The Analysis Phase

Analysis is a unique development phase that provides information and insight into the nature and needs of your business. The analysis phase helps you solve immediate business problems by defining what is needed in a single system or a set of integrated information systems. When the scope of a project includes more than one information system, analysis starts with a wide view of the business, and then focuses on details that lead to developing the set of systems your business requires.

The analysis phase consists of a cycle of information gathering and model building as you analyze the activities and data that is used in your business. The CA Gen Analysis Toolset is designed to encourage this cycle.

Conscientiously performing the tasks in the analysis phase ensures the success of your development effort. The tasks and procedures in the analysis phase include:

Defining and refining the activities that are performed by the business (named business functions and business processes)
Identifying the things that the business uses (named entity types)
Identifying how the business activities and the things a business uses interact

You do not need to perform a complete and exhaustive analysis of your business before beginning other development activities. The analysis phase often overlaps the other phases in the application development life cycle.