Dokumen - Pub - Seven Steps To Mastering Business Analysis The Essentials Secondnbsped 9781604271607 1604271604
Dokumen - Pub - Seven Steps To Mastering Business Analysis The Essentials Secondnbsped 9781604271607 1604271604
Dokumen - Pub - Seven Steps To Mastering Business Analysis The Essentials Secondnbsped 9781604271607 1604271604
Mastering
Business Analysis
The Essentials
Second Edition
Jamie Champagne
CBAP®, PMP®, PMI-PBA®
Copyright © 2020 by J. Ross Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-1-60427-160-7
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This publication contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reprinted
material is used with permission, and sources are indicated. Reasonable effort has been made to publish
reliable data and information, but the author and the publisher cannot assume responsibility for the
validity of all materials or for the consequences of their use.
All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part thereof may be reproduced, stored in a re-
trieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record-
ing or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The copyright owner’s consent does not extend to copying for general distribution for promotion, for
creating new works, or for resale. Specific permission must be obtained from J. Ross Publishing for such
purposes.
Direct all inquiries to J. Ross Publishing, Inc., 300 S. Pine Island Rd., Suite 305, Plantation, FL 33324.
This series is for those interested in developing a career in business analysis. Each book
within the series will help practitioners develop the knowledge, skills, competencies,
and capabilities needed to master the typical business analysis career path. These in-
structional texts are designed for use in professional training, continuing education
courses, and self-learning.
iii
CONTENTS
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
About the International Institute of Business Analysis™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
WAV ™ Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
1 Your First Step—Understand Business Analysis: the Role and the Work Involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
v
vi Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Why Does a Business Analyst Need to Understand the Technical Environment? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Understand Technology but Do Not Talk like a Technologist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
What Does a Business Analyst Need to Know About Technology? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Software Development and Programming Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Software Development Methodologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
An Organization’s Formal Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
An Organization’s Informal Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Technical Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Key Technology Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Working with IT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Summary of Key Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Additional Reading and References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
PREFACE
INTENDED AUDIENCE
This book is intended for anyone who plans to, is already performing, or has found themselves thrust into
the wonderful world of business analysis. While many people who hold the title of BA will be able to lever-
age this book as the foundation of key concepts to support their analysis work, the content and structure
applies such that anyone who is doing analysis work and seeking to deliver greater value from current and
future efforts in their organization can leverage these essential concepts.
Also, those managers who find themselves leading a team of analysts who seek to deliver results will
better understand what can be expected from analysis work, along with the ideal career growth path for
xi
xii Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
those maturing analysts. This book will help them define the BA role and to realize the distinction be-
tween junior levels, mid-levels, and senior levels of business analysis performance. It will also lend itself to
helping define the expected responsibilities of anyone who will hold a title of analyst in an organization.
A theme that will be highlighted throughout this book is both the profession of business analysis and
the practice. The titled role of BA may come and go and shift and alter with the same fluid dynamics of
the constantly changing world around us, yet the essential skill sets presented here will remain valuable for
years to come. The most successful BAs today are going beyond simply asking why and following through
to ensure and validate the delivery of value. This book provides key concepts that remain the fundamental
skills that all analysts should grasp while walking you through how to grow and expand your reach in
business analysis.
organizations add value, we sometimes fail to measure (and therefore improve) our own performance.
Our quality of work will never get better if we always use the same approach and/or refuse to seriously
measure how we do things.
Chapter 1, Understand Business Analysis: the Role and the Work Involved, introduces you to business
analysis and the definition of the BA role. It explains the relationship to technology roles while also high-
lighting how the role has evolved in organizations. As an introduction to those seeking to learn more
about the role and possibly pursue the profession, this chapter presents questions for you to consider when
deciding whether or not the role is right for you. You will read about the potential career progressions that
a BA may take and delve into the key terms that BAs use to drive value on a daily basis.
Chapter 2, Know Your Audience, then brings in all of those people that the BA will find themselves
working with on their change efforts. What’s important here is that the chapter focuses on the similarities
and relationships that a BA will have with the PM and also the considerations when there is only one per-
son to fulfill both roles—as is too often the case, unfortunately. This chapter also highlights the definition
of subject matter experts (SMEs) and when they may or may not truly be an expert, along with what a BA
can do to best work with an SME in any situation. Once you know whom you will be working with, you
then need to consider how you are going to work with them. Teams today are often physically separated
and typically have cultural and language differences that must be taken into account in order to deliver
successful change efforts.
Chapter 3, Know Your Project, dives right in with understanding business cases that drive the decisions
to start projects. Since many BAs conduct project-based work, understanding both why and how those
projects are initiated is important in order to be successful. Significant here to the BA’s success is how they
align their work with different architectures (enterprise, information, technology) of the organization to
achieve maximum value from any change effort. This chapter then goes through all of the considerations
for a project’s initiation so that whether or not there is a PM assigned to manage the project, you will start
the effort headed in the right direction for success.
Chapter 4, Know Your Business Environment, details the business analysis world by taking a look at
how to understand the business environment, beginning with some useful elicitation techniques. The
elicitation techniques highlight traditional approaches such as reviewing documentation, observation,
and interviews while also introducing you to more modern approaches that include context diagrams,
collaboration games, and personas. This chapter also discusses the thought process that a BA should have
when it comes to understanding business processes. All of these techniques are key tools and approaches
that a BA needs to have in their toolbox to help implement successful change initiatives.
Chapter 5, Know Your Technical Environment, focuses on the importance of technology even if your BA
role is no longer found in the IT department. Almost every activity performed in an organization utilizes
or relies on technology in one shape or form. A BA can be more effective in identifying needs and offer-
ing possible solutions when they understand key technology areas from hardware and software to data,
usability, and testing. The emphasis here is not to become a programmer, but rather to emphasize how the
more you know about any given area, the more helpful a team member you can be in adding value. This
chapter also explains the different methodologies in use today that are no longer constrained to the tech-
nical teams, but apply to project-based work across organizations. Knowing these and their differences is
crucial to a BA when planning and defining your approach to analysis work.
Chapter 6, Know Your Requirements Analysis Techniques, details the analysis techniques that are
needed to deliver quality requirements. Categorization of requirements, both on traditional and agile or
xiv Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
adaptive methodologies, is provided to remind the BA that the work of requirements is to enable the
delivery of value. The rest of the chapter contains information that BAs will want to keep handy since it
walks them through a variety of the most common and powerful analysis techniques and presentation
formats.
Chapter 7, Increase Your Value, then balances the hard technical analysis skills with the softer personal
skills and qualities that a BA should possess in order to be an effective analyst. Time and relationship
management techniques coupled with strong communication skills are explained to highlight how valu-
able these traits are toward successfully helping organizations deliver valuable change. However, to be
an effective analyst, your own personal growth needs to be considered. This chapter addresses your own
analysis planning and improvement plans so that you will continue to grow and thrive in your business
analysis role.
This book would not have come about without the support of an amazing community, trusted colleagues,
and a wonderful family. The fantastic business analysis community, whom I have met through conferences
and events around the world and in my own Hawaiian backyard, is the reason I am able to write about this
topic and have been lucky enough to make a career out of it. I am fortunate enough that there are far more
amazing people in this growing community than there is space to thank them all; but know that every
single one of you are extremely appreciated and I am truly grateful.
I must give special thanks to Dr. Paul G. Schempp for mentoring and guiding me on this journey—
encouraging and motivating me to constantly do bigger and better things.
And, of course, grateful appreciation goes to my husband for supporting me in this endeavor and to
little baby bubbles who was kind enough to listen to my constant dictation and review sessions.
xv
ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL
INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS ANALYSIS™
The International Institute of Business Analysis™ (IIBA®) is a professional association dedicated to sup-
porting lifetime learning opportunities for business and professional success. Through a global network,
the IIBA connects with over 29,000 Members, more than 300 Corporate Members, and 120 Chapters. As
the recognized voice of the business analysis community, IIBA supports the recognition of the profession
and discipline and works to maintain the global standard for the practice and certifications. The IIBA
multi-level competency-based core BA certification program recognizes Business Analysis Professionals
knowledge and skills and supports their lifelong business analysis career progression. Each level includes its
own eligibility requirements and competency-based assessment (i.e., exam) and is aligned to A Guide to the
Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK® Guide).
IIBA®, the IIBA® logo, BABOK®, and Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® are registered trademarks
owned by the International Institute of Business Analysis in one or more countries. CCBA® and CBAP ®
are registered certification marks owned by International Institute of Business Analysis. Certified Business
Analysis Professional™, Certification of Capability in Business Analysis™, Entry Certificate in Business
Analysis™, ECBA™, Endorsed Education Provider™, EEP™ and the EEP logo are trademarks owned by the
International Institute of Business Analysis.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
xvii
At J. Ross Publishing we are committed to providing today’s professional with practical, hands-on tools
that enhance the learning experience and give readers an opportunity to apply what they have learned.
That is why we offer free ancillary materials available for download on this book and all participating
Web Added Value™ publications. These online resources may include interactive versions of the material
that appears in the book or supplemental templates, worksheets, models, plans, case studies, proposals,
spreadsheets and assessment tools, among other things. Whenever you see the WAV™ symbol in any of
our publications, it means bonus materials accompany the book and are available from the Web Added
Value Download Resource Center at www.jrosspub.com.
Downloads for Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis, The Essentials, 2nd Edition, include:
• A business analysis skill set check list (list of competencies discussed for self-assessment)
• A chart on how to work with various business analysis stakeholders
• A business analysis survey for those thinking of a career as a BA
• A matrix of techniques listed in the book mapped to tasks
CHAPTER 1
YOUR FIRST STEP—UNDERSTAND BUSINESS ANALYSIS:
THE ROLE AND THE WORK INVOLVED
This book is intended to help business analysts (BAs)—including aspiring BAs, those who are fairly new
to the profession, and professionals who are expected to perform the activities of a BA in addition to their
primary role—master the essentials. It is designed to also help those who are responsible for hiring or
managing BAs to gain a thorough understanding of the role and the work involved, along with identifying
the traits of people with the greatest potential of becoming highly successful. In addition, this book will
help executives gain an understanding and appreciation of the value this role can bring to an organization.
In order to master business analysis, you must first possess a clear and complete understanding of the
essential skills of a BA. Business analysis spans across all areas of organizations around the world today.
BAs perform activities ranging from basic problem solving to complex systems thinking and strategic
planning. The actual definition of the skill sets and techniques of analysis work is becoming more clear
and easier to reference, yet the role of those who are performing business analysis continues to change.
Our consideration of what makes a BA successful has greatly evolved over the years, yet fundamental
questions are still being asked, such as:
• Are BAs more than requirements experts?
• Are BAs only found in information technology (IT) departments?
• What skills and techniques do BAs need to grow in their profession and careers?
• What soft skills and characteristics do business analysts need in order to work in our dynamic en-
vironments of today and tomorrow?
This book aims to help you answer these questions while pushing you to consider what elements you enjoy
and really get satisfaction in performing well. There is passion needed to bring teams together, research
emerging technology, facilitate meaningful dialogues, analyze market trends and the competition, and
drive value-centered solutions. These abilities will all be covered in this book because they produce better
business outcomes—which is what great business analysis delivers to the organization.
1
2 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
analysis, though, remains focused on elicitation, analysis, validation, problem solving, and solution de-
livery throughout all manner of change efforts and project-based work.
These skills, which we will discuss throughout, remain relevant on various
“. . . provide
types of work in any organization and can easily translate from major IT proj-
continuous
ects to new market opportunities. All of these projects will frequently require
value to the
a change in process, utilize some form of technology, and even reorganize the organization.”
personnel structure, ensuring that business analysis skills will continuously
add value.
The role of the BA has matured to the point of being a defined profession, leading to organizations such
as the IIBA to specify the role and the skill set. However, with the definition of a BA being “anyone who
performs business analysis tasks” (IIBA 2015), this continues to leave room for many other roles to utilize
the same skill sets. PMs, systems analysts, software engineers, solution architects, product owners, and
strategic planners are all titled roles that utilize business analysis skill sets frequently. One might expect
(and even hope) that there are numerous roles around an organization that are performing tasks that drive
business value.
This might drive us back to the frustration of the challenge of defining the role, but it also opens up
opportunities for those wishing to pursue a business analysis career. IT professionals can continue their
business analysis roles on project-based work, sticking to a more breadth-wise knowledge of the organiza-
tion and IT functions so as to bring these two areas together. This also exposes the opportunity for a BA
to pursue a more concentrated knowledge in the IT field and pursue subject matter expertise knowledge
of various components of technology—i.e., networks and security, infrastructure, and even software and
development—while still growing his or her business analysis skill sets. Data analysts, solution architects,
and other subject matter expert (SME) roles become incredibly valuable to organizations as they are in-
timate enough with the technology to guide solution decisions while still keeping a keen awareness of
organizational goals and drivers so that the solutions are valuable to the organization. This same skill set is
just as applicable, if not more so, outside of the IT organizational structure. Financial analysis, marketing
analysis, and industry expertise are areas where BAs may not only pursue their passions, but also are find-
ing many titled BA positions. Again, these analytical people who get the stakeholders together to design
solutions in the best interest of the organization are some of its most valuable staff.
This explosion in the need for proficient analytical skills increases the opportunities for BAs. To aid
in this development, BAs now have teams and centers of excellence (COE) for business analysis. These
centers facilitate the creation of senior BAs and managers of BAs as positions that help to define a growth
model for BAs to consider when it comes to their own career planning.
BA Traits
Most people who are drawn to the business analysis profession have certain traits in common. Analysts
in general enjoy learning new things and have a natural curiosity. There is fundamental enjoyment in
problem solving. In addition, BAs have a rare combination of the ability to see the big picture (conceptual
thinking) while being very detail oriented. This combination of traits results in a successful BA. The people
skills necessary to be a successful BA are many and varied, yet are the most important. BAs need to enjoy
and be comfortable working with people. Stakeholders are often opinionated, narrowly focused, and easily
excitable; they may lose sight of the fact that the BA’s facilitation skills are his or
“Your facilitation her strongest asset when it comes to the solution goal. Strong communication
skills are your skills (both verbal and nonverbal), listening, and patience are a must. BAs must
strongest asset.” ask good questions and probe deeper for detailed information while keeping the
goal in mind. Leadership abilities, such as running successful meetings, encour-
aging team members, and supporting corporate goals, are common with suc-
cessful BAs. Again, the main focus is on working well with people, realizing that each person is different,
and understanding the need for diversity to help bring creative problem-solving solutions to the customer.
Your First Step—Understand Business Analysis: The Role and the Work Involved 5
When BAs apply their specific expertise of analysis, it will then drive their additional skill sets and
capabilities in order to deliver value. IT BAs and other technical analysts find value in understanding
today’s technology. Having a basic understanding of software development approaches, organizational IT
standards, data design, storage strategies, and software usability principles leads to better decision making
when the solutions include IT. If you are a specialized analyst, such as a data analyst or IT security analyst,
knowing the current trends, capabilities, experts, and competitors lends tremendous value in your role
on teams in order to leverage the technology. The same goes for those who focus on an aspect of business
such as financial analysis or other common business functions. Knowing the common tools, methodol-
ogies, and the ways they affect business decisions and outcomes are key areas of concentration in which
to build your skills. Having strong knowledge of the area you are working in allows you to utilize the
terminology and language of these functional teams and helps you facilitate targeted discussions. These
concentrated BAs often offer subject matter insight from their responsible areas on cross-collaborative
teams to help decisions and therefore solutions, quickly come to fruition.
More broad-based BAs seek to understand their industry, markets, and customer segments, along
with how their organizations create, deliver, maintain, and evolve value. These BAs seek to understand
methodologies that go beyond IT, project management, and business so that they know multiple ways
to approach problem solving. Systems thinking and understanding how processes are interrelated and
incorporated throughout an organization are key skills of these enterprise-level analysts. They must bring
together people from various areas of the organization and facilitate decisions by getting SMEs to provide
their valuable insight for the solution.
Regardless of your concentration or focus of business analysis work, as a BA professional, you must stay
abreast of current trends and capabilities and be able to communicate effectively with any type of team.
