Every organization strives to create desired outcomes that deliver important benefits. Value is discovered throughout the initiative when benefits are delivered as efficiently and effectively as possible. At a strategic level, this is driven by sound decisions that position the organization for future success. Tactical execution and the ongoing journey of operational excellence help create value along that path to the desired outcomes. Value is often created through managing initiatives that work together to address organizational challenges and to capitalize on opportunities. This helps evolve the organization to its desired outcomes, which is often represented by a combination of described future states through individual components of work.

Business analysis is critical to all organizational work, including at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels. Selected business analysis techniques, practices, methods, approaches, and competencies combine to create value throughout the organization, over various timeframes and for a variety of stakeholders. This can also be viewed from the lens of the three horizons described in the Agile Extension to the BABOK Guide. Here, the strategy horizon is aligned to creating outcomes at the strategic level. Both the initiative horizon and delivery horizon focus on creating desired outcomes at the tactical and operational levels.

Effective business analysis plays a crucial role in helping create value as we work toward the desired outcomes. It includes:

• Understanding organization strategy
• Clarifying business problems and opportunities
• Communicating desired outcomes
• Translating business needs into requirements and designs
• Identifying the potential value to be created
• Discovering, interpreting, and communicating business information
• Understanding the context to share knowledge and drive insights
• Identifying and assessing impacted stakeholders
• Helping teams assess trade-offs and prioritize value creation
• Supporting the development of high-value solutions
• Driving teams toward desired business outcomes

In this way, business analysis drives informed decision-making and optimizes value creation throughout an organization's journey to achieve desired outcomes.