Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Business Analysis (p120-159)
Business Analysis (p120-159)
Considerations
Pros
A scope model facilitates agreement as basis for determining contractual
102 Business Analysis
Cons
• Traditional scope models cannot address common complex
boundaries
• An initial, high-level model can lack a sufficient level of
granularity, particularly for boundary elements, that is needed
to ensure clear scope identification.
• Once a scope is defined, changing it may be difficult due to
political reasons and contractual obligations. Meanwhile,
many factors can affect the scope validity before the targets
are achieved. Such factors as wrong initial assumptions,
situation change, evolution of stakeholder needs, or technology
innovations may cause a need for revising the scope partially
or entirely
SEQUENCE DIAGRAMS
Sequence diagrams, also known as event diagrams are used to describe
interactions and exchange of messages among classes. It models the
logic of usage scenarios by showing the information passed between
objects in the system through the execution of the scenario. A sequence
diagram shows how processes or objects relate during a scenario. The
classes required to execute the scenario and the messages they pass to one
another (triggered by steps in the use case) are displayed on the diagram.
The sequence diagram shows how objects used in the scenario interact,
but it does not illustrate how they are related to one another. Sequence
diagrams are also often used to show how user interface components
or software components interact. The diagram represents information in
a horizontal and vertical alignment. The objects that send messages to
each other are represented as boxes that are aligned at the top of the
page coming from the left to the right, with each object occupying a
column of space on the page bordered by a vertical line stretching down
to the bottom of the page. The messages that are sent from one object to
the next are represented as horizontal arrows. The order of the messages
Business Analysis Techniques 103
Considerations
Pros
• Shows the interaction between the objects of a system in the
chronological order that the interactions occur
• Use cases can be refined into one or more sequence diagrams
in order to provide added detail and a more in-depth
104 Business Analysis
Cons
• A lot of time and effort is required to create a complete set
of sequence diagrams for each use case of a system, which
sometimes may not be necessary
• Some people find the method too technical to use
Considerations
Pros
• Useful to understand changes in impacted groups over time
• Identifies the specific people who must be engaged in
requirements elicitation activities
• Helps the business analyst plan collaboration, communication,
and facilitation activities to engage all stakeholder groups
Cons
• Business analysts who work with the same teams continuously
or over a long period of time may not use the stakeholder
analysis and management technique because of over-familiarity
• Assessing information about a specific stakeholder
representative, such as influence and interest, can be
complicated and may feel politically risky
Business Analysis Techniques 107
Considerations
Pros
• Describes possible states of an entity
• Identifies business rules and information attributes that apply
to the entity being modeled.
• Identifies and describes the activities that apply to the entity at
different states of the entity
• Is a more effective documentation and communication tool
than plain text, especially if the entity being described has
more than a few states, transitions, and conditions governing
those transitions
Cons
• Is usually only used to understand and communicate about
information entities that are perceived to be complex; simple
entities may be understood without the time and effort required
to build a state model
• Building a state model appears simple at the start, but achieving
a consensus among domain SMEs about the details required
by the model can be difficult and time-consuming
• A high degree of precision and details about states and
transitions are required to build a state diagram
SURVEY OR QUESTIONNAIRE
A survey or questionnaire is used to collect business analysis information,
including information about customers, products, activities, and attitudes
Business Analysis Techniques 109
Considerations
Pros
• Quick and relatively inexpensive to administer.
• Easier to collect information from a larger audience than other
techniques such as interviews.
• Does not typically require significant time from the respondents.
• Effective and efficient when stakeholders are geographically
dispersed.
• When using closed-ended questions, surveys can be effective
for obtaining quantitative data for use in statistical analysis
since the answers can signify a number
• When using open-ended questions, survey results may provide
insights and views which are not initially evident.
Cons
• To achieve unbiased results, specialized skills in statistical
sampling methods are needed when surveying a subset of
potential respondents.
