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Business Analysis Foundation > What is Business Analysis > Flashcards

What is Business Analysis Flashcards

1
Q

Chapter 1 - What is Business Analysis

Describe the business change lifecycle?

A 
A = Alignment 
D = Definition
D = Design
I = Implementation
R = Realization

Enterprise Architecture, Business Environment, Business Strategy are considered as part of Alignment

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2
Q

Chapter 1 - What is Business Analysis

What are the 6 business analysis principles?

A
  • Root cause not symptoms
  • Business improvement not IT system change
  • Options not solutions
  • Feasible contributing requirements, not meeting all requests
  • The entire business change lifecycle, not just requirements definition
  • Negotiation not avoidance
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3
Q

Chapter 1 - What is Business Analysis

What are the 5 variants of business analysts?

A
  • Business BA/Enterprise BA
  • Technical BA/Business Systems Analyst
  • Digital BA
  • Project BA
  • Proxy Product Owner
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4
Q

Chapter 2 - Competencies of a Business Analyst

What is the T-Shaped Professional (generic)?

A 
Horizontal = Multi disciplinary breadth of knowledge and skill broad, generic skills across other disciplines.
Vertical = Deep knowledge and skill of specific domain (specialist discipline)
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5
Q

Chapter 2 - Competencies of a Business Analyst

What are the 3 attributes of a T-Shaped professional as applies to a BA?

A
  • Personal Qualities
  • Professional Techniques
  • Business Knowledge
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6
Q

Chapter 3 - Strategic Context for a BA

Describe business analysis and the strategic context.

A
  • Analyse and discuss strategic approaches and priorities.

* Build credibility when discussing the organisation with stakeholders.

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7
Q

Chapter 3 - Strategic Context for a BA

What is the external environment analysis tool?

A

PESTLE

Political influences                                                    
Economic influence
Socio-cultural influences
Technological influences
Legal Influences
Environment influences

Can be used in brain-storming, idea shower or workshops.

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8
Q

Chapter 3 - Strategic Context for a BA

What is the internal environment tool?

A

VMOST

Vision
Mission
Objectives
Strategy
Tactics
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9
Q

Chapter 3 - Strategic Context for a BA

What are CSF’s?

A

Critical success factors.

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10
Q

Chapter 3 - Strategic Context for a BA

What are KPI’s?

A

Key performance indicators (multiple KPI’s can be used to measure a single CSF)

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11
Q

Chapter 3 - Strategic Context for a BA

What does SMART (language) stand for?

A 
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-framed
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12
Q

Chapter 3 - Strategic Context for a BA

Strategic gap analysis uses what tool?

A

POPIT

People
Organisation
Processes
Information
Technology
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13
Q

Chapter 3 - Strategic Context for a BA

Describe the structure of a SWOT analysis

A

Internal Strengths Weaknesses

External Opportunities Threats

              Positive               Negative
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14
Q

Chapter 3 - Strategic Context for a BA

Describe the following techniques used in strategy execution (Business Canvas Model)

A
  • Business canvas model (BMC) is a business plan on a page and refers to the way an organisation is designed to deliver products and services to customers. This provides a means through which to develop and execute strategy.
    Business models help to align the work of the organisation with desired outcomes. They can be used to assess the current and target state and to identify and plan changes.
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15
Q

Chapter 3 - Strategic Context for a BA

Describe the following techniques used in strategy execution (POPIT and the business model canvas)

A
  • POPIT - the target operating model should consider all elements of POPIT.
    People - what knowledge and skills will people need in the target state?
    Organisation - who will be the key partners and suppliers?
    Process - which processes will be used in the target state?
    Information - what changes will be made to the capture, storage and analysis of data and information?
    Technology - what technology will be used in the target state?
  • Business model cavas (BMC) is a business plan on a page and refers to the way an organisation is designed to deliver products and services to customers. This provides a means through which to develop and execute strategy.
    Business models help to align the work of the organisation with desired outcomes. They can be used to assess the current and target state and to identify and plan changes.
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16
Q

Chapter 3 - Strategic Context for a BA

What are the 9 business model canvas segments

A
  • Customer Segments
  • Value Propositions
  • Channels
  • Customer Relationships
  • Revenue Streams
  • Key Resources
  • Key Activities
  • Key Partners
  • Cost Structure
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17
Q

Chapter 4 - Business Analysis Service Framework

What are the 6 services of BASF?

