BCS Foundation Total Flashcards
What are the stages in the Business change lifecycle
Alignment, Definition, Design, Implementation, Realisation
Whats the Alignment stage in the Business change lifecycle
Analysis of the organisation, Its business needs and requirements
What are the two sides of business analysis
Strategic analysis and IT Systems analysis
What is IT system analysis
IT work uses specific techniques to define the IT requirements and evaluate software
Business analysis bridges ___________
Strategic analysis with IT systems analysis
What are the four key areas of the Holistic approach for BA
Processes, People, Organisation and Technology
Key elements of the role and responsibilities of a Business analyst
- To investigate business systems taking a holistic approach
- To evaluate actions to improve operations of a business system
- To document the business requirements for the IT system using appropriate documentation standards
Define T shaped people
Deep knowledge and skills of a specific domain, yet multi-disciplinary breadth of knowledge and skill
What is the Horizontal profile of a T-shaped business analyst
Personal qualities, Business knowledge
What is the Vertical profile of a T-shaped business analyst
Professional techniques
What are the three competencies categories of a BA
Professional qualities, Business knowledge and Professional Techniques
Provide a definition of strategy
The long term direction of an organisation
What do we need to consider concerning strategy
- Goal or mission
- Timeframe for the strategy
- Resources required
- Environment
Why is strategy important ?
- Provides foundation for the organisation to succeed execution with its external and internal environment
Provide some reasons why its important for the Business analyst to understand the strategic context
- Analyse and discuss
- Build credibility when discussing organisation with stakeholders
-Question the appropriateness
- Analyse the effectiveness of a strategy
- Provide leadership and influence
What is strategy choice dependent on ?
- Organisational culture
- Decision making process
- Domain complexity
- Organisation size
- Ambitions and beliefs
- Wants and needs to key stakeholders
What are the three levels of strategy
Corporate level strategy, Strategic business unit and Operations level strategy
What is the corporate level strategy concerned with ?
Concerned with the overall purpose of the business
What is the strategic business unit concerned with
Address particular areas of product pricing, customer focus and competitive advantage within their own areas
What is operation level strategy concerned with
Delivery of corporate and SBU strategies by making sure the organisation is effectively deploying resources people and processes
What is adaptive strategy development
Concerned with the development of viable match between opportunities and risks present in the external environment and the organisations capabilities and resources for exploiting these opportunities
What are some are the characteristics of adaptive strategy development?
- Iterative development
- Deployment of viable products at low cost to quickly gain feedback
- Products and service evolve in alignment with this feedback
Drawback of Adaptive development
- If an organisation is risk averse
- If there major consequences to failure
- Constant adaption may lead to communication issues when discussing strategy
Define the Hybrid method
- Organisations that blend linear and adaptive development approach
Provides some drawbacks of the linear strategy development
- Slower reactions to changes externally and internally
To understand strategic context relative to an organisation necessary to ask the right questions to provide the building blocks for strategic development, these include:
- Organisations current state
- Organisations target state
- Plan to move between current state to target state
List what would be used to Investigate the external environment ?
PESTLE and Porters Five forces
Does VMOST analyse the External and Internal Environment
Internal
Whats the point of Strategy analysis VMOST
Provides approach for the development and assessment of strategy
List the elements of VMOST
Vision, Mission, Objective, Strategy and Tactics
What is Vision in VMOST
Defines the target state for the organisation
What is Mission in VMOST
Describes what an organisation does or will do
Whats the main objective when using using VMOST to assess the internal strategic environment
The goal is to assess whether the elements within VMOST are a source of strength or weakness to the organisation
List the contextual issues when implementing strategies
- Time
-Scope
-Capability
-Readiness - Strategic leader/management
What is Mckinsey’s 7’s model
-Strategy
- Structure
-Systems
-Style
-Staff
-Skills
-Shared Values
What is a balanced scorecard (Internal strategy analysis)
Provides a means by which to assess the breadth and balance of goals and objectives the organisation uses to measure strategic performance
What is resource audit (Internal strategy analysis)
Analysis technique used to understand the current state of an organisations resources and competencies
What four components are touched on in the resource audit ?
- Financial
- Internal business process
- Learning and growth
- Customer
What is a Critical Success Factor
Few key areas that must go right for the business to achieve its goals
What is a KPI
Indicator that we measure on a regular basis that will indicate whether we are making progress towards achieving the associated CSF
What is Gap Analysis ?
Method of assessing the performance of a business unit to determine whether the business requirement or objectives are being met and if not , what steps should be taken to meet them
Define the Business model canvas
- Business model is used to refer to the way an organisation is designed to deliver products and services to customers
- Business model helps to align the work of the organisations with desired outcomes
- How an organisation manages, creates and delivers value
What is a Target operating model?