One of the most sought out skills in BAs is to be not only a quick learner, but also a constant learner. Since
the role of a BA requires so many different skills, most individuals in this role are constantly working on
improving and increasing their skill sets, learning new methodologies, exploring how various parts of the
organization operate, and looking for ways to expand their horizons. Effective BAs are always challenging
themselves to learn new techniques and improve their use of analysis tools.
BAs inside of business units were sophisticated users who were anxious to take advantage of new tech-
nology and were willing to look outside the enterprise for help. Their focus on reporting directly to a spe-
cific line of business in the organization led to some functional departments purchasing software packages
without consulting their own IT departments. Other BAs hired outside developers to create new soft-
ware. These stand-alone systems caused even more problems for IT, which was suddenly asked to support
software that it had not written or approved. Small independent databases popped up everywhere, with
inconsistent and often unprotected data. IT organizations realized that creating a BA role internally was
critical for continuing to support the business and stay in control of software applications. In addition,
as some software development projects were outsourced, the need for quality, detailed requirements, and
validation of deliverables became painfully obvious.
Several other factors have increased the need for and value of dedicated business analysis professionals.
The explosion of customer-facing web pages demanded an increase in the understanding of usability and
human factors in design. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) set quality standards
that must be adhered to when conducting international business. Carnegie Mellon University created
software development and organizational quality standards with CMMI® (Capability Maturity Model In-
tegration). Six Sigma has provided a disciplined, data-driven quality approach to process improvement
aimed at the near elimination of defects from every product, process, and transaction. Business process
management products are dedicated to improving efficiency and consistency at an enterprise-wide level.
Service-oriented architecture (SOA) encourages improvements in software design and reuse of system
components (called services).
All of these movements have been driven by frustration with the quality, timeliness, and applicability
of business support from technology groups. Many studies of software development failures show that
incomplete, incorrect, and missing requirements are the main reason for failures. And today, this focus on
providing solutions that meet and even delight customers has made it clear that the technology, product,
and solution development processes need a category of professionals who are dedicated to eliciting, ana-
lyzing, and utilizing requirements from an organization’s value perspective and who will make sure that
the business needs are met in the development and the solution.
From IT
BAs with an IT background tend to be analytical individuals who enjoy problem solving. They are attracted
to technical development because of its emphasis on solution design, logical thinking, and discipline. Sys-
tems analysis and design involves the same type of critical thinking skills as business analysis. These indi-
viduals are often strong designers and developers because of their inherent logical thinking patterns and
attention to detail. They are often promoted to more analytical roles because, in addition to their strong
problem-solving skills, they have strong communication skills. Many people in IT have experienced the
transition from being assigned a junior, task-focused position to a more concentrated system position,
and eventually evolving to recommending solutions from positions such as solution architects or technical
Your First Step—Understand Business Analysis: The Role and the Work Involved 7
designers. As the technical skills grow, often the interpersonal and communication skills grow as your
audience expands from a responsive nature to a proactive and driving role in IT.
I got to oversee a major enterprise IT program at an organization with my duties focused on the
technical setup and architecture so that staff could realize the benefits of the program. Even though
the system had been well set up, users were not taking advantage of it and were continuing to rely
on antiquated shared drives and e-mail. So I met with end users to ask them why they were not
using the program. They knew exactly how to use the features, but were not sure of the value of the
program for them. How could it help them do their jobs more successfully? Thus I had to be famil-
iar enough with the technology to explain what the program was capable of doing, but also had to
learn the specific business processes the end users were trying to accomplish. I had to show them
how to use the program with the goal of streamlining their processes, while also bringing back their
business requirements to the developers so that the program could be tailored for end users to gain
maximum value.
Often, new analysts with IT experience limit recommendations for potential solutions to software. They
may not consider process or organizational changes as effective methods for problem solving or under-
stand the time required to implement a change in business procedures when new software is deployed.
These analysts need to look for business solutions without assuming that technology is the answer to
every question. They need to learn to think like a business person, understand the goals of the enterprise,
and then adjust their view of technology to one that supports the business goals rather than drives them.
From Business
Individuals from business units have also moved into business analysis. In many cases, BAs who have
work experience have been acting as SMEs on projects, making them familiar with project structure and
requirements. These BAs bring a wealth of subject matter knowledge with them and are promoted within
the business line because of their intelligence and ability to see more than just their job. They often recom-
mend procedural or workflow changes to improve efficiency in their areas. In addition, they show strong
analytical and problem-solving skills within the business area, along with strong communication skills
with management and their coworkers.
While working on a marketing project, our team had a cross-functional mix of people from the IT, com-
pliance, communications, and marketing departments. The marketing team had the vision and idea
of what they wanted to create for their new product. Team members from IT, finance, and compliance
continued
8 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
were participating in order to bring their independent expertise to help shape the solution. There was
a marketing person (product manager) who was vital to this team. The product manager reported to
marketing but often worked with the customer and business market teams to ensure a customer-centric
approach. She would constantly ask great questions to clarify requirements as to whom our intended
audience was, how we were planning to differentiate this product, and how we would reach and engage
our customer even after release of the product. She would come to the team meetings with research as
to what our competitors had in the same market space, what was happening in similar markets across
the United States, and how the industry was engaging with our intended customer audience. Her lead-
ership and clarity of expectations helped bring the team together and allowed the functional SMEs of the
group to focus on their areas (e.g., IT was able to research appropriate technologies that would support
all the requirements). Again, her title was not that of a BA, but she contributed to the team the analytical
questions and mindset of a BA so that the solution would ultimately deliver value—or in this case, profits.
This is a great example of someone who brought the analytical problem-solving and communication skills
of a BA from the business perspective. When BAs follow this path, they can then choose to focus on spe-
cific business lines of operations or become SMEs that are typically required on projects. They can also
begin to expand their roles by taking these same skill sets and asking the questions of the organization as
a whole. These are often the analysts that eventually become enterprise BAs because they begin to look
at how products across the entire organization work together to drive organizational value. They grow
successful because they still continue to learn about IT development, financial analysis, human resources
talent management, and other areas of business while being able to converse openly and strategically with
business teams throughout the organization.
to articulate the importance of launching a change effort to correct the problem. Also, understanding the
competitive nature of a business unit, especially in the sales or marketing area, helps the analyst recognize
why new product ideas must get to market as soon as possible. There is usually a window of opportunity
that, if missed, will decrease the long-term sales of the product.
When a BA reports to a business unit, the challenge on project-based and cross-functional work be-
comes the ability to focus on solutions rather than simply the goals of the business unit. BAs must now not
only perform their business unit duties by reporting to their business managers, but they must also work
on the cross-functional teams and give their insights and recommendations as a piece of the overall puzzle
by also reporting to the PM or team lead. Those who focus on what is best for the organization rather than
their specific department often reveals your true BAs. These are those individuals who constantly look
CIO
App Solution
Technician Analyst Support Staff
Managers Architect
BA
PMO
Process
PM
BA Manager QA Manager SA Manager Improvement
Manager
Manager
PM PM Mid-level BA
BA Manager
for overall organizational value, regardless of the give-and-take of individual business units, as opposed to
those business unit analysts who only look to drive their specific functional line of work forward.
BAs who are working in IT will be much more aware of the technical environment, the availability of
new capabilities, other current projects that may be related, and, of course, how technology is developed
and maintained. This allows the BA to analyze and solve business problems from a strong technology
perspective. If a BA is sitting in an office next to someone at an IT help desk and hears that person voice
frustration every day because callers do not understand how to use a particular application, the analyst
is acutely aware of how much disruption this system problem is causing and is better able to articulate the
importance of launching a project to correct the problem. Also, understanding the architectural nature
of software helps to design better solutions that will interface smoothly with surrounding applications.
When BAs have a deep understanding of what is possible and what IT resources are available, they are able
to set more realistic expectations and help customers envision more powerful solutions.
When BAs report to IT management, they often have access to resources and technologies of which the
business unit may not even be aware. A challenge with this organizational structure is that IT may feel the
need to drive the business as opposed to the business driving the need, and ultimately, requirements. Or
worse yet, IT may feel that it should simply wait for the business to state its needs and then react—an all
too dire scenario for the business. It may be difficult for the BA to be an advocate for the business when
they report to and are paid by IT. This challenge for IT BAs is the same for business unit BAs who report to
and are paid by their respective business area. Both are trying to put organizational goals first by focusing
on overall solutions while still bringing the subject matter expertise needed on cross-functional teams.
As the role of the BA has been refined, the work of the position has grown. BAs in the business area of-
ten analyze problems before projects are identified, utilizing techniques such as root cause analysis. They
may identify potential solutions and perform cost/benefit analysis, developing a business case to gain
project funding. BAs in the IT area are typically assigned after a project has been approved and are focused
on learning the business requirements and making sure the technology solutions meet those needs. An
experienced, well-rounded BA could work in either arena effectively. Often this is when BAs are included
in the PMO. Here the BAs get the opportunity to help define business cases for future projects based on
the input from business units while also considering organizational needs. As projects are approved to
Your First Step—Understand Business Analysis: The Role and the Work Involved 11
move forward, the appropriate BA skill sets can be added to the project team to help drive execution of
the requirements while still keeping the overall organizational goals in mind. Further, having your BAs
involved at the enterprise level also creates the opportunity to look back at project outcomes and evaluate
if the most value for the organization is being achieved or whether more can be done.
A business analysis COE is a business unit expressly created to support individuals who are performing
business analysis work. The idea for this group comes from the PMO concept, but remains centered on
value generation. While often supporting project-based work, the scope can frequently expand to eval-
uating new markets, research and development, and optimizing existing solutions and practices (think
process improvement techniques). The advantage of having a department that is expressly focused on
business analysis work is that the best practices and guidelines are more easily standardized and available
for the entire enterprise. Business analysis professionals share lessons learned from their work to improve
future work. BAs have support and guidance from other BAs.
A business analysis COE supports business analysis professionals by providing a list of approved
analysis techniques with diagramming and naming standards—not for the sake of compliance and
structure, but rather to give a basis where reuse and evolution of foundational concepts can be em-
ployed. A mature COE may provide analysts with software tools to support the development of require-
ments, requirements management, and requirements tracing. For those performing business analysis,
these tools enable them to not have to start from scratch, but can leverage the established processes and
value creation methods already in place at the organization. The center becomes the place to start for
new BAs to work within the organization while leveraging and encouraging continuous improvement
of seasoned BA expertise.
Managers who are considering reporting lines in their organization should weigh the advantages and
challenges of each option. These decisions depend on the enterprise philosophy toward business analysis
work and the organizational culture. Consider who is driving the development of new solutions: market-
ing? sales? IT? Where do your projects and change efforts start? How well are the projects completed and
reflected upon? Consider how well the value of business analysis work is understood by the organization.
BAs can demonstrate their value quickly regardless of where they report as long as they are given the time
and resources necessary to elicit and develop quality requirements.
techniques to new environments and actually evolve their talents and outcomes. They do not start out
playing Chopin—they often start out with Row, Row, Row Your Boat!
Similarly, a BA must start by learning the basics:
• What is a need?
• What is a requirement?
• What techniques are used to define, elicit, analyze, and present requirements?
• What are stakeholders and what is my responsibility toward them?
• How are business problems solved?
• What methodologies, approaches, and technologies are available?
• How do I obtain and then utilize feedback?
The BA puts all of this knowledge together regarding a project or initiative (hopefully a small, simple one
at first) in order to perform business analysis. The basics of business analysis are: an understanding of the
role of the BA, understanding requirements, scoping solutions, and learning to think analytically and crit-
ically while learning the techniques to perform each of these tasks well (see Figure 1.4).
There will be missed notes along the way. There will be hesitations and stalls as the BA works his or her
way through the organizational maze. Have you ever listened to someone who is just learning to play the
piano? It can be painful on the ears! They are encouraged to practice alone. But the best way for BAs to
practice is on real projects, right in front of everyone. And this is part of being a BA—immediate feedback
BA Role
Analysis
that drives improvement of not only the project or initiative, but also yourself and your career. See Chap-
ter 7 for more on measuring and improving your skills.
As with any complex work, there are always prodigies. Mozart started playing piano at the age of four
and by the age of six, he was accomplished and giving performances. There are some individuals for
whom analysis, problem solving, and solution design are as natural as walking. There are also individuals
for whom asking questions and probing for detailed information are part of every interaction. These in-
dividuals are natural-born analysts and will quickly develop into very successful BAs as they learn formal
techniques and guidelines within which to harness their talents.
Understanding the development of a business analysis professional and his or her maturity level is very
important for managers/PMs who are assigning resources. If possible, new BAs should be allowed to work
with experienced BAs who can coach and mentor them through their first few assignments and change
efforts. Quality training in analysis techniques and communication and collaboration skills should be
provided. Ideally, those pursuing BA careers should have an intern period at their organizations, almost
like doctors, where they are guided and supervised by an experienced BA, before they are left on their
own. Support, help, and guidance for new BAs will best help them develop their skills. Experienced ana-
lysts often require little supervision. Learn to recognize prodigies who may not produce a requirements
deliverable exactly according to standards but will probably have an excellent vision of a possible solution.
The best part I enjoy about being a BA is getting to work in multiple industries and lines of business. I
was on an IT team where I was given one of those fun “specialist” titles that more or less feels like the
popular “analyst” title that every other person at an organization has. I was hired to help with the training
on an enterprise collaboration tool. The more I trained others, the more I learned about the system. I was
also the help desk for the system, so the more questions I answered, the more I got to know the users
and what they were trying to do with the system. With time, I began to offer up ideas to the users about
ways to automate other processes they were doing manually or to show them ideas as to how the system
might be able to help them. This evolved my role into being more focused on solutions. Management en-
joyed the expanded work that users were conducting and wanted to expand the system. To do this, clear
requirements needed to be defined for the offshore development team. I was excited for the detailed
analysis and quickly jumped into the team. I got great feedback on my analysis skills concerning the way
the development team was able to quickly and easily work with our organization’s project team. Overall,
it was a great experience to build both my technical and analytical skills.
While still working with enterprise collaboration systems, I was moved to the planning department
where my functions were still the same—deliver value to the users through the best use of the system. My
experience with the system left me comfortable enough to focus more on the users and to learn the dif-
ferent approaches from a larger user base rather than worrying about how the system functions. Here, my
communication skills really got a workout and helped further my BA competencies. When I then shifted
entire industries—again to support enterprise collaboration systems—I could bring my experience to the
IT teams on defining the relationship we needed with business to be effective. The more I worked out-
side the department I was reporting to, the more I learned the business of the organization, how things
worked, and what perspective the users (employees and external customers) were focused on. It was
then easy to shift to an enterprise analysis role where I was no longer system specific, but could widen
my scope to really look for organizational challenges and figure out how to best approach solutions.
Your First Step—Understand Business Analysis: The Role and the Work Involved 15
Many others have had similar growth patterns that stem from paying attention to what they enjoy doing
when performing analytical work, drawing out information from users, learning about new and emerging
technology, and understanding how businesses deliver value. These are skill sets that allow you to evolve
your analysis career in both breadth and depth as well as industries and environments.
BA Suitability Questionnaire
This may seem obvious, but if you are more interested in being a BA than simply having the title of
“analyst” at an organization, paying attention is an important factor to really drive your career. Focus-
ing on business goals and value helps you deliver strong measurable results, but they come with work
and effort and a commitment to constantly learning and utilizing different techniques while remaining
flexible. The road to becoming a successful senior BA is one that is filled with constant learning from
challenges and from working with all kinds of stakeholders, industries, technologies, and even entire orga-
nizational re-designs.
If you have found yourself wearing the title of BA without understanding what the role involves or have
simply been “promoted” into the role by managers who do not understand the skills and characteristics
required, then this is your opportunity to decide to learn and grow the role as it is being described here.
If you are not interested in the problem solving and the ever-changing solution opportunities you could
create, you might consider a change in title that reflects the tasks that you enjoy.
For those who are curious about the BA role (and yes, this is a natural tendency of BAs), the upcoming
questions are intended to help you to determine if the BA role is appropriate for you and how well-suited
you are to the profession. Use these questions to honestly assess yourself. That is something BAs do quite
frequently—they create assessments, do the work, evaluate the results against the assessment, and then
define improvement plans and ways to leverage their success. These questions can be answered by anyone
who is interested in or working in the business analysis profession. If you are feeling frustrated in your
role, you may find out that you are not well-suited for it. If you are well-suited to the role but are having
difficulty being successful, it is likely that the role is not being supported adequately by your organization.
