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BCS Business Analysis 2024 > Chapter 5: Investigating the Business Situation (12.5%) > Flashcards

Chapter 5: Investigating the Business Situation (12.5%) Flashcards

1
Q

Advantages of workshops

A
  • 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
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2
Q

Disadvantages of workshops

A
  • Can be time-consuming to organise
  • One forceful participant can dominate
  • Difficult to ensure that the participants have the required level of authority
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3
Q

techniques used for discovery workshops

A
  • round robin
  • brainstorming
  • brainwriting
  • post it exercise
  • stepwise refinement
  • breakout groups
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4
Q

techniques used for visualisation workshops

A

process models
rich pictures
mind maps
context diagrams
use case diagrams
task scenarios
user stories

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5
Q

preparing for a workshop by planning in these areas:

A
  • objective of workshop
  • people invited
  • structure of workshop + techniques used
  • arrange suitable venue
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6
Q

facilitating a workshop involves:

A
  1. discuss objective (SM or project sponsor can open)
  2. facilitator ensures discussion remains on track
  3. have a scribe keep record
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7
Q
A
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8
Q

whats the purpose of De Bono’s 6 hats technique

A

a way of evaluating and reducing the ideas/suggestions emerged from a workshop to an acceptable number to manage

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9
Q

why use discovery techniques for a workshop

A

helps facilitator elicit information and views from participants

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10
Q

why use visualisation techniques for a workshop

A

quick to understand and explain, helps workshop participants understand the information being captured

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11
Q

a CSF for hothousing is including the right people. who are they?

A

senior business staff (possibly CIO level)
project sponsor
solution architects
testers
developers

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12
Q

what is a hothouse workshop

A
  • a specific type of workshop that applies Lean and Agile principles to a business problem
  • intensive, typically 2-3 days
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13
Q

what are hothouse workshops primarily used for

A

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
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14
Q

advantages of focus groups

A
  • cost effective way to obtains views/ideas
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15
Q

disadvantages of focus groups

A
  • 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
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16
Q

what is a focus group

A
  • concerned with business or market research
  • bring together group with common interest to discuss a topic
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17
Q

advantages of observation

A
  • 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.
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17
Q

difference between focus group and workshop

A

workshops aim to achieve consensus

focus groups aim to elicit information and opinions

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17
Q

disadvantages of observation

A
  • being observed can be unnerving so behaviour changes, not a real reflection
  • analyst only see what happens on a particular occasion, patterns change
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18
Q

4 aspects of observation which are:

A

Formal
Protocol analysis
Shadowing and
Ethnographic studies

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19
Q

Formal observation involves:

A

watching a specific task or tasks being performed

(without distracting from their performance of the job or sounding critical)

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20
Q

protocol analysis involves:

A

asking a member of staff to perform a task and explain each step as they perform it.

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21
Q

Shadowing involves

A

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)

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22
Q

ethnographic studies involves:

A

spending extended periods of time in the target environment.

(pros: users behave authentically, provides detailed understanding of the business

cons: very high cost)

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23
Q

Advantages of interviewing

A
  • 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
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24
Q

Disadvantages of interviewing

A
  • take time to plan and conduct
  • info may be opinion rather than fact
  • need to review info to identify areas for further discussion + clarification
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25
Q

best structure to use for preparing for interview?

A

5 Ws

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26
Q

structure of an interview

A
  1. opening/intro (reiterate purpose)
  2. body of interview (Q&A)
  3. closure (summary + next steps)
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27
Q

The scenario describes

A

steps taken when initiated by a business event that lead to a successful outcome

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28
Q

The definition of the scenario includes (3 components):

A

the actor responsible for carrying out the task

preconditions

postconditions

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29
Q

process for developing scenarios

A
  1. identify task or interaction
  2. identify steps and sequence
  3. define control conditions
  4. identify exception situations

(descending staircase with linking arrows)

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30
Q

scenario disadvantages

A

time consuming (especially when many alternate paths, in that case easier to consider each path as a separate scenario)

31
Q

scenario advantages

A
  • nothing is overlooked
  • addresses problems associated with tacit knowledge
  • helps business user visualise all possible situations
  • basis for prototypes
  • preparing acceptance test scripts
32
Q

scenario analysis involves

A

telling the story of a task or transaction

33
Q

prototype advantages

A
  • 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.
34
Q

Prototype disadvantages

A
  • 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.
35
Q

4 quantitative techniques

A

questionnaires
special purpose records
activity sampling
document analysis

36
Q

4 qualitative techniques

A

Interviews
Observation
Workshops
Scenario analysis and
Prototyping

37
Q

define user role analysis

A

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)
38
Q

advantages of user role analysis

A
  • 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
39
Q

disadvantages of user role analysis

A
  • 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
40
Q

why use personas?

