What Is Business Analysis Flashcards
What is the primary role of a Business Analyst?
To ensure alignment between business needs and business change solutions.
How does a Business Analyst act within an organization?
As a bridge between the IT team and the Business.
What is the focus of a Business Analyst during the business change lifecycle?
To uncover root causes of problems and align solutions with business needs.
What does the Alignment and Definition stage of the Business Change Lifecycle involve?
Analysis of the organization, its business needs, and requirements to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
What are the key activities in later business change activities?
Change design and development, business acceptance testing, post-implementation, benefits review, and realization.
List the potential areas of the Business Analyst role.
- Strategic analysis
- IT systems analysis
- Business analysis
What is the purpose of strategic analysis in the Business Analyst role?
To identify business transformation actions and support the execution of the organization’s business strategy.
What is the responsibility of systems analysts?
Identifying and specifying IT systems requirements in detail.
What qualities must a Business Analyst possess?
- Great verbal and written communication
- Tactful diplomacy
- Problem-solving skills
- Analytical thinking
Who are the Owners in a project context?
People who can enable a project to proceed or cancel it.
What is the role of a Sponsor in a project?
To back a program of change.
What does the POPIT model help a Business Analyst understand?
Where problems lie and what improvements might be possible.
What are the components of the POPIT model?
- Processes
- People
- Organization
- Information
- Technology
What is the rationale for conducting business analysis?
To find root causes, recognize business improvement, explore options, and identify feasible requirements.
What does PESTLE stand for in external environment analysis?
- Political
- Economic
- Socio-cultural
- Technological
- Legal
- Environmental
What is the purpose of SWOT analysis?
To assess the internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats of an organization.
What is the OSCAR mnemonic used for?
To clarify the terms of reference in a business analysis project.
What does OSCAR stand for?
- Objectives
- Scope
- Constraints
- Authority
- Resources
Define gap analysis.
Comparing the current state (‘as is’) with the desired future state (‘to be’).
What are some qualitative investigation techniques?
- Interviews
- Observation
- Workshops
- Brainstorming
What is a Rich Picture in business analysis?
An overview of the entire business situation, reflecting human characteristics and organizational culture.
What is the purpose of a Fish-bone diagram?
To identify underlying causes of inefficiencies or problems within a business process.
What is the Stakeholder Management Wheel used for?
To identify generic stakeholders that may apply to many projects.
What is the purpose of a Fish-bone diagram?
To identify underlying causes of inefficient processes or business problems
Also known as a cause-and-effect diagram.
What is vital in Stakeholder Analysis and Management?
Understanding who the stakeholders are and what they expect from the project
This helps in delivering solutions that meet stakeholder expectations.
What does the Stakeholder Management Wheel illustrate?
Generic stakeholders that may apply to many projects
Helps in identifying and managing stakeholder relationships.
What is the purpose of Power and Interest Classification?
To understand how to approach stakeholders based on their power and influence
Define Stakeholder Involvement using RACI charts.
Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed
These roles clarify stakeholder involvement in tasks.
What does CATWOE stand for?
Customer, Actors, Transformation, Worldwide, Owner, Environment
What is process mapping?
A collection of tools and methods used to understand an organization and its processes
List some benefits of using process maps.
- Visualizes processes for all
- Acts as a training tool
- Focuses stakeholders on the process
- Identifies opportunities for improvement
- Improves compliance with standards
What are the four levels of process mapping?
Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4
What does a Level 1 process map represent?
A very high-level overview of key activities in an organization
What is the focus of Level 2 process maps?
End-to-end processes across operational areas from the workers’ perspective
Describe a Level 3 process map.
Shows roles, inputs, outputs, and steps required to complete a specific process
What is a Level 4 process map?
Documentation of systems, instructions, and procedures for completing Level 3 processes
What is an ‘as is’ model in business process modeling?
A model that shows how the process currently works
What is GAP analysis?
A technique to determine steps needed to move from current state to desired future state
What are the steps involved in gap analysis?
- Listing current situation characteristics
- Listing needed factors for future objectives
- Highlighting gaps that exist
What is a Business Activity Model (BAM)?
A strategic view of high-level business activities from stakeholders’ perspectives
What are the five types of business activities in a BAM?