Describe how a business to be established to support the execution of strategy
What is the primary purpose of the Target operating model?
Primary purpose of the TOM is to enable the application of a corporate vision or strategy to a business operation
TOM should cover ______
POPIT
List the components of the POPIT model
- People
- Organisation
- Processes
- Information
- Technology
What is the Business analysis service framework ?
- Provides a basis from which the BA role may be adapted to align to an organisation or project context
- States what BA does and why this of benefit
State the key services in the BASF
-Situation investigation and problem analysis
-Feasibility assessment and -business case development
-Business process improvement
-Requirements definition
-Business acceptance testing
-Business change deployment
-Stakeholder management
How many services are there in the BASF
Six
What is not one of the six services but is an auxiliary service ?
Stakeholder engagement
What are the four recipients of Business analysis services ?
External stakeholders
Governance stakeholders
Operational stakeholders
Project stakeholders
Scenarios have a strong link with which other technique ?
Prototyping
Is brainstorming Ideas part of preparing for a workshop ?
No
It is useful to get which role to introduce the workshop and state the objective ?
Business sponsor
Issues of target and performance should be investigated at which organisational level ?
Tactical
Outline some benefits of Questionaires
Can obtain information from large numbers of people; Users spread over wide geographical area; can be used in advance of an interview
Outline some benefits of a workshop
Gain broad view of area under investigation
Increased speed and productivity
Can obtain buy-in
Can gain consensus and group agreement
Prototyping is strongly linked to
Scenario analysis
Describe the service investigation and problem analysis in BASF
Investigate root causes of problems, identify where a business needs exist and shape the project to address this need
Describe the service feasibility assessment and business case development in BASF
Examining the problem or opportunity and potential solutions identified
Developing business options to address these issues and evaluating options for the acceptability and feasibility
What techniques may be used in the feasibility assessment and business case development in BASF
- Business development
-Cost/benefit analysis
Business process is initiated by __________________ Is achieved
Business process is initiated by a business event and concludes when the goal of the process has been achieved
What is the requirement definition service in BASF concerned with?
Concerned with eliciting, analysing and defining the requirements that are fulfilled by a new or enhanced business or IT system
What is Business change deployment concerned with in BASF ?
concerned with delivery and adoption of business change solutions
Provide support for realising business benefits
Ensuring successful deployment of business change solutions
What is CATWOE ?
CATWOE is a technique that provides a framework for defining and analysing business stakeholder perspectives
What does CATWOE stand for ?
Customer, Actor, Transformation, Worldview, Owner and Environment
What is a partner stakeholder ?
A partner stakeholder is defined as another organisation that an organisation works with.
‘Watch’ is an appropriate action for which of the following stakeholder groups?
High power, No interest
Provide the term: a stakeholder who is in favour of the project but who will not actively support ?
Supporter
To which element of CATWOE does PESTLE relate to
E
True or False: The business activity model is based on a specific stakeholder perspective
TRUE
A given ‘doing’ activity in a BAM will USUALLY depend on which other type of activity or activities?
Enabling or Doing
Each stakeholder perspective requires a separate ___
BAM
Define Business activity Model
builds on the ‘Transformation’ element of the CATWOE technique and allows you to construct the high-level business activities that capture the world view of a particular stakeholder
What comprises the Hierarchy of Business process modelling
Enterprise, Event response, Task-actor
According to Paul Harmon, shareholders of a business would be regarded as being represented by which factor on his organisational model?
Customers
Is procurement a primary activity in Porter’s value chain ?
No
Which of the following defines what an organisation needs to deliver to its customer?
Value proposition
On a swimlane diagram, one ‘lane’ comprises which of the following?
The tasks performed by a given actor
Provide definition
builds on the ‘Transformation’ element of the CATWOE technique and allows you to construct the high-level business activities that capture the world view of a particular stakeholder
What are the primary activities in Porters Value Chain ?
Inbound Logistics, Operations, Outbound Logistics, Marketing & Sales and Services
What are the supporting activities in Porters Value Chain ?
Firm infrastructure, Human resource management, Technology development and Procurement
What is the 7’s
Model that analyses companies organisational design
Business models help to align the work of the organisation with desired outcomes , True or false ?
True
What is a Target Operating Models primary purpose
To enable application of corporate strategy to a business operation
What does the STOP acronym stand for and what does it mean
-Strategic level of management
-Tactical level/Middle management
-Operations level
What is the operation level concerned with (STOP)
Where the work is completed, how existing processes work
Who are Rudyard Kipling’s honest men ?
