ABA: Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring
Governance approach: plan for approvals
- An approval formalizes the agreement between all stakeholders that the content and presentation of the requirements and designs are accurate, adequate, and contain sufficient detail to allow for continued progress to be made - The timing and frequency of approvals are dependent on the size and complexity of the change and associated risks of foregoing or delaying an approval -The business analyst must determine the type of requirements and designs to be approved, the timing for the approvals, the process to follow to gain approval, and who will approve the requirements and designs - When planning the appropriate approval process, business analysts consider the organizational culture and the type of information being approved
Stakeholder attitudes
- Business analysts identify stakeholder attitudes in order to fully understand what may impact a stakeholder's actions and behaviours - Knowing how a stakeholder perceives the initiative allows an opportunity for the business analyst to specifically plan their collaboration and engagement
Information Mgmt. Approach
- Business analysis information is comprised of all the information business analysts elicit, create, compile, and disseminate in the course of performing business analysis - includes requirements and designs, from lightweight user stories to formal requirement documents to functioning prototypes - Information management entails identifying: • how information should be organized, • the level of detail at which information should be captured, • any relationships between the information, • how information may be used across multiple initiatives and throughout the enterprise, • how information should be accessed and stored, and • characteristics about the information that must be maintained (ensures that business analysis information is organized in a functional and useful manner, is easily accessible to appropriate personnel, and is stored for the necessary length of time)
Define Stakeholder Collaboration
- Ensuring effective collaboration with stakeholders is essential for maintaining their engagement in business analysis activities - The business analyst may plan different collaboration approaches for internal and external stakeholders, and approaches may differ by business analysis activity - select the approaches that work best to meet the needs of each stakeholder group and ensure their interest and involvement is maintained across the initiative - can be documented in the form of a stakeholder collaboration plan
Assessment measures
- If current measures exist, the business analyst may leverage them or determine new measures (e.g. from stakeholders) - Performance measures may be based on deliverable due dates as specified in thebusiness analysis plan, metrics such as the frequency of the changes to business analysis work products, the number of review cycles required, task efficiency, or qualitative feedback from stakeholders and peers regarding the business analyst's deliverables
Organization of Business Analysis Information
- Information must be well structured to ensure it is not difficult to locate, conflicts with other information, or is needlessly duplicated - business analyst determines how best to structure and organize the business analysis information at the start of an initiative - This involves taking into consideration the type and amount of information to be collected, the stakeholder's access and usage needs, and the size and complexity of the change - define relationships among the info.
Level of Abstraction
- Level of abstraction describes the breadth and depth of the information being provided - Representations of information may range from highly conceptual or summarized to very detailed - depends on needs of stakeholders
Business analysis approach: Inputs
- Needs - Performance objectives (external)
Stakeholder engagement approach: inputs
- Needs: understanding the business need and the parts of the enterprise that it affects helps in the identification of stakeholders Business Analysis Approach: incorporating the overall business analysis approach into the stakeholder analysis, collaboration, and communication approaches (consistency)
Formality and level of detail of business analysis deliverables
- Predictive approaches typically call for formal documentation and representations. - Adaptive approaches favour defining requirements and designs through team interaction and gathering feedback on a working solution.