- Plan
- Enable
- Do
- Monitor
- Control
What is the role of business architecture?
To define processes and understand impacts of proposed changes
What does a RAID log document?
Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies
What additional elements does a CARDI log include?
Constraints
What are the typical problems with requirements?
- Lack of relevance to project objectives
- Lack of clarity
- Duplication and overlap
- Conflict between requirements
What techniques can be used to gather requirements?
- Document reviews
- Interviews/meetings
- Workshops
- Observations
What are Use Case diagrams used for?
To illustrate interactions between users and systems
What are the main components of a Use Case diagram?
- Boundary
- Actor
- Use case
What are the types of requirements?
- Functional Requirements
- Non-Functional Requirements
What is the focus of Functional Requirements?
What we expect the solution to do for us
What constraints do Non-Functional Requirements include?
- Performance
- Security
- Access
- Backup and recovery
What are functional requirements?
What we expect the solution to do for us.
What are non-functional requirements?
Constraints around the solution, such as speed, availability, and security.
List the types of functional requirements.
- Data entry
- Data maintenance
- Procedural
- Retrieval
List the types of non-functional requirements.
- Performance
- Security
- Access
- Backup and recovery
- Archiving and retention
- Business continuity
What should a requirements catalogue consist of?
- Requirement name
- Requirement description
- Source
- Owner
- Author
- Type of requirement
- Priority
- Business Area
- Stakeholders
- Associated non-functional requirements
- Acceptance criteria
- Related requirements
- Related documents
- Comments
- Rationale
- Resolution
- Version history
What is the MoSCoW prioritization model?
- Must have
- Should have
- Could have
- Won’t have
What are the qualities of a good requirement?
- Must be unambiguous
- Must be clear and concise
- Must be complete and consistent
- Should be simple and singular
- Must be testable
True or False: Stakeholders always have the same viewpoint.
False
What are the key components of requirements engineering?
- Requirements Gathering (Elicitation)
- Requirements Analysis
- Requirements Documentation
- Requirements Validation
- Requirements Management
What is the purpose of requirements filtering?
To examine the requirements and build a well-formed, clearly documented requirements set.
What aspects should be evaluated for feasibility?
- Technical feasibility
- Business feasibility
- Financial feasibility
What is the purpose of documenting requirements?
It is vital for the success of a project and helps prevent project failure due to lack of clear definitions.
What should be included in the introduction of a requirements document?
A description of the business situation and drivers for the project.
What are entity relationship diagrams used for?
To represent relationships between entities in a data model.
Define one-to-many relationships.
A relationship where one entity is associated with multiple entities.
Define one-to-one relationships.
A relationship where one entity is associated with exactly one other entity.
Define many-to-many relationships.
A relationship where multiple entities can be associated with multiple other entities.
What is the aim of the Waterfall method?
To produce a baselined set of good, complete, relevant well-formed requirements before a solution is specified.
What are the advantages of the Waterfall model?
- Simple and easy to understand
- Easy to manage due to rigidity
- Phases are processed one at a time
- Works well for smaller projects with well-understood requirements
What are the disadvantages of the Waterfall model?
- Difficult to change during testing stage
- No working software until late in the lifecycle
- High risk and uncertainty
- Poor for complex projects
- Not suitable for projects with changing requirements
List the stages of the Agile model.
- Identify options and feasibility
- Define and agree business requirements
- Elaborate solution requirements
- Engineer solution
- Deploy solution
- Evaluate solution
What are the advantages of the Agile model?
- Customer satisfaction through rapid delivery
- Emphasis on people and interactions
- Frequent delivery of working software
- Close cooperation between business and developers
- Regular adaptation to changes
What are the disadvantages of the Agile model?
- Difficult to assess effort for large software deliverables
- Lack of emphasis on design and documentation
- Can get off track without clear outcomes
- Requires experienced programmers for decision-making
What is the purpose of change control in project management?
To handle changes in requirements due to external or internal factors.
What is the first stage of the change control process?
Documenting a proposed change.
Fill in the blank: Agile offers an alternative philosophy rather than a _______.
[rigid methodology]
What is the role of a business analyst regarding stakeholder requirements?
To draw the threads together to create one central view of separate requirements.
