Chapter 2 Flashcards
What is the Business Analysis Core Concept Model (BACCM)?
- A conceptual framework for business analysis composed of six core concepts: Change, Need, Solution, Stakeholder, Value, Context.
- Encompasses what business analysis is and what it means to those performing business analysis tasks
List the six core concepts of BACCM.
- Change
- Need
- Solution
- Stakeholder
- Value
- Context
- Each one is an idea fundamental to the practice of business analysis and all the concepts are equal and necessary
- No concept is more important than the other
- Instrumental to understanding the type of info elicited, analyzed, or managed in business analysis tasks
What does ‘Change’ refer to in the BACCM?
The act of transformation in response to a need, improving the performance of an enterprise.
These improvements are deliberate and controlled through business analytics activities
Define ‘Need’ in the context of BACCM.
A problem or opportunity to be addressed that motivates stakeholders to act.
Changes can also cause needs by eroding or enhancing the value delivered by existing solutions
What is a ‘Solution’ according to BACCM?
A specific way of satisfying one or more needs in a context.
Satisfies a need by resolving a problem faced by stakeholders or enabling stakeholders to take advantage if an opportunity
Who is considered a ‘Stakeholder’?
A group or individual with a relationship to the change, the need, or the solution.
Stakeholders are often defined in terms of interest in, impact on, and influence over the change. Stakeholders are grouped based on their relationship to the needs, changes, and solutions.
What does ‘Value’ represent in BACCM?
The worth, importance, or usefulness of something to a stakeholder within a context.
Can be seen as a potential or realized returns, gains, and improvements. It is also possible to a have a decrease in value in the form of losses, risks, and costs
Value can be tangible or intangible.
Tangible value is directly measurable. Tangible value often has a significant monetary component.
Intangible value is measured indirectly. It often has a significant motivational component, such as a company’s reputation or employee morale.
In some cases value can be assessed in absolute terms, but in many cases is assessed in relative terms: one solution option is more value than another form the perspective of a given set of stakeholders
Explain ‘Context’ as per BACCM.
The circumstances that influence, are influenced by, and provide understanding to the change
Changes occur within a context. The context is everything relevant to the change that is within the environment. Context include attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, competitors, culture, demographics, goals, governments, infrastructure, languages, losses, processes, products, projects, sales, seasons, terminology, technology, weather, and any other element meeting the definition.
What is the purpose of the BACCM?
- To describe the profession of business analysis, communicate with common terminology, evaluate relationships of key concepts, and perform better business analysis by holistically evaluating the relationship of the concepts
- Evaluate the impact of those concepts and relationships during work to establish a foundation and path forward
Define ‘Business Analysis’.
The practice of enabling change in an enterprise by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.
What is meant by ‘Business Analysis Information’?
- The broad and diverse sets of info that business analysts analyze, transform, and report. It is info of any kind - at any level of detail - that is used as an input to, or is an output of, business analysis work.
- Examples of business analysis info include elicitation results, requirements, designs, solution options, solution scope, and change strategy. It is essential to expand the object of many business analysis activities from ‘requirements’ to ‘information’ to ensure that all inputs and outputs of business analysis are subject to the tasks and activities described in BABOK Guide
- For example when performing ‘Plan Business Analysis Information Management’ it includes all examples listed above. If BABOK. Guide described ‘Plan Requirements Management’, it would exclude important outputs like elicitation results, solution options, and change strategy.
What is the definition of a ‘Requirement’?
A usable representation of a need focusing on the value that could be delivered if fulfilled.
What are ‘Business Requirements’?
Statements of goals, objectives, and outcomes that describe why a change has been initiated.
They can apply to the whole of an enterprise, a business area, or a specific initiative
What do ‘Stakeholder Requirements’ describe?
The needs of stakeholders that must be met to achieve the business requirements.
They may serve as a bridge between business and solution requirements
Differentiate between ‘Functional Requirements’ and ‘Non-Functional Requirements’.
- Functional Requirements: Describe capabilities in terms of behavior and info managed by the solution.
