Business Analysis - Chapter 1

Question 1

High-performance companies follow what lean principles:

Answer 1

• Be Value Oriented
• Be Customer Centered
• Be Iterative
• Be Simplistic
• Don’t Be Afraid of Early Failure
• Optimize the Work Flow

Question 2

Value Oriented

Answer 2

• At each project, focus on generating outcomes (value) rather than outputs (deliverables).
• Always prioritize product features; focus on “must-have” rather than “nice-to-have” ones.
• Eliminate the waste of low-priority features that are not essential for customers.

Question 3

Customer Centered

Answer 3

• Be like the sun but not the moon; illuminate yourself with the light of your own customers instead of your competitors.
• Concentrate on being more responsive to the needs of your target customers instead of benchmarking yourself with your competitors.
• Be customer centric rather than product centric. Consider products not as an objective but as a tool to meet your customers’ needs.
• Develop products around your customers. Always listen closely to the “voice of your customers”. Set up and maintain a continuous customer feedback loop.
• Ask customers about their needs but not their proposed solutions.

Question 4

Iterative

Answer 4

-Think bug, but start small.
-Be patient; remember that Rome was not built in a day.
-Move evolutionary rather than revolutionary:
*Use prototypes to gather early customer
feedback.
*At the initial iteration, release a core version
of the product including only high-priority
features.
*In following iterations, use customer
feedback from previous releases to refine
the product by adding, updating, and even
dropping features.
*Iterate until the product satisfies business
and customer needs.

Question 5

Simplistic

Answer 5

• Remember that less is much more. Do not complicate it.
• Focus on “just enough” and what is really necessary to satisfy customer needs.
• Appreciate downsizing the product by removing nonessential features, rather than upsizing it with bells and whistles.
• In determining product features, think as if you are decorating a small house. Don’t make your users feel claustrophobic as if they’re in a small, crowded space with a lot of furniture.

Question 6

Don’t Be Afraid of Early Failure

Answer 6

• Remember the famous quotation from American scientist and author Dr. James Jay Horning: “Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.”
• Be adaptive, learn early from failures in initial iterations, and use this experience for later ones.
• Focus on kaizen, which means continuous improvement, by using lessons learned at previous iterations.

Question 7

Optimize the Work Flow

Answer 7

-Act “just in time”. Requirements analysis and design artifacts represent WIP (work in process) inventories in development lifecycle.
Create them at the right time and with sufficient detail to prevent WIP level waste.