Business Analysis in Practice Flashcards
Based on the course syllabus v 5.0
What is the purpose of an organisation’s vision and how does it differ from mission?
Gives purpose and direction
Defines target/ideal state.
Vs. mission which provides guidance on how the organisation should run and can assist with current and future planning.
Both should be used to inform project objectives and strategy
What is a suitable technique to analyse the internal environment of an organisation?
Resource audit: x5
- Physical eg. x1 rented office and work from home facilities
- Human eg. staff and expertise
- Financial eg. good cashflow and credit
- Know-how eg. 20 years experience
- Reputational eg. quality, green supply
Also: VMOST: Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategy and Tactics
These techniques may be applied to analyse the strengths and weaknesses which exist internally in an organisation.
What is a suitable technique to analyse the external environment of an organisation?
PESTLE:
- Political eg. plans for state-owned energy company
- Economic eg. energy crisis/cost of living crisis
- Socio-cultural eg. increasing electricity demand in day to day life
- Technological eg. smart technologies and smart meters
- Legal eg. carbon accounting requirements
- Environmental eg. demand for green supply
Also: Porter’s Five Forces: threat of new entrants, bargaining power or suppliers, bargaining powers of buyers, threat of substitute products and industry competitors
Help organisations make strategies by examining aspects of the external environment that my impact or influence it.
Difficult: always changing, enormously complex.
What is a SWOT analysis and when would it be used?
Stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
A SWOT analysis is used to analyse the current state of both the internal and external organisational environment and understand the strategic context around their activity.
What tools are used to measure performance?
Performance measurement tools are used to establish how an organisation is performing in its’ current state, against the organisation’s objectives and strategy.
a. Objectives - outcomes to achieve. Guide towards vision and completion of mission.
- - SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound
b. Critical success factors (CSFs) - qualitative descriptions.
- - Balanced scorecard (BSC) used to assess breadth and balance of these: financial, internal business process, learning and growth and customer
c. Key performance indicators (KPIs) - quantitative measures to track achievement of CSFs.
d. Targets - objective measurement of performance.
Example:
Objective: Enhance examination performance of students within 6 months of their engagement with our private tuition service.
CSFs: quality of private tuition, student engagement, parent engagement
KPI: student attendance of scheduled tuition sessions
Target: 0 unplanned absences in a year.
What activities are required to engage stakeholders?
Identify
Inform - written and verbal
Engage
Challenge
Negotiate
Support
Facilitate
Key: collaboration, emotional intelligence and cultural awareness.
What are the generic stakeholder categories used in the stakeholder wheel?
a. Partners - provide specialist services or work on its behalf.
b. Suppliers - provide goods/services it uses.
c. Regulators.
d. Employees - include trade unions, subject matter experts.
e. Managers - all levels.
f. Owners - eg. shareholders.
g. Competitors.
h. Customers - large or small, regular or occasional, commercial or not-for-profit or public sector or military, domestic or international.
Others include insurers, police, staff associations etc.
What is CATWOE and how can it be used?
a. Customers.
b. Actors.
c. Transformation
d. World view
e. Owner.
f. Environment
Actually used as WTCAOE
a. World view - statement about why the organisation exists eg. success from proactively contacting potential new customers vs building relations with current customers.
b. Transformation - core business activity of the business system eg. one off sales vs good customer service.
c. Customer - beneficiaries of the outputs eg. anyone willing to buy vs established regular customers.
d. Actor(s) - person who carries out the transformation. eg. sales vs customer services.
e. Owner - who controls the system. eg. CEO
f. Environment - internal and external constraints
Understand stakeholder differences by defining and analysing each CATWOE element.
How do you choose an appropriate stakeholder management strategy?
a. Power/interest grid
- Ignore (aside frequent focused communication selling the benefits of the project and any updates
- Keep onside - frequent communication and increased involvement
- Watch - address any concerns quickly and directly. Courage encourage interest.
- Keep satisfied
- Constant active management - sustain enthusiasm, appreciate concerns/opinions, update on progress, explain decisions. These people will have final say.