- Non-Functional Requirements:
Describe conditions or qualities under which the solution must remain effective. Do not relate directly to the behaviour of functionality of the solution
What are ‘Transaction Requirements’?
Capabilities the solution must have for the transition from current to future state, not needed once the change is complete.
They are differentiated from other requirement types because they are of a temporary nature. Transition requirements address topics such as data conversion, training, and business continuity
Who are the ‘End Users’? (Generic list of stakeholder)
Stakeholders who directly interact with the solution.
End users can include all participants in a business process or who use the product or solution
What is the role of a ‘Project Manager’? (Generic list of stakeholder)
Responsible for managing the work required to deliver a solution that meets a business need.
For ensuring that the projects objectives are met while balancing the project factors including scope, budget, schedule, resources, quality, and risk
- Common project manager roles
* Project lead, technical lead, project manager,
and team leader
True or False: The distinction between requirements and designs is always clear.
False.
What is the significance of continuously asking ‘why?’ in business analysis?
To ensure requirements or designs provide value to the enterprise and facilitate achieving its goals.
Fill in the blank: A ______ is a proposal for doing or achieving something.
Plan
What is the main responsibility of a ‘Tester’?
To determine how to verify that the solution meets the requirements defined by the business analyst.
What does ‘Risk’ refer to in business analysis?
The effect of uncertainty on the value of a change, solution, or enterprise.
Core concepts can be used by business analysts to consider the quality and completeness of the work being done.
While planning or performing a task or technique, business analysts can consider how each core concept is addressed by asking questions such as:
- What are the kinds of changes we are doing?
- What are the needs we are trying to satisfy?
- What are the solutions we are creating or changing?
- Who are the stakeholders involved?
- What do stakeholders consider to be of value?
- What are the contexts that we and the solution are in?
Design
- Unusable representation od a solution
- It focuses on understanding how value might be realized by a solution if it is built
- The nature of the representation may be a document/set of documents and can vary widely depending on the circumstances
Enterprise
- Is a system of one or more organization and the solutions they use to pursue a shared set of common goals
- These solutions (also called organizational capabilities) can be processes, tools, or info.
- For the purpose of business analysis, enterprise boundaries can be defined relative to the change and need not to be constrained by the boundaries of a legal entity, organization, or organizational unit.
- An enterprise may include any number of business, government, or any other type of organization
Organization
- An autonomous group of people under the management of a single individual or board, that works towards common goals and objectives
- Organizations often have a clearly defined boundary and operate on a continuous basis, as opposed to an initiative or project team, which may be disbanded once its objectives are achieved
Requirement
- Is a usable representation of a need
- Focus on understanding what kind of value could be delivered if a requirement is fulfilled
- Nature of the representation may be a document/set of documents, but can vary depending on the circumstances
Risk
- Effect of uncertainty on the value of a change, a solution, or the enterprise
- Business analysts collaborate w other stakeholders to identify, assess, and prioritize risks, and to deal w those risks by altering the likelihood of the conditions or events that lead to the uncertainty: mitigating the consequences, removing the source of risk, avoiding the risk altogether by deciding not to start or continue w an activity that leads to the risk, sharing the risk w other parties, or accepting or even increasing the risk to deal w an opportunity
Solution Requirements
- Describe the capabilities and qualities of a solution that meets the stakeholder requirements. They provide the appropriate level of detail to allow for the development and implementation of the solution. Solution requirements can be divided into two sub-categories:
Function and Non-Functional Requirements
What is a Stakeholder?
A stakeholder is an individual or group that a business analyst is likely to interact w directly or indirectly. Any stakeholder can be a source of requirements, assumptions, or constraints.
