Business Analyst

common BA techniques

)-Brainstorming -CATWOE (Clients, Actors, Transformation, Worldview, Owner, Environmental constraints) -Data Fowl Diagrams -Five Why's -Functional decompositions -Interviews -MoSCoW ((Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, Won't Have this time) is primarily used to prioritise requirements, although the practice is also useful in many other areas.) -PESTLE (P for political, E for economic, S for socials, T for technological, L for legal and E for environmental) -MOST (Mission, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics) -Scenarios and Use cases -SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and so a SWOT analysis is a technique for assessing these four aspects of your business. -user stories

Elicitation

- Business requirements elicitation is defined as a set pf approaches, techniques, activities and tasks used to capture the business requirements of a planned of a solution of a planned solution from the stakeholders and other available sources. Purpose: explore, identify and document stakeholder needs. orienting the requirements toward the project vision. excluding features that the customer does not want and need. - describes how we work with stakeholders to find out what their needs are and ensure that we have correctly and completely understood their needs.

Elements: Value attributes

- are the characteristics of a solutions that determine or substantially influence its value for stakeholders -represent a meaningful and agreed-upon decompositions of the value propositions into its constituent parts, which can be describes as qualities that the solution should either possess or avid -examples: -ability to provide specific information -ability to perform or support specific operations -performance and responsiveness characteristics -applicability of the solutions in specific situations and contexts - availability of specific features of capabilities -usability security, scalability and reliability

requirement should be placed into one of the following categories:

- business requirements - user requirements - functional requirements - non-functional requirements

purpose of requirements:

- provide a foundations for assessment, planning, execution and monitoring of the project activities - define customer expectations (expressed as real requirement and stakeholder's of those requirements) - serve as a component of agreements, orders and the services classification of the requirements

stakeholder identification problems

-A lack of understanding of the real operators of the bossiness processes in the organizations -unclear definition of responsibilities within the customer'r organization -excluding stakeholder who are not directly related to the process -incomplete analysis resulting in missing processes and activities and the related stakeholders

Acceptance and Evaluation Criteria

-Acceptance criteria are used to define the requirements, outcomes or conditions that much be met in order for s solutions to be considered acceptable to key stakeholders. evaluations criteria are the measure used to assess a set for requirements in order to choose between multiples solutions -Define measure of value attributes to be used for assessing and comparing solutions and alternative designs -measurable and testable criteria allow for objective and consistent assessments off solutions and designs -acceptance criteria describe the minimum set of requirements that must be met ignorer Forna particular solution to be worth implementing. They may be used to determine if a solution or solution component can meet a requirement. -acceptance criteria are typically used when only possible solutions is being evaluated and are generally expressed as a pass of fail. -attributes that cannot be measured directly are evaluated using experiment judgment or various scorning technique

element value: limitations

-Acceptance criteria may express contractual obligations and as such may be difficult to change for legal or political reasons. -achieving agreement on evaluation criteria for different needs among diverse stakeholders can be challenging

element value: usage considerations

-Agile methodologies may require that all requirements be expressed in the form of testable acceptance criteria. -Acceptance criteria are necessary when the requirements expressed in the form of testable acceptance criteria -acceptance criteria are necessary the the requirements expressed contractual obligations -acceptance criteria provide the ability provide ability to assess requirements based on agreed-upon criteria -evaluation criteria assist in the delivery of expected return of investment (ROI) or otherwise specified potential value -evaluation criteria helps in defining priorities

element value: Assessment

-Assessment: in order to asses a solution against acceptance or evaluation criteria, it must be constructed in measurable format. -evaluation criteria provide a way to determine if features provide value necessary to satisfy stakeholders needs. -the criteria are presented as parameters that can be measured against a continuous or discrete scale. -acceptance criteria are expressed in testable form -acceptance criteria are presented in form of statements which can be verified as true or false. this often achieved through user acceptance testing (UAT)

what is enterprise analysis? task: develop the business case

-Define project objectives and expected business benefits -develop project scope -Estimate time, cost, and resources -Analyze cost vs. benefit -evaluate risk -inputes: bussiness architecture, bussines goals, defined business problem/ oppurtunity solution scope -output: bussiness case

what is enterprise analysis? task: define solution scope

-Projects inevitability struggle at some point or the other if the scope is not defined properly solution scope may be determined using the following techniques: -Work breakdown structure (WBS) - a decomposition of the work that is required to complete a project and accomplish the business objectives. - system interface analysis - a description of the work required to integrate the new solutions into the existing business and technical environment -context diagram -Product breakdown structure -output: solution scope

what is enterprise analysis?

