To reiterate, analysis is great for slicing things apart; for decomposing big things into tractable smaller things; and for facilitating enumeration, categorisation and taxonomy. And there are specific instances of when such decomposition is useful and valuable, and the following are good examples:
- Competitor analysis - a review and comparison activity (qua SWOT analysis) where offerings (products, websites, publications and so on) that are considered to be "the competition" (to the project being considered) are examined, discussed, analysed and ranked side by side
- Process flows - these (also called user flows and process charts) are easy-to-understand diagrams showing how the various steps in a sequence fit together. They occasionally look a bit like storyboards; on other occasions like mini-wireframes all hooked up together
- Task analysis - also known as task decomposition - is used to "decompse" tasks into simpler subtasks. For example, getting a train ticket on a website for later collection might be broken down into ordering, paying and collection (which would in turn be broken down into other simpler sub-tasks). The aim is to generate a clear picture of what a user is doing (or is required to do) in terms of actions and/or cognitive processes to achieve some given end (i.e. acquiring a train ticket).
- Taxonomy - is nothing more complex than the division of things into ordered groups or categories: a sitemap is a visual representation of taxonomy.
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