Business Analysis Plan

Project Name:
Business Unit/Program:
Version:
Document Author:
Date:

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Document Revision Log
Version Date Author Summary of Changes

Document Revision Log...................................................................................................................................................2

Section A: Project Context...............................................................................................................................................3
Planning Inputs.............................................................................................................................................................3
Business Analysis Approach..........................................................................................................................................3
Section B: Stakeholder Engagement Plan.........................................................................................................................4
RASCI Matrix................................................................................................................................................................. 4
Authority......................................................................................................................................................................4
Role.............................................................................................................................................................................. 4
Stakeholder Analysis (Influence-Acceptance) Matrix...................................................................................................4
Stakeholder Contact List...............................................................................................................................................5
Stakeholder Categorization Elements...........................................................................................................................5
BA Collaboration Plan...................................................................................................................................................6
BA Communication Plan...............................................................................................................................................6
Section C: BA Activities Plan.............................................................................................................................................7
Section D: Requirements Risk Categories.........................................................................................................................9
Section D: BA Risk Register...........................................................................................................................................1
Section E: BA Governance Plan.........................................................................................................................................1
Section F: BA Information Management Plan...................................................................................................................2
Section G1: BA Performance Evaluation Plan...................................................................................................................1
Section G2: Solution Performance Evaluation Plan..........................................................................................................1
Section H: Issue Log..........................................................................................................................................................1
Section I: Planning Assumptions.......................................................................................................................................1

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Section A: Project Context
Planning Inputs
The following is a list of possible documents, if in existence, that may provide context around the project
and input into the planning effort.

Reviewed
Inputs Comments / Observations / Notes
Y/N

Business Information
Business Case
Organization Chart
Organizational processes &
templates for BA work
Project Information
Existing project documents:
Project charter
Scope statement
Preliminary Project Plan
Preliminary Stakeholder List
Additional Documents
Existing Training Materials
Existing Models
Existing User Documentation
Others??

Business Analysis Approach

The following is a list of general approaches that can impact your planning. Determine the approach
Notes- Recommend categorizing them…
BA Project
BA Approach Approach Approach? Impacts to BA planning and work effort
Option
(Y/N) (Y/N)

Waterfall
Iterative
Agile

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Lean/Six
Sigma

4
Section B: Stakeholder Engagement Plan
RASCI Matrix
R = Responsibility (Who does the work?) C = Consults with (Who do we need to consult and get input from?)
A = Accountable (Who approves, makes the decision, signs off?) I = Inform (Who do we need to inform after the work is done?)
S = Support (Who supports the business analyst in doing the work)

Authority R A S C I
Role Responsible Accountable Support Consult Inform
/ Approve With

Stakeholder Analysis (Influence-Acceptance) Matrix

High Acceptance

Role Name

Low High
Influence Influence

Low Acceptance

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Stakeholder Contact List
List the key stakeholders that will provide requirements for this project.
Group Requirements info Category
Name Email Phone
Representing they can likely give

Stakeholder Categorization Elements

Stakeholder categorization allows the BA to organize the stakeholders into meaningful categories in order to
plan and manage requirements. Determine which categories you will need for planning purposes; you may
change the categories as needed. You may also want to add your selected categories to your stakeholder
contact list as seen in the above table.

Categories Y/N Categories Y/N

Geographical locations Group represented
Primary / secondary source of requirements Departments / Entities
Number of user represented Internal / External
Number of processes represented Language
Number of systems impacted Time Zones
Technology skill level Experienced User
Level of influence
Level of acceptance
Authority levels

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BA Collaboration Plan
Capture the key collaboration events for your stakeholders. Include their preferences for collaboration,
events, frequency, location, tools and mediums. A collaboration event may be conducted for an individual or
a group of stakeholders.
Tools (wikis, Medium
Stakeholder Stakeholder(s)
Event Frequency Location blogs, online (in-person
Name or Group Preferences
communities) or virtual)

BA Communication Plan
Capture the key communication events for your stakeholders. Include meetings, requirements sessions, requirements
reviews, prioritization sessions, requirement activity status, etc.

Communication Event Audience Objective Media / Frequency

format

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Section C: BA Activities Plan
This is a list of common activities that a business analyst may conduct. Each organization and project may
have different activities needed. You can use this as a checklist to determine your BA work activities.

Requirements Activity by KA In/Out Comments (Include when, how and with No. of Est.
whom) Sessions Hours
BA PLANNING
 Create Business Analysis Plan In
 Plan BA Approach
 Plan Stakeholder Engagement
 Plan BA Governance
 Plan BA Information
Management
 Identify BA Performance
Improvements
STRATEGY ANALYSIS
 Analyze current state
 Analyze future state
 Assess risks/challenges in
moving to future
 Define change strategy (gap
analysis, provide
recommendations, etc.)
ELICITATION
 Interviews
 Requirements workshop
 Focus Group
 Survey
 Observation
 Document analysis
 Interface analysis
 Prototyping
 Research
 Brainstorming / Mind mapping
REQ. ANALYSIS & DESIGN
DEFINITION
 Analyze & document req.
 Business models
– Business architecture
– Organizational models
– Geographical models
– Value Stream maps
– Value chain/cross-functional
models
– Context diagrams
– Functional decomposition

