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The five step process for systems analysis is based upon my years of leading and managing SAs in the corporate world. Here are the steps: 1 – Gather, 2 – Organize, 3 – Analyze, 4 – Synthesize, 5 – Validate.

Now let’s take a moment and focus on step two, “Organize.” The information from the “Gathering” stage will likely be sprawling, unorganized, and random. Your client or business partner likely gave you whatever information came to mind in the order that it popped into his or her head. Likely it is at varying levels of details and contains information that ranges from conceptual to the detailed standard operating procedure level. Your job here is to make sense out this brain-dump. You need to group like items together in logical and systemic way. Categorize like items, identify topics that are way out of scope, and if you can establish some kind of hierarchy of detail. This will pay off big time in subsequent steps of the system and business analysis process

So, what is the easiest way to make sense out of a random collection of facts, opinions and possibly unrelated information? A mind map is a great tool for bringing order to chaos. A mind map is way to organize words, concepts, or other items around a central idea or theme. Start with one bubble in the middle that captures overall topic or process your are analyzing. From there, then add branches to second level bubbles to capture the ideas or subject areas related to that central theme. Then repeat for a third level and so forth.

The beauty of the mind map is its ability to allow you to organize information in a creative way. You can freely bucket ideas without worrying about how right or wrong they are. If it was something said by the client or just a random idea that popped into your head, just write it down. There are no wrong bubbles here.

Check out Functional Requirements Headquarters for a trial link to MindMeister. MindMeister is an awesome electronic application that really speeds up with mind mapping and organizing process. The application has web, mobile, and tablet interfaces so it is can be used from almost any device. The best part about MindMeister is that it electronically saves your mind maps onto its cloud. That way you never lose them, can access them from anywhere with an Internet connection, and can easily share them.

Once you have your mind map complete, you are in a position to further organize your raw information. If you have used an electronic tool, like MindMeister, to do your initial brainstorming this is a snap. Review your mind map and copy and paste its bubbles into an outline structure. Put ideas and concepts from the same level of “bubbles” at the same outline level. In moments your raw information from the gathering phase will be formated in a logical fashion, with a clear structure reflecting both hierarchies and relationships.

So, lets recap. Raw business requirements should be organized to allow for easier analysis and synthesis of software requirements. Mind mapping is a great technique for organizing such information. Electronic tools like MindMeister help speed this process and create mind maps that are easily used in the later steps of systems analysis.

Click Here to learn more about software requirements. Follow this link if you want to learn more about MindMeister.