Requirements Attributes
- Requirements attributes provide information about requirements, and aid in the ongoing management of the requirements throughout the change - Requirements attributes allow business analysts to associate information with individual or related groups of requirements - Some commonly used requirements attributes include: • Absolute reference: provides a unique identifier. The reference is not altered or reused if the requirement is moved, changed, or deleted. • Author • Complexity • Ownership • Priority • Risks • Source • Stability • Status • Urgency
Plan for Requirements Reuse
- Reusing requirements can save an organization time, effort, and cost - Requirements that are potential candidates for long-term use are those an organization must meet on an ongoing basis such as: • regulatory requirements, • contractual obligations, • quality standards, • service level agreements, • business rules, • business processes, or • requirements describing products the enterprise produces
Storage and access
- Storage decisions depend on many factors such as who must access the information, how often they need to access it, and what conditions must be present for access - Organizational standards and tool availability also influence storage and access decisions - The business analysis approach defines how various tools will be used on the initiative and how the information will be captured and stored within those tools - Tools may shape the selection of business analysis techniques, notations to be used, and the way that information is organized
Governance approach: plan prioritisation approach
- Timelines, expected value, dependencies, resource constraints, adopted methodologies, and other factors influence how requirements and designs are prioritized - When planning the prioritization process, business analysts determine the: • formality and rigour of the prioritization process, • participants who will be involved in prioritization, • process for deciding how prioritization will occur, including which prioritization techniques will be utilized, and • criteria to be used for prioritization. For example, requirements may be prioritized based on cost, risk, and value. (also determine which stakeholders will have a role in prioritization)
Stakeholder level of power or influence
- Understanding the nature of influence and the influence structures and channels within an organization can prove invaluable when seeking to build relationships and trust - Understanding the influence and attitude each stakeholder may have can help develop strategies for obtaining buy-in and collaboration
some possible assessment measures
- accuracy and completeness - knowledge - effectiveness - organisational support - significance - strategic - timeliness
Information mgmt. approach: techniques
- brainstorming - interviews - item tracking - lessons learned - mind mapping - process modelling - survey or questionnaire - workshops
Information Mgmt. Approach: inputs
- business analysis approach - governance approach - stakeholder engagement approach
Business Analysis Performance Assessment: inputs
- business analysis approach - performance objectives
Outputs
- business analysis approach - stakeholder engagement approach - governance approach - information mgmt. approach - business analysis performance assessment
Information mgmt. approach: guidelines and tools
- business analysis performance assessment - business policies - information mgmt. tools - legal/regulatory information
core concepts
- change - need - solution - stakeholder - value - context
Governance approach: change control process
- determine the process for requesting change - determine the elements of the change request (cost and time estimates, benefits, risks, priority, course of action) - determine how changes will be prioritised - determine how changes will be documented - determine how changes will be communicated - determine who will perform the impact analysis - determine who will authorise changes
Information mgmt. approach: stakeholders
- domain subject matter expert - regulator - sponsor
Business Analysis Performance Assessment: stakeholders
- domain subject matter experts - project manager - sponsor
Governance approach
- governance process identifies the decision makers, process, and information required for decisions to be made - describes how approvals and prioritization decisions are made for requirements and designs
Plan stakeholder engagement (description)
- identify all involved stakeholders & identify their characteristics - define the best collaboration and communication approaches - plan for stakeholder risks - degree of complexity can increase disproportionately as the number of stakeholders involved in the business analysis activities increases
Stakeholder analysis
- identifying the stakeholders and their characteristics, as well as analyzing the information once collected - done repeatedly - If stakeholders are not identified, the business analyst may miss uncovering critical needs - company's organizational chart and business processes/sponsor can serve as an initial source for identifying internal stakeholders - external stakeholders may be identified by help of contracts/vendors/regulatory and governing bodies/shareholders/customers/suppliers
Business analysis approach
- method that will be followed, how & when tasks will be performed & the deliverables that will be produced - initial set of techniques - may either be defined by a methodology or organisational standards - may be standardised & formalised into a repeatable business analysis process
Tasks
- plan business analysis approach - plan stakeholder engagement - plan business analysis governance - plan business analysis information mgmt. - identify business analysis performance improvements
Governance approach: decision making
- stakeholder may serve in various roles in the decision-making process such as: • participant in decision-making discussions, • subject matter expert (SME) lending experience and knowledge to the decision-making process, • reviewer of information, and • approver of decisions - decision-making process defines what happens when teams cannot reach consensus, by identifying escalation paths and key stakeholders who hold final decision-making authority
Business analysis approach: agile techniques
Backlog Management: Backlog management is the primary method of handling requirements planning, prioritization, and change management in most agile approaches. Because the backlog often describes the breakdown of requirements in the relative order in which the features should be implemented, it can serve as a description for the order in which business analysis activities will take place. Some backlogs also include business analysis activities as tasks to be completed in a development cycle. • Planning Workshop: Business analysts participate in planning workshops to determine the business analysis effort and activities to support a team objective. • Real Options: Real option analysis may help determine when business analysis needs to be conducted to investigate a particular business issue. • Retrospectives: The feedback from prior retrospectives should be considered when selecting the approach.
Agile technique to Plan Requirements Management Process
Backlog Management: Most agile approaches use backlog management to determine which requirements are ready to be worked on by the development team.
Business analysis approach: outputs
Business Analysis Approach: identifies the business analysis approach and activities that will be performed across an initiative including who will perform the activities, the timing and sequencing of the work, the deliverables that will be produced and the business analysis techniques that may be utilized.
Business Analysis Performance Assessment: outputs
Business Analysis Performance Assessment: includes a comparison of planned versus actual performance, identifying the root cause of variances from the expected performance, proposed approaches to address issues, and other findings to help understand the performance of business analysis processes
Stakeholder roles
Business analysts identify stakeholder roles in order to understand where and how the stakeholders will contribute to the initiative.