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 Requirements Activity by KA In/Out Comments (Include when, how and with No. of Est.
whom) Sessions Hours
diagrams
 Data Models
– Class models

Requirements Activity by KA In/Out Comments (Include when, how and with No. of Est.
whom) Sessions Hours
 Process models
– SIPOC charts
– Process maps
– Swimlanes
– Data flow diagrams (DFD)
– Use case model
– Activity diagrams
 Others
– CRUD matrix
– Prototypes/mock-ups
– State transition diagrams
– Sequence diagrams
– Storyboards
– User stories
 Verify & validate requirements
 Define req. architecture
 Define design options
 Analyze potential value &
recommend solution
REQ. LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT
 Communicate requirements
 Trace requirements
 Prioritize requirements
 Conduct reviews & obtain
approvals
 Analyze change requests
 Manage documentation
BA PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
 Measure & analyze BA
performance measures
SOLUTION EVALUATION (Pre/Post
Project)
 Measure solution performance
define performance measures
and use the data collected to evaluate the
effectiveness of a solution in relation to
the value it brings
 Analyze performance
measures
provide insights into the
performance of a solution in relation to the value

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 Requirements Activity by KA In/Out Comments (Include when, how and with No. of Est.
whom) Sessions Hours
it brings
 Assess solution limitations
determine the factors internal to
the solution that restrict the full realization of
value
 Assess organizational
limitations
determine how factors external
to the solution are restricting value realization
 Recommend actions to
increase solution value
Increase Solution Value is to understand
the factors that create differences between
potential value and actual value, and
to recommend a course of action to align them

Section D: Requirements Risk Categories

Category Examples
Planning &  Little or no requirements planning done
Monitoring  Stakeholders not identified
Scope  Unclear scope
 Scope not well documented
Elicitation  Inadequate user involvement
 Requirements are not complete
Documentation  Different interpretations
 Ambiguous terminology
 Not enough detail
Analysis  Customers disagree on prioritization
 Level of difficulty implementing the req.
 New technology, software, etc.
 No as-is models to leverage
Validation  Untestable requirements
 Requirements not signed off
 Un-reviewed requirements
 Requirements are not verified (not
complete enough to allow design to
begin)
Management  Scope creep
 Expanding product (requirements) scope
 Change process not created or used
 Expanding project scope
 Requirements plan does not sync up
with project plan
 Not clear on what is in and out of
scope
 Time pressure – not enough time

 Includes design elements
 Missing requirements
 Conflicting requirements
 Degree of requirements stability
 Little or no modeling done
 Requirement not linked/traced to
business problem, project objective
or business objective
 Requirements are not traced
throughout the project
 Requirements were not baselined

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 Section D: BA Risk Register
List identified Risks associated with each Risk Category in the table provided. In the table above are examples of risks that would be
appropriate for each section.

# Risk Category Risk Event / Consequence Prob. Impact Risk Risk Risk Response Risk Response Strategy Risk
Score Rank Owner
(P * I)
RR
1

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Section E: BA Governance Plan
Determine how decisions will be made, work and requirements prioritized, change process, & approval
process

Process Exists?
Activity (Y/N/Needs Action Plan
Modification)

Prioritization process
(with criteria and
technique used)

Change management
process (include who
will authorize changes)

Decision making process

(include participants,
review and approve)

Escalation plan for

decision making

Requirements review
and approval process

Issues management
process

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Section F: BA Information Management Plan
Determine how you are going to manage the business analysis information. The formality of this
management plan will depend on the project approach selected (predictive vs adaptive or somewhere
in between).

Activity Due Date Action Plan

General BA Information Management

Determine organization of
BA information

Identify storage and access

needs to documentation
(repository, version control,
audit logs, etc.)

Define formality and level

of detail needed by
stakeholders

Requirements Management

Define requirement
attributes and elements

Develop a traceability
matrix

Identify requirements reuse

opportunities

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Section G1: BA Performance Evaluation Plan
Who will Recipient (s)
Acceptance Unacceptable Measurement
Metric Measure / Techniques Source of data capture of metric
Criteria Criteria Frequency
the info information
Actual vs. Planned Time Sheets &
% deviation from plan 0-5% > 5% BA PM Weekly
Business Analysis Hours BA Plan

Section G2: Solution Performance Evaluation Plan

Who will Recipient (s)
Acceptance Unacceptable Measurement
Metric Measure / Techniques Source of data capture of metric
Criteria Criteria Frequency
the info information
First 3 months
Error
Number of errors found Number of errors logged by Solution after
0-5 >5 reporting by BA
in production the help desk Owner implementatio
the Help Desk
n

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Section H: Issue Log
Capture any outstanding issues that need to be addressed before this plan is complete.
Assigned Date Date Action
Item / Issue To: Raised Resolved Taken

Section I: Planning Assumptions

Capture the assumptions that went into your plan & determine the impact on any decisions,
requirements, or plans that were made based on that assumption

Assumption Impact on decisions, requirements or plans