Who, What, When, Where, Why
What does the strategic level of management do
Confirming terms of reference
Management information needs
Approach to the investigation
Why is the Toolkit approach more beneficial
- Variables and Complexities may arise
- Analyst can be flexible and responsive
The __ approach provides basis for preparation as it ensures the key elements of an interview are considered
5W
What are the components of Interviews
Opening, Body, Closing and Following Up
What is this a benefit of ? Better understanding of the problems and difficulties faced by the business users
Observing
What is the four different aspects of observation
- Formal
- Protocol analysis
- Ethnographic studies
- Shadowing
What is Protocol analysis
Involves asking a member of staff to perform a task and describe it as it is being performed
What is Ethnographic studies ?
Involves spending an extended period of time within target environment
What are the two types of techniques used in a Workshop by the workshop facilitator
- Discovery
- Documentation
What does the Discovery technique aim to achieve in a workshop ?
Helps the facilitator elicit information and views from participants
What does the Documentation technique aim to achieve in a workshop ?
Helps participants to visualise the area of discussion
What is a Hot house workshop ?
A Hothouse workshop is a specific type of workshop that applies lean and agile principles to a business problem
What is a Scenario
Telling a story about a task or transaction
Finish this sentence about scenarios : Help user
Helps user describe what happens in the day to day operations
What is a Pre-condition and Post-condition for a scenario
-The pre-conditions (Those that must be true for scenario to begin)
-Post-condition (Characteristics that must be true following completion of scenario)
What is a Happy day scenario ?
Approach that defines the usual case of a the scenario or task
Define what Extension in scenarios
possibilities of diversion must be explored and documented as alternative paths
What is a concrete scenario ?
specific narrative or story is developed and then tested against the requirements already identified to find any gaps
Prototyping helps users ______
Visualise solution
List the Quantitive techniques used for Investigation
-Questionnaires
-Special purpose reports
-Activity sampling
-Document analysis
Define Special purpose Reporting
Data gathering documents used to collect data about specific situations
What is Activity sampling ?
Quantitive form of observation used when it is necessary to know how people divide their work time among a range of activities
What is Document analysis
Reviewing documentation to uncover information about an organisation, process or system
What is Rich Picture ?
Shows an overview of the entire situation, using symbols and annotations
What is a stakeholder
A stakeholder is anyone who has an interest in, or my be affected by this issue under consideration
Who conducts stakeholder management, and who may it be delegated to ?
The Project manager, May be delegated to the analyst
At what point in a project is the Stakeholder identified
Initiating a project process
What technique do we use to manage and analyse stakeholders?
The Power/Interest Grid
What group should we watch on the interest power grid?
Low interest, High power
What group should we keep satisfied on the power interest grid?
High power, Some interest
What group should we have constant active management of on the Power/interest grid
High power, High interest
What group should we keep on side on the power/interest grid
Some power, range of interest
What group should we ignore on the power interest grid
Low power, Low interest
What group should we keep informed on the power interest grid
Some to high interest. Low power
Describe the champion attitude of a stakeholder ?
Actively works for the success of the project
Describe the critic attitude of a stakeholder ?
No in favour of the project but not actively opposed to it
What is RACI ?
a linear responsibility matrix chart that identify responsibilities during an organisational change process
What does RACI stand for ?
Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed
What is the SSM
A discipline for seeing wholes, a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things (Senge, 2006)
SSM is useful for exploring stakeholder perspectives, True or False ?
True
What is the Actor in CATWOE ?
Those responsible for performing business activities
What is Business process ?
Defines the way an organisation carries out its internal operation and delivers its product and service to its customers
What are the three levels of the process model hierarchy
Organisation/Enterprise level, Business process level/Event response level, Task actor level
Define the organisation level in regards to the process model hierarchy
The value stream required to deliver products or services
Define the business process level in regards to the process model hierarchy
The business process that forms the organisations response to a business event
Define the task actor level in regards to the process model hierarchy
A task, which is formed of steps, and is carried out in response to task initiating event
What is a value stream ?
The specific activities within a supply chain required to design, order and design a specific product or service
Define porters value chain
Provides a view of the activities of the organisation and provides a systematic approach to developing a competitive advantage
True or False: The value chain identifies the series of activities that create and build value
True
What is the value proposition
Defines an organisations product or service and demonstrates to customers that we understand and can satisfy their needs
What are the three aspects of value proposition ?
- Product or service attributes
- Customer relationship aspect
- Image and reputation
What are the product and service attributes related to the value chain attributes of product and services ?
- Functionality
- Price
-Quality - Choice
- Availability or timing
What is SIPOC and what does it stand for ?
SIPOC is a tool for documenting a process from beginning to end
Stands for :
- Suppliers
- Inputs
- Process
- Outputs
- Customers
Business process is triggered by:
An event
What is Process
Defined as an entire set of activities, starting with a triggering event and ending with some output being achieved
What is a task ?
Refers to an activity within the overall process that is usually carried out by an actor at a single point in time
What is UML ?
