Many enterprises have developed sophisticated market analysis processes
that employ much the same philosophy as Domain Analysis[QFD86,MCCAIN85].
They conduct extensive interviews of users and customers of
products, review the literature, analyze technology trends, and produce a
characterization of the desired features of future products, with
prioritization. More progressive groups employ creative techniques to
ensure innovation, much like the DA practice of exploring novel
combinations of features. We contend that some of the efforts in a full
Market Analysis map to the early information-gathering phases of a
traditionally-defined Domain Analysis. While Market Analysis provides
significant input to the DA process, the two processes are distinct.