This questionnaire could also be used by career development managers to assess an individual’s interest
in moving into the business analysis profession. As you read each statement, decide whether you agree or
disagree.
Suitability Questionnaire
1. I enjoy organizing information. My personal finances are filed and easy to reference.
2. I enjoy, and am good at, preparing documents that are clear and easy to review.
3. I am good at drawing diagrams (e.g., maps, floor plans).
4. I am able to simplify a complex topic.
5. I have a list of tasks that I need to complete daily.
6. I enjoy learning new technologies and techniques. I am very curious.
7. I love problem solving. I enjoy puzzles and logic games.
8. I really enjoy getting into details.
9. I can step back and see the big picture.
10. I am able to motivate myself to get work done.
11. I appreciate constructive criticism and feedback so that I can improve myself.
16 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
And remember, if you do any sort of self-assessment, how you perceive yourself is often very different
from how others perceive you. And that perception by others varies with different projects and types
of work. You might be very driven and focused when completing your own tasks, but then very ana-
lytical and reserved when working with stakeholders in order to understand their challenges. Taking
multiple assessments—from DISC® to Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) to even organizational or
team-created assessments—are ways to continuously look at yourself from new perspectives and see what
opportunities might be possible.
BA Career Progression
Having experience with the various business units in an organization can provide you with a breadth of
knowledge in the industry of your organization. For example, if you have years of business experience in a
financial company and decide to change jobs, you are likely to move to another financial company because
your knowledge of the industry is valuable regardless of whether or not the new position is in the same
business area. BAs with this kind of industry experience and knowledge will also be excellent candidates
for business consulting roles because they are often able to see how processes function across the organi-
zation. These individuals will be valuable as executive managers in their area of expertise because of their
understanding of the business issues and their analytical capacity to imagine and implement solutions. If
a BA is interested in moving into management, their experience will easily transfer to more strategic posi-
tions in the enterprise. Their skills will grow as they deepen their industry knowledge.
BAs who have IT, marketing, or other functional area positions may find themselves moving in slightly
different career paths. Your functional expertise continues to grow in depth the more projects that you are
involved in, the more opportunities you have to improve daily operations, and the more chances you have
to bring in new ideas and technologies that are applicable in your business domain. Growth in your line of
business can easily lead to management positions since you know the value of the roles that your team pro-
vides. Your communication skills also expand since you have to articulate the value of the SME knowledge
that you bring to cross-functional change work. And those communication skills transfer appropriately to
consulting careers where you need to bring solutions based on your expertise—solutions that can benefit
the organization. This focus on a business line also gives you a great opportunity to learn new industries,
as the concepts you bring are still applicable to most organizations regardless of industry. And even better,
you get to learn about new industries, further enhancing your skills and experience.
To successfully understand the business requirements without having worked in the business unit re-
quires a person who can learn quickly and can imagine a situation without actually having been in it.
These individuals must understand business requirements at a high level and translate them into solutions
with valuable insight from their experience. When your focus shifts to providing business value to the
organization regardless of functional area ownership, there is often a natural transition to project-based
teams. Those analysts who want to ensure every effort delivers value and work to prove the value of those
efforts naturally progress to enterprise BAs—either in PMOs or enterprise business analysis teams. And if
you are determined to drive that solution to completion, a project-based BA is a great fit because of your
goal-oriented approach. It allows you to identify and leverage the requirements in order to validate that
your solutions are adding value.
There are different types of business analysis work, and the people who perform it do not have exactly
the same skills. A large organization may have many individuals doing different types of business analysis
18 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
work. Recognizing that the organization will benefit from a variety of analyst roles often leads to a set of
job descriptions, titles, and career paths supporting business analysis professionals. Formally creating pro-
fessional standards for business analysis work is one of the goals of organizations like the IIBA and PMI.
Experienced BAs are committed to elevating the profession, setting professional standards, and bringing
recognition to the role. The more well-defined the positions and job descriptions, the easier it will be for
professionals to find the appropriate positions for their skill sets and their interests.
One of the best things you can do to progress your career into business analysis whether you are a new
BA or you have been working in an organization for a while is to find a mentor—formal or informal—and
utilize that person at every opportunity. Do not be afraid to ask for help and direction, or even better, to
bounce ideas off of them regarding ways to utilize techniques and approach dif-
“Find a mentor—and ferent stakeholder groups. Seek out people who are BAs in multiple areas of busi-
utilize that person at ness, industries, and even titles (again, capable BAs love to research and learn as
every opportunity.” much as they can about a subject). Mentors can be one of the best assets in a BA’s
toolkit. They will expand your techniques, outlook, and perspectives on business
aspects that may be hard to accomplish naturally.
What Is a Requirement?
The word requirement is the most important word in business analysis work. BAs must understand the
uses of this term. In the industry, the word requirement is used inconsistently and can mean various things
to different people so having a solid foundation to rely on allows you to pull out
the true requirements from any conversation. One of the best definitions to date
“The IIBA defines a
requirement as a
has come from the IIBA Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK ® Guide
usable representa- 2015) which states that a requirement is a usable representation of a need. Your
tion of a need.” job is to dig out the true need—not the want—and articulate it in such a way
that everyone involved sees the same picture/representation of the end
solution.
Your First Step—Understand Business Analysis: The Role and the Work Involved 19
However, take note of the fact that this definition—as well as others by PMI and the Institute of Electri-
cal and Electronics Engineers—do not say anything about the format or representation of the requirement.
Analysts are free to represent it in any way that clearly communicates the need. This is why creativity is
especially important as the business environments, technologies, customers, and solutions themselves
rapidly evolve. The ability to focus on solutions regardless of methodology is part of your requirements
analysis skill set. There is also no definition of who owns or manages the requirement. This is where your
communication and facilitation skills come into play—to focus on why the requirement is important and
what value it adds to the effort at hand, the solution (once it is deployed), and even future efforts for reuse.
A requirement can be documented and presented as a(n):
• Sentence (The system shall . . .)
• Structured sentence (as in a business rule)
• Structured text template
• Table or spreadsheet
• Diagram (workflow)
• Model (diagram with associated details)
• Prototype or simulation
• Graph
• Storyboard
• Any other format that communicates
Remember that a requirement has to be usable, thus, the format chosen should be one that makes it easiest
for someone to use the requirement. The format or representation does not qualify it as a requirement;
it is the intent and the stakeholder need that make it a requirement. You will find your stakeholders
interchanging other words such as specification or functionality when describing requirements and design
components. And that is okay if it works. However, be careful that someone does not use the word need
when articulating a want. Make sure the requirement is actually required.
Since the definition of requirement is so broad, it is helpful to think of requirements in terms of cate-
gories or components. These core requirements components are the building blocks upon which complex
business areas and systems can be described. You might compare them to the letters of the alphabet:
understanding the letters and how they can be combined into words allows you to make sentences and
communicate difficult ideas and concepts.
Business Rules
Information Processes
(Data, Entities, (Activities or
Attributes) Procedures)
People
(External Agents
or Actors)
Information: Processes:
• Products for • Order from
sale suppliers
• Prices • Sell to customers
• Inventory • Calculate total
• Tax rate order
People:
• Supplier
• Customer
• Government
By breaking requirements into their core components, BAs begin to see the business more analytically.
They can identify specific parts of the business that may need improvement and develop more specific
questions to get more detailed requirements.
technology departments often had the same challenge: seeing exciting IT solutions but not knowing how
to get the business to buy-in—thus enters the BA.
In today’s world, requirements must be understood by all team members who will not only use them,
but also will be affected by them. Ideally, the BA will be able to express the requirements in a format and
style so that everyone on the team sees the same outcome. This is the reason why expressing require-
ments in text is sometimes discouraged. Using text requires both audiences to share an understanding
of terminology that must be very exact. For finance people to learn IT language or for IT people to learn
marketing language (and so on) is not necessarily of value to the participants. However, understanding the
expectations and opportunities identified by various team members leads the team to successful solutions.
Business analysis professionals should have the skills necessary to present requirements in visual formats
that can be clearly understood by all parties. Customize the presentation of the same information based on
the audience that will be utilizing it—in this way, the requirement itself is never lost, but can be split log-
ically or summarized as the audience dictates. Again, whenever there is lack of clarity and team members
do not understand each other, this creates an opportunity for the BA to utilize his or her skills by defining
the requirements with various details so that everyone understands not only their own role, but the bigger
picture into which they fit.
An example of diagrams helping to define the requirements can be found in a user experience with
technology. In the process of designing an app, marketing may have great ideas, but deliver you vague re-
quirements such as “user-friendly,” “easy-to-use,” and “eye-catching.” If you handed these over as-is to the
development and communication teams, do you think they would all have the same representation of the
final product? The answer is—probably not. The BA’s job, in this case, is more valuable than simply trans-
lating business requirements down to technical requirements. BAs must help articulate the features that
drive value and initiate the discussion on options that allow technical teams to create solutions from their
experience rather than being told how to program. They help articulate the functionality that will drive
the user experience as described. In the discussion, they then create process maps that walk the customer
through the entire experience from start to finish—not only explaining expected behavior to technical
teams, but also supporting communications, training the help desk staff on how to troubleshoot, and
identifying marketing opportunity points. There should also be records establishing when the product is
to be upgraded or changed, giving you a starting point to work with. Of course, you always want to con-
sider your environment, the project approach, and what your teams need in order to deliver value. Some
teams will need very detailed descriptions to use for testing and validation when it comes to addressing
specific regulatory requirements. Other teams are looking for the vision from the product owner and are
excited to deliver ideas for feedback. The skill set of experienced BAs lies in helping to ensure that require-
ments are detailed to the level required of those delivering the solution. You will need to adjust your ap-
proaches, techniques, and deliverables based on what is most needed of your team and the current
challenge while always thinking of how to leverage your efforts for additional future value.
goes into the decision to do projects or the operational activities to keep a business functioning. Projects,
regardless of their level of technology involvement, are funded to accomplish a specific objective. Once
the project goals have been accomplished, a project is complete. The challenge is that many organizations
will do initiatives or other endeavors and not realize they are projects. Sometimes efforts on a smaller level
are called projects, even if managed completely by the person responsible for doing and delivering the
work. BAs get the opportunity to be assigned as a resource or even to drive the work on all these levels.
This takes us back to why business analysis has such a broad definition. You may help problem solve an
existing operational issue (operational work), be assigned as a key resource to help deliver a new product
or service (project-based work), or may even find yourself helping with business case development and
market analysis (strategic analysis).
What Is a Product?
Business analysis work is concerned with products that deliver value. To ensure that appropriate value is
constantly being achieved in an organization, many projects are undertaken to create, implement, change,
or even retire obsolete or inefficient products. The challenge is to see that products today are not always
tangible and money-generating items. “Products” are also processes, market share, brand awareness,
employee engagement, and investments; items that BAs will need to incorporate and leverage into the
organization’s business model to drive value. Projects will have a specific and limited scope. Products
have larger visions that evolve and change. It is important for BAs to understand the concepts of project
and product—and be able to differentiate between the two so that you know how best to facilitate that
continued value.
What Is a Solution?
A solution is a specific way of satisfying one or more needs in context (IIBA 2015).
“The IIBA defines a This is the main focus of business analysis in providing solutions, not simply
solution as a specific a product. A product can still address the needs, but the solution will include
way of satisfying training, communication, customer feedback, and continuous improvement to
one or more needs ensure that the organization gets the value it needs from that product. Having
in context.” a keen focus on solutions by validating that the value is achieved is what makes
BAs so valuable. This is often the argument when it comes to why managers
should hire BAs from in-house. BAs constantly look at solutions, whereas many
consultants simply provide products or only the deliverables listed in a statement of work. There are pro-
cess changes and other incorporation tasks that have to be done to a product in order for it to work well in
an organization. The BA helps follow and facilitate the project to deliver products that are true solutions
for the organization.
Your First Step—Understand Business Analysis: The Role and the Work Involved 25
Have you ever had to upgrade your smart device (such as a cell phone) or even upgrade an app? Peo-
ple typically just accept the disclaimer message and move on in order to hurry up and get the newer
product—ignoring the recommended link to learn more about the upgrade. You then turn on your cell
phone, for example, and find that the features that you previously accessed from the home page are no
longer there. You start trying to find them and only get frustrated. These “disappearing features” typically
happen when those behind the update decide to make simple changes without considering the entire
user journey—what may happen and who else may be affected. When you go online to search for where
your features went, the first results are news articles of what changed in the update and how to use the
new features. Then finally you’ll find a page that explains where the old features are (though maybe the
project team should have considered if you skipped the helpful links reference . . .).
Now consider a user experience where a BA had helped the project team consider not only the changes
but also how to communicate with the public concerning those changes. Marketing requirements in-
cluded use of all communication channels, including social media and videos, to help advertise the new
features and how to find the old ones. Call centers and retailers were given advanced information on the
changes, scripts, and instruction guides so as to help their customers when asked. User manuals were
updated with a history of changes recorded for reference and even feedback opportunities were incorpo-
rated into the design so as to decide how it would be best to consider future upgrades that would change
the development process itself. The BA gives the cross-functional view, stakeholder analysis, and sce-
narios to help the project team think through the initial changes and prepare itself for continued value.
Traditionally, IT analysts have focused on software as the solution and often underestimated the signif-
icance of the business changes that must be made to accommodate new software. BAs are in the unique
position to understand the ramifications of a change to the entire business area. As can be seen, the evolv-
ing business analysis professional is working to broaden the perspective by acknowledging that software
is often a part of the solution, but it must be combined with procedural and organizational changes to
effectively improve the business.
BAs must approach each assignment with an open mind—even when someone has already recom-
mended a solution. Focus on the need. A need can have many solutions; however, a solution itself is
only one option. The act of analyzing prevents jumping to conclusions or choosing a solution until you
completely understand the problem or opportunity and have considered all the ways in which you may
address the need. Each element and even product possibility may produce the solution that your organi-
zation ultimately needs.
What Is a Deliverable?
Understanding deliverables is important to any change effort, particularly project-based work. Deliver-
ables are any unique or verifiable work product or service that a party has agreed to deliver (IIBA 2015).
These often help you answer the question: are we done yet? Since it is a distinct piece of work, you can
verify the item. Be comfortable with the goal of the deliverables because stakeholders can often misuse
26 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
or even overuse the term due to a misunderstood definition, so it is important to ensure that everyone
is on the same page.
Deliverables are the separate items that contain some value but ensure overall value of the solution is
achieved. BAs use traceability with deliverables to help validate that the solution is delivered (see Chap-
ter 6 for more on traceability). When you have verified that all of the deliverables are completed (i.e.,
delivered) then you can usually verify that the solution is delivered. Examples of deliverables include a
workflow diagram delivered to a stakeholder for review and approval, a staffing matrix delivered to HR
for review and feedback, a training plan with identified resources delivered to the team to coordinate,
a database design delivered to a database administrator with the expectation that they will create a new
database, and a new data entry screen delivered to software users to improve their process efficiency. It
can help you on project work to distinguish the type of deliverable and then help assign ownership. For
example, business analysis professionals create requirements deliverables for their stakeholders to con-
firm their understanding of requirements, get approvals, communicate requirements to various team
members, communicate needs to vendors, and validate solution components. BAs will have business
analysis deliverables that will include requirements documentation, process maps, and other outputs of
analysis activities that are discussed in more detail throughout the remaining chapters of this book.
Some organizations have formal structures and formats for producing business analysis deliverables
that might include requirements tools, repositories, and templates. Different methodologies also have
preferences on the type and format of expected business analysis deliverables, such as user stories on
agile projects. BAs must be aware of the mandatory and recommended requirements deliverables for the
organizations that they are working with and also for each particular project or change effort. In addition,
the BA may decide to create other deliverables in order to present requirements that are not completely
represented by traditional techniques. BAs need to pay attention to the needs of their teams and produce
the appropriate business analysis deliverables that continue to drive the delivery of value. This focus allows
them the flexibility and creativity to adjust their approach based on each change effort. Open communi-
cation with your team to explain how you aim to help achieve the goals is required, but can be as simple
as talking and planning with your PM or business units.