-Purpose: Identity and purpose subjects that meet strategic needs and goals -task: identifying business processes performed in the organization -purpose: evaluate the internal and external environment -conducting feasibility studies to determine the optimum business solution -Define/refine current/future business architecture -assess the current state of technology (infrastructure and applications) -benchmark analysis competitive studies -fully define business problem/ opportunity -output: defined problem/ opportunity

What is a business analyst?

-a person responsible for: identifying the business needs of customer (external or internal) and other stakeholders -determining solutions to business problems -BA activities include identifying, analyzing, developing and managing requirements -Business Analyst is n ot responsible for determining the solutions implementations (creating the product's design) -the bossiness analyst acts as a bridge between the customer and other stakeholders (e.g. the project team), identifying, negotiating and achieving a consensus between the needs of various representative individuals and groups.

common problems with business analysis?

-ambiguous, under-specified, unclear, impossible, contradictory business requirements -instability of the requirements (frequent and uncontrollable changes in requirements) -instability of the requirements (incomplete, inconsistent or not measurable requirements) -unclear objectives of the initiative -communications problems -language barriers -vague wording -overly formal wording -redundancy -Gold plating (adding necessary scope) -insufficient user involvement -overlooked user classes -minimal specifications

The stakeholder on the customer side would be

-customer representatives -project sponsors -end users (from customer company) -installation and operations personnel

external stakeholders may be

-end user who are not a part of the customer's organizations -other organizations (e.g. regulatory entities)

solution assessment and validatation

-how to assess proposed solutions best fits the bussiness need, idenitify gaps and shortcomings in solutions and determine necsessary workariunds or change the solution -how we assess depolyed solutions to see how well they met the orginal needs in order to enable bussiness to assess the performace and effictiveness of projects. -purpose: assess solutions to ensure that stratergics goals goals are met requirements are satisfied

Traceability: Allows BA to ensure all business requirements have been met

-important from the changes management perspective, to determine the impact of a change of the system or process -for testers and developers, traceability ensure that the requirements coverage has been achieved

More and more on BA communication planning

-outputs from the business analysis are also inputs to system acceptance testing which the final check before the production release. -system acceptance testing is conducted to verify that the software is working as expected and is needed in order to realize its goals (i.e. improving efficiency of performing business process)

why is a Business Analyst necessary?

-problem with requirements can cause projects to fail. In most cases those problems are caused by poor or incorrectly conduced business analyst (especially requirements engineering, a part of the business analysts knowledge area)

consequences of low quality BA

-problems during scope definition -planning difficulties -implementations problems testing problems -unclear requirements, or low quality business design of the solutions can lead to confusion and questions regarding the intended software product or process solution -risk of the project's failure increase: requirements are imprecise -requirements are ambiguous -requirements are contradictory and/or missing -requirements do not fulfill the agreed criteria -business processes and artifacts are not covered by requirements are described incompletely -all stakeholders are not identified -business goals or needs are not identified causing the designed solution to fail to meet the organizations' needs and not achieve the business goals

The stakeholder of the vendor side would be

-proiect managers -business and system analyst -developers and architects -database designers -technical writers -testers and quality assurance staff -installation and operation personnel

BA provides information to the following

-project management (scoop planning, scheduling and estimating development and testing) -system analysis -design (system specification and architecture) -implementation -testing

solution assessment and validatation task: assess requirnmets coverage

-purpose: dtermine how well possible options for solution desgin will meet the rquirnmemts. thr assessment may include a recommendation of a parsticulare solution, or an assessment of possible trade-offs -example: RFI/RFP response, internal designs, manual procedures -inputs: solutions desgin option(s) -outputs: solutions desgin assessment

techniques (for elicitation)

-questionnaires, -interviews -self-recording -reviewing existing documents -resting a specification from a previous project -brainstorming -field observation -apprenticing -conducting workshops to refine the requirements from a previous project -requirnemnts alicitaion

setting business goal is important because:

-the organization needs to have a vision of what it wants to accomplish. this is facilitated by having a clearly stated goals along with establishing time periods they need to be achieved - it keeps a clear picture of what the organization is trying to do with the business and help focus motivation - it allows the organization to understand and maintain a commitment too the business' main objectives - provided metric against which to measure the organization's progress

Why is business analysis necessary: common reasons for neglecting BA

-time pressure -exclusive focus on fast results -extensive fixation on costs -perceiving documentation or the analysis not understanding of the business process within an organization as a cost not an added value

factors to be considered when it comes to communication

-type of project -communication formality -communication frequency -geographical location -culture

Common methods of communication for BA

-workshops -presentations -reviews

Principles for successful requirements

1. understand the top level critical objectives 2. think stakeholder, not just users and customers 3. focus on the required system quality, not just its functionality 4. quantify quality requirements 5. don't mix ends and means 6. capture explicit information about value 7. entire there is "rich specification" requirements specifications needs much more information than just requirement itself 8. carry out specification quality control (SQC) 9. consider the total lifecycle and apply systems-thinking, not just a focus on software 10. recognize the requirements change; use feedback and update requirements as necessary

What is business goal?

