Bite sized training sessions Fundamentals of Business Analysis

Bite sized training sessions: Fundamentals of Business Analysis

Objectives • Analyse the reasons why the fundamental components of all Business Analysis tools and methods must be the same • Examine fundamental components of Business Analysis

Setting the scene: scope of the Business Analyst role There is a chain of reasoning that leads from the statement of a problem to the implementation of solutions… …involving up to Owners defines measures of success and $targets …Business Analysts confirm & document 10 groups of people… $Money! Strategists Sponsors establish a Programme that delivers the strategy …Business Analysts document Programme TOR and help build the Business Case determine the strategy to hit the targets …Business Analysts help do market research, create strategy, challenge & document Programme Managers Institute Projects that implement the programme …Business Analysts document the Project TOR Project Stakeholders …Business Analysts specify requirements for Projects (in the Business Model) Solution Builders build solution …Business Analysts protect requirements & document compromises Project managers Implement solution …Business Analysts help with -Process and data migration -Cutover planning -Rollout Design Analysts design solution that satisfies the requirements …Business Analysts write functional specifications, protect requirements & document compromises Solution Builders & Business test solution …Business Analysts ensure tested against requirements Users Accept solution …Business Analysts help with -$MEASURING $BENEFITS $REALISATION POST-IMPLEMENTATION Business Analysts feed back to the Owner how well their measure of success has been achieved

Chain Of Reasoning: Drivers Stakeholders Drivers Objectives Objectives Change Requirements Stakeholders Change Requirements Change Requirements must be assumed to be wrong until they are proved to be right

Scope of analysis of change requirements • Change requirements can be for (amongst others) – Processes – Organisation units – Locations – Channel – Data – Applications – Technologies – Non-functionals …oh – and the valid intersections!!!

Change Requirements Scope Example • • We need to change how we take orders (process)… …by the tele-orders team (organisation unit)… …at our Leeds contact centre (location)… …by phone or email (channel) …to capture alternate delivery addresses (data)… …on the Chordiant system (application)… …running on the intranet (technology)… …and make it available 24/7/365 (non-functional).

Fundamental Components of Business Analysis

All the Links in the Chain Of Reasoning Description The problems / opportunities that the business face Driver Addressed as measured by The measures and targets that will enable us to declare the change project has been successful Project Objective Delivered by Definitions of what changes are required that will affect the measures of success (objectives) sufficiently for the project to be declared successful Change Requirement Enforces What rules must be implemented by the changes specified in the Business requirements Rule

How to forge links in the Chain Of Reasoning Analysis products Problem / opportunity analysis Driver Addressed as measured by SMART objectives Project Objective Specific – there is a precise definition of the objective Measurable – there are units that the objective will be measured in Achievable – the measures can be achieved ‘in the real world’ Relevant –this project will actually affect this objective To-die-for – the project has failed if it does not achieve the objective Delivered by Business… Functional… Non-functional… Change Requirement …high level …mid level Enforces Process model Process specification Non-functional specifications Data model Attribute specification Business Rule …low level

All methods and all approaches HAVE to cover all links in the Chain Of Reasoning AKA… Driver Addressed as measured by Vision Benefit Target Problems Opportunities Threats Constraints Project Objective Delivered by Agile “product backlog” Change 7 types of ISEB requirements Requirement 6 types if IIBA requirements Enforces Agile “product backlog” More process and data modelling Business Rule than you can shake a stick at

EXAMPLE way of documenting… Problem / opportunity analysis Driver

EXAMPLE way of documenting… Problem / opportunity analysis Driver Addressed as measured by SMART objectives Project Objective

EXAMPLE way of documenting… Problem / opportunity analysis Driver Addressed as measured by SMART objectives Project Objective Delivered by Business… Functional… Non-functional… Change Requirement …high level …mid level

EXAMPLE way of documenting… Problem / opportunity analysis Driver Addressed as measured by SMART objectives Project Objective Delivered by Business… Functional… Non-functional… Change Requirement …high level …mid level Enforces Process model Process specification Non-functional specifications Data model Attribute specification Business Rule …low level

EXAMPLE PROCESS RULES A BA can request one of 4 types of support: 1. Phone or email based query about a specific point 2. Informal review of a project deliverable 3. Formal review of full set of project deliverables 4. Facilitated workshop of how to apply analysis to a specific project Process execution rules 1. In the case of phone or email query about a specific point the BA poses the question and the training provider will provide guidance for how the technicalities of Business Analysis apply to the problem Informal reviews of project deliverables will be done by email and will only discuss the technicalities of Business Analysis in relation to the document Formal reviews will involve the BA sending the full set of Analysis deliverables to the training provider who will critique them from a technical perspective and then deliver the feedback in a one-to-one structured feedback session on the client site Facilitated workshops will be initiated by the BA - the training provider will supply workshop agenda and prerequisites which the BA will use to organise the workshop. The training provider will then facilitate the workshop for the project. Time to start Training course BA requests support Provide BA support Conduct Training Analysis Phase Of Project concludes Process dependency rules 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Who is interacts with process Where they are Availability of process Volumetrics Performance of process Security & Authorisation levels Non-functional Rules Monitor Analysis quality

EXAMPLE DATA RULES Non-Functional Rules 1. 2. 3. Who is allowed access to the data? How long must this data be kept? How many instances of it must be supported? Course Data content rules Course. Start Date Definition: the date/time the course is scheduled to start Data type: Numeric Size: 12 Domain: Datetime Data rules: • Format is DD/MM/YYYY HH: MM • When created must be in the future • Cannot be a Saturday or Sunday or Bank Holiday Attributes 1. Name 2. Start Date 3. Course duration Attends Attributes 1. Name 2. Contact details Delegate receives Support Type Attributes 1. Name 2. Description Supplies Analysis Deliverable Attributes Data 1. Name 2. Content 3. Review feedback relationship rules

Conclusions • There is a chain of reasoning that leads from the statement of a problem to implemented solutions • It doesn’t matter how you get from problem to solution – what method or approach – but you will HAVE to… • Define the problem being fixed (drivers) • Define how you will know they have been fixed (objectives) • Define what has to change to achieve objectives (high level requirements) • Define how big the changes have to be to achieve objectives (scope) • Define what process changes are required (process requirements) • Define what data changes are required (data requirements)

BA Q&A (I) - TOR what factors caused this project to come in to being? Driver analysis how will you know the project has been successful? smart Objectives how big is the solution? scope what applications and technologies will the solution impact scope what data will be migrated? scope where will it be able to do it? scope where will the solution impact? scope who is impacted by the solution? scope What changes will the project make that will deliver the objectives? high level functional requirements what processes does the solution cover? scope & high level functional requirements what will the solution be able to do? high level functional requirements

BA Q&A (II) – Process & Data Models what is the process sequence of the solution? process models who is involved with each process models & process nonfunctional what are the rules that each process executes? process logic what data does each process need to be able to execute? process logic how fast will each process be? process non-functional how many transactions must each be able to perform? process non-functional where will each process be used? process non-functional who is allowed to use each process? process non-functional how are all the different sets of data related to each other? data model what needs to be known about each set of data? data attributes how long will data be kept? data non-functional how much data will be kept? data non-functional who can access what data? data non-functional

Questions?