UML offers elements and components to assist the fundamentals of complex systems. It follows the object-oriented concepts and techniques. Hence, using the pictorial language, we can cast the object-oriented systems.
What is a Swim lane diagram ?
- A swim lane diagram documents the steps or activities of a process flow or work flow
- Identifying multiple actors and phases in a process
What is a guard expression
A condition that must be checked
What is the verb-noun methodology ?
All Verbs contains a carefully selected set of verbs that act upon nouns to define business activities
What is a handoff in a business process model ?
When the flow moves from one actor to another
What is a bottleneck ?
A congestion in the system
Provides ways of improving the business process
- Simplifying process
- Reducing bottle necks
- Changing the sequence of tasks
-Redefining the process boundaries
At which level of the business hierarchy would a UML activity model be used
Event response level and Actor task level
In which stage of the business lifecycle are the requirements elicited
Definition
What technique can be appropriate to use to model the enterprise level processes
SIPOC can be an appropriate technique
Which letter of the VMOST states the target state, without regard to how this will
be achieved?
Vision
Which of the following services is NOT included in the Business Analysis Service
Framework (BASF)?
A Business acceptance testing.
B Project management.
C Feasibility assessment.
D Business process improvement
Define the technique:
“A quantitative form of observation used to establish how people divide their time
at work into work tasks.”
Activity Sampling
Which generic business process improvement strategy identifies and eliminates
congestion in the process which occurs when one actor in the process has too
much work to do, therefore impacting the throughput of the entire process?
Removing bottlenecks
List the five discovery techniques that can be conducted during a discovery workshop?
-Brainstorming
-Round robin discussions
-Brainwriting
-Stepwise refinement
-Breakout groups
Is brainstorming a documentation or discovery technique
Discovery
Is round robin discussions a documentation or discovery technique ?
Discovery
Is stepwise refinement a documentation or discovery technique
Discovery
Are breakout group a discover or documentation technique ?
Discovery
Is Process models Documentation or discovery technique ?
Documentation
Are Data models a documentation or discovery technique
Documentation
Are case diagrams a discovery or documentation technique
Documentation
Are rich pictures and mind maps a documentation or discovery technique
Documentation
What is prototyping used for ?
Eliciting, Analysing and Demonstrating and Validating requirements
What is a Requirement?
A statement provided by a stakeholder about what they believe they need in order to solve a particular business problem or respond to a specific business need
What is eliciting ?
To evoke or draw out
What is the name given to the review of the business case between stages?
Decision gate
What are the three areas of feasibility
Business, Technical and Financial
Issues of ‘cultural fit’ in a given proposal should be identified under what heading?
Business Feasibility
The negative impact of the Financial Director who is hostile to the project would be considered in?
Force Field analysis
Define Gap analysis in a localised context?
A change to a particular task or feature
Define Gap analysis in an extensive context
Change to the business process, product or to an entire business area or organisation
How may a desired state be recorded (GAP)
Using TOM or BA,
Describe the gap analysis process
- Assemble the representation of existing situation
-Assemble representation of target or desired situation - Compare representation of existing and target representation
- Identify gaps to be addressed
-Consider possible action to address gaps
What can provide a holistic view for gap analysis ?
POPIT Model
How does the P (Processes) relate to GAP analysis ?
- Identifying difference and changes required in the as is and to be processes
How might the revised process be represented (POPIT & GAP)
Standard modelling technique
How does the IT (Information and Technology) relate to GAP analysis ?
- Process improvements may require changes to the IT system
- Must consider Functional and Non functional requirements for IT support required
- Ensure IT systems are accessible
-IT systems integrate with current applications (EA)
How does the O (Organisation structure) of POPIT relate to Gap analysis ?
- Culture
- Shared values
- Organisational structure
- Management styles alignment with strategy
How does the P (People) of POPIT relate to Gap analysis
- Changes should be communicated
- Employee skills
- Recruitment need
- Staff development requirement
- Staff motivation and reward
What are the two types of options
Business options and Technical Infrastructure option
What is the Basic option (Gap analysis)
-Deals with the most pressing issues
- Requires little to no technological changes
- Possible of the shelf software
What is the Extended option (Gap analysis)
- Basic option with some additions
- Additional features
- Potential customisation
What is the Exhaustive option (Gap Analysis)
-Comprehensive solution
- May require customisation
- Extensive functionality
What option would be produced in the least time at least cost, and what option is the most, what’s in between ?
Basic, Extended and Exhaustive
What is Divergent thinking ?
A thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions
What is Convergent thinking?
A thought process or method that focuses on coming up with the single, well-established answer to a problem
KSF of divergent thinking
- Identify when sufficient suggestions have been generated
When is the outline business case developed ?
Pre-project
When is the business case updated
At every decision gate
The outline business case Is made before ___
Any resources are committed to the project
