C5 Investigation Techniques Flashcards
What sort of prior research can a Business Analyst complete before starting a new project / starting with a new client?
STUDY WEBSITE
- Simplest way to get a view on what the organisation does, what it’s values are and how it wants to be percieved.
STUDY COMPANY REPORTS
- To confirm the health of the company. Ltd Liability companies are required to file statutory documents re their financial position.
STUDY PROCEDURE MANUAL AND DOCUMENTATION
- Give an idea of the expected ‘as-is’ process (for domain knowledge).
STUDY THE ORGANISATION CHART
- Sets out the management structure of the organisation and can offer insights into the style and culture of the organisation.
What are qualitative and quantitative investigation techniques?
Qualitative - understanding what is needed,
Quantitative - concerned with the volumes and frequencies.
The interview is a key tool in the Business Analyst’s toolkit. ADVANTAGES?
Interviews can:
- establish a basis for BA work,
- help to develop rapport with key business stakeholders,
- help to acquire information about a business situation,
- discover different stakeholder perspectives and priorities.
- Provides an opportunity to build a relationship with the users or clients,
- Great for understanding perspectives (viewpoints and attitudes),
- Enable chance to collect documentation,
- Highlight any underlying political factors.
The interview is a key tool in the Business Analyst’s toolkit. DISAVANTAGES?
Interviews can:
- establish a basis for BA work,
- help to develop rapport with key business stakeholders,
- help to acquire information about a business situation,
- discover different stakeholder perspectives and priorities.
- They can take time and can be expensive,
- Only one perspective.
What is the STOP organisation model?
Strategic - strategic level management to confirm TOR / agree alignment with business objectives.
Tactical - CSFs and KPIs and any associated reporting requirements.
Operational - The people who perform the actual tasks of the department.
What framework could you use when preparing for interviews and what’s a good format for an interview?
THINK - Why? What? When and Where?
Open with: Introductions and setting the scene.
Body: Questions and answers.
Closure: Summarise points covered and actions agreed,
Observation ADVANTAGES?
- Access to situations where interviews and questions are difficult to use.
- Access to people in real life situations.
- Good for explaining meaning and context,
- Can be strong on validity and in-depth understanding,
- Can be strong on validity and in-depth understanding.
Observation DISADVANTAGES?
- Can be viewed as too subjective,
- Time consuming,
- Depends on the role of the researcher,
- May influence findings, people changing how they do things under pressure,
What is Protocol analysis?
Asking the users to carry out a task and describe each step they perform. It’s a way of eliciting information about the skills required to complete a task that cannot be described in words alone.
What is Shadowing?
Involves following a user for a period, such as one or two days, to find out what a particular job entails.
WORKSHOPs are a key tool in the Business Analyst’s toolkit. ADVANTAGES?
Workshops can:
- Provide an excellent collaborative forum in which issues can be discussed, conflicts resolved and requirements elicited.
- Gain a broad view of the area under investigation,
- Increase speed and productivity,
- Obtain BUY IN and Acceptance,
- Gain a consensus view or group agreement
WORKSHOPs are a key tool in the Business Analyst’s toolkit. DISADVANTAGES?
Workshops can:
- Provide an excellent collaborative forum in which issues can be discussed, conflicts resolved and requirements elicited.
- Can be time consuming to organise,
- Forceful participants can over shadow the less forceful if not properly organised,
- Difficult to ensure participants have the required level of AUTHORITY.
What should be considered when preparing for a workshop?
- The objective of the workshop,
- The people invited to the workshop,
- The structure and techniques used,
- Arranging a suitable venue.
What techniques can be used in workshops?
DISCOVERY and VISUALISATION
Discovery:
- Round robin (round the table),
- Brainstorming,
- Post-it exercise,
- Break-out groups.
Visualisation:
- Process models,
- Rich Pictures,
- Mind maps,
- Context diagrams,
- Use Case diagrams,
- Task scenarios,
- User stories.
SCENARIOs are a key tool in the Business Analyst’s toolkit. ADVANTAGES?
Scenarios: telling a story of a task or transaction. Useful when analysing or redesigning business processes as they help both the staff member and the analyst work through the steps required of a business process / system.
- They require the user to include each step and the transitions between steps, and as a result remove the opportunity for omissions,
- helps to ensure there are no taken-for-granted elements and tacit knowledge is addressed.
- Top down approach helps the business user to visualise all possible situations and removes uncertainty.
- Good for creating test scripts / developing prototypes.
SCENARIOs are a key tool in the Business Analyst’s toolkit. DISADVANTAGES?
Scenarios: telling a story of a task or transaction. Useful when analysing or redesigning business processes as they help both the staff member and the analyst work through the steps required of a business process / system.
- Time consuming and scenarios can be complex.
How would you develop scenarios?
1) Identify task or interaction,
2) Identify steps and the sequence,
3) Define control conditions,
4) Identify alternative paths.
PROTOTYPING is a key tool in the Business Analyst’s toolkit. ADVANTAGES?
Prototyping: an important technique for eliciting, analysing, demonstrating and validating requirements.
- To clarify uncertainty on the part of the analyst and confirm to the user we have understood what they ask for.
- To identify new requirements as users understand what the system will be able to do to support their jobs.
- Demonstrate the look and feel of the system,
- Identify any errors.
SURVEYS. Drawbacks?
Surveys: can be useful if we need to get a limited amount of information from a lot of people and interviewing them individually or running a serious of workshops would not be practical or cost effective.
HEADING / CLASSIFICATION / DATA SECTIONS.
- People might find it hard to find the time to complete unless they have an invested interest,
- Think about giving a prize / reward.
Special purpose records (DESCRIPTION ONLY)
It is used to discover information both subjective and quantitative information.
Lets suppose we want information related to an activity: what is actually happening when we do that activity - for the purpose a form or a special purpose record is created.
Lets suppose following categories are identified:
- Sent wrong product key
- Sent product keys after one hour of product confirmation
- How many complainants in LMS signing up process
Activity Sampling (DESCRIPTION ONLY)
Activity Sampling is a statistical technique that can be used as a means for collecting data. It is defined by BS 3138:41008 as: A technique in which a large number of observations are made over a period of time of one group of machines, processes or workers.
Document analysis involves reviewing samples of source documents to uncover information about an organisation, process or system.
What might you analyse from the documents?
How the document is completed? Who has completed the document? Validation or controls on the document? When is the document used? How many are used / produced?
How might you document the CURRENT SITUATION?
Rich Pictures: Overview of the entire organisation without fixed notation (allows human / cultural aspects),
Mindmaps: Useful tool for summarising a lot of information in a simple visual form that is structured to highlight connections between different ideas and topics.
Business Process Models: Swimlane diagrams to show the tasks in a process, actors responsible for carrying them out and the process flow.
Spaghetti Maps: A tool to show the movement and interactions of the stakeholders in a particular environment, when performing particular tasks and processes.
Fishbone diagrams: to show problems and causes (root cause analysis) -
The four M’s - Machines, Manpower, Measures, Methods.