Rules:
- No stakeholder should be ignored
- Stakeholders should be plotted where they actually are, not where they should be.
- The matrix should be updated regularly.
b. RACI - Responsible (x1), Accountable (x1), Consulted, Informed.
How the level of involvement from a stakeholder differs at each project stage.
What are suitable methods to research the business situation?
- Website: values, mission, brand, products/services, reports. Also opportunities to interact, website design and what’s not there.
- Feedback/review sites
- Company reports: financial health, target market, future direction.
- Procedure manuals: process docs, systems docs
- Organisational chart: shape (hierarchy), structure (function, product, geography),
What quantitative or qualitative investigation techniques are available?
Highly relevant:
Meetings/interview (qualitative)
Workshops (qualitative)
Focus groups (qualitative)
Storytelling (qualitative)
Observations (qualitative)
Shadowing (qualitative)
Activity sampling (quantitative)
Special purpose records (quantitative)
User role analysis (qualitative)
Surveys (quantitative)
Some relevance:
Document analysis
What are workshops and what are their advantages and disadvantages?
Collaborative forum in which issues can be discussed, conflicts resolved and requirements elicited.
Advantages:
- Gain a broad view of area under investigation
- Witness dynamics of a group of stakeholders
- Increase speed and productivity
- Get buy-in
- Gain consensus
Disadvantages:
- Prep time.
- Can be dominated by vocal participants.
- Relies on the right people being present
What are some workshop techniques?
Discovery:
- Round robin
- Brainstorming
- Brainwriting
- Post-it exercises
- Stepwise refinement
- Break out groups
Visualisation:
- Process models
- Rich pictures
- Mind maps
- Context diagrams
- Use case diagrams
- Task scenarios
- User stories
What are focus groups and what are their advantages and disadvantages?
Small group discussion on a particular topic, product, or service, aiming to elicit information and opinions rather than consensus.
Advantages:
- Cost effective way of obtaining views/ideas
- Allows for real-time clarification of opinions.
- Allows everyone to express their thoughts.
Disadvantages:
- Can be influenced by dominant personalities.
- Small sample size limits generalizability.
- Won’t give insight into solution to a problem
What are interviews and what are their advantages and disadvantages?
One-on-one or small group interactions where specific questions are asked to gather detailed information from participants.
Interviews can be structured, semi-structured, or unstructured.
Advantages:
- Enables discussion of sensitive topics
- Builds rapport
- Allows for deep, personalized insights.
- Can clarify complex or nuanced issues.
- Flexibility in exploring new topics as they arise.
Disadvantages:
- Time-consuming to conduct and analyze.
- Potential for interviewer bias.
- Limited scalability.
What is storytelling and what are their advantages and disadvantages?
Either one-to-one or in a group, participants are encouraged to share personal stories or narratives related to their experiences with a product, service, or situation.
This method uncovers emotional and contextual factors. Supplements more structured techniques.
Advantages:
- Reveals underlying motivations and emotions.
- Engaging for participants.
- Provides context-rich insights.
Disadvantages:
- Difficult to analyze quantitatively.
- Results can be subjective and difficult to validate.
- Requires skilled facilitation so as not to fall into a blame game
What is observation, what types are there, and what are the advantages and disadvantages?
A method where the analyst observes participants in their natural environment, often without interfering, to understand behaviors, workflows, and interactions.
Types:
- Formal observation - watching a specific task
- Protocol analysis - watching a user carry out a specified task whilst they also describe each step
- Shadowing - following someone for a period
- Ethnographic studies - spending a long period within the target environment
Advantages:
- Reveals tacit knowledge
- Reveals discrepancies between what people say and do
- Deep insight into problem areas
Disadvantages:
- Can be time-consuming.
- May not capture participants’ internal thoughts or motivations.
- Observer presence might influence behavior.
- Can miss infrequent scenarios
What is user role analysis and what are the advantages and disadvantages?
Used to clarify user roles and requirements in system design, ensuring that all user perspectives are considered in the solution.
Advantages:
- Ensures that all user roles are accounted for.
- Helps in designing user-centric systems.