Stakeholder decision making authority
Business analysts identify the authority level a stakeholder possesses over business analysis activities, deliverables, and changes to business analysis work to eliminate confusion
Plan Business Analysis Information Management
Defines how information developed by business analysts (including requirements and designs) is captured, stored, and integrated with other information for long-term use.
Plan business analysis governance
Defines the components of business analysis that are used to support the governance function of the organisation. It helps ensure that decisions are made properly and consistently, and follows a process that ensures decision makers have the information they need. e.g. requirements mgmt., business analysis risk mgmt. and allocation of business analysis resources.
Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements
Describes managing and monitoring how business analysis work is performed to ensure that commitments are met and continuous learning and improvement opportunities are realised.
Business analysis approach: stakeholders
Domain Subject Matter Expert: can be a source of risk when their involvement is required and availability is lacking. The approach taken may depend on availability and level of their involvement with the initiative. • Project Manager: determines that the approach is realistic for the overall schedule and timelines. The business analysis approach must be compatible with other activities. • Regulator: may be needed to provide approval for aspects of the business analysis approach or decisions made in tailoring the process, especially in organizations where the business analysis process is audited. • Sponsor: can provide needs and objectives for the approach and ensures that organizational policies are followed. The selected approach may depend on availability and involvement with the initiative.
Information mgmt. approach: outputs
Information Management Approach: includes the defined approach for how business analysis information will be stored, accessed, and utilized during the change and after the change is complete.
Recommend Actions for Improvement
Once the analysis of performance results is complete, the business analyst engages the appropriate stakeholders to identify the following actions: - preventitive - corrective - improvement
Business Analysis Performance Assessment: guidelines and tools
Organizational Performance Standards: may include performance metrics or expectations for business analysis work mandated by the organization.
Use of Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring knowledge area tasks
Organizse and coordinate the efforts of business analysts and stakeholders
Agile techniques to Plan Business Analysis Communication
Personas: These may prove useful in assessing the needs and availability of the stakeholder groups for the necessary communication in an agile approach and how you will organize this agile communication. • Planning Workshop: The planning workshop is generally used as the forum for establishing how the team will operate, including decisions about how the results of business analysis activities will be delivered and communicated to the team throughout the course of the project.
Agile technique to Plan Business Analysis Activities
Planning Workshop: Decisions regarding business analysis activities will usually be made during a planning workshop.
Business Analysis Performance Assessment: agile techniques
Retrospectives: Retrospectives are a common practice used by agile teams seeking to improve their ways of working. Business analysts should look for feedback on the requirements they provide to the team and how and when those requirements are provided in order to find ways to improve their processes. • Value Stream Mapping: Value stream mapping can be useful in assessing how business analysis activities are contributing to the delivery of value to the customer and identifying activities that may not be adding value.
Stakeholder engagement approach: outputs
Stakeholder Engagement Approach: contains a list of the stakeholders, their characteristics which were analyzed, and a listing of roles and responsibilities for the change. It also identifies the collaboration and communication approaches the business analyst will utilize during the initiative.
Analyze Results
The business analysis process and deliverables are compared against the set of defined measures. The analysis may be performed on the business analysis process, the resources involved, and the deliverables.
Business Analysis Performance Assessment
To monitor and improve performance, it is necessary to establish the performance measures, conduct the performance analysis, report on the results of the analysis, and identify any necessary preventive, corrective, or developmental actions. Performance analysis should occur throughout an initiative.
Performance analysis
What constitutes effective business analysis work depends on the context of a particular organization or initiative. Reports on business analysis performance can be informal and verbal, or they may include formal documentation. Reports on business analysis performance are designed and tailored to meet the needs of the various types of reviewers.
change
act of transformation in resposne to a need
Change: during business analysis planning and monitoring, business analysts...
are responsible for determining how changes to business analysis results will be requested and authorized.
Business analysis approach: Acceptance
business analysis approach is reviewed and agreed upon by key stakeholders
Stakeholder Communication Needs
business analyst evaluates: • what needs to be communicated, • what is the appropriate delivery method (written or verbal), • who the appropriate audience is, • when communication should occur, • frequency of communication, • geographic location of stakeholders who will receive communications, • level of detail appropriate for the communication and stakeholder, and • level of formality of communications (Communication considerations can be documented in the form of a stakeholder communication plan)
Need: during business analysis planning and monitoring, business analysts...
choose a business analysis approach that provides adequate analysis for the change.
context
circumstances that influence, are influenced by, and provide understanding of the change
Value: during business analysis planning and monitoring, business analysts...
conduct performance analysis to ensure business analysis activities continue to produce sufficient value for the stakeholders.