Business Analysis Techniques 111
SWOT ANALYSIS
SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat) analysis is a
useful technique to better understand the nature of an organization. It is
a simple yet effective tool for both internal (within the organization) and
external (business competitors) conditions. SWOT analysis is used to
identify the overall state of an organization both internally and externally.
The language used in a SWOT analysis is short, specific, realistic, and
supported by evidence. SWOT analysis serves as an assessment of an
organization against identified success factors. SWOT can be performed
at any scale from the enterprise as a whole to a division, a business unit,
a project, or even an individual. By performing SWOT in a disciplined
way, stakeholders can have a better understanding of the impact of an
existing set of conditions on a future set of conditions.
The elements involved when conducting a SWOT analysis are the
following:
• Strength (S) - anything that the assessed organization does well.
This may include experienced personnel, effective processes,
IT solutions, excellent customer relationships, or any other
internal factor that leads to success.
• Weaknesses (W) - actions or functions that the assessed
organization has done poorly or not at all
• Opportunities (O) - external factors of which the assessed
organization may be able to take advantage. This may include
new technology, new markets changes in the competitive
marketplace, or other forces
• Threats (T) - external factors that can impose an adverse effect
on the assessed organization. They may include factors such as
112 Business Analysis
Considerations
Pros
• SWOT is an essential tool to aid in understanding the
organization, product, process, or stakeholders.
• SWOT enables business analysts to direct the stakeholders’
focus to the factors that are important to the business
Cons
• The results of a SWOT analysis provide a high-level view;
more detailed analysis is often needed
• Unless a clear context is defined for the SWOT analysis the
result may be unfocused and contain factors which are not
relevant to the current situation
Considerations
Pros
• Use case diagrams can clarify scope and provide a high-level
understanding of requirements
• Use case descriptions are easily understood by stakeholders
due to their narrative flow
• The inclusion of a desired goal or outcome ensures that the
business value of the use case is articulated
• Use case descriptions articulate the functional behavior of a
system
Cons
• The flexibility of the use case description format may lead to
information being embedded that would be better captured
using other techniques such as user interface interactions, non-
functional requirements, and business rules.
• Decisions and the business rules that define them should not
be recorded directly in use cases, but managed separately and
114 Business Analysis
USER STORIES
A user story characterizes a brief statement of a small functionality or
quality needed to deliver value to a specific stakeholder. User stories
capture the needs of a specific stakeholder and enable teams to identify
features which will be valuable to a stakeholder using short, simple
documentation. They can serve as a basis for identifying needs and allow
for the prioritizing, estimating, and planning of solutions. A user story is
usually just made up of up to two sentences that describe whose need was
addressed by the story, the goal the user is trying to accomplish, and any
additional information that may be critical to understanding the scope of
the story.
The elements involved when crafting the user stories are the following:
1. Title - The title of the story describes an activity the stakeholder
wants to carry out with the system. Typically, it is an active-
verb goal phrase similar to the way use cases are titled.
2. Statement of Value – The most popular format includes three
components:
• Who – user role or persona
• What – a necessary action, behavior, feature, or quality
• Why – the benefit or value received by the user when the story
is implemented
3. Conversation - User stories help teams to explore and
understand the feature described in the story and the value it
will deliver to the stakeholder. The story itself does not capture
everything there is to know about the stakeholder need and the
information in the story is supplemented by further modeling
as the story is delivered.
Business Analysis Techniques 115
Considerations
Pros
• Easily understandable by stakeholders
• Can be developed through a variety of requirements gathering
techniques.
• Focuses on providing value to stakeholders
• A shared understanding of the business area is enhanced
through collaboration on determining and exploring user
stories
• Limited to small, implementable, and testable slices of
functionality, which facilitates rapid delivery and frequent
customer feedback
Cons
• This informal approach can challenge the team since they do
not have all the answers and detailed specifications ahead of
time
• Requires context and visibility; the team can lose sight of the
big picture if stories are not validated or supplemented with
higher level analysis and graphical artifacts
• May not provide enough documentation to meet the need
for governance, a baseline for future work, or stakeholder
expectations. Additional documentation may be required.