A
  1. Situation investigation and problem analysis.
  2. Requirements definition
  3. Feasibility assessment and business case development
  4. Business acceptance testing
  5. Business process improvement
  6. Business change deployment
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18
Q

Chapter 4 - Business Analysis Service Framework

What are the 3 segments of value co-creation?

A
  • Collaborating to identify where value might be achieved.
  • Collaborating to develop a solution that offers value.
  • Collaborating to ensure the value is realised.
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19
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What are the 2 types of business situation investigation types?

A
  • Qualitative (Abstract and wordy)
    Workshops, observation, interviews, scenarios, prototyping and user role analysis.
  • Quantitative (Measurable)
    Surveys/questionnaires, activity sampling, document analysis
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20
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What are the 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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21
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What are the disadvantages of workshops?

A
  • Can be time consuming
  • Level of authority and decision making need to be considered
  • Undue influence of dominant personalities
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22
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What are the 2 types of workshop categories?

A
  • Discovery (Round robin, brain storming/brain writing, post-it notes
  • Visualisation (Process models, rich pictures, mind-maps)
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23
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What is a special type of workshop used to bring the business and development teams together to solve business problems and using prototypes to define functionality?

A
  • Hothouse workshop
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24
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What is a special type of workshop used to bring together a group of people with a common interest to discuss a topic?

A
  • Focus groups
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25
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What is an advantage of the ‘observation’ technique?

A
  • A better understanding of the problem and difficulties faced by the user.
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26
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What is a disadvantage of the ‘observation’ technique?

A
  • Being observed changes behaviors
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27
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What are the 4 observation types”

A
  1. Formal observation (specific task)
  2. Protocol analysis (user describes steps of a task)
  3. Shadowing (following a user for a period, such as one to two days)
  4. Ethnographic Study (spending an extended period of time, from a few weeks to several months)
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28
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What is an advantage to using the ‘Interview’ technique?

A
  • Builds a relationship with a user or clients
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29
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What is a disadvantage to using the ‘Interview’ technique?

A
  • Can be an expensive approach
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30
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What are the 4 steps for developing scenarios?

A
  1. Identify task or interaction
  2. Identify steps in a sequence
  3. Define control mechanisms
  4. Identify exception situations
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31
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What are some advantages to using the ‘Prototyping’ technique?

A
  • Clarify uncertainty on the part of the analyst and confirm to business staff that their requirements have been understood.
  • Validate requirements and identify any errors.
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32
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What are some disadvantages to using the ‘Prototyping’ technique?

A
  • Expectation management of stakeholders … it’s a prototype not production ready.
  • Expectations can be raised unnecessarily by failing to match the final appearance of the system, or its performance.
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33
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What is are some advantages to using the ‘User role analysis’ technique?

A
  • Identifying where stakeholders have common interests or requirements.
  • A more efficient approach to eliciting and analysing requirements.
  • A strong basis for analysing scenarios, stakeholder perspectives, use cases and user stories.
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34
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What is a disadvantages to using the ‘User role analysis’ technique?

A
  • Occur when generic user role names cover a wide stakeholder group, which makes it difficult to envisage how and why individuals might want to use particular systems.
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35
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What are 3 quantitative investigation techniques?

A
  • Surveys/questionnaires
  • Activity sampling
  • Document analysis
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36
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What are surveys or questionnaires useful for?

A

Surveys can be useful to get a limited amount of information from a lot of people as interviewing them individually is not practical or cost effective.

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37
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What is activity sampling useful for?

A
  • When it is necessary to know how people divide the work time amongst a range of activities.
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38
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What is document analysis useful for?

