship between the two tables.

Relationship

The connection between database tables.

Data Mapping

Matching fields between two systems during integrations or migrations.

Data Migration

Moving data from one system or database to another.

Data Validation

Checking that data is accurate, complete, and follows business rules.

Data Integrity

Ensuring data remains accurate, consistent, and reliable.

Data Quality

How accurate, complete, and useful data is.

Regression Testing

Testing existing functionality after changes to ensure nothing else broke.

Scrum

An Agile framework that organizes work into sprints.

Scrum Master

The person who facilitates the Scrum process and removes obstacles for the development team.

Epic

A large body of work that can be broken into multiple user stories.

Story Points

A relative estimate of the effort required to complete a user story.

Kanban

An Agile workflow method that visualizes work using columns such as:

To Do

In Progress

Done

CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)

Measures how satisfied customers are after an interaction or experience.

SLA Response Time

The maximum time allowed before responding to a customer or issue.

Resolution Time

The total time taken to completely resolve a problem.

Elicitation

The process of gathering information, requirements, and business needs from stakeholders.

Workshop

A structured meeting where stakeholders collaborate to gather requirements or solve business problems.

Endpoint

A specific URL where an API receives requests or returns data.

Request

Information sent to an API asking it to perform an action or return data.

Response

The data returned by an API after processing a request.

JSON

A lightweight format commonly used to exchange data between systems through APIs.

Risk

A potential event that could negatively affect a project.

Mitigation

Actions taken to reduce the likelihood or impact of a risk.