Analysis/Synthesis

The analysis phase of a project is really part ‘analysis’ and part ’synthesis’. Analysis is breaking down what you know into its component parts. Into something small enough to get your arms around, simple enough to understand. Synthesis is putting what you know together, into a gestalt. When you’re talking to people, people tend to throw everything at you all at once: what they know, what they do, their feelings, their fears, their gripes, their wishes.

Your goal is to be able to break down their knowledge and figure out which is which. We need to compartmentalize this wealth and break them down into the bits that go into the requirement documents. But at the same time you need to building up your comprehensive picture of the company and the department and the operations. I suspect it would be better if you could do the synthesis first–understanding the whole–and then analysis, breaking it down into its components. But the learning process is too chaotic. And you won’t have near enough time to do it all, much less in a neat orderly way. So you’ll do both at once. But I think it helps for you to keep in mind that you are attempting to do both. That you are attempting to look in two contradictory directions, at the same time.