VENDOR ASSESSMENT
Vendor assessment is a method which helps the business analyst to
evaluate the skills and ability of a vendor to deliver a solution whether
116 Business Analysis
Considerations
Pros
• By conducting a vendor assessment, chances of the organization
to develop a fruitful and just relationship with an appropriate
and reliable vendor increases
Cons
• Maybe consuming with regards to time and resources
• Does not prevent risk of failure as the partnership evolves
118 Business Analysis
WORKSHOPS
A workshop is an excellent method to use to facilitate stakeholder
collaboration. A workshop is an event attended by identified key
stakeholders and subject matter experts (SMEs) for a concentrated period
of time. A workshop saves time compared to conducting one-by-one
interviews since the information is readily validated or challenged by
other participants. A workshop may be held for different purposes. These
include process modeling, planning, design, scoping, requirements
gathering, or any combination of these. A workshop may be used to
produce ideas for new features or products, to reach an agreement on
a topic, or to review requirements or designs. Workshops can promote
confidence with other team members, mutual understanding, and strong
communication among the stakeholders and produce deliverables that
structure and guide future work efforts.
Workshop roles:
• Sponsor - frequently not a participant in the workshop but does
have ultimate accountability for its outcome
• Facilitator - establishes a professional and objective tone for the
workshop, introduces the goals and agenda for the workshop,
enforces structure and ground rules, keeps activities focused
on the purpose and desired outcomes, facilitates decision-
making and conflict resolution and ensures that all participants
have an opportunity to be heard.
• Scribe - documents the decisions in the format determined
prior to the workshop and keeps track of any items or issues
that are deferred during the session.
• Timekeeper - may be used to keep track of the time spent on
each agenda item
• Participants - includes key stakeholders and subject matter
experts. They are responsible for providing their input and
views, listening to other views, and discussing the issues
without bias
Business Analysis Techniques 119
After the workshop, the facilitator should summarize any open action
items that were recorded at the workshop, completes the documentation,
and distributes it to the workshop attendees and any stakeholders who
need to be kept informed of the work done.
Considerations
Pros
• A productive approach to achieve agreement among various
stakeholders in a relatively short period of time
• Provides a means for stakeholders to collaborate, make
decisions, and gain a mutual understanding
• Costs are often lower than the cost of performing multiple
interviews
• Feedback on the issues or decisions can be provided
immediately by the participants
Cons
• Stakeholder availability may make it difficult to schedule the
workshop
• The success of the workshop highly depends on the expertise
of the facilitator to draw and knowledge of the participants
• Workshops that involve too many participants can slow down
the workshop process. On the other hand, too few participants
can lead to the overlooking of project components which are
important to some stakeholders, or to the arrival at decisions that
do not represent the needs of the majority of the stakeholders
• Common availability of the key stakeholders and SMEs can
sometimes be a challenge
BUSINESS ANALYSIS
3 KEY CONCEPTS
REQUIREMENTS CLASSIFICATION
SCHEMA
According to the Business Analysis Book of Knowledge (BABOK)
Guide v3, there are different levels or types of requirements. Knowing
these requirements classification would assist the business analyst and
other stakeholders in categorizing the requirements:
124 Business Analysis
Stakeholders
Each task a business analyst will be executing comprises a list of
stakeholders who are likely to participate. A stakeholder is an individual
or group of people that a business analyst is likely to interact with directly
or indirectly during a change initiative. Any stakeholder can be a source
of requirements, assumptions, or constraints.