A
  • Involves reviewing a sample of source documents or reports to uncover information about an organisation, process or system.
  • Analysts sometimes need to define questions to ask about a business area or problem situation.
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39
Q

Chapter 5 - Investigating the Business Situation

What are 2 image-based investigation techniques?

A
  • Rich picture (no fixed notation, tells the user story in their language)
  • Mindmap (based on brain science, structured, connected information)
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40
Q

Chapter 6 - Analysing and Managing Stakeholders

Identify stakeholder categories using the stakeholder wheel.

A

External - Competitors, Customers, Partners, Suppliers, Regulators

Internal - Managers, Owners, Employees

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41
Q

Chapter 6 - Analysing and Managing Stakeholders

What does PIG stand for in a stakeholder analysis?

A
  • Power interest grid
42
Q

Chapter 6 - Analysing and Managing Stakeholders

What does PIG measure?

A
  • Power or influence

* Level of interest in a project

43
Q

Chapter 6 - Analysing and Managing Stakeholders

What does RACI stand for?

A 
R = Responsible
A = Accountable
C = Consulted
I = Informed

RACI Rules - Only one A per row, A can also be R, Can be multiple R’s on a row.

44
Q

Chapter 6 - Analysing and Managing Stakeholders

What are the 3 levels of the process hierarchy?

A
  • Enterprise - high-level activities/value stream
  • Event-response level - business process response to an initiating event.
  • Actor task level - sequence of actions performed by an actor.
45
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Enterprise Level

List the techniques used to model the enterprise level processes.

A
  • SIPOC
  • Value chain analysis (Porters value chain)
  • Value propositions
46
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Enterprise Level

What does SIPOC stand for?

A 
S = Supplier
I = Inputs
P = Process
O = Outputs
C = Customer

SIPOC can be used at all 3 levels (Enterprise, event response, actor task level)

47
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Enterprise Level

Describe Porters Value Chain?

A

The value chain provides a means of analysing the activities performed by an organisation.
It identifies key areas of primary and support activity that will be required to deliver value to the organisation’s customers and potentially differentiate the organisation from its competitors.

48
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Enterprise Level

Describe Value Propositions

A
  • Clarify the outcomes offered by an organisation from the delivery of its products or services that the organisation believes will be perceived by customers as beneficial.
  • Differentiating organisation’s from their competitors.
49
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Event Response Level

What are the ‘Event response level’ triggers or business events?

A
  • External - originate outside the boundary of the business system (customer logging a requestor complaint)
  • Internal - events are usually internal decisions made by business managers.
  • Scheduled (Timed) - these events occur regularly. Eg. travel documents are prepared 2 weeks before travel is to be taken.
50
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Event Response Level

Describe the 3 aspects of the ‘event response level’.

A
  • Business events - the value stream required to deliver products or services.
  • Creating business process models - the business process that forms the organisation’s response to a business event and encompasses a set of tasks.
  • UML activity models - the task which is formed of a set of steps, that is carried out in a response to a task - initiating event.
51
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Event Response Level

Why would business process models be developed?

A
  • To represent the current process.
  • To document what is current business practice.
  • To share knowledge and train employees.
  • As an enabler for process improvement.
52
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Event Response Level

What are the 3 swim lanes or partitions (actors)?

A
  • Named role (role in an organisation, never an individual name)
  • Group (ie, Steering committee)
  • System, or IT System (ie, Payroll, CRM)
53
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Event Response Level

Event-response level modelling diagrams are also known as…?

A
  • Swim-lane diagrams

* Activity diagrams (swim-lanes being called partitions)

54
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Event Response Level

What does UML stand for?

A
  • Unified modelling language.
55
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Event Response Level

What does BPMN stand for?

A
  • Business Process Model and Notation
56
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Event Response Level

Identify the basic UML notation/nodes.

A

A solid circle = start node
A solid circle with a ring = Final activity node
A box with a broken line = Comment
An arrow = Flow/sequence
A rectangle with curved corners = Activity/task node (verb/noun, no sentences, no paragraphs)

57
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Event Response Level

What are the 4 notation types?

