The shock effects in laser shock processing of NiTi shape memory alloy were studied by dimensional analysis and finite element simulation. The essential dimensionless parameters controlling the residual stress distribution and plastically affected depth were found to be dimensionless pressure duration and peak pressure. By adopting the constitutive model considering the martensitic transformation and plasticity of deformation induced martensite, the influence of dimensionless parameters on the shock effects of shape memory alloy was studied numerically. The numerical results reveal the scaling law of shock effects on those dimensionless parameters quantitatively and the relationship between the plastically affected depth and peak pressure was validated with experimental results. A window of the optimal processing parameters could be obtained based on this study.