5 Critical Points BAs Need to Remember

You will always be describing a process. Determine the process that is to be automated, and describe it.
You must understand something at one level before you can truly understand it at a lower level. Start your analysis by describing the overall process at a high level of abstraction to form the framework of the rest of your analysis.
You must describe “What” not “How”. The business process should be described independent of how a system would help a user to complete the process.
Follow the “80/20 Rule”. The “80” = the main process flow, when everything goes smoothly. The “20” = the variations from the main flow.
Describe each step and sub-step in a process as “Somebody does something with some information”. This syntax will help describe the process in a way that is understandable by all, and will lead to the simple identification of the true business requirements.

(Source: iag.biz)