A

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
41
Q

why are quantitative approaches used?

A

to obtain data needed to quantify the info collected in qualitative techniques
(Interviews
Observation
Workshops
Scenario analysis and
Prototyping)

42
Q

advantages of questionnaires

A

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

43
Q

disadvantages of questionnaires

A

They take time to prepare

People often fail to complete them

Sometimes they are too complex
T
he question may elicit a meaningless response

44
Q

when are questionnaires often used

A

They are often used in advance of interviews and can be used to validate information already obtained.

45
Q

what is Special purpose reporting

A

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)

46
Q

Special purpose reporting advantages

A

avoids problems of observation

helps BA understand issues with business process + scope for improvement

47
Q

Special purpose reporting disadvantages

A

People forget to keep the record

may invent some data so the record is complete

don’t want to get involved.

47
Q

what is activity sampling

A

a way of quantifying data obtained during observation

e.g. to know how ppl divide their time among range of activities

48
Q

5 steps of activity sampling

A
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. visit and record the study group
  4. record the results

A5. analyse the results

49
Q

what is activity sampling typically used for?

A
  • 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)
50
Q

what does document analysis involve

A

review documents/reports to uncover information about an organisation, process or system

(often used to supplement other techniques such as interviews, workshops or observation)

51
Q

generally each document is reviewed under these headings (in document analysis):

A
  • 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?
52
Q

how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation

ACTIVITY SAMPLING

A
  1. very suitable
  2. very suitable
  3. not
53
Q

how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation

DOCUMENT ANALYSIS

A
  1. suitable
  2. very suitable
  3. suitable
54
Q

how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation

FOCUS GROUP

A
  1. Very suitable
  2. suitable
  3. not
55
Q

how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation

HOTHOUSING

A
  1. not
  2. not
  3. very suitable
56
Q

how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation

INTERVIEW

A
  1. very suitable
  2. very suitable
  3. very suitable
57
Q

how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation

OBSERVATION

A
  1. very suitable
  2. very suitable
  3. suitable
58
Q

how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation

PROTOTYPING

A
  1. not
  2. very suitable
  3. very suitable
59
Q

how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation

SCENARIO ANALYSIS

A
  1. not
  2. very suitable
  3. very suitable
60
Q

how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation

SHADOWING

A
  1. very suitable
  2. very suitable
  3. suitable
61
Q

how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation

SPECIAL PURPOSE RECORD

A
  1. very suitable
  2. very suitable
  3. not
62
Q

how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation

STORYTELLING

A
  1. very suitable
  2. not
  3. suitable
63
Q

how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation

SURVEYS

A
  1. very suitable
  2. suitable
  3. not
64
Q

how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation

USER ROLE ANALYSIS

A
  1. very suitable
  2. very suitable
  3. very suitable
65
Q

how suitable is the following investigation technique for:
1. understanding the situation
2. waterfall requirements elicitation (linear)
3. agile requirements elicitation

WORKSHOPS

A
  1. very suitable
  2. very suitable
  3. very suitable
66
Q

What are the 4 diagrammatic ways of Documenting the current situation

A

rich pictures

mind maps

business process model

fishbone diagram (ishikawa)

67
Q

Rich pictures are a means of…

A

showing an overview of the entire situation

doesn’t have any fixed notation
(allows you to use symbols or annotations that you find useful.)

68
Q

mind maps are a useful tool for…

A

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
69
Q

Issues of targets and performance should be investigated at which organisational level?

A

Tactical.

This is where we consider targets and performance data.

70
Q

true or false?

prototyping is strongly linked to scenario analysis

A

true

(Scenario analysis provides a sound basis for prototyping.)

71
Q

in STOP organisation hierarchy, S concerns:

A

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
72
Q

in STOP organisation hierarchy, T concerns:

A

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
73
Q

in STOP organisation hierarchy, O concerns:

A

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

74
Q

questioning strategy for interviewing depends on 3 factors:

A
  • where interviewee sits in STOP hierarchy
  • objectives of project
  • nature of issues to be investigated
75
Q

fishbone (Ishikawa) diagrams are often used to…

A

analyse the root causes of a specific business problem

BCS Business Analysis 2024 (15 decks)

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