Map system boundaries before you pick tools
Most stalled analysis projects share a pattern: someone opens a comparison spreadsheet before anyone agrees what is being compared. Boundary mapping is quieter work, but it prevents false precision.
Start with actors, data that must move, and decisions that cannot be automated. Draw the edges of the system you are willing to own this quarter. Everything else becomes an interface, not a feature list.
In our Systems Analysis Studio cohorts in Ho Chi Minh City, we spend the first half-day on this sketch alone. Teams that finish it rarely ask for another tool evaluation until the edges stop shifting.