The business analysis core concept model (BACCM)
describes the relationships among the six core concepts
Plan stakeholder engagement
describes understanding which stakeholders are relevant to the change, what business analysts need from them, what they need from business analysts, and the best way to collaborate
Context: during business analysis planning and monitoring, business analysts...
ensure a complete understanding of the context under analysis in order to develop an efficient business analysis approach.
Solution: during business analysis planning and monitoring, business analysts...
evaluate if business analysis performance was a key contributor to the successful implementation of a solution.
Predicitve planning approaches
focus on minimizing upfront uncertainty and ensuring that the solution is defined before implementation begins in order to maximize control and minimize risk.
Adaptive planning approaches
focus on rapid delivery of business value in short iterations in return for acceptance of a higher degree of uncertainty regarding the overall delivery of the solution.
stakeholder
group or individual with a relationshio to the change, the need or the solution
Business analysis approach inputs
needs: problem/pportunity faced by the organisation (consider what is known about the need)
Stakeholder: during business analysis planning and monitoring, business analysts...
perform a stakeholder analysis to ensure planning and monitoring activities reflect stakeholder needs and account for stakeholder characteristics.
Plan business analysis approach
planning of business analysis work from creation/selection of a methodology to planning the individual activities, tasks & deliverables
need
problem or opportunity to be addressed
solution
specific way of satisfying one or more needs in a context
Plan traceability approach
traceability approach is based on: • the complexity of the domain, • the number of views of requirements that will be produced, • any requirement-related risks, organizational standards, applicable regulatory requirements, and • an understanding of the costs and benefits involved with tracing.
value
worth, importance or usefulness of something to a stakeholder within a context
Business analysis approach: techniques
• Brainstorming • Business Cases • Document Analysis • Estimation • Financial Analysis • Functional Decomposition: used to break down complex business analysis processes or approaches into more feasible components. • Interviews • Item Tracking: used to track any issues raised during planning activities with stakeholders. Can also track risk related items raised during discussions when building the approach. • Lessons Learned • Process Modelling • Reviews • Risk Analysis and Management • Scope Modelling: used to determine the boundaries of the solution as an input to planning and to estimating. • Survey or Questionnaire • Workshops
Stakeholder engagement approach: techniques
• Brainstorming • Business Rules Analysis: used to identify stakeholders who were the source of the business rules. • Document Analysis • Interviews • Lessons Learned • Mind Mapping: used to identify potential stakeholders and help understand the relationships between them. • Organizational Modelling: used to determine if the organizational units or people listed have any unique needs and interests that should be considered. Organizational models describe the roles and functions in the organization and the ways in which stakeholders interact which can help to identify stakeholders who will be affected by a change. • Process Modelling • Risk Analysis and Management • Scope Modelling: used to develop scope models to show stakeholders that fall outside the scope of the solution but still interact with it in some way. • Stakeholder List, Map, or Personas: used to depict the relationship of stakeholders to the solution and to one another. • Survey or Questionnaire • Workshops
Governance approach: techniques
• Brainstorming • Document Analysis • Interviews • Item Tracking • Lessons Learned • Organizational Modelling • Process Modelling • Reviews • Survey or Questionnaire • Workshops
Business Analysis Performance Assessment: techniques
• Brainstorming • Interviews • Item Tracking • Lessons Learned • Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): used to determine what metrics are appropriate for assessing business analysis performance and how they may be tracked. • Observation • Process Analysis • Process Modelling • Reviews • Risk Analysis and Management • Root Cause Analysis: used to help identify the underlying cause of failures or difficulties in accomplishing business analysis work. • Survey or Questionnaire • Workshops
Governance approach: inputs
• Business Analysis Approach: incorporating the overall business analysis approach into the governance approach is necessary to ensure consistency across the approaches. • Stakeholder Engagement Approach: identifying stakeholders and understanding their communication and collaboration needs is useful in determining their participation in the governance approach. The engagement approach may be updated based on the completion of the governance approach.
Governance approach: guidelines and tools
• Business Analysis Performance Assessment • Business Policies • Current State Description • Legal/Regulatory Information
Stakeholder engagement approach: guidelines and tools
• Business Analysis Performance Assessment • Change Strategy: used for improved assessment of stakeholder impact and the development of more effective stakeholder engagement strategies. • Current State Description: provides the context within which the work needs to be completed. This information will lead to more effective stakeholder analysis and better understanding of the impact of the desired change.
