Chapter 5: Investigating the Business Situation (12.5%) Flashcards
Advantages of workshops
- Gain a broad view of the area under investigation
- Increase speed and productivity
- Obtain buy-in and acceptance for the project
- Gain a consensus view or group agreement
Disadvantages of workshops
- Can be time-consuming to organise
- One forceful participant can dominate
- Difficult to ensure that the participants have the required level of authority
techniques used for discovery workshops
- round robin
- brainstorming
- brainwriting
- post it exercise
- stepwise refinement
- breakout groups
techniques used for visualisation workshops
process models
rich pictures
mind maps
context diagrams
use case diagrams
task scenarios
user stories
preparing for a workshop by planning in these areas:
- objective of workshop
- people invited
- structure of workshop + techniques used
- arrange suitable venue
facilitating a workshop involves:
- discuss objective (SM or project sponsor can open)
- facilitator ensures discussion remains on track
- have a scribe keep record
whats the purpose of De Bono’s 6 hats technique
a way of evaluating and reducing the ideas/suggestions emerged from a workshop to an acceptable number to manage
why use discovery techniques for a workshop
helps facilitator elicit information and views from participants
why use visualisation techniques for a workshop
quick to understand and explain, helps workshop participants understand the information being captured
a CSF for hothousing is including the right people. who are they?
senior business staff (possibly CIO level)
project sponsor
solution architects
testers
developers
what is a hothouse workshop
- a specific type of workshop that applies Lean and Agile principles to a business problem
- intensive, typically 2-3 days
what are hothouse workshops primarily used for
innovation projects (rather than those focused on enhancement to existing processes/systems)
- develop prototypes in series of iterations, after each the output is reviewed and feedbacked
- outcome should be prototype solution to business problem accompanied by corresponding metrics, processes, costs and benefits required to deliver full solution
advantages of focus groups
- cost effective way to obtains views/ideas
disadvantages of focus groups
- unlikely to offer solution to a problem or agreed way forward
- information is qualitative
- strong personalities can dominate
- success depends largely on facilitator’s skill
what is a focus group
- concerned with business or market research
- bring together group with common interest to discuss a topic
advantages of observation
- obtain a better understanding of the problems and difficulties faced by the business users.
- help us prepare appropriate questions for follow-up interview
- depth of understanding helps identify workable solutions that are more likely to be acceptable to the business.
difference between focus group and workshop
workshops aim to achieve consensus
focus groups aim to elicit information and opinions
disadvantages of observation
- being observed can be unnerving so behaviour changes, not a real reflection
- analyst only see what happens on a particular occasion, patterns change
4 aspects of observation which are:
Formal
Protocol analysis
Shadowing and
Ethnographic studies
Formal observation involves:
watching a specific task or tasks being performed
(without distracting from their performance of the job or sounding critical)
protocol analysis involves:
asking a member of staff to perform a task and explain each step as they perform it.
Shadowing involves
following a person around over 1 or 2 days
(very useful way to understand a
specific user role)
(can be coupled with a limited form of protocol analysis by asking for explanations of how the work is done and why)
ethnographic studies involves:
spending extended periods of time in the target environment.
(pros: users behave authentically, provides detailed understanding of the business
cons: very high cost)
Advantages of interviewing
- build relationship with stakeholders
- understand perspectives of people involved in business system
- collect examples of documentation used by clients
- investigate new areas
- understand different viewpoints/attitudes
- study the environment where business staff do their work
- appreciate political factors that may affect their work
Disadvantages of interviewing
- take time to plan and conduct
- info may be opinion rather than fact
- need to review info to identify areas for further discussion + clarification
best structure to use for preparing for interview?
5 Ws
structure of an interview
- opening/intro (reiterate purpose)
- body of interview (Q&A)
- closure (summary + next steps)
The scenario describes
steps taken when initiated by a business event that lead to a successful outcome
The definition of the scenario includes (3 components):
the actor responsible for carrying out the task
preconditions
postconditions
process for developing scenarios
- identify task or interaction
- identify steps and sequence
- define control conditions
- identify exception situations
(descending staircase with linking arrows)
scenario disadvantages
time consuming (especially when many alternate paths, in that case easier to consider each path as a separate scenario)
scenario advantages
- nothing is overlooked
- addresses problems associated with tacit knowledge
- helps business user visualise all possible situations
- basis for prototypes
- preparing acceptance test scripts
scenario analysis involves
telling the story of a task or transaction
prototype advantages
- They help to clarify any uncertainty on the part of the analyst and confirm to the stakeholders we have
understood them correctly - They help stakeholders to identify new requirements
- They demonstrate the look and feel of the proposed solution
- They validate the system requirements and identify errors and finally
- They provide a means of assessing the navigation paths and system performance.
Prototype disadvantages
- The cycle can spin out of control with endless iterations taking place
- If the objective isn’t clearly set users may think the system is complete and ready when the prototype is demonstrated and finally
- The prototype may work faster than the final live system and users’ expectations are raised in error.