A
  • Decision node
  • Merge node - merging 2 tasks to 1
  • Fork (parallel activities) - 1 incoming task | pauses then can split into multiple tasks
  • Join (parallel activities) - 2 incoming tasks | waits for both tasks to complete and then become 1 task
58
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Event Response Level

What are some reasons why a BA might be working on a process improvement project?

A
  • External environment has changed (PESTEL)
  • New manager or management team
  • Level with or exceed competitors
  • Change required over an extended period of time
59
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Actor-Task Level

What process improvement tool can be used to consider the external perspective?

A
  • Customer Journey Maps - focus on the external customer view.
60
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Actor-Task Level

List some generic improvement strategies.

A
  • Simplification
  • Redesign the complete process
  • Seek out bottlenecks
  • Change the sequence
  • Extend or shrink the process
  • Automate the process
61
Q

Chapter 7 - Improving Business Services and Processes - Actor-Task Level

Define the purpose of customer journey maps.

A
  • Customer journey maps examine processes from the customer’s perspective.
62
Q

Chapter 8 - Defining the Solution

Describe the gap analysis process.

A
  • The analysis of the gap between where the business is currently and where it needs to be.
  • Analysing the gap between the current and desired business systems.
63
Q

Chapter 8 - Defining the Solution

Explain the use of POPOTTM in gap analysis.

A
  • Assemble representations of existing situation.
  • Assemble representations of target or desired situation.
  • Compare representation of existing and target situations.
  • Identify gaps to be addressed.
  • Consider possible actions to address gaps.
64
Q

Chapter 8 - Defining the Solution

Describe the process for developing options.

A
  • Identify possible options
  • Shortlist options
  • Evaluate shortlist
  • Produce business case

Business options explore what the proposed solution would include in terms of the functionality provided to the business.

Technical options consider how the solution is to be implemented in terms of the technical infrastructure for the solution.

65
Q

Chapter 8 - Defining the Solution

What are the 3 types of solution options?

A
  • Basic option
  • Extended option (basic plus some additions)
  • Exhaustive option (includes all features)
66
Q

Chapter 8 - Defining the Solution

Describe the purpose of Design Thinking.

A
  • Encourages the use of product design concepts and techniques such as prototyping, learning from trying out ideas, divergent and convergent thinking and, most importantly, keeping customer focus in mind.
  • Process is iterative.
67
Q

Chapter 8 - Defining the Solution

The stages of Design Thinking are?

A
  • Empathise - understand needs of the customer
  • Define - storytelling and problem framing
  • Ideate - brainstorming, divergent & convergent thinking, mind-mapping
  • Prototype - prototyping and scenario analysis
  • Evaluate - Scenario and event analysis
  • Create - Experimentation, feedback and review
68
Q

Chapter 8 - Defining the Solution

Describe Divergent and Convergent thinking.

A
  • Divergent thinking is a though process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many solutions.
  • Convergent thinking focuses on coming up with the single, well established answer to a problem.
69
Q

Chapter 9 - Making the Business Case

Describe the lifecycle for a business case development.

A
  • Feasibility study
  • Requirements analysis and specification
  • Solution design
  • Solution development & implementation
  • Operation of new processes and systems
70
Q

Chapter 9 - Making the Business Case

Identify the areas of feasibility assessment (BTF)

A
  • Business - strategic fit, market appropriate, timely, architectural alignment, organisational fit, capacity fit.
  • Technical - available, reliable, maintainable, performance, secure, scalable, compatible, proven
  • Financial - within budget, sufficient funds…..or can be borrowed, acceptable ROI (rate of return), acceptable cash flow, timely payback.
71
Q

Chapter 9 - Making the Business Case

Define the structure and contents of a business case.

A
  • Categories of cost and benefits.
    Costs tend to be tangible, whereas benefits are often a mixture of tangible and intangible.
  • Impact assessment.
    Organisation structure, department re-organisations, interdepartmental relations, working practices, management style.
  • Risk assessment.
    Description, impact, probability, countermeasures, ownership.
72
Q

Chapter 9 - Making the Business Case

Identify the elements of a CARDI log.

