The key to unraveling complexity is to simplify.
By simplify, I mean unraveling the complexity. What are the things that are combined to create the complexity?
For data modeling, there are a set of rules for simplifying the complexity. The rules are the 5 normal forms. Each of the normal forms is about simplifying to make the data modes easier to understand and use.
Similar rules would apply in a general sense to any complexity.
When you reduce the complexity, each component has one definition.
Each component relates to one larger component.
If you can’t explain the complexity easily you don’t understand it well enough.
At times, the business has built the complexity into their business. That is when you as a business analyst need to show them the benefits of the simpler concept. Many times this is the first step of business process re-engineering.
If the concepts are well defined, the processes are simpler.