- Can prevent role-related conflicts or overlaps.
Disadvantages:
- Time-consuming to conduct thoroughly.
- May overlook informal or evolving roles.
- Requires a clear understanding of organizational structure.
What is scenario analysis and what are the advantages and disadvantages?
Involves telling the story of a task/transaction and identifying where the standard approach may need to deviate.
Advantages:
- Reduces opportunities for omissions
- Addresses tacit knowledge
- Removes uncertainty
- Provides basis for prototypes or test scripts
Disadvantages:
- Take time
- Can become very complex
What is a prototype and what are the advantages and disadvantages?
Prototyping is the process of creating an early, simplified version of a product, system, or service to explore ideas, test concepts, and gather feedback. Prototypes can range from low-fidelity models, like sketches or paper-based mockups, to high-fidelity versions that closely resemble the final product.
Advantages:
- Clarifies uncertainty and confirms understanding
- Reveals missing requirements
- Demonstrates look and feel to elicit non-functional requirements
Disadvantages:
- May result in false assumptions about progress
- Final product may fail to match
What are surveys and what are the advantages and disadvantages?
Structured questionnaires distributed to a large number of participants to collect quantifiable data on specific topics, preferences, or behaviors.
Advantages:
- Can reach a large audience.
- Results are easily quantifiable and analyzable.
- Cost-effective for data collection.
Disadvantages:
- Limited depth of insights.
- Response rates can vary.
- Potential for bias in question design or participant responses.
What is activity sampling and what are the advantages and disadvantages?
Involves taking random samples of activities over a period to determine how time is allocated among different tasks or how frequently certain events occur. It is useful for analyzing work patterns, understanding time distribution, and identifying inefficiencies or bottlenecks.
Advantages:
- Provides objective, data-driven insights.
- Can be conducted without disrupting workflow.
- Helps identify areas for improvement.
Disadvantages:
- Results may be influenced by the sampling method.
- May miss infrequent but important activities.
- Time-consuming to implement correctly.
What are special purpose records and what are the advantages and disadvantages?
Records or logs created specifically to track and analyze particular aspects of business processes, often for a set period. eg. errors, delays, or resource usage, complaints, to support decision-making.
Advantages:
- Provides precise data on targeted areas.
- Customizable to specific needs.
- Facilitates focused analysis and reporting.
Disadvantages:
- Data collection can be labor-intensive.
- Users may forget to record all instances.
- May not capture the full context of the recorded events.
- Requires careful planning to ensure data relevance.
Describe the use of divergent and convergent thinking.
As a Design Thinking model, the Double Diamond model of “discover, define, develop, deliver” uses the concepts of divergent thinking – where all ideas are considered – and convergent thinking – where ideas are refined to explore and define solutions.
Distinguish between areas of feasibility.
Feasibility is important when considering a solution, with three key areas to consider.
1. Business – does the proposed solution align with the business strategy and objectives?
2. Technical – does the technology exist and is it available to deliver the solution?
3. Financial – can the organisation afford to fund the solution?
Relate the business case to the business change lifecycle.
The business case is central in the business change lifecycle. As demonstrated in the diagram, the five
stages (alignment, definition, design and development, implementation and realisation) all feed into the business case, and likewise, the contents of the business case will impact the activity at each stage depending on its contents and recommendations.
What is the lifecycle of a business case?
Between each of the stages of the of the lifecycle, there are decision gates, where the project must pass certain viability tests to continue.
What is the Lifecycle for Business Change and how does a BA fit into this?
Stages of the lifecycle with ‘decision gateways’ in between where the business case should be referenced and updated:
i. Alignment - identify opportunities/threats. BAs not typically involved.
ii. Definition - situation investigation, option identification, feasibility studies, project initiation. Heavy BA work.
iii. Design - design of inter-related elements for business change. BA work, particular around IT components.
iv. Implementation - construction, testing and deployment. Some BA work. Largely Developers/Testers.
v. Realisation - monitoring and reviewing benefits and lessons learned. Some BA work.
It is a ‘direction’ of travel and not a ‘hard and fast’ set of stages that are to be followed.