A 
C = Constraints
A = Assumptions
R = Risk
D = Dependencies
I = Issues
73
Q

Chapter 10 - Establishing the Requirements

Explain the requirements engineering framework.

A
  • Requirements elicitation - requirements from stakeholders.
  • Requirements analysis - reviewing, analysing requirements, remove duplications or errors, negotiate conflicts and contradictions.
  • Requirements documentation - producing narrative and diagrammatic definitions of the requirements.
  • Requirements validation - reviewing requirements.
  • Requirements Management - managing changes to the defined requirements.
74
Q

Chapter 10 - Establishing the Requirements

Identify the following in requirements engineering - The Business representatives, The Project team.

A
  • The business representatives - the project sponsor, product owner, SME, business staff.
  • The project team - the project manager, business analyst, developer, software tester.
75
Q

Chapter 10 - Establishing the Requirements

Identify the 4 types of requirements.

A
  1. Business General - business constraints, business policies, business continuity, legal, branding.
  2. Business Technical - hardware, software, interface, internet.
  3. Solution Functional - data entry, data maintenance, procedural, retrieval requirements.
  4. Solution Non Functional - performance, security and access, backup and recovery, availability, usability, accessibility.
76
Q

Chapter 10 - Establishing the Requirements

Describe the hierarchy of requirements.

A

Requirements are often related to each other - for example some general and technical requirements are related to business policies that are elaborated and expanded in the non-functional and functional requirements.

77
Q

Chapter 10 - Establishing the Requirements

Describe the elicitation technique ‘the term tacit knowledge’

A
  • Tacit knowledge refers to other aspects of the work that a stakeholder is unable to articulate or explain.
  • The unknown knowns.
78
Q

Chapter 10 - Establishing the Requirements

Requirements filter ‘Confirming Quality of Expression’ uses what elements?

A
  • Clear
  • Concise
  • Consistent
  • Relevant
  • Unambiguous
  • Correct
  • Testable
  • Traceable
79
Q

Chapter 10 - Establishing the Requirements

Identify the 4 elements of requirements analysis.

A
  • Requirements filters - unravel multiple requirements, check for duplicates, confirm relevance, evaluate feasibility, remove conflicts, confirm quality of expression.
  • INVEST - Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimateable, Small, Testable.
  • Prioritising requirements using MoSCoW (Must have, should have, could have, want to have but won’t have this time)
  • Business rules - Constraints and operation guidance.
80
Q

Chapter 11 - Documenting and Modelling Requirements

Identify the 2 documentation styles.

A
  • Text-based documentation style - Requirements catalogue, eg, user story.
  • Diagrammatic - Data model, Use Case Model, Business Process Model.
81
Q

Chapter 11 - Documenting and Modelling Requirements

List the elements of a requirements catalogue.

A
  • Requirements identifier
  • Requirements Name
  • Requirements Description
  • Source
  • Owner (Business)
  • Author (BA)
  • Type of Requirement
  • Priority (MoSCoW)
  • Business Area
  • Stakeholders (interested)
  • Associated Non-functional
  • Acceptance Criteria
  • Related Requirements
  • Related Documents
  • Comments
  • Rationale (relevance and alignment to PID)
  • Resolution (capture all conflict)
  • Version History
82
Q

Chapter 11 - Documenting and Modelling Requirements

Describe the format of User Stories

A
  • Documented using a card format
  • Name
  • Persona requirement
  • Priority
  • Story Points
  • Confirmations (acceptance criteria)
83
Q

Chapter 11 - Documenting and Modelling Requirements

Describe the elements of the use case diagram used to model functional requirements.

A
  • Context Diagram - a statement of where the solution fits within an organisation and the wider business context.
  • Business User Case Diagrams - a top-level view of an organisation or business system.
  • System Use Case Diagrams - they represent things that an organisation, business system or IT system need to provide.
84
Q

Chapter 11 - Documenting and Modelling Requirements

Describe the elements of a class model used to model data.