Business analysis approach: guidelines and tools
• Business Analysis Performance Assessment: provides results of previous assessments that should be reviewed and incorporated into all planning approaches. • Business Policies: define the limits within which decisions must be made. They may be described by regulations, contracts, agreements, deals, warranties, certifications, or other legal obligations. These policies can influence the business analysis approach. • Expert Judgment: used to determine the optimal business analysis approach. Expertise may be provided from a wide range of sources including stakeholders on the initiative, organizational Centres of Excellence, consultants, or associations and industry groups. Prior experiences of the business analyst and other stakeholders should be considered when selecting or modifying an approach. • Methodologies and Frameworks: shape the approach that will be used by providing methods, techniques, procedures, working concepts, and rules. They may need to be tailored to better meet the needs of the specific business challenge. • Stakeholder Engagement Approach: understanding the stakeholders and their concerns and interests may influence decisions made when determining the business analysis approach.
Stakeholder engagement approach: agile techniques
• Collaborative Games: Many collaborative games can be used to understand the perspectives of various stakeholder groups. • Personas: Personas can help the analyst or development team by enabling them to better describe and visualize the needs of a group or archetype of stakeholders, understanding how the archetype will derive value from a solution, potential risks for the archetype, and other information that will help the team to better understand the needs of the stakeholder groups involved with the project
Stakeholder engagement approach: stakeholders
• Customers • Domain Subject Matter Expert • End User • Project Manager • Regulator • Sponsor • Supplier
Governance approach: stakeholders
• Domain Subject Matter Expert • Project Manager • Regulator • Sponsor
Business analysis approach should...
• align to the overall goals of the change, • coordinate the business analysis tasks with the activities and deliverables of the overall change, • include tasks to manage any risks that could reduce the quality of business analysis deliverables or impede task efficiency, and • leverage approaches and select techniques and tools that have historically worked well.
Business analysts analyze stakeholder attitudes about
• business goals, objectives of the initiative, and any proposed solutions, • business analysis in general, • the level of interest in the change, • the sponsor, • team members and other stakeholders, and • collaboration and a team-based approach
Factors that can impact the risk level of a business analysis effort
• experience level of the business analyst, • extent of domain knowledge held by the business analyst, • level of experience stakeholders have in communicating their needs, • stakeholder attitudes about the change and business analysis in general, • amount of time allocated by stakeholders to the business analysis activities, • any pre-selected framework, methodology, tools, and/or techniques imposed by organizational policies and practices, and • cultural norms of the organization.
When planning the governance approach, business analysts identify
• how business analysis work will be approached and prioritized, • what the process for proposing a change to business analysis information is, • who has the authority and responsibility to propose changes and who should be involved in the change discussions, • who has responsibility for analyzing change requests, • who has the authority to approve changes, and • how changes will be documented and communicated.
Integrating business analysis activities in the business analysis approach includes...
• identifying the activities required to complete each deliverable and then breaking each activity into tasks, • dividing the work into iterations, identifying the deliverables for each iteration, and then identifying the associated activities and tasks, or • using a previous similar initiative as an outline and applying the detailed tasks and activities unique to the current initiative.
factors that can impact complexity...
• size of the change, • number of business areas or systems affected, • geographic and cultural considerations, • technological complexities, and • any risks that could impede the business analysis effort - number of stakeholders - business analysis resources
timing of business analysis activities can be affected by...
• the availability of resources, • priority and/or urgency of the initiative, • other concurrent initiatives, or • constraints such as contract terms or regulatory deadlines (dependent if work is done in phases or iteratively)
considerations that may affect the approach
• the change is complex and high risk, • the organization is in, or interacts with, heavily regulated industries, • contracts or agreements necessitate formality, • stakeholders are geographically distributed, • resources are outsourced, • staff turnover is high and/or team members may be inexperienced, • requirements must be formally signed off, and • business analysis information must be maintained long-term or handed over for use on future initiatives.
when planning collaboration
• timing and frequency of collaboration, • location, • available tools such as wikis and online communities, • delivery method such as in-person or virtual, and • preferences of the stakeholders
Governance approach: outputs
•Governance Approach: identifies the stakeholders who will have the responsibility and authority to make decisions about business analysis work including who will be responsible for setting priorities and who will approve changes to business analysis information. It also defines the process that will be utilized to manage requirement and design changes across the initiative.