4 quantitative techniques
questionnaires
special purpose records
activity sampling
document analysis
4 qualitative techniques
Interviews
Observation
Workshops
Scenario analysis and
Prototyping
define user role analysis
identifying specific groups of individuals where all members of a group need to access a particular set of services from a business system
- users take on a ‘role’ when interacting with the system (individual can adopt more than 1 role)
advantages of user role analysis
- means of identifying where stakeholders have common interests /requirements
- more efficient approach to elicit and analyse requirements
- strong basis for analysing scenarios, stakeholder perspectives, use cases and user stories
disadvantages of user role analysis
- difficult to envisage how and why individuals might want to use a particular system when a generic/broad user role name is used (that covers a very wide stakeholder group, e.g. ‘Customer’)
- this is overcome using Persona analysis
why use personas?
way to understand the nature of different customers by creating ‘personas’ for them (e.g. envisage how and why they access a service)
- useful when analysing users of the business system who have different accessibility requirements
why are quantitative approaches used?
to obtain data needed to quantify the info collected in qualitative techniques
(Interviews
Observation
Workshops
Scenario analysis and
Prototyping)
advantages of questionnaires
We need to get a limited amount of information from a large group of people when interviews wouldn’t be cost effective
The respondents are geographically wide spread
disadvantages of questionnaires
They take time to prepare
People often fail to complete them
Sometimes they are too complex
T
he question may elicit a meaningless response
when are questionnaires often used
They are often used in advance of interviews and can be used to validate information already obtained.
what is Special purpose reporting
a technique that involves the business users in keeping a record or diary about a specific issue or task
(tends to be informal, can be completed during observation by BA or given to staff)
Special purpose reporting advantages
avoids problems of observation
helps BA understand issues with business process + scope for improvement
Special purpose reporting disadvantages
People forget to keep the record
may invent some data so the record is complete
don’t want to get involved.
what is activity sampling
a way of quantifying data obtained during observation
e.g. to know how ppl divide their time among range of activities
5 steps of activity sampling
- identify the activities to be recorded including both productive and non-productive activities
such as breaks, general meetings, general administration not associated with a particular task such as
timesheets. - define the frequency and timings, in other words how often and when you will record
activities being undertaken such as hourly, or four times a day. - visit and record the study group
- record the results
A5. analyse the results
what is activity sampling typically used for?
- useful when preparing a business case and evaluating solutions
- to question whether the time taken on various activities is reasonable
(can indicate a problem with the activity itself if it is taking what appears to be too long)
what does document analysis involve
review documents/reports to uncover information about an organisation, process or system
(often used to supplement other techniques such as interviews, workshops or observation)
generally each document is reviewed under these headings (in document analysis):
- How is the document completed?
- Who completes it?
- Are there any variations or controls on the document?
- Who uses the document?
- When is it used?
- How many are used?
- How long is it retained by the organisation?
- What are the details of the information shown on the document?
- Where does the information come from?
- Is the information known by other names within the organisation?
how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation
ACTIVITY SAMPLING
- very suitable
- very suitable
- not
how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation
DOCUMENT ANALYSIS
- suitable
- very suitable
- suitable
how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation
FOCUS GROUP
- Very suitable
- suitable
- not
how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation
HOTHOUSING
- not
- not
- very suitable
how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation
INTERVIEW
- very suitable
- very suitable
- very suitable
how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation
OBSERVATION
- very suitable
- very suitable
- suitable
how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation
PROTOTYPING
- not
- very suitable
- very suitable
how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation
SCENARIO ANALYSIS
- not
- very suitable
- very suitable
how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation
SHADOWING
- very suitable
- very suitable
- suitable
how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation
SPECIAL PURPOSE RECORD
- very suitable
- very suitable
- not
how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation
STORYTELLING
- very suitable
- not
- suitable
how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation
SURVEYS
- very suitable
- suitable
- not
how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation
USER ROLE ANALYSIS
- very suitable
- very suitable
- very suitable
how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation
WORKSHOPS
- very suitable
- very suitable
- very suitable
What are the 4 diagrammatic ways of Documenting the current situation
rich pictures
mind maps
business process model
fishbone diagram (ishikawa)
Rich pictures are a means of…
showing an overview of the entire situation
doesn’t have any fixed notation
(allows you to use symbols or annotations that you find useful.)
mind maps are a useful tool for…
collating a lot of information, and highlighting links
between ideas and topics.
- business system/ problem is at the centre
- branches indicate the problem or issue.
- Further branches show more detail and the information is structured into manageable sets of connections
Issues of targets and performance should be investigated at which organisational level?
Tactical.
This is where we consider targets and performance data.
true or false?
prototyping is strongly linked to scenario analysis
true
(Scenario analysis provides a sound basis for prototyping.)
in STOP organisation hierarchy, S concerns:
strategic level of management
- confirmation of the ToR (terms of reference)
- management information needs
- approach to the investigation
- alignment of project with business objectives + strategy
in STOP organisation hierarchy, T concerns:
tactical level / middle management
- concerns issues relating to performance, targets + management control
- likely defined CSFs + KPIs and associated reporting requirements
- processes carried out within business area + members of staff responsible for this work (not detailed descriptions of how its executed)
- new business requirements
in STOP organisation hierarchy, O concerns:
operational level - business staff who perform the actual tasks of the department
they’re people who can:
- describe existing business situation
- identify problems and workarounds to deal with current procedures
- have info on doucments, bottlenecks and flow of work
questioning strategy for interviewing depends on 3 factors:
- where interviewee sits in STOP hierarchy
- objectives of project
- nature of issues to be investigated
fishbone (Ishikawa) diagrams are often used to…
analyse the root causes of a specific business problem