A
  • UML
  • Name of class (singular noun) eg. Order
  • Attributes - individual items of data about the class eg. orderNumber, customerName, dataPlaced (note lower case with first letter.
  • Operations - stored in the bottom part of the class and are invoked by messages being sent to the class by other classes. Individual items of data about the class.
85
Q

Chapter 11 - Documenting and Modelling Requirements

Describe the Product Backlog in modelling and documentation in an Agile environment.

A
  • An initial set of general and technical requirements, possibly using elements of the requirements catalogue template.
  • A context diagram to represent the place of the solution within the business context.
  • A use case diagram with business staff to offer a clear view of the overall scope of the solution and its required features.
86
Q

Chapter 11 - Documenting and Modelling Requirements

Define the structure of the business requirements document.

A
  • Introduction and background
  • Business process models (As-is/to-be)
  • Function models (context/use case)
  • Data Models (ERD or class models)
  • Requirements Catalogue / User Story Backlog
  • Glossary of Terms
87
Q

Chapter 12 - Validating and Managing Requirements

Describe the 2 types of requirements validation.

A
  • Format requirements validation.

* The activities in the Agile requirements validation process.

88
Q

Chapter 12 - Validating and Managing Requirements

Describe the following aspects of requirements management.

A
  • Traceability - we must know the origin of the requirements to enable ‘backward’ traceability. When considering changes to the requirements, the source can help to clarify the impact of the change and as a result help with the decision about the change.
  • Change Control
  • Document the proposed change ‘change request’
  • Analyse the proposed change
  • Consult the stakeholders
  • Deciding on the change
89
Q

Chapter 12 - Validating and Managing Requirements

Describe the 2 types of requirements validation.

A
  • Formal requirements validation.

* The activities in the Agile requirements validation process.

90
Q

Chapter 13 - Delivering the Requirements

Describe the 4 types of delivery lifecycle.

A
  • The waterfall lifecycle.
  • The ‘V’ model.
  • The incremental lifecycle.
  • The stages of the iterative lifecycle (Agile)
  • Create a new card for each (advantages and disadvantages)
91
Q

Chapter 13 - Delivering the Requirements

Explain advantages and disadvantages of the Waterfall lifecycle.

A

Disadvantages

  • not good for changing, unstable requirements
  • Not suited to unpacking complexity
  • Change is hard/costly to accommodate
  • Not time to define all requirements at the outset
  • Business Users may not know what they want
  • pace of change is so rapid it outstrips the flow of the waterfall lifecycle

Advantages

  • Gated, between stages - move forward when 100% sure
  • Good when requirements are relatively well known and static
  • Firm and clear management of the project
92
Q

Chapter 13 - Delivering the Requirements

Explain advantages and disadvantages of the Extended V-Model lifecycle.

A

Advantages

  • Version of waterfall
  • More quality orientated
  • Role clarity
93
Q

Chapter 13 - Delivering the Requirements

Explain advantages and disadvantages of the Incremental Delivery lifecycle.

A

Advantages

  • Elements of waterfall
  • Development of implementation broken into increments, some based on urgency
  • Increments are/can be delivered
  • Opportunity to manage change better (feedback loop plus incremental delivery)
94
Q

Chapter 13 - Delivering the Requirements

Explain advantages and disadvantages of the Iterative lifecycle.

A

Advantages
- Evolutionary - Detailed requirements are evolved through a series of iterative prototyping development stages.
- Empowerment and Collaboration - Fundamental requirement that the team, including business staff and IT developers, are empowered to make decisions during the software development and work as a collaborative team.
- Fitness for purpose - The deliverables are required to be fit for purpose rather than aligned slavishly with a set of defined requirements.
- Testing all the time - testing is an integral part of the iterative development approach so the software should be tested continuously. Use of automated testing tools.
- Re-factoring - Iterative development adopts an exploratory approach so any work may be reversed if it does not add value. This is not perceived as being a mistake or waste of time but instead as an integral part of the iterative process.
- Incremental delivery - The system is likely to be developed in increments, with each subsequent increment providing additional functionality or improved performance.
Prioritisation - An approach such as MoSCoW is used to identify the different levels of priority amongst the features to be delivered.
- Timeboxing - The concept of a ‘timebox’ whereby time limit is set, at the outset, for the development of part of the system.