Be aware that when you use the word system alone, your audience will envision something based on
their background and experience. If you are talking with an IT person, they will think software. An elec-
trical engineer will think electrical system. A business person will think about a business system. Use the
word “system” carefully and with a specific purpose.
It Depends
One of the most common phrases that business analysis professionals use is it
depends. Much of business analysis work is complex, abstract, and dependent “It depends!”
on current circumstances. When a BA is asked about a recommendation for a
particular approach or analysis technique, often they will start the answer with,
“It depends.” Every situation is unique, and BAs bring their problem-solving,
communication, interpersonal, and teamwork skills and knowledge to tailor an approach to each new
problem. This is another reason why planning your business analysis work is so important and will be
continuously highlighted throughout these chapters. Do not be afraid, though, to say, “It depends.” Sim-
ply follow it up with some good investigative questions on the situation to help you provide meaningful
recommendations.
projects and presentations. They give you professional-level training and knowledge you can take back to
your organization and utilize in your BA role.
Additionally, those wishing to take a specific concentration in business analysis topics will also find
many certificate programs and even industry certifications available. Data analytics and business archi-
tecture are two areas of business analysis that have full industry certification programs. Also, never dis-
count the value of certification in methodologies and techniques. Project management approaches (PMI,
PRINCE2®, agile), Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), The Open Group Architecture
Framework (TOGAF), and Six Sigma are all great certifications that will enable you to understand envi-
ronments, see larger solutions, and work better with your stakeholders on change efforts.
So which one do you need or which one is going to benefit you the most? It depends (I know, right?
A perfect BA answer!) on why you want the certification and what you are going to do with it. Proof that
you have attended business analysis training and/or have knowledge of the profession shows that you are
aware of industry terminology and techniques. It will always be considered positively by employers and
will make your transition into new environments easier because of not only the knowledge, but the certi-
fication that shows the initiative to keep learning and growing. Standardized certifications from the IIBA
and PMI give you industry-level recognition that is now becoming required more often for those who
desire senior BA positions; and it gives hiring managers a common criteria with which to compare can-
didates. Having a broader certification helps you attain greater experience in a variety of environments,
which is essential to growing your skills and becoming comfortable in larger, more strategic work.
From an employer’s perspective, evidence that a BA possesses not only business analysis knowledge
but also the ability to apply that knowledge in a day-to-day, real-world, business analysis environment is
invaluable. Consider your current situation and where you want to be in three or five years when making
this decision. Also, the process of obtaining certification can be a great way to re-energize your busi-
ness analysis work by walking you through the fundamentals. We often get too excited in our day-to-day
work—we forget the purpose and goals of our techniques, which we have molded to fit our own situations.
Certification can be a great way to ground you again and really advance your skills.
Because many organizations use the BA title differently or combine the role with project management
or quality assurance, certifications can be a great way to standardize expectations and experience. Hir-
ing managers are looking for help in discerning the tasks that are typically performed by BAs, and since
managers often do not have personal experience with performing these tasks, they need help evaluating a
candidate’s capability. Hiring managers can look to certifications to help them define the expected tasks of
the role of a BA for not only promotion within the organization, but then in finding candidates that best
suit the needs of the organization.
The IIBA has their Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK ® Guide) that gives you a guide into
the activities and areas where business analysis is providing great value to organizations. It was created
and refined in each version by the global community of business analysis professionals who bring their
real-world experience to this foundational guide. It explains the key knowledge areas, tasks, techniques,
and underlying competencies that BAs should be familiar with as they perform business analysis. If you
need help overcoming challenges or are entering a new area of analysis work, referencing the various sec-
tions can give you guidance on how best to approach your BA work. Additionally, all IIBA certifications
are based on this guide when preparing for examination. You should make yourself quite familiar with all
the key concepts, even if you do not apply them daily.
PMI has continued to focus on requirements and business analysis skills and in 2015 produced Business
Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide. This is an excellent guide to key activities that a BA may per-
form on project-based work. Core concentration on requirements and change management are discussed
throughout the entire project life cycle to help focus on delivering valuable solutions. In 2017, PMI re-
leased the PMI Guide to Business Analysis. This includes both an ANSI-accredited foundational standard
and PMI’s Business Analysis Body of Knowledge in one publication. This publication gives the core founda-
tional knowledge of business analysis across various project delivery methods and ways to produce change
in organizations. Both guides are great companions to PMI’s PMBOK ® Guide, following the structure of
how to approach the various elements of project-based work. Emphasis on the evolution of BAs to seek
to evolve their techniques to match the situation is highlighted. These materials are great references when
you need guidance, but are not necessarily the step-by-step cookbook to performing business analysis well.
Use these along with your knowledge, soft skills, and especially team skills to help successfully apply these
concepts in your day-to-day work. Both of these guides from PMI are also key resources for helping you
prepare for PMI’s Professional in Business Analysis Certification—the PMI-PBA.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). (2015). Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK ®
Guide). IIBA: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
IIBA. (2018, March 31). “Listing of Certification Recipients.” http://www.iiba.org/Certification/Certification
-Registry.aspx.
Khan, A. (2018, January 31). “PMI Credential Holders Worldwide.” 360PMO. https://www.360pmo.com/
pmi-credential-holders-worldwide/.
Project Management Institute (PMI). (2015). Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide. PMI:
Newtown Square, PA.
PMI. (2017). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). PMI: Newtown
Square, PA.
PMI. (2017). The PMI Guide to Business Analysis. PMI: Newtown Square, PA.
While we will talk further about the capabilities and techniques that business analysts (BAs) use on the
job, the heart and soul of a BA is working with people. Some of your most valuable analysis is done with
coworkers. The soft skills of communication, collaboration, elicitation, and facilitation are what allows
BAs to leverage all of their knowledge, regardless of the area of interest, in order to drive greater value, gain
experience, and grow into more senior roles.
The word stakeholder is common terminology used by a BA or anyone doing project work. A stake-
holder is the generalization for anyone (group or individual) who has a relationship to the change, need,
or solution (IIBA 2015). This definition is important for you to understand. Stakeholders are the decision
makers who are examining business needs, those working the projects to deliver the change required,
and those using, supporting, and evolving the resulting solution. An example stakeholder scope diagram
is presented in Figure 2.1. Each layer of audience will have different needs from both the project team
Competitors
Customer
(End user)
Product
Support
Team
Project
Team
31
32 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
perspective as well as from the final solution perspective. When you have a complete view of all the stake-
holders involved, better solutions are designed.
A part of knowing the scope involves knowing the stakeholders. While we refer to stakeholders in
these general terms, remember that each individual has a unique perspective and with that comes unique
goals and desired outcomes. The listening and elicitation skills of the BA should be used to draw out a
stakeholder’s perspective and to understand each individual; this is paramount when it comes to working
successfully with stakeholders. The people you work with often have titles and are filling roles on your
project or team. Something as simple as remembering their names can instantly help you form the rela-
tionships needed to work with them to accomplish your goals.
It is essential that BAs develop a mutual understanding with stakeholders as they gather information
and then follow up to ensure clarification of needs, desires, and ideas since they must be able to present
the information that has been collected and analyzed to various other individu-
als. How you present the requirements to the technical team is much different
“You must tailor
than how you would present a formal business case to executive leadership. You
your presentation
must tailor your presentation for the audience to whom you are speaking. Pre-
to the audience to
senting BA deliverables clearly and accurately is made more efficient when you
whom you are
presenting.” know the characteristics of the person(s) with whom you are communicating.
This chapter discusses the different individuals with whom the typical BA
will encounter and often work with. It discusses how and why the BA must learn
as much about each stakeholder as possible, regardless of how short of a time
span is involved. Often the area of stakeholder analysis is something that project managers (PMs) and BAs
will work closely together on for their project work, but it is important to understand that you each have
a unique perspective on what your relationship is to each stakeholder. Clearly, understanding your team
members is critical to the success of both the business analysis work and any change initiative as a whole.
respect. You are going to be gathering and compiling large amounts of information; and you will be learn-
ing about what other people’s jobs are, how they perform their jobs, what problems they have, and more.
How you use that information and how you represent your sources will tell your stakeholders about your
integrity and professionalism. Some information must be kept confidential for
political or legal reasons. However, your job is about pulling the needed infor- “Pull the needed
mation out in an unbiased way to help the team focus on the solution. Keeping information out in
sources confidential by stating facts and working to drive the team forward to- an unbiased way.”
ward their goals will help build trust and minimize your worry about trying to
please everyone or trying to be nice over being effective.
Business Executives
While senior BAs will often find themselves working at a more strategic level with business executives,
even junior BAs should keep in mind that their analysis work is helping decision makers to make faster,
smarter decisions with the information they deliver. Your business executives have the charge of leading
the organization, determining the strategy that will drive business success for years to come—all while
providing their stakeholders with value.
Again, understanding your stakeholders starts with understanding the nature of the business in which
you work. Understand that your organization may have multiple stakeholder groups they are trying to
please with each and every strategic move. BAs use the stakeholder knowledge of those involved—those
who are impacting or impacted by the change—in order to drive their analysis work to deliver information
34 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
that helps decision makers see the options, risks, and impacts surrounding the decisions they are looking
to make.
Working for a major financial corporation, the challenge on every initiative and project was also to re-
member the four stakeholder groups that the organization answered to. These included the end cus-
tomer, the employees, the community, and of course, the shareholders. A project to bolster employee
satisfaction and reduce turnover included extra cost and effort. If the value returned from the effort
accomplished the goal of increased employee satisfaction and less employee turnover, then many of the
team members argued that the effort was easily justified; however, part of the project’s justification had to
include how the effort would also positively impact the organization’s customers, the community, and the
shareholders. This was where the analysis work came into play to show how knowledge of products and
relationships between customers and long-time employees resulted in higher profits and better product
selection for the customer. Being attuned to customer needs supported the development of greater
business investments that positively impacted the community. And, of course, increased profits led to
increased dividends (and therefore, happier shareholders).
Product Owners
Regardless of the project management approach that the team may take with an initiative, BAs work
with product owners regarding the development of a product, the requirements to maintain the product,
and which factors may lead to the product’s retirement—such as technology changes, competition, and
even a change in leadership or business strategy. Product owners, as their name implies, are the ultimate
responsible parties of the product that an organization manages. Decisions on changes, as well as daily
operations, are driven by them and they prioritize those decisions based upon perceived business value.
Now, how does the product owner make these decisions? Often, they need to consider what is beyond
their scope of management—such as external influences, competition, and even something as simple as
what other products the organization is utilizing in their business model. Here
is where the BA role comes into play again. BAs from a more senior to mid-
“Bringing the
decision maker
level perspective often work closely with product owners, delivering enterprise
information is analysis as to how the product fits in the organizational business model as well
what the relation- as subject matter expertise on the line of business. Even if you are a more junior
ship is all about.” analyst, bringing information to the decision maker is what the relationship is
all about. What risks and impacts are there with multiple decisions? What is
the potential return on investment (ROI)? How do we quantify the business
value of even small changes to the organization, not just the product owner?
Helping the decision maker understand how decisions can affect all stakeholders is one of the most pow-
erful roles the BA can provide in this relationship.
Here is a quick note on product owner versus product manager: the term product owner is more
commonly used today with the proliferation of agile methodologies on projects. Yet, whether your proj-
ect uses agile or any other methodology, there are sometimes members identified in the role of product
Your Second Step—Know Your Audience 35
manager. A product manager is, as the name implies, responsible for the product. From the creation
of the business case through production, upgrades, and changes, to retiring it from the organization’s
product offerings, the product manager makes the decisions on the product. A product owner may or
may not be the product manager. A product owner can be a business SME assigned to a project to help
the team quickly make day-to-day decisions to move the project forward. They act on behalf of the busi-
ness. The product owner reports to the product manager, providing updates, and sometimes consulting
when there are major decisions or directions in strategy to consider. Regardless of the title, knowing
what the person is focused on and thinking of how you can best provide valuable information to help
them with their decision making are your key considerations as a valuable BA.
Project Sponsor
The sponsor is effectively the boss of the project. The sponsor has secured funding for the project or
change effort and has specific objectives for the funds. The sponsor determines the success of the project
or change effort based on how well it meets his or her objectives. Project-based work can even have mul-
tiple sponsors sometimes, especially when the project is very large and complex. You might encounter not
only a project sponsor, but also a business sponsor or executive sponsor as well. All of these individuals
are key stakeholders—not only for the project work, but also for your own performance. They will have an
opinion on how much value you contributed to the successful outcome of the project. The most important
thing for you to learn about the sponsor (or sponsors) is why they want this project carried out and what
their success criteria will be. The answers to these questions are part of the project initiation or project
scope phase. At the beginning of a project, you may be working with a PM or you may be working alone.
Either way, your main goal is to gain a thorough and complete understanding of why the organization has
decided to spend money on this project and why the sponsor feels there is significant value to pursue this
effort with their name on it. This will be discussed further in Chapter 3.
The biggest mistake that can be made with a sponsor (or any stakeholder, for that matter) is to waste
their limited time listing excuses and problems. The sponsor is usually less concerned with what has hap-
pened and more concerned with what is being done to ensure that maximum value is being achieved.
Communication with sponsors is focused around accomplishments and requirements to be achieved,
along with action plans and risk responses for moving forward, rather than excuses and complaints about
the current situation. Often on project-based work, you will provide this infor-
mation to the PM for them to communicate to the sponsors and all stakeholders
“Present clarity to
as appropriate. And remember that your communication has to be tailored
sponsors surround-
based on your audience. The higher up the corporate ladder, the less detail and
ing information
more concise summaries you will need to provide. PMs are going to want to valuable to their
know some details to consider risks and dependencies (and hopefully you are decision making.”
helping explain them). However, executives are too busy to read long, detailed
reports; they want the BA to cut to the chase and give them the highlights. Do
not let your attention to fine details derail you from presenting information con-
cisely to sponsors that is valuable to their decision making. This is where you need to use conceptual think-
ing on top of your stakeholder analysis. A couple of key questions to address in executive summaries are:
• Are we still achieving value from our efforts?
• Is the project going to accomplish the goals we intended?
36 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Remember to point out the value achieved, regardless of your progress. The PM will report on the mile-
stones that have been reached to date and together this information gives the sponsor a clearer picture to
confirm that the project is still on track to accomplish the defined goals as expected by the sponsor. Know-
ing not only the PM’s desire to report accurately on the status of the project, but also the sponsor’s need to
know what is being done helps you be a more effective BA.
I was assigned to a project where I was working with a PM on the implementation of a large IT system
that was to bring about new customer features while significantly improving the internal processes
for technical and customer support. This project made sense to the organization and had garnered
support because we had an IT sponsor, a business sponsor (for customer impact), and an executive
sponsor who reported on the project through his portfolio and budget.
The PM and I started off by ensuring that the business case and project charter were solid so that
we understood exactly what we were charged to change; then we detailed the value that we would
deliver at the end of the project. As we were starting our initial analysis and beginning to pull in team
members, we started having trouble finding the positive level of impact that was described during the
initial assignment. Analysis continued longer than planned, but we could not get the detailed analysis
to produce the business case that was being asked. Initially, the PM had done a great job of articu-
lating the status to the sponsors regarding the fact that our planning would take more time in order to
ensure that we started the project off on the right foot. I had to provide estimates of how long my anal-
ysis work would take, along with who and what I needed to complete the analysis. I additionally gave
her a summary status of milestone dates that could be achieved based on my analysis (i.e., approved
project charter and business case on a certain date).
But as we completed the analysis, we realized that we were not seeing the benefits that were
initially forecasted. Rather than move forward, we had to present our findings to the sponsors. We
prepared a very clear and concise presentation that articulated what goals we were told were ex-
pected to be met on the project, the key metrics we had identified through our analysis, and then
most important, we presented the sponsors with a series of options. This included moving forward as
planned but constantly measuring the value to determine whether or not we were seeing results. This
carried the most risk because our initial planning was not showing the value to be achievable. The
second option involved breaking the one project into two parts with separate goals and approaches.
