What is the primary purpose of an activity diagram in business analysis?

The primary purpose of an activity diagram in business analysis is to visualize responsibilities and synchronization of processes and tasks within a specific workflow. These diagrams are essential for illustrating how activities are interconnected, the flow of control, and how different parties or systems interact to complete tasks.

Activity diagrams help stakeholders understand the sequence of actions, decision points, and interactions which occur during a process. They provide clarity on who is responsible for which part of the process, making it easier to identify potential bottlenecks, redundancies, or areas for improvement. By showing these interactions, activity diagrams facilitate better communication among team members and can inform design improvements in processes.

While timelines, project milestones, and project scope are important aspects of project management, they do not capture the intricate dynamics of process flows and responsibilities like activity diagrams do. Hence, focusing on visualizing responsibilities and synchronization within workflows is what sets activity diagrams apart in the context of business analysis.