95
Q

Chapter 14 - Delivering the Business Solution

Explain the role of the business analyst in the business change lifecycle.

A

Alignment - ensuring the organisations objectives and strategy are aligned with the external business world and that any changes to this environment are considered and, if appropriate, accommodated. Alignment with internal policies and architectures.
Definition - taking a closer look at a proposed business situation in order to uncover root cause of problems, conduct a thorough analysis, recommend relevant feasible changes and define requirements.
Design - detailed specification development and testing of the solution, including business processes and related tasks, and the software that is needed to support them.
Implementation - planning preparation and deployment of the business changes.
Realisation - review of the predicted business benefits with a view to identifying those that have been achieved and identifying where further action is needed to achieve those benefits still to be realised.

96
Q

Chapter 14 - Delivering the Business Solution

Describe the role of the business analyst during the design stage.

A
  • Design
  • The requirements documentation produced by the business analyst provides a basis for the design of the software product. During design, the business analysts:
  • facilitate communication between the business and technical staff to help ensure that the requirements are clearly understood;
  • where required, develop models and enhance documentation to ensure that there is clarity and consistency;
  • clarify aspects relating to some requirements, possibly by applying techniques such as scenario and impact analysis;
  • work with solution architects to ensure that the information and technology requirements will be fulfilled successfully.
97
Q

Chapter 14 - Delivering the Business Solution

Describe the role of the business analyst during the development stage.

A

The business analyst work with the business staff and development team to help with any detailed queries about the requirements and to support them in making decisions about the software functionality. Given that business analysts have an overall understanding of the solution, they can offer a vital service during this discussion as they are able to assess the impact of proposed software features across the holistic solution, identifying where there may be problems and suggesting alternatives.

98
Q

Chapter 14 - Delivering the Business Solution

Describe the role of the business analyst during the testing stage.

A
  • User acceptance testing is an accepted business analysis service. Once the software has been developed and tested by the IT team, business analysts provide support to the business staff as they undertake the user acceptance testing. The business analysts define the acceptance criteria used to confirm a requirement has been met, within the user stories, use case descriptions and requirements catalogue. They also use a variety of techniques to define test cases and test scenarios, including the following:
  • Use case description
  • Decision tables
  • State charts
99
Q

Chapter 14 - Delivering the Business Solution

Describe the SARAH model approach used in the implementation stage.

A 
S = Shock - initial reaction to a change initiative is often shock.
A = Anger - shock moves to anger as people begin to understand what the change may mean for them.
R = Rejection - when somebody feels angry about the change, the next stage is to reject the ideas and direction.
A = Acceptance - eventually an acceptance of the change develops.
H = Hope - ultimately, people begin to see the positive benefits brought about by the change.
100
Q

Chapter 14 - Delivering the Business Solution

Describe the purpose of the Business Readiness Assessment used in the implementation stage.

A 
C = Customer
P = Product
P = Process
O = Organisation
L = Location
D = Data
A = Application
T = Technology
101
Q

Chapter 14 - Delivering the Business Solution

Describe how the benefits plan is used in the realisation stage.

A

Benefits are likely to be realised if they are well defined, their delivery is planned and they are managed carefully throughout the business change lifecycle. However, it is often the case that a lot of thought goes into planning the technical aspects of change projects so that the solution is defined, developed and delivered successfully but there is less emphasis on how the expected business benefits are to be achieved. A comprehensive benefits plan that supplements the business case should be developed to provide a firm basis for tracking the business benefits and managing their realisation.

Contents:

  • Context/vision
  • Benefits profiles
  • Benefits dependency network
  • Responsibilities, benefit owners
  • Tracking procedures

Business Analysis Foundation (3 decks)

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