You can choose to develop a standalone subset of the Business Analysis Model that focuses on explaining products, deliverables, or events that are important to the business domain. Such a model describes only the significant information in the business and does not include the responsibilities that people carry.  Such a model is often referred to as a Domain Model.

The purpose of this alternative activity is to:

• Identify all products and deliverables important to the business domain.
• Detail the business entities.
• Provide a common understanding of the concepts found in the business operations and environment.

This activity is a somewhat condensed version of Describe Current Business, where only the Business Entities are identified and described. Each business entity, as well as any terms and definitions used, must be documented in the Business Glossary.

Most business rules discovered here will be structural constraints (see Guideline: Business Rules) and can be captured as Business Rules directly in the model (Business Analysis Model or Domain Model). Other business rules, such as computations, must be described in a document (see the template associated with Work Product: Business Rules).

When performing this activity, it is essential to review the business entities and obtain a common understanding. Failure to do this often defeats the purpose of performing domain modeling in the first place!

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This is often conducted as a series of workshops attended by the core development team (acting as business designers) and some invited domain experts. There also must be at least one person in attendance who has previously held the responsibility of business-process analyst—both to ensure that the business analysis model is understandable and to keep the glossary up-to-date. This is a somewhat condensed version of Describe Current Business, where only theBusiness Entities are identified and described. Each business entity, as well as any terms and definitions used, must be documented in the Glossary. If the business designers lack knowledge of some aspect of the business domain, this information can be provided by invited stakeholders.

Domain modeling is best performed in several workshops to develop an overview of the business entities and their relationships. Duos or teams can be tasked with detailing the entities and their relationships, or with resolving issues that arose during the workshop. The results of the work performed by these teams can be reviewed again by the entire group. 

The following sample techniques can be applied in this activity:

• role-playing
• Business Analysis Modeling Workshop

The core development team must conduct a few rounds of internal walkthroughs facilitated by the business designer. These walkthroughs will clean up any inconsistencies before the work of the core development team is more formally inspected and reviewed by the extended team.

The team divides the material so that they do not have to review everything at once. The review meeting should not take more than a day.

Task: Review the Business Analysis Model contains checklists that will be helpful when you are reviewing a business entity.