A business goal is a short-term or long-term objective of an organization. Business goals should be characterized by the following qualities: - specificity - optimism - realism - both short and long term scope

What is a requirement?

A condition or capability needed by a stakeholder to solve a problem or achieve an objective. A condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a staten or a system component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification or other formally imposed documents - a documented representation of a condition of capability - requirements are the foundation of a systems, or system components. they can be obligatory (requires functions, constraints) essential for the software tp perform its function and meet the expectations and needs of the intended stakeholders

What is a stakeholder?

Any person involved in, or with an interest in, a project.

More on BA communication planning

Business analysis is the starting point for destining and impending a software designing and implementing a software solutions. its deliverables are inputs to many other r project phases and processes such as estanslishi g the system architecture that will allow meeting the bossiness goals, m creating detailed functionals and non-functional system specifications and planning and executing QA activities

What is an artefact?

Final or intermediate work products that are produced and used during a project. Might describe the function, architecture and design of software. Might be concerned with the process of development itself such as project pants business and risk assessment. Should use version control Should be correctly traced to their origin.

SMART (part of" what is a business goal?")

SMART is a system and a tool that is used to establish goals and define their quality objectives. SMART rewires that all the goals have the following characteristic: - specific - measurable - attainable - relevant - timely

Business Analysis Communication planning

The main purpose of planning the business analysis communication is to define how to receive, distribute, access, update and escalate information t and from the project stakeholders, as well as how to organizes the schedule and structure of the communication within a project

What is Business Analysis?

The practice of enabling change in an organizational context, by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders. disciplined approach. Business analysts identify and define the solutions that will maximize the value delivered by an organization to its stakeholders. Business analysts work across all levels of an organization and may be involved in everything from delivering strategy, to creating enterprise architecture, to taking leadership role by defining the goals and requirements for programs and projects or supporting continuous improvements in its technology and processes.....

Acceptance Criteria

ate typically used when only one possible solutions is being evaluated, and are under generally expressed as a pass of fail

Valuation criteria

define a set of measurements which allow for ranking of solutions and alternative designs according to their value stakeholders

Task: specify and model requirements

describe standard practices for writing textural requirements and creating models or diagrams. specific models are addressed as techniques. includes capturing requirements attributes. inputs: requirements outputs: specified or modeled requirements

Task: prioritize requirements

determine the business priority of requirements (including voting, ranking, benefit analysis and so forth). identify logical dependencies between requirements and..lksnfjesnfosdngosngeo

Requirements Analysis:

elaborate the solutions definition in order to enable the project team to design and build a solution that will meet and needs of the business stakeholders

Task: determine assumptions and constraints

identify stakeholder requests that are not properly requirements but based on assumptions regarding what the solution team is capable of delivering - capture and assess these requests outputs: assumptions and constraints

Task: conduct elicitation

meet with stakeholders to elicit information regarding their needs outputs: elicitation activity results - Assumptions, constraints, risks, issues documentation baed on techniques (e.g. interview notes, workshop results, survey responses, etc.)

Task: verify requirements

outputs: rarified requirements

requirements classifications-

process requirements: - describe needs and limitations of the business processes - costs - marketing - processing time - sales and distribution - organisation - documentation Product requirements: - functional and non-functional product requirements - POV of customer and team Types of requirement: - customer requirements - solution or system requirements - product of component requirements

Task: document elicitation results

purpose record stakeholder info for use in analysis outputs: stated requirements

What is enterprise analysis? task: determine a solution approach

purpose: -Identify potential solutions -Analyze the feasibility of options -recommend viable business solutions Output: solution approach

Task: confirm elicitation results

purpose: play back the requirements to validate that the stakeholder's intentions have been correctly captured and understood outputs: validated stated requirements

Task: prepare of elicitation

purpose: prepare for elicitation by ensuring all needed resources are organized and scheduled for conducting the elicitation activities outputs: - scheduled resources - supporting materials

Task: organize requirements

structure and organize a set or requirements into logical sets. The organization may be based on defining multiple "levels" of requirements, packaging related functions together and so forth. inputs: business case, solution scope, requirements output: structured requirements

Requirements elicitation

this is a collection of activities, approaches, tools and techinaiwues for capturing the rewuirnmtns for a planned software system (or other bossiness solution from the stakeholder)

Traceability

this is an association that exists between different types of requirements and the following items: -requirements (mapping the higher level requirements that defined the needs and features to the more detailed requirements -detailed requirements to design models -high level requirements to test cases -requirements to release/ code/ branch/ version

Task: validate requirements

validate that a requirements will satisfy a business needs. outputs: validated requirements