Carolyn (McDonald) Nichols, Msc, PMP, PROSCI
Principal, Solve Consulting
Carolyn runs Solve’s Project Execution and Business Analysis service lines.
Business Analysis: Ask the right questions, build the right solution
The strongest projects begin with clarity. Our business analysis practice translates strategy into requirements, engages stakeholders, and ensures initiatives move forward on solid ground.
Solve’s business analysts define requirements, connect strategy to process, and ensure initiatives are grounded in what the business truly needs.
Areas of expertise
Post-merger integrations
Systems or technology implementations (ex. ERP implementation, HRIS implementation, SAP/SAS implementation)
Digital & business transformations
Operational excellence / Performance improvements
Supply chain enhancements
We’ve supported business analysis across industries like energy, infrastructure, banking, and education. From uncovering inefficiencies and mapping future-state processes to building business cases and validating requirements, we help clients translate strategy into actionable insights, align stakeholders, and reduce delivery risk.
Business analysis services and deliverables
Requirements gathering that reflects real user needs and business priorities
Stakeholder analysis to surface hidden risks and align expectations early
Process mapping and current-state analysis to uncover inefficiencies and improvement opportunities
Future-state design that connects business goals to operational realities
Gap analysis and impact assessments to support informed decision-making
Business case development to secure buy-in and funding for change
Traceability matrices and validation plans to ensure nothing gets lost in delivery
Change impact analysis to prepare teams for what’s coming and reduce resistance
Our approach to business analysis
At Solve, we treat business analysis as the foundation for meaningful, sustainable change. Whether we’re supporting a transformation, a technology implementation, or a process redesign, our analysis work is grounded in real-world context and focused on the end-goal your organization is trying to get to.
We start by understanding the problem space, not just the project scope. That means mapping current state realities, surfacing pain points, and identifying the human, operational, and strategic factors that shape performance. We move from documenting what’s broken to helping clients see what’s possible.
Our approach draws from industry best practices like BABOK, Lean Six Sigma, and Agile, but we don’t force-fit frameworks. We adapt to your environment, your tools, and your internal capacity, whether that means embedding a single senior analyst or deploying a full Solve-led team.
Every Solve-led analysis is designed to drive clarity, alignment, and results. We engage stakeholders early, tailor documentation to decision-making needs, and link every recommendation to strategic goals and operational realities. Our analysts flag risks to execution and adoption from the outset, helping clients build solutions that do more than just look good on paper.
Our business analysis team
Solve’s business analysts are senior, credible, and hands-on. They bring deep experience in uncovering root causes, clarifying stakeholder needs, and translating complexity into actionable insights. Always seeing our work in the bigger context, we diagnose, challenge assumptions, and help shape solutions that work in the real world. Whether we’re supporting a transformation, a system implementation, or a service redesign, our team stays with the work from early scoping through delivery, ensuring continuity, clarity, and momentum.
Every engagement is staffed with the right mix of expertise, thanks to a resourcing model that blends full-time consultants, long-term sub-contractors, and a trusted network of experienced specialists. This flexible approach ensures depth without compromise.
Solve’s analysts work shoulder-to-shoulder with your teams, helping you define, validate, and deliver the outcomes your organization depends on.