The generic list of stakeholders below is not intended to limit possible
stakeholder grouping. Below are just some of the possible stakeholders
to be considered:
• business analyst • operational support
• customer • project manager
• domain subject matter expert • regulator
• end user • sponsor
• implementation subject matter • supplier
expert
• tester
Requirement Design
View six months of customer subscription Sketch of a dashboard
data across different business units in a
single view
Record and access profiles of business Screen mock-up to show specific data
agents and partners fields
Reduce amount of time required to deliver Process model
a product
Develop business strategy, goals, and Business Capability Model
objectives for a new business line
Tasks Description
Plan Business Analysis Approach This describes the preparation of business
analysis work from creation or selection of
a methodology to planning the individual
activities, tasks, and deliverables
Plan Stakeholder Engagement describes understanding which stakehold-
ers are relevant to the change, what business
analysts need from them, what they need
from business analysts, and the best way to
collaborate
Business Analysis Knowledge Areas 131
Input
Needs – the business analysis approach is influenced by the problem or
the opportunity faced by the business. It is essential to consider what
is known about the need at the time of planning and acknowledge that
understanding evolves throughout the business analysis activities.
Approach
Predictive Adaptive
Solution Definition Defined before implemen- Defined in iterations to arrive at
tation to maximize control the best solution or improve an
and minimize risk. existing solution.
Level of Formality Formal. Information is Informal. information is gathered
captured in standardized through team interaction and
templates. feedback and may come in forms
of stand-up meeting and quick
team huddle
Activities Activities required to com- Activities are divided into itera-
plete deliverables are iden- tions with deliverables first and
tified first and then divided then the associated tasks are
into tasks and milestones identified.
Timing Tasks are performed in Tasks are performed iteratively.
specific phases.
There are different guidelines and tools a business analyst can utilize
during the business analysis approach planning.
Table 10: Guidelines and Tools for Planning Business Analysis Approach
(BABOK v3, 2015)
• Scope Modelling
• Survey or Questionnaire
• Workshops
Stakeholders Involved during Business Analysis Approach Planning
• Domain Subject Matter Expert
• Project Manager
• Regulator
• Sponsor
Outputs
Business Analysis Approach – At the end of the planning activities, it
is expected that the business analysis approach which will be performed
across all activities, the timing and sequence of the work, the deliverables
to be produced, and the business analysis techniques and tools to be
utilized will be identified.
Inputs
Needs – understanding the business need and the components of the
organization that it affects helps in the identification of stakeholders.
Needs identified may or may not pursue as stakeholder analysis is
conducted
Business Analysis Approach – the overall business analysis approach
should be associated with the stakeholder analysis to ensure consistency
across the approaches.
Business Analysis Knowledge Areas 137
Outputs
Stakeholder Engagement Approach – according to the Business
Analysis Book of Knowledge (BABOK), this output contains a list of
the stakeholders, their analyzed characteristics and personals, and a list
Business Analysis Knowledge Areas 139
of roles and responsibilities (R&R) concerning the change. This will also
identify the collaboration and communication approaches the business
analyst is expected to use throughout the initiative.
Inputs
Business Analysis Approach – the overall business analysis approach
should be incorporated into the governance approach to ensure uniformity
across the approaches.
Stakeholder Engagement Approach –the identification of
stakeholders and understanding each of their communication and
collaboration needs is helpful in determining their participation in the
governance approach. This input may be updated based on the output to
be produced with the governance approach.
Prioritization and Approvals should be planned across a business
analysis initiative. The expected value, the timeline, any dependencies,
resource constraints, adopted methodologies, budget constraints and
other factors define how a governing body prioritizes requirements and
design. The approach should identify which stakeholders will have a role
in the prioritization process. According to the Business Analysis Body of
Knowledge, the business analysts should determine the following when
planning the prioritization process:
• Formality and consistency of the prioritization process
• Participants who will participate in the prioritization process
• Process and factors to consider in deciding how prioritization
will occur, including which prioritization techniques will be
utilized
140 Business Analysis
Table 12: Guidelines and Tools for Planning Governance (BABOK v3, 2015)