This meant basically canceling the project and reconsidering whether or not there were other alterna-
tives as to how to approach either providing the customer features that were desired or the internal
infrastructure support that was hoped to be achieved. And then as a third option, we shared the idea
of a pilot project where we limited the implementation but still completed the changes in their entirety
to measure and report on the value impact to the customer and internal processes. The presentation
was only a few minutes, though we came prepared with all of the details and analysis that led us to
these recommendations. The data helped us respond to questions, but we did not have the data clut-
ter the clear presentation on what decision needed to be made. The end result was a quick decision
by the sponsors that resulted in the selection of the third option—the pilot idea—to demonstrate what
value was possible with this project.
Your Second Step—Know Your Audience 37
When communicating with sponsors, brevity is the key. Be brief and to the point. Stay at a high level, sup-
plying details only when necessary to make a point. Be concise, clear, and respectful of their time. They
want to know what the bottom line is. Do good research and planning prior to every meeting with them
so that you stand on your facts and do not operate by gut instinct. If you feel intimidated by your sponsor,
you may not be able to ask good questions and get the information that you need in order to be successful.
Take opportunities to talk with executives whenever you can. Put yourself in the sponsor’s position and
tailor the communications appropriately. Remember your goal—you are often asking for a quick decision
to move forward in a specific direction. Are you making it as easy as possible for them to see the informa-
tion and give you a timely response?
PM
Effective project management is critical for successfully delivering change efforts, not only in IT, but also
across all areas of the organization. Most firms have also learned that a great PM does not necessarily
have to be a great technician. The growth in popularity of the Project Management Institute’s PMP® cer-
tification in both IT and non-IT departments demonstrates this realization. Most large organizations also
have a project management office where PMs are supported and project management methodologies are
administered. The growth and recognition of the role of the PM is the same growth and recognition we
are now seeing with the role of business analyst.
Project management and business analysis are two distinct professions with two intersecting skill sets.
A PM is responsible for managing a project and making sure that it meets its objectives. Project manage-
ment work includes identifying project requirements, establishing measurable objectives, and managing
the resources, time, scope, and quality of a project. Projects are typically assigned to PMs or even business
owners (who are now playing the role of a PM) to carry out and deliver the expected changes. BAs who are
doing project-based work will often find themselves assigned as a resource of the project, reporting to the
PM on assigned tasks. The BA work on a project includes eliciting, capturing, and managing require-
ments; testing; verification; validation; and operational turnover analysis.
How do a PM and a BA work together to make a project a success? Funda-
“The PM manages
mentally, the PM manages project tasks (resources, timelines, tracking, and
project tasks and
reporting) and the BA manages the solution (requirements, tracing, testing,
the BA manages
validation, and operational support). The BA reports to the PM on their prog-
the solution.”
ress on the assigned business analysis tasks. If there are both a PM and BA as-
signed to a project, a great tactic is to have the PM and BA sit down at the very
beginning of the project and plan out their approaches, potential challenges
and risks, and discuss not only the overall project but also their working relationship and responsibilities.
This sets a solid foundation for the project so that as things get moving, they each can begin to focus on
their respective responsibilities. Excellent PMs and BAs will work hand in hand to make the most of each
other’s strengths.
Often on projects, there is overlap with the work a PM is expected to perform and the defined busi-
ness analysis work. In many organizations, PMs have actually been expected to do all of the project
management work in addition to all of the business analysis work. In this case, the PM relies on the
SMEs that are part of the team to identify their requirements and ensure they are validated through the
solution. The PM will spend time supporting cross-functional collaboration and discussions to ensure
38 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
overall project needs are addressed, rather than individual needs or desires. Other times, the BA may
be asked to manage a project. This is typical of smaller work efforts. Here, the BA still focuses on doing
the analysis to identify and deliver the requirements, but must keep a healthy watch on the timeline,
the needed resources, and the budget, as appropriate. The BA in these cases will need to ensure that
they communicate and report on the project status more often and with larger stakeholders than simple
daily work efforts. When lucky enough to have both roles on a project, there are also the challenges of
the appearance of overlap of scope of the PM and BA role. The challenge that often arises on projects
is that the PM is very project-focused while the BA is very product- or solution-focused. The solution
scope can sometimes be beyond the project scope. Again, creating a solid foundation between these
two roles and their responsibilities, while defining clear objectives and a vision of the final solution, will
help ensure the two roles can be more effective together.
Unique Skills
There are also unique skills for PMs and BAs that allow them to perform the tasks for which they are
responsible. PMs are exceptional at managing tasks, dependencies, and removing roadblocks that prevent
team members from completing their defined duties. BAs excel at diving into the details to understand
not only how things work, but also what elements drive the related behavior of processes, systems, and
organizations. PMs have an eye toward scope and confirming what is in scope and especially what is out of
the scope of work in order to keep teams keenly focused on the tasks at hand and ensure that they achieve
their goal(s). BAs, through their analysis skills, look at solutions beyond immediate needs and assess the
value the solutions will have for both the current group of stakeholders and into the future, including the
effects on the entire organization and communities surrounding the solution.
The following is a list of some of the qualities and duties found in the role of a BA:
• Responsible for ensuring the solution delivers the intended value
• Learns the business needs, context, and environment in detail
• Manages requirements throughout the requirements’ life cycles
• Chief analyst of situations, challenges, and recommendations to support decision making
• Usually assigned to a project after it has started
Dynamic Duos
When assigning PMs and BAs to a project, executive management should be aware of the importance of
this dynamic duo. Their success depends on their respective experience, knowledge, and skill sets. The
results will vary depending on the individuals selected.
If a strong PM is assigned to work with a weak (inexperienced, unskilled, or insecure) BA, the require-
ments-gathering and analysis tasks may be rushed and important requirements may be missed. The PM
will be pushing for the project to make progress and the BA may not be strong enough to convince the
PM that complete, accurate requirements are critical to project success. This may result in rework late in
the project when the missing requirements are identified. This type of rework usually results in schedule
and budget overruns.
In the opposite situation, if a weak PM is assigned to work with a strong BA, too much time may be
spent in requirements gathering and the project may fall behind schedule. BAs can sometimes push to get
every single detail 100% correct before moving forward, and if the PM lets the BA try to accomplish this
virtually impossible task, the schedule will be jeopardized. Also, if the PM does not strictly enforce the
change-control procedure, the BA may allow the business to add more and more requirements, resulting
in scope creep and project delays.
Your Second Step—Know Your Audience 41
Obviously, the worst-case scenario is a project with a weak PM and a weak BA. No matter how involved
the SMEs are, or how good the technical team is, a project is likely to fail without strong leadership and
clear requirements.
Therefore, the best-case scenario is a project with a strong PM and a strong BA. Assuming the rest of
the project team is competent, this project will be well run and the end product will be of the highest qual-
ity. There is a balance between thorough requirements gathering and project progress. The project will be
on schedule and meet the expectations of the sponsor.
The PM is much more of a director than the BA. The PM directs the project team, making assign-
ments, giving specific directions, removing barriers, and ensuring that team members are working on the
appropriate tasks. The PM requires strong management skills, while BAs are more focused on listening
and analyzing. They must listen carefully to SMEs and discover requirements—not create or invent them.
The BA is actually looking for problems, issues, or even opportunities that may not have been identified
during project scoping but could impact the success of the project. The BA alerts the PM to these potential
problems and ideas and works with the PM to address them. The BA requires strong investigative skills.
The PM is focused on helping the team get work done and remains project focused, while the BA is fo-
cused on helping people describe the work they do and communicates all identified needs across different
functional teams to elicit and listen for suggested solutions.
During the course of a project, the PM manages the change control process. Any changes to a project
will impact the original plan, so the PM identifies this impact, works with the executive sponsor to decide
whether a change will be accepted, and then revises the plan to accommodate any changes. BAs often help
with the analysis of these changes, the risks involved, and the potential impacts. The analysis work helps
provide clear business justification for courses of action that the PM can communicate with decision mak-
ers and quickly get an answer to move forward. BAs will manage any changes and impacts to requirements
so they can report to the PM regarding any impacts to scope, schedule, and/or budget.
You will also frequently hear about the user role. This term refers to a person who uses the solution,
product, or process that is under discussion. Many people prefer the term “SME” to “user” because it
sounds more positive and because it is more accurate during analysis and requirements elicitation. Be
aware that although many SMEs may also be users of the solution, many are not directly engaged. De-
partment managers may be SMEs because they understand the business goals of the department, but
they are not users in this sense because they do not perform the business process directly—for example,
entering data into the application. Alternatively, a user is not necessarily an SME. A data entry person
who simply enters data on a computer screen without any knowledge of the reason for the data entry
is not an expert.
All SMEs are not created equal. Expect many challenges with personality types, working styles, and
motivations. Understanding and winning over these experts will not be easy. It will require you to get
to know these individuals, do research before meeting with them, and use every bit of charm that you
can possibly command to convince them that they should tell you their deepest, darkest secrets. These
are not personal secrets, but honest revelations about how they do their jobs, what their most important
issues are, and why broken processes are not working. Your goal is to build a trusting relationship where
these business experts can share with you not only the business information, but even their own ideas
on how to make things better.
As mentioned earlier, business analysis professionals must be able to ensure that they accurately com-
municate the same picture (the representation of the goals, objectives, and ultimate solution) to all stake-
holders in the appropriate format for that particular stakeholder group. As a result, BAs will use varied
language when speaking and writing in order to best communicate with the intended audience. Titles
and role names of stakeholders are often used inconsistently. An analyst should clarify terminology and
titles when they are used and be consistent. For example, some people use the word “customer” to mean
a person external to the organization who purchases products. Some IT people use the word “customer”
to mean anyone inside the organization who uses IT services. A simple misinterpretation of this term can
cause requirements elicitation to take longer than anticipated. Even if the BA is not driving the conversa-
tion, taking the time to clarify what is meant by the role name in front of the team will lead to better dis-
cussions and developing faster solutions as you keep everyone on the same page and focused on the goals.
business related, you are building an overall relationship to help with the larger
“A successful BA goal. The more trust you can build into the relationship and show that you
builds numerous
value them as a person, not just as a change resource, the more information
trusting
you will be able to collect and utilize to move the effort toward a valued solu-
relationships.”
tion. Successful BAs build numerous trusting relationships with people inside
and outside of their organizations. These relationships help the BA to be suc-
cessful not only on the current challenge, but also to then have a solid founda-
tion on which to be successful throughout many future endeavors.
Business analysis is as much analysis on the people affecting or affected by the change as it is on the
business itself. Understanding social styles, work ethics, and general likes and aptitude helps you plan
your approach to be as effective as possible. This can be as simple as learning that the person comes to
work early every day and then asking them if a morning interview might work best. These seemingly
small gestures will improve the speed at which you can elicit requirements and, more important, give your
SMEs—your customers—a confident sense that you know what you are doing.
So how do you do this research? You are trying to learn as much as you can without anyone suspecting
what you are doing. Think of yourself as a private investigator:
• Walk by the SME’s cubicle or office to observe their workspace.
եե Does it appear well-organized or cluttered? This may give you an idea about how this
person works.
• Are there a lot of people around socializing with the SME or do they seem to prefer to work
independently?
եե This will give you an idea about how willing the person will be to talk with you.
• Are there any certificates or awards hanging on the walls of their office?
եե This may indicate experience, training, and pride in work accomplishments.
• Are there posters or pictures that indicate outside interests? Family photos?
եե Finding a common interest outside of work can be a great icebreaker and a way for you to
develop a friendship with an SME.
If you know other BAs or PMs who have worked with this person in the past, talk with them. Carefully,
discreetly, subtly ask questions about how the SME participated on the last project. Did they show up for
meetings on time? Were they prepared with information that was requested at previous meetings? Did
they contact the BA with questions or follow-up information or wait for the BA to initiate all contact? How
knowledgeable was this individual about their business? How comfortable was he or she with the change?
If you know someone else in the business area who works with the SME, talk with that person. Again,
carefully, just mention who you will be working with on your next project and that you are looking for-
ward to getting to know him or her. Watch for facial expressions and body language. Does your contact
give any hint of a positive or negative reaction? If so, ask a follow-up question, like, “What has your expe-
rience with this person been?”
Obviously, if you have worked with this SME before, you already know the answers to many of these
questions. Even so, try to keep an open mind and learn even more about the person. If you did not have a
positive experience on the last project, think about what you might do differently this time. The more you
Your Second Step—Know Your Audience 45
know about your customers, the better you will be able to service them. However, there are some common
challenges related to SMEs as discussed in the following sections.
While working on a website redesign project, the project team identified the various departments that
needed to be included in order to ensure that we were delivering a valuable solution. These included
marketing, IT, the various product owners, and even legal and compliance departments. As the BA as-
signed to this project, I was explaining to the team that I would need to spend some time independently
with each business area before bringing everyone together to identify needs and specific requirements.
The marketing director said that she would be the point of contact for any marketing questions.
I was grateful for her support for the project; however, I had to consider whether or not she was the
most appropriate person for the tasks that I needed to complete. We set up a meeting for the two of us
to go over the requirements. I came to this meeting with a list of all the types of information that I felt
marketing could answer in order to help define the requirements and bring ideas to the team for defin-
ing the solution. These included questions surrounding what statistics they had on the current website,
including sources of referrals, top selling online products, and most-used features. Additional questions
were more focused on the business strategy—asking about near-term and long-term marketing vi-
sion and strategic goals of the department. Finally, I also inquired about what branding requirements
continued
46 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
were to be included as we discussed designs so that they were built into the solution, not brought
up after development was complete. As I went through my initial list with the marketing director, she
started identifying some team members of hers who could give me more detailed data, background,
and specifics to support my requirements definition. She would address the strategy and vision dis-
cussions herself.
Doing my analysis and preparing questions ahead of time helped me articulate the type of information
I needed so that I did not have to actually tell people they were the incorrect person. Rather, I focused on
the goals and outcomes and asked those identified SMEs if they were able to provide the information—
or if not, could they tell me who could offer the necessary information?
Doing your own analysis of what the solution needs and what your options are for getting the informa-
tion helps you work more effectively with your stakeholders.
that you are not moving forward toward the goal or that the person participat-
ing is not helping to achieve the solution—regardless of whether it is out of a “The best thing
lack of knowledge or that he or she simply does not care or want to help—you analysts can do is
must then rely on your own (solid) analysis skills. You will want to first have a provide valuable
recommendations
private discussion with the PM, but bring clear facts on the situation, including
for quick, yet
the risks, the impacts, and what options and recommendations you have for
well-informed
keeping the project on track. BAs must perform analysis work under any cir-
decision making.”
cumstance and provide valuable recommendations that help the business make
quick, yet well-informed decisions. Simply state the facts about what informa-
tion you are trying to achieve and by what date. An uninformed or uncoopera-
tive SME is a risk that you need to mitigate because it affects the time it takes to produce your BA
deliverables and complete your project tasks.
There might not be an option to change team members, stakeholders, or SMEs. If this is the case, then
simply look at it as another challenge and develop options for finding the best solution. The less comfort-
able you are with your stakeholders, the more validation you will have to do. Inform the PM that your BA
tasks may take longer to validate due to the availability of resources. You will need to plan your activities
in much more detail and have additional options on ways to validate the information and feel comfortable
on the input to the final solution.
might want to remind the SME that they are the expert and that you are just learning. You may have to ask
the same question several times before you really understand the answer. Ask the SME to be patient with
you and work to make the best use of his or her time. This may be a situation where you would benefit
from talking with a less experienced person first—one who can help you get an initial foundation of un-
derstanding before talking details with the expert.
Before you discuss the project with anyone, experts or otherwise, you should make sure that you are
clear as to what you already know about the business area or topic and what role this person is expected to
play. Regardless of the individual’s level of knowledge, your business and stakeholder analysis before any
elicitation session is a key planning activity. Always plan your approach and your verification and valida-
tion activities. The level of expertise by those you work with will affect how much pre- and post-work you
will need to do so that every engagement provides valuable results.
Then, a new project is started and the SME does it all over again. It is hard to blame an SME who dreads
a new project with a new BA knocking on the door asking for a description of their business. “Describe
my business? I’ve already done that several times! Didn’t you people write anything down? Don’t you all
talk to each other? Why bother? You never listen anyway. If by some small chance the product actually
gets developed, it never does what I want it to do! Why should I bother?” Good questions! Many projects,
especially outsourced and cross-functional solutions, fail to address the expectations of all users who may
be involved, affected, or concerned with the effort.