Generic List of Stakeholders:
- Business Analyst
- Customer
- Domain Subject Matter Expert
- End User
- Implementation Subject Matter Expert
- Operational Support
- Project Manager
- Regulator
- Sponser
- Supplier
- Tester
Business Analyst (Generic list of stakeholders)
○ Practice of enabling change in an enterprise by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders
Customer (Generic list of stakeholders
○ Uses or may use products or services produced by the enterprise and may have contractual or moral rights that the enterprise is obliged to meet
Domain Subject Matter Expert (Generic list of stakeholders)
○ Any individual with in-depth knowledge of a topic relevant to the business need or solution scope
○ Often filled by people who may be end users or people who have an in-depth knowledge of the solution such as managers, process owners, legal staff, consultants, and others
Implementation Subject Matter Expert (Generic list of stakeholders)
○ Any stakeholder who has specialized knowledge regarding the implementation of one or more solution components
○ Common implementation subject matter expert roles
§ Project librarian, change manager, configuration manager, solution architect, developer, database administrator, information architect, usability analyst, trainer, and organizational change consultant
Operation Support (Generic list of stakeholders)
○ Responsible for the day-to-day management and maintenance of a system or product
○ Common operational support roles
§ Operations analyst
§ Product analyst
§ Help desk
§ Release manager
Regulator (Generic list of stakeholders)
○ Responsible for the definition and enforcement of standard. Standards can be imposed on the solution by regulators through legislation, corporate governance standards, audit standards, or standards defined by organizational centers of competency
○ Alternate roles are government, regulatory bodies, and auditor
Sponsor (Generic list of stakeholders)
○ Responsible for initiating the effort to define a business need and develop a solution that meets that need
○ They authorize the work to be performed, and control the budget and scope for the initiative
○ Alternate roles are executive and project sponsor
Supplier (Generic list of stakeholders)
○ A stakeholder outside the boundary of a given organization or organizational unit
○ Suppliers provide products or services to the organization and may have contractual or moral rights and obligations that must be considered
○ Alternate roles are providers, vendors, and consultants
Tester (Generic list of stakeholders)
○ Responsible for determining how to verify that the solution meets the requirements defined by the business analyst, as well as conducting the verification process
○ Testers also seek to ensure that the solution meets applicable quality standards, and that the risk of defects or failures is understood and minimized
○ An alternate role is quality assurance analyst
Requirements and Design
- Eliciting, analyzing validating, and managing requirements have consistently been recognized as key activities of business analysis
- It is important to recognize that business analysts are also responsible for the definition of design, at some level, in an initiative
- The level of responsibility for design varies based on the perspective within which a business analyst is working
- Requirements are focused on the need; designs are focused on the solution. The distinction between requirements and designs is not always clear. The same techniques are used to elicit, model, and analyze both
- A requirement leads to a design which in turn may drive the discovery and analysis of more requirements. The shift in focus is often subtle.
- The classification as a requirement or a design may become less significant as the business analysts work progresses to a greater understanding of and eventual fulfillment of the need
- Business analysis can be complex and recursive
- A requirement (or set of requirements) may be used to define a design
- The design may then be used to elicit additional requirements that are used to define more detailed designs. The business analyst may hand off requirements and designs to other stakeholders who may further elaborate on designs
- Whether it is the business analyst or some other role that completes the designs, the business analyst often reviews the final designs to ensure that they align w the requirements
Requirement: View six months sales data across multiple organizational units in a single view
Design: A sketch of a dashboard
Requirement: Reduce amount of time required to pick and pack a customer order
Design: Process model
Requirement: Record and access a medical patient’s history
Design: Screen mock-up showing specific data fields
Requirement: Develop business strategy, goals, and objectives for a new business
Design: Business capacity model
Requirement: Provide information in English and French
Design: Prototype w text displayed in English and French
Need and Solutions (Stakeholders)
- Stakeholders may present a need or a solution to an assumed need
- A business analyst uses activities found in elicitation and collaboration, strategy analysis, requirements analysis and design definition, and solution evaluation to transform that request into a requirement or design
- Regardless of the focus of the stakeholder, the importance of the role of the business analyst lies in continuously asking the question ‘why?’. For example, “Why is either the requirement or deign necessary to provide value to an enterprise and to facilitate the realization of an enterprise’s goals and objectives?”
Requirements and Design Cycle
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