So how do you start up a dialogue and relationship with this angry SME? First of all, search for any
notes, artifacts, documents, or plans from previous projects so that you do not have to start from scratch.
If you can find some of the previous work, the SME will at least feel like someone listened to him on the
last project. Again, your BA planning is paramount here as to how you will approach the stakeholder.
Another important part of your initial conversation with this SME requires you to show empathy and
regret for all of those previous failures. Even though they were not your fault, from the SME’s perspective,
you represent the group of people who failed—and he wants to hear that your group is sorry about the
wasted time and the frustration.
This is a critical step in getting past this anger. It does not cost you anything to apologize. All you have
to say is: “I know that you have worked on similar projects in the past that have failed. I am very sorry that
your time was wasted. We have learned from those failures and are hoping that you will help us again, us-
ing our new approach. As the BA, I am your advocate, and my job is to make sure that your business needs
are met on this project. I will be working with the solution team to make sure that they understand what
you need and that they design and build it to address those needs.” Apologizing and taking responsibility
for the source of the SME’s anger and frustration will disarm him. The SME may be able to let go of their
anger simply because you have listened. Once you get past this, your interactions with him will be much
easier. As you earn more trust, not only will the SME be more forthcoming with you, but they will also be
more engaged with the project and help to make it a success.
you to acknowledge the problems and then move the conversation on to a more positive or at least neutral
footing. For example, you might say: “I can see why you would be frustrated with this situation. Hopefully,
our new system can make your job a little less tedious [or whatever the complaint is].” You may also want
to explain why the SME was selected for this project. They may have specific expertise that will increase
the likelihood of project success. You may be able to say that the SME was hand-picked to participate be-
cause of his or her knowledge and value. Put a positive spin on the SME’s participation in the project based
on what you know about the situation.
Finally, make sure that SMEs understand the project. Explain your understanding of why the project
has been initiated along with the project objectives. Tell the SMEs what the project will do for them. If you
can convince an SME that their job will be more tolerable if the project is a success, you may have an ally.
Set expectations about what you will be looking for in your requirements gathering activities. Remind the
SMEs that you are there to collaborate with them throughout the entirety of the project to ensure that the
project results in a viable and valuable product.
SMEs provide the materials (information) upon which to build a solution. It is critical that a BA work
closely with all of the SMEs on a project in order to ensure accurate requirements.
especially if they are your weak areas. Many BAs like to start a brand new document, draft it, organize
it, etc. A strong QA analyst typically enjoys reviewing, rewording, and revising and would therefore be
a great partner for a BA. Together they can produce an excellent requirements deliverable.
Usability Professionals
There are various titles and roles that focus on solution usability, including human factors, usability
engineering (which is a subset of human factors), user-experience design, and user-centered design. A
usability professional (UP) is a specialized type of business analysis professional. Individuals in these
roles are experts in designing products that are easy to use. They work with users, performing task
analysis and eliciting requirements to assist in the development of prototypes. The structured, proven
techniques of usability testing are then applied to the prototype and design changes are made based on
the results of testing.
UPs have become valuable to organizations for a couple of reasons: (1) the creation of e-commerce,
external customer websites, and mobile technology have made usability a competitive advantage and
(2) the realization through metrics-based analysis (i.e., Six Sigma, Lean, etc.) that a usable application
significantly improves productivity and data integrity.
When a UP is assigned to a project, the business analysis professional should meet with that individual to
determine their respective responsibilities. UPs are typically skilled in requirements elicitation, stakeholder
analysis, and communication. In addition, they excel at screen design, prototyping, simulation, and usability
testing. These skills allow them to focus on the human-product interaction and work with designers and
developers to create a highly usable product. UPs will also be excellent resources for requirements reviews.
When a project does not have access to a UP, the BA is expected to play this role. It is important that
every BA be aware of the main concepts of usability and, most important, be able to look at each project
52 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
and determine if usability engineering is critical for success. Alerting the sponsor and PM to this need as
soon as it is recognized may facilitate the acquisition of the needed resource or may give the BA time to
learn more about usability as it relates to the current project.
Scrum Master
Depending on the project methodology of your work, you may find yourself on a team following agile
principles—and here you will find the role of Scrum Master. At the foundation, this is the person who is
responsible for ensuring that agile practices are followed on the team. These include but are not limited to
removing obstacles, ensuring that the team is functioning at its peak performance, creating the environ-
ment for the performance to thrive, getting the product owner fully engaged, and helping to ensure the
team is not distracted or derailed from delivering valuable solutions in a rapid manner.
As a BA on an agile team, you would need to have open and frequent communication with the Scrum
Master on what is required to help the development team quickly move forward with delivery of solutions.
BAs provide the analysis on requirements (including the possible risks) and issue resolutions to help the
team quickly build and test solutions. The BA is part of the team reporting to the Scrum Master as to
what obstacles might be hindering maximum value delivery. Your clear communication skills and ability
to work with the team to quickly define challenges and offer recommendations are crucial to support this
high productivity environment.
Your analysis skills are further valued by the Scrum Master by presenting risks and impacts on options
so that decisions can be made quickly by the product owner to keep the team moving. These risks often
include the lack of presence or failure of ownership by the product owner to quickly prioritize and approve
requirements for development. You will need to quickly and succinctly state what the current situation is,
what the recommendation and alternatives are, and what impacts the decisions have on the overall solu-
tion and value to customers, the organization, and other stakeholders.
Solution Architects
Solution architects are people who understand how the enterprise works at the highest levels and they
work to design solutions that fit into the overall architecture of the organization. They are usually familiar
with the business and technology strategies of the organization, along with the current internal and exter-
nal environment in which these solutions must exist.
Their breadth and depth of knowledge helps to ensure the solutions being designed will integrate
with current operations, infrastructure, and even personnel. Solution architects should be involved
with projects at their inception. They will review the high-level business objectives and requirements to
help with the ideation processes on how to best solve the business problem and assess the feasibility of
solution alternatives. They ensure all requirements are identified that allow for development, integra-
tion, deployment, and maintenance of the solution. They also validate that the resulting solution being
produced is actually contributing to the overall enterprise as expected, updating architecture artifacts
as appropriate to accommodate the changes.
A BA will often work with the solution architect to ensure all requirements have been identified to
describe the solution in such a way that it can be developed and produced. The BA often helps communi-
cate the design recommendations to the project team for project sponsors to approve and advance.
Your Second Step—Know Your Audience 53
Solution architects are great to work with when developing the testing plan and validating the results to
ensure all integration and support factors are fully addressed. Solution architects also pay close attention
to how the solution contributes to the organization’s architecture after being deployed. They provide ac-
ceptance and evaluation criteria for the BA to use as part of requirements analysis. The PM, BA, and
solution architect form a key project trio that help the team drive toward powerful solutions.
I was lucky enough on one project to have a solution architect assigned to the team where I was the BA
and there was a PM to coordinate the work. It was a challenging project to say the least, as this was a
good example where the business had already picked a product without clearly identifying beforehand
the need that the product was solving. We were told to simply implement the product (software in this
case) that the business had purchased.
Naturally, we had challenges because the business bought what the vendor had sold them and
not necessarily what worked well with our environment, current technology, or even security policies.
As the BA, I worked hard to get requirements from the business owner that eventually came in the
form of use cases, explaining scenarios in which the business was picturing using this software. The
solution architect wanted my diagrams, process maps, requirements, full use cases, and acceptance
criteria. He continued to push for the capabilities of the software and technical requirements from
the vendor while I clarified the use cases and expected outcomes from the business. The more the
solution architect understood the software, the more he worked with the technical teams to come up
with ideas, validate assumptions, and craft a solution that could be supported by the organization
while still appeasing the business owners. As solutions were designed, I helped to capture them
since there were pros and cons with each approach that the business was required to understand
before making decisions. These walk-throughs of the designs that I did with the business owners
really brought understanding (risks and impacts) and set expectations of the team that would not
have come from a basic project plan. I, however, could not get to these decision points on solutions
without someone looking at how to integrate the software with not only the IT infrastructure, but also
the support model and overall technical strategy of the organization. The solution architect confirmed
that all functional areas of IT had a say in the solution with the understanding they would have to
support their respective areas while still working to ensure that the overall solution performed as the
business expected. The solution architect also received a commitment from the functional heads that
the resulting solution would be captured and integrated into daily support materials for the continued
success of the application well beyond the scope of the project.
54 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
specification is perfect, so having an IT SME who thinks logically about the solution that he is helping to
create and who asks questions when potential holes are found is ideal. The best way to handle an IT SME
who builds blindly to specification is to have structured walk-throughs on each requirement deliverable
and discuss the needs regularly. Try to get the IT SME to ask questions and find the missing pieces right
away so that you can amend the requirements before the work is started. Ultimately, the business needs
must be supported by the solution, so if changes are required after developing because of errors in the
specifications, they may have to go through the project change control process. Again, the open com-
munication and understanding of both technology and business needs is what helps to ensure valuable
solutions the first time.
Most developers specialize in a particular set of technical skills that are independent of a particular
business industry. It is not uncommon to meet a developer who has worked in a manufacturing organi-
zation, followed by a telecommunications company, and then a financial services or health care business.
Developing software for business functions that are not well understood is possible when developers work
with BAs and system architects who understand the business domain. Some developers are not really
interested in what the organization sells or services as much as they are interested in using the latest tech-
nical tools and approaches. The less a developer knows about (or is interested in) the business domain,
the more dependent they are on complete, accurate requirements. The business terminology will not be
known, so the specific design components, such as screen labels and error messages, must be explicitly
stated and followed.
Alternately, some developers have experience/knowledge in a particular industry or business domain.
For example, there are developers who specialize in commercial off-the-shelf applications such as SAP©
or PeopleSoft™. These developers may be very familiar with a set of terms that are unique to the appli-
cation or business domain. They will provide less of a communication challenge because they know the
language of the business. Just be sure that the developer knows the language of your particular business.
Your organization may use terminology in a different way than other businesses in the same industry. For
example, in the training industry, there is inconsistency in the use of fundamental terms like class, course,
and seminar. If a developer with industry experience joins your organization, make sure that they do not
assume that all terminology is used in exactly the same way. Again, detailed requirements avoid ambiguity.
Data Administrator/Architect/Analyst
Data administrators and data architects utilize many of the same analysis skills as BAs. Often you can find
data specialists with titles that include analyst in their role. These data experts are responsible for the orga-
nization’s data—from data definition, to management, to use, to reporting. They might maintain a data
dictionary, data warehouse, and/or other repository of descriptions of the pieces of information that are
important to the organization. The data expert helps project teams reuse existing corporate data—and use
it consistently. Having one central view of business data helps an organization provide accurate answers to
questions that are posed by its customers and its executive management.
These data roles have often been found in IT teams. However, more organizations are recognizing the
value of utilizing data for decision making and driving the business forward. A BA may work with data
analysts in risk departments, finance departments, and even information management groups, depending
on the organization. Regardless of the location that the data expert may report to, understanding the value
of reusing data assets, integration into daily processes for decision making, and utilization in automation
and driving strategy is vital for the BA.
Your Second Step—Know Your Audience 57
If your organization has a data administration team and a corporate data repository, it is critical that
you become familiar and comfortable with them. This is a great resource on every project and will allow
you to gather and analyze requirements much quicker. As discussed in Chapter 1, business requirements
are made up of data, process, and business rules. When data has already been defined and documented for
your organization, then possibly a third of your requirements definition is done before you start. In that
case, the already available, quality, consistent view of data requirements allows all projects to be completed
faster and the resulting solutions to be more easily integrated and interconnected.
At the beginning of a project, meet with the data analyst and ask for background about his or her par-
ticular business area. Learn about the data that has already been identified and documented. Learn which
pieces of information are currently stored in a database, in which databases and systems they exist, and
who maintains them. You are eliciting requirements from someone who has already done the difficult
work and can give you the requirements in their purest form. Take advantage of this jump start on your
project by learning everything that you can before you meet with the data analyst. You will be able to for-
mulate more intelligent and detailed questions for your first interviews and will be able to allow this data
expert to talk almost exclusively about process (which SMEs love to do). Your work will be to make sure
that the processes being discussed can be supported by data that already exists. The data analyst will also
tell you about data that has been identified but has not been thoroughly documented and organized. These
are areas where you will need to spend more time focusing. The data analyst will be a great resource to
assist you as you develop these requirements.
As much as possible, have the data experts review all of your requirements, not just data. They may
see process and business rule inconsistencies with existing data. As strong analytical thinkers, data ana-
lysts can be peers to help find weaknesses in your requirements as you go along. They will also be a great
resource when you move into design, working with the technical team to determine where new data ele-
ments should be stored that provide the value that stakeholders are expecting.
Many business stakeholders misunderstand the data experts, especially when they report to IT or risk
management, because they feel that the data team is either difficult to work with or is simply an unneces-
sary expenditure. This is often because the data administration function is not well understood as it relates
directly to organizational strategy and can be underfunded and/or underappreciated. Many organizations
that created a data administration group in the 1990s were very excited about the data repository when
the stock market was booming and business indicators were up. But when an economic downturn was
predicted and companies began tightening their belts, the data administration group was an easy area to
cut. Many data repositories were left incomplete and only partially maintained. This led to a situation
where not all corporate data had been defined and described, so new projects could not always use the
common information. With fewer people in the data administration group and incomplete data defini-
tions, it was easy for BAs and project teams to skip the data experts’ reviews and just create their own data
requirements. This often caused more redundant, inconsistent data sources. The data teams that were left
felt that their authority was undermined and their importance to the organization diminished. The more
the BA understands about the data team in the organization, where they report, and the capabilities they
can provide the business teams, the more the BA can communicate to others the value of these groups
of experts. BAs need to do the same upfront introduction and learning sessions with the data experts to
understand not only their responsibilities, but also the individual value-added insights and talents they
bring to the table. The BA communicates this back to the PM and project team so their inclusion and ac-
tive collaboration on project planning, design, and implementation brings home a successfully delivered
58 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
change effort. The BAs will find a lot in common with these fellow analysts because they are concerned
about reuse, efficiency, and long-term value—and those are key to any change implementation success.
Database Designer/Administrator
A database designer is responsible for determining where data should be physically stored, how it will be
accessed, how it will be protected, who will have access to it, and where it will be used. These are critical
decisions that have long-term effects on the efficiency and quality of information systems for an organi-
zation. Database designers and database administrators also maintain these data stores for the life of their
use, not just the project timeline. They maintain backup and disaster recovery procedures and correct
problems with data values when errors are introduced.
When a project involves creation or storage of new information, the database administrator must be
involved. Even if you are going to use existing data in a new way, it is a good idea to discuss this new usage
with the database team. Creation of and access to data can have large performance impacts for technology
users, and providing inaccurate data from a technical application is the quickest
way to sabotage trust in your work. Have the database administrator review
“Always act your requirements and designs for feedback—especially considerations that
ethically, and keep might affect your requirements’ long-term success. Make friends with the data-
your stakeholders base administrator and check with him even when you think you do not need
informed.” to. As with all stakeholders, when you establish a good relationship always act
ethically and keep the database administrator informed. This will create a valu-
able ally when you need one.
Testers
Regardless of whether the work is on a specific project, a small task, or a major initiative, BAs will find
themselves working on defining and delivering change. During the course of the work, especially on proj-
ects that include technology, as the changes are developed, stakeholders will want to test, verify, and vali-
date that the solution is achieving the intended goals.
There are multiple levels to testing on projects so the first task for a BA is to understand what testing
means to the organization and how is it viewed. Is this a dedicated activity with assigned resources on ev-
ery project that has a formal change control? Or is this something that is frowned upon because the people
who do the testing are too busy with their “day jobs” to take additional time to test something they feel
does not impact them? Regardless of the scope, understanding the risk tolerances of your teams, sponsors,
and the organization as a whole is necessary when approaching a plan for testing.
Often, BAs are involved with the creation of test plans. Some organizations will have staff that are ex-
perts on creating test plans to ensure that requirements are validated through specific test cases. A BA can
best support these test plan creators by having detailed requirements with clear use cases and information
that clearly provides customer expectations so that the appropriate test cases can be created. Make sure
that these people are included in the project work, especially the requirements analysis and design plan-
ning so that they have a clear picture of the solution being envisioned, specifically the business owners’
expectations of the resulting change. The BA will be a partner to ensure those who are creating test plans
are supported with the information they need in order to provide quality test plans that are easily under-
stood, executed, and documented.
Your Second Step—Know Your Audience 59
If there are dedicated testers for the project, the BA needs to make sure that they understand the goals
and vision of the project and the expectations of what is to be delivered before they dive into executing
the test plan. BAs often help articulate not only the changes that the project is introducing but also how
it fits within the organization. Again, the BA should support these team members so that they will feel
included as key members by providing them the information that they need to know—even if they do not
participate in the planning and design work of the solution. Often, where the BA provides the most value
is in deciphering the test results—if the result of the test case is a true defect, did it result from an incorrect
design or was there a misunderstanding on the test case? Test cases too often are reported as failed only to
be analyzed and found that the requirement was built as specified, but user expectations were not captured
that now need to be addressed. BAs who work alongside testers to really understand the results when they
do not come out as expected help to ensure that the solution can be addressed in its entirety. BAs bring
user expectations to the team to determine if they are within the scope of the project and, if so, how they
can be addressed and worked into the solution. BAs can also communicate options with which to address
these testing results; for example, the training and communication materials need to be updated to reflect
more clearly the use of the solution.
The current best practice is to have a person execute the test plan who did not also create it. Some or-
ganizations have dedicated testers who have time allocated to execute the prescribed test plan. Those who
have experience can usually execute test plans on schedule without incident. The BA’s role is to stay aware
of the status of the test plans, not for the progress (that is the PM’s role), but rather to be a resource to
do the analysis where any questions or inconsistencies arise. This requires analysis to understand what is
happening and to decide if the use case was appropriate, if there were additional features that were incor-
porated but not captured, or if there is an actual defect that needs to be resolved. This is where a BA adds
significant value to the team by defining the nature of test cases that do not pass. The BA will not only need
to do a strong summary of the situation, but also articulate the risks of accepting or addressing the issue.
This is then provided to the PM and the sponsor to decide the course of action.
Often, BAs will find themselves responsible for not only creating the test plans but then also executing
them. BAs need to make PMs aware of the risks associated in this approach. A BA (or any stakeholder
for that matter) who executes the same test plan that they create often looks to only test what they think
they have written. Things are easily missed, items are passed incorrectly, or there is an inclination to only
find a certain kind of error. Providing mitigating actions or ideas so that those testing are not the ones
who created the test cases is important to clearly communicate to the PM. While the BA should work
to collaborate with the stakeholders involved to create solid test plans, the BA should always work to be
clear and specific on marrying the test plans with each element of the test case. Further risk can be mit-
igated by collaborating with the stakeholders when reviewing test plans and getting acceptance criteria
from the decision makers. Knowing the definition of a successful test case is often more important than
the test case itself.
Again, knowing the organization’s structure and approach to testing is important in BA planning since
there are often QA personnel assigned to help with the validation of test plans and test plan executions.
Understanding the role that the QA person will play and where their responsibility ends is key to defining
how much analysis work the BA will need to do on the change effort.
Unfortunately, some teams will prioritize the project schedule and, in order to hurry it along, will ac-
cept risks by skipping or downsizing the amount of testing conducted. If this happens, the BA’s role is to
help with the analysis of the prioritized items that should be tested and to articulate the risks and potential
60 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
impacts that could occur without the additional testing. The BA delivers this analysis to the PM in order
to get the stakeholders’ opinions on expanding the schedule to test or move forward with the risks.
Many people feel that testing mostly applies to technology projects; however, there is a lot of work that
does not involve technology but does include testing. Testing on a change effort may include focus groups
or surveys with potential customers or building prototypes for team feedback on usability and experience.
Many of the techniques used for analysis are the same techniques used for testing and validation (see
Chapter 6). The business analysis planning work will need to include understanding stakeholders’ expec-
tations of testing and what they find value in validating before releasing changes. From here, the BA can
plan the analysis work for defining the testing approaches and appropriate test cases.
Trainers
With the incredible pace of change in today’s organizations, understanding and awareness of these changes
need to be supported with more communication than simply notifying people of the implemented changes.
Trainers help to make sure that not only are the end users able to utilize the changed solution, but they
also verify that the teams that support the solution are knowledgeable and comfortable with the changes.
Training requirements should be captured as part of the overall requirements—typically identified as
part of the transition requirements. The BA will need to work with the trainers to understand what re-
quirements are necessary in order to make sure that the solution can be successful when it is delivered.
Some organizations have dedicated trainers within the organization, while others have trainers assigned
to different business functions. Invite the trainers to listen in on what changes are coming, perhaps not
at initial requirements review sessions, but at later sessions where the requirements are more formalized
or complete. Give them information early so they will be better prepared and can start planning the work
needed to enable a successful solution and discuss their own requirements when you meet with them.
9. 1.
Review Sales calls/
application product
performance demos
8.
Ongoing 2.
support, new Vendor
releases, selected as
enhancements, possible
bug fixes supplier
Vendor
Relationship
7.
3.
Customization,
training, Life Cycle Issue RFP to
multiple
implementation
vendors
6. 4.
Contract Review RFP
negotiations responses
5.
Select a
vendor
appear easy to customize and easy to use. All of these wonderful claims play right into the frustrations
of users and their management. Everyone wants to believe that if the company just buys this technology
package, all of their problems will be solved. But BAs know that there are no magic wands. In truth, buy-
ing and implementing technology and other products does not guarantee a better chance of success than
developing the solution internally. There are different issues and challenges, but they are no less critical
than the issues that arise during development. The experienced BA is aware that just because technology
and products are purchased does not necessarily mean that:
• It will be implemented and deliver value faster
• It will cost less money than developing a solution internally
62 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Customers
In some projects, the BA may interact directly with the customer. The BA first needs to be really clear on
the definition of customer—meaning whether the customer is simply external to the department or exter-
nal to the organization. The term customer typically refers to someone external to the organization who
purchases goods and services from the organization and are a key piece in the business model. However,
on projects where the goals are to improve internal processes, systems, and products, the customers in
these situations are often employees in other departments who will utilize or be affected by the solution.
The BA works to help ensure the customer journey with the solution is clearly defined and aligned to
customer needs. Articulating to the team as to whom the change is meant to be valuable for is a key skill
the BA brings to the team.
STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
The relationship that you will build with each stakeholder on a project is unique. Some people will be
easier to communicate with than others, and you will like some stakeholders better than others. It will be
Your Second Step—Know Your Audience 63
beneficial for you to think through what you know (or have heard) about each person in order to plan
your communication and collaboration techniques and your project tasks. In thinking about an individual
stakeholder, there are probably hundreds of things that you could consider. In the context of a work envi-
ronment, only a limited view of each individual is available. Having acknowledged that complexity, there
are several concrete characteristics of each individual that you should consider and plan for:
• Do you already have a relationship with the stakeholder?
• Is it a good working relationship?
• Do you think the stakeholder trusts you?
• What is the stakeholder’s relationship to the project? (Will the project have a significant or a minor
effect on the stakeholder’s work?)
• What is the stakeholder’s attitude toward the project? Are they excited about it or dreading it?
• How knowledgeable is the stakeholder about the business area?
• How many years has the stakeholder been with the organization?
• At what level in the organization is the stakeholder?
• How does the stakeholder communicate? Do they explain concepts clearly? Are they detail oriented?
• How does the stakeholder learn?
Obviously, you will not know the answers to all of these questions for every stakeholder on a project. The
more you know about a particular stakeholder, the better you will be able to tailor your communications.
For stakeholders with whom you have not worked before, you will be adjusting your communications as
you get to know them. This is a good example of an area where a BA must be flexible. Try a particular
communication technique, and if it does not work, try something else. These are all key considerations
that a BA takes into account when conducting business analysis planning.
Even when the project and enterprise goals are aligned, different stakeholder needs may arise. Enter-
prise and project goals can be accomplished in various ways, and different stakeholders will have different
ideas on how to accomplish them. The BA’s role is to listen carefully and work to understand each of the
different stakeholder issues. If there is a conflict, the first step is to clearly understand both sides. This will
often be difficult because you may personally agree with one side and have a difficult time being open
minded about the other. Work hard to maintain your neutrality. If the differing groups have difficulty
discussing the issue together because they are emotional or impatient, talk with them individually. Work
to really understand their perspectives and their motives. Do not try to change their minds or convince
them of another way. Be sure that you completely understand the person’s perspective and concern before
moving forward with discussing possible solutions. Consider ways you can generate positive outcomes for
all sides, such as the win-win approach (Covey 1989).
Occasionally, when you truly listen and understand each side of a conflict, you will see common
ground. This is the important area on which to begin your consensus building. Help both sides see their
shared knowledge, goals, and desires, especially as applied to the good of the entire enterprise. Consensus
does not mean that everyone agrees; it means that everyone can support the solution.
When the two sides have large areas of disagreement, be open and honest in acknowledging the issues.
Let everyone know that reaching a consensus may be impossible. Ultimately, the project sponsor will be
the decision maker and all stakeholders should understand this reality. Help each side present informa-
tion (keep them to facts and not opinions) so that the project sponsor can hear the perspective of all the
team members and make an informed decision.
A business owner had a clear idea of the solution that he needed in order to deliver high-quality ser-
vices to his customers. As the BA, I worked with the technical SMEs to help develop the designs and
to scope out the estimate for the costs—including purchase costs as well as installation, configuration,
and management. When the business owner was presented with the recommended design solution
and the implementation costs, he was immediately outraged at such an astronomical cost estimate for
such a “simple” solution. As a best practice, when there are questions on such designs or solutions,
I set up an estimate review session, inviting multiple business area stakeholders along with the tech-
nical team and their leadership (decision makers for IT). My role was not to say whether the design
or estimates were good or bad. My role in this facilitated session was to clarify the business owner’s
requirements and then explain the options that would allow that requirement to be delivered, including
costs. As we worked through each item individually, it enabled the business to validate their require-
ments. This validation allowed discussion with the technical team to provide solution explanation and
options to the business. The explanations on both sides brought more understanding and awareness
of the scope of the effort to all those attending. Some items were changed such that the outcome was
less about fulfilling the expectations of each stakeholder and more about collaboration and defining a
shared solution vision that everyone could support.
Your Second Step—Know Your Audience 65
with stakeholders still exist—whether you are working with a dispersed team or not—when it comes
to making sure that the project goal is well understood and supported, articulating clearly the desired
outcome of any meeting, and working to ensure that you have the right people present to accomplish
your goals. Be clear on defining these before you jump in and start working on your business analysis
techniques or approaches.
Physical Distance
Today’s digital world often has teams working across physical distances. Even separation of a few miles
adds a challenge to communication. While taking into account the time required to travel and meet team
members and key stakeholders in person, the BA should still aim to meet in person with as many stake-
holders as possible—at least once—to build these valuable business relations. You get to put a face to the
name, see body language, and learn from their manners, work area, and in-office behaviors. Of course, all
meetings should be well planned with the appropriate techniques selected and desired outcomes in mind
so that no time is wasted. Doing an in-person meeting with a stakeholder as early as possible in the project
will begin to build a relationship that will result in easier access and an open flow of information as the
project progresses.
Go into the stakeholder’s environment as much as possible. This will not only make it easier for the
stakeholders to participate and be forthcoming with valuable project information, but it will also allow
you to understand the situations surrounding each stakeholder in greater detail. You show your direct
support to the stakeholder while, at the same time, developing a better understanding of the environment
and additional stakeholders who are affecting or are affected by the proposed changes.
Language Differences
Most global organizations choose one language for their internal business communications. If the BA and
a stakeholder do not speak or know a common language, a translator or tool must be employed to manage
all communications. This is rare but, when necessary, will add both cost and time to the business analysis
68 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
processes. More often, the project team members will share a language, but some team members will be
more fluent than others. Setting ground rules at the beginning for your communication plans and styles is
an important investment activity to help the project tasks run as smoothly and efficiently as possible while
minimizing any issues with language differences.
Consider for example that if English is a second language for a team member, they may have a smaller
vocabulary than native English speakers. And even for native English speakers, remember that words in
English can have different meanings in different locations. Reinforce the team ground rules so that should
someone not understand a key element, they are encouraged to promptly inquire as to the meaning. Ad-
ditionally, acronyms should be avoided during any discussion until agreed upon by team members—the
BA may start a glossary to be shared and updated by the team during the project to facilitate discussions
(see Chapter 6 for more details). Also, be mindful of any slang or colloquial terms that are used. Clear,
consistent business language should be utilized as much as possible. And if you are unsure whether or
not everyone knows the meaning of a situation or element, it does not hurt to take a few extra seconds to
clarify a topic before beginning.
Team members may speak English but have a strong accent, which could make them more difficult to
understand. Talk with each stakeholder as early as possible, and listen for vocabulary usage and accent. If
you determine that one or more stakeholders are less fluent, plan more time for elicitation sessions and
follow-up communications. If possible, exchange written communications (e.g., e-mail messages) as soon
as possible to assess writing skills. Often, people who have learned a second language in school are better
able to communicate in writing because pronunciations are not involved. Choose your communication
techniques based on your assessment of each stakeholder.
This is a key aspect for any BA: remember to always be learning. Learn how the stakeholders commu-
nicate today, and also learn how they did in the past and what successes and challenges emerged. If they
are using newer and advanced collaboration tools, then take the time to become comfortable with them
so that you may adapt to the team. If no tools are used, research what is available within the organization
since not all tools are free, secure for storing sensitive information, or simply compatible with the standard
technology available to an organization’s employees. This is the additional planning work that the BA role
needs to build into all of their meetings and facilitated sessions in order to be a successful, value-adding
team member.
Microsoft’s collaboration tool, SharePoint, was deployed in the organization where I was assigned to a
project. The PM used SharePoint for project documents, but told me that none of the team members
liked it because it was too hard to use. Thus, it was more her backup repository of what she had done
since she would e-mail all of the team members any documents as attachments. I had used SharePoint
at a prior organization and knew of many of the capabilities it could offer in terms of facilitating collab-
oration; however, during my first few meetings with key stakeholders, I never even mentioned the word
SharePoint. As we began to get into the project, there was documentation I would send out—asking
for their review. I would e-mail one copy only to get 10 different versions back; and it began to be quite
time consuming for me to consolidate them and still analyze the results. With the next item that I needed
collaborative feedback on—basically a single working copy of what we were all using—I utilized the
SharePoint collaboration tool to post the document. I verified that I had set up the tool’s permissions
so that all the team members could have the appropriate access. In an e-mail to the team members, I
clearly laid out the instructions on how to collaborate on this single document with simple instructions
that never named the tool, but rather focused on the user’s instructions—i.e., “Here are the three simple
steps to add your feedback to this team’s documentation.” I then sent the e-mail with a single link in it to
the team members so that a single document was being used to collect the team’s feedback and come
to consensus. I also made myself available to answer questions or give further explanations. The first
time I did this, I did have to send it as an attachment to a few people who had trouble; however, as the
project went on and we continued to use the tool, the easier the collaboration began to get for the team
members and the less support I had to give to individuals. As the project came closer to completion, I
was even asked by team members how they could get the same repository tool (as they called it) for their
own department teams. Only then did I share more about the name of the tool and the supplementary
features it had to offer. Yes, it did require additional time up front, but it was also an investment in myself,
my technology knowledge, and my training skills—and ultimately, it was a greater value for the organi-
zation whose personnel were finally starting to take advantage of IT’s investment in collaboration tools.
have the advantage of watching their body language in order to determine their understanding. Continue
to follow the same best practices that encourage clear and succinct presentation topics (i.e., do not read
the displayed text to the audience, but rather explain what the content means and why the listeners should
care or how it impacts them). Presentation-style meetings require even more planning to be successful,
so also consider whether you need to send information prior to the meeting to help prepare the attendees
to participate. Taking a few extra minutes to think through the presentation from your attendees’ per-
spectives can be the difference between success and failure. Do you want everyone to participate? Then
perhaps you plan the questions so that you can ask specific people to respond versus asking everyone to
simply agree, such as, “John, would you agree or disagree with this conclusion?” Are there people who will
attend who may not know why their manager invited them, but have chosen to attend regardless? Then
perhaps some time should be taken at the beginning to highlight why each attendee is valuable to achiev-
ing the decided outcome of the presentation.
With many tools, you can not only present material but leverage their participation. Think beyond
simply asking questions and looking for responses, especially if the audience is very large and the topics
are controversial or contested. Consider what engagement is required to achieve your goal(s) of the pre-
sentation and then structure your interaction accordingly. If you are looking for consensus, consider uti-
lizing the presentation tool to collect the votes of attendees (this is great if looking for anonymity of votes
or reducing bias). If you are presenting a topic for further discussion and feedback, allow the use of chat
or whiteboard tools to collect thoughts as you are going through the materials. Of course, the greater the
engagement, the stronger your facilitation skills are required to be, so consider getting someone to assist
in managing the actions of the meeting. For example, use a moderator to collect questions that are being
submitted as you are presenting and then will read them aloud one at a time during pause points for you
to respond to the group. Like all other BA activities, start to plan your presentation by defining the pre-
sentation goal, explain why each person attending is required, and clarify the technology and format that
you plan to use to collect and communicate feedback and decisions. Often, successful presentations are a
result of the actions taken before and after the meeting itself so that all stakeholders are on the same page
and working toward the same goal.
• BAs will typically find themselves working with stakeholders who represent many different roles,
especially on project-based work. Understanding the strengths and potential challenges that the
BAs may have with each of these roles helps them to determine the most appropriate approach for
successful engagements.
• BAs plan, design, and deliver communications in order to balance all stakeholder needs and to
manage the challenges of dispersed team members.
• Working with disbursed teams requires even more planning and forethought to ensure that com-
munications are clear and consistent. This triggers the need to take into account the additional
planning and communication time when completing BA work activities.
• BAs should constantly learn about not only their stakeholders but also the technology and organi-
zational resources that are necessary to best leverage interaction with team members—particularly
disbursed team members—and focus on meeting outcomes versus the process and techniques
utilized.
• The more a BA understands the stakeholders, their environment, and the context of the project, the
more successful a BA can be at facilitating communication, identifying requirements, and helping
to design and deliver valuable solutions.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Agile Alliance. (2018). “Agile Glossary.” https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary.
Covey, Stephen R. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Free Press: New York, NY.
International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). (2015). Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK ®
Guide). IIBA: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
IIBA. (2017). Agile Extension to the BABOK® Guide. IIBA: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Layton, M. (2017, September 5). Agile Project Management for Dummies. 2nd Ed. Wiley Publishing: Hobo-
ken, NJ.
Project Management Institute (PMI). (2017). Agile Practice Guide. PMI: Newtown Square, PA.
Lojeski, Karen Sobel (2008). Uniting the Virtual Workforce: Transforming Leadership and Innovation in the
Globally Integrated Enterprise. Wiley Publishing: Hoboken, NJ.
Londer, O. and P. Coventry. (2016). Microsoft SharePoint 2016 Step by Step. Microsoft Press: Redmond,
WA.
Miller, J. (2017, October 19). “What Is a Project Management Office (PMO) and Do You Need One?”
CIO.com. IDG Communications. https://www.cio.com/article/2441862/project-management/what-is-a
-project-management-office-pmo-and-do-you-need-one.html.
Neilson, J. (1993, September 23). Usability Engineering. Morgan Kaufmann: Burlington, MA.
The Open Group. (2009). “Architecture Framework TOGAF®.” http://www.opengroup.org/TOGAF-9.2
-Overview.
Osman, H. (2016). Influencing Virtual Teams: 17 Tactics that Get Things Done with Your Remote Employees.
CreateSpace: Scotts Valley, CA.
Quality Assurance Institute (QAI). “Consulting and workforce development organization focused on op-
erational excellence.” http://www.qaiusa.com/.
User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) International. “UXPA International supports people
who research, design, and evaluate the UX of products and services.” https://uxpa.org/.
Withee, R. and K. Withee. (2016). SharePoint 2016 for Dummies. Wiley Publishing: Hoboken, NJ.
CHAPTER 3
YOUR THIRD STEP—KNOW YOUR PROJECT
Most of the work assigned to business analysis professionals is within the confines of a project. A project
is a temporary endeavor that is initiated in order to achieve very specific goals. It is critical for the business
analyst (BA) to thoroughly understand the project to which they are assigned. The BA must be aware of
the parameters set for the project, the individuals involved with the project, and most important, the pur-
pose of the project. Without clearly knowing the goals of the project, an analyst will not be able to focus
elicitation and analysis activities in the right direction. Knowing why the project
was initiated is the first step in business analysis planning. “The enterprise
To help understand the goals of each project, a BA should be aware of the strategic plan is
organization’s strategic vision and long-term goals. The enterprise strategic the organization’s
plan is the organization’s road map to long-term success. Each individual proj- road map to
ect supports a piece of the strategic plan. The BA’s work during project initi- long-term success.”
ation is to understand its alignment with corporate goals and to plan analysis
activities that will best support those goals.
73
74 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
the viewpoint of the project sponsor) before they can dive in and begin analyzing and understanding the
requirements needed to implement the change.
aware that the project you have been assigned to may be the feasibility study itself—or what is often called
a pilot project to validate the concept and approach. A good BA understands not only why a project was
started, but also quickly recognizes what stage the solution is in at any given point since not every BA is
brought on at the beginning of a project.
BAs are often asked to write and present a business case for a project or potential project. This is a
very important skill for a senior BA who is interested in moving into consulting, strategic and enterprise
planning, or corporate management. Building a business case for a project can be challenging because it
requires significant research, analysis (logical reasoning and financial estimates), and strong communica-
tion skills. In addition, business case development requires creativity and big-picture thinking.
Business case development and cost/benefit analysis are important skills for business analysis profes-
sionals to develop early in their careers. Although a formal business case document is not created for every
project, someone in the organization should always consider a project’s worth before funding is approved.
If you are assigned to a project where a formal business case was not created and approved, it is best to
practice this skill by drafting one that you and the PM can use with team members. Because business cases
contain the project’s ultimate goal and objectives, they are great documents to help not only keep the team
motivated but also on scope and, therefore, on track for successful project completion.
The practice of writing business cases can also continue outside of your project work. On your teams
and even with your family, whenever you find yourself trying to guide others toward a specific decision,
practice your business case skills. Take a few minutes to think about the costs and benefits. Try to break
down your thoughts and analyze your decision-making process. You can start by looking at the pros and
cons of the decision, as shown in Table 3.1.
Be sure to list everything, regardless of whether or not it can be measured or quantified. Cost/benefit
analysis often includes items that are intangible or difficult to measure—ones that are often very customer
focused—such as ease of use or excitement factor.
Next, look at each pro and con to determine if there is some way to quantify
it. The more quantifiable the analysis, the more objective it will be. If you can “The more quanti-
fiable the analysis,
show your spouse that a new car will require a smaller monthly cash outflow,
the more objective
then you would probably have a pretty good business case. When you are con-
it will be.”
sidering a job change or career move, there are a number of factors you weigh
against each other—and salary would presumably be one of many factors. The
same approach is to be taken with change efforts, whether big or small, since you are spending company
resources to achieve some sort of result.
Research anything that may have a tangible cost in order to help represent the most accurate picture
possible. Remember to include not only the cost spent on the effort, but the time spent on resources
used—and if you have proper access, examine the cost of not doing other projects. When you estimate,
always document the assumptions upon which you based the estimate. This helps capture the timeliness
of your estimate because things can change from the time you do your research to the time a person is
reviewing it. See Table 3.2 for examples of some of the one-time costs and recurring costs that might come
up for a technology solution. It is important to separate one-time costs from recurring costs for payback
period calculations (the length of time required for the organization to recover its investment). In looking
at these examples, BAs need to consider the entire solution impact rather than simply the project or im-
plementation costs. Some example considerations include:
• Operational maintenance and support: Who does the upgrades? Who helps users when there
are issues? While 24/7 support can be costly, it may be a benefit that is worth the cost to the
organization—which is why it is identified as a risk mitigation option.
• Security: Who has access to the organizational data? It may not be an organizational desire to
have data shared with other firms when it comes to technical designs (such as those for hosted
solutions).
• Training: Who does the initial training? Is this for end users? What about the business teams?
What about ongoing training for end users? The organization may want training as part of the
implementation plan, but may not have resources ready or available to do any training beyond the
project scope. This is an important consideration for solution cost versus project cost.
• Marketing and communication: Are there marketing needs beyond initial rollout to communicate
the solution? How are materials and other marketing resources updated in the future in the event
that the solution changes? Is there dedicated support from the marketing teams to answer end-user
questions after the implementation?
The answers to the previous questions will affect the scope of the solution.
BAs should also enlist help from financial professionals, when necessary, to help lay out the complete
financial picture among the quantitative benefits. The business must understand what benefits are being
received for the costs—in both time and money—that are being dedicated to the effort. While some or-
ganizations may use a template for presenting project proposals, know that there are many ways to rep-
resent costs and benefits. BAs must utilize communication skills and always tailor the presentation of the
information to the audience to which the business case is being presented. Sticking to the facts and reliable
information helps the presentation remain objective and focused on organizational value, building greater
credibility and ultimate value to the BA role.
For cost and benefits that cannot be quantified, describe each intangible aspect, articulating possible
metrics and how it could possibly benefit or negatively affect the organization. Some examples are listed
in Table 3.3. Really consider if the entire picture is captured, showing both immediate and long-term value
and then for what costs and effort, especially if there are additional costs in the future in order to keep the
solution providing maximum value.
A key aspect to also consider in business cases is providing alternative solutions. Many expect that the
person who is presenting the business case will have strong points for their solution. But as an unbiased
advisor, the BA is always trying to present the most valuable information needed at the time for the de-
cision makers. Presenting alternatives helps decision makers see the situation more clearly and gives the
solution you are recommending more context and credibility. Alternatives should be presented in the
same manner (considering costs and benefits). The overall recommendation, though, should highlight
how the selected solution provides the most value. The alternatives should also include the option of doing
nothing. Calling out the costs and potential benefits of not moving forward with a project allows the big-
ger picture to remain in focus, rather than getting excited over something that might feel like it is too good
to be true. Presenting alternatives helps demonstrate the credibility of the analysis work while enabling the
decision maker to reach an informed decision.
As is popular in large organizations today, business areas will come to the information technology (IT)
department to implement the products and software that they want to purchase to enable their lines of
business. At the large organization in this example, business cases were presented to a cross-functional
team to review the cost/benefit analysis and make decisions against other projects and organizational
continued
78 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
initiatives. The financial team presented a project that proposed significant cost savings over a five-year
period. Many team members wanted to quickly approve such a valuable project, but there were others
who asked for more information before approving. The costs were focused solely on implementing new
software to streamline manual processes. Further information was requested concerning the training
and communication to staff that would be required to ensure a successful rollout. Additionally, the IT
team had questions about whether or not the organization actually owned software solutions already
that could perform the same functionality. I was assigned as the BA to research these very questions
and help present a more thorough picture since, while the value was high, so were the costs. Multiple
options for achieving the goals of the project were then added to the business case that not only in-
cluded the presented solution, but additional solutions such as utilizing current systems as-is, hiring
consultants to customize existing systems, and purchasing other third-party software similar to the one
proposed. With this clarity, the business case came back to the team with greater emphasis on a hybrid
approach that utilized some of the software features the finance team was presenting, but combined
with existing software systems utilizing in-house IT resources. The additional research and analysis
helped provide the decision makers with a clearer picture of how to move forward that best fit the needs
of the entire organization.
There are several common reasons why an organization decides to fund a project:
• A problem
• To reduce or eliminate costs
• Outside regulation
• An opportunity
• For marketing or advertising
• To align business processes
• To deliver organizational strategy
Internet not
working
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have access
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an example of decomposing a technical issue. BAs can also use the 5 Whys technique to help identify the
root cause. This approach encourages you to ask why again and again in order to clarify what is occurring.
Repeatedly asking why something is not working allows the specifics of the problem to become more
evident with each why. For example, a user may tell you a system is broken. Before you run off to talk to
the system administrator, ask the user why they feel that way. Why do they know it does not work? Asking
why a few more times may reveal user error versus the actual system being broken. Knowing the root
cause of an issue ensures that you are solving the actual problem.
Root cause analysis is useful for addressing projects in which the goals are to improve something. This
technique helps when there are issues preventing the organization from getting the most value for their
time and money.
For example, a company’s customer service satisfaction scores may be low in one area. A project is then
approved in order to help improve these scores. The project begins by understanding what is causing low
satisfaction scores in the first place. Now, if the organization has already defined
a solution to the issue and the project is to simply implement the solution that
“The goal of the
will solve that predefined problem, the BA needs to be careful and validate that project needs to
the solution selected does indeed address the root cause of the problem. The clearly articulate
project needs to clearly articulate the problem statement before the team begins the problem
to work on the solution. Too often a solution is chosen that does not fix the statement.”
problem and then the project team or vendor is blamed. Asking early on for
clarification of the issue at hand is a key skill set of the BA. Asking why is an easy
way to initiate a discussion with the business about the ultimate goals they hope
to achieve by breaking down the issue. You would rather find out early on if the selected solution does not
address the intended issue prior to spending significant time and money.
80 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Real World Example: Clarifying Root Causes for Clearer Change Goals
At the organization in this example, the maintenance and repair teams were struggling to keep up with
their work order requests and were often losing the paperwork that recorded all of the information.
Additionally, the managers would constantly get asked for reports and status updates on the main-
tenance work. The managers said that the current processes did not allow for the kind of traceability
that was being requested. The project to help address this issue was originally started as a need to
purchase mobile tablets for the teams. A vendor was preselected that had the type of software that the
organization could use to organize the information and then utilize on the mobile tablets. The mainte-
nance and repair teams pushed hard for a significant investment in mobile tablets as their solution to
increase their response times and reduce completion times to work requests. While the PM was very
good about controlling scope and managing schedules and budgets (as the business continued to
increase the number of tablets required from the initial request), I, as the BA, researched the scenarios
where these issues were occurring in an effort to understand how the implementation needed to work
in order to ensure project value.
Understanding the working environments where these work requests were completed exposed
process issues that were not captured in the initial project scope. Repair teams believed their manag-
ers notified the requester when tasks were completed and thus did not follow up. New staff members
did not receive any training that explained the work order forms and that often led to the requests
being thrown away (literally). However, many of the team members had heard about the project and
viewed the tablets as their solution to all the work challenges the team faced surrounding efficiently
and effectively addressing work orders. Clarification was needed to explain that the inefficient pro-
cesses were what was being addressed, not the need for tablets. I explained that there were many
ways—beyond the tablet suggestion—to address this need, such as new-hire training and the use of
spreadsheets to track data and process changes. The fact that someone had already made a deci-
sion to purchase tablets was only one solution. So, first we clarified the project goal of streamlining
the maintenance and repair process, which included accurate reporting features. At that point, the
actual project goal was acknowledged by the team who reinforced the fact that it was more than
simply setting up mobile tablets, and that there was communication, training, and even technology
validation that also would need to occur.
When you are assigned to gather requirements for a project with the objective of cutting personnel,
be clear on the business case and rationale for the approach. Often, cutting staff is only one solution to a
bigger need. While the BA (or even the PM) is not a decision maker who gets to select the specific solution
approach, like any project, knowing what business need you are solving is still the most important aspect.
You need to fully understand this need, especially as you work on a project that reduces the number of
staff. Try to get as much information from the management team as you can before you start talking with
the SMEs. Questions that not only articulate the business needs that are being solved, but also why they
feel that staff reduction is key to the solution should be posed to the PM, executive sponsor, corporate
management, human resources management, and any other executive-level people who will be involved
in the workforce reduction. You may personally feel otherwise; however, you must ensure that you check
your own feelings and remain unbiased, objective, and dedicated to overall organizational success. Asking
difficult questions with the goal of more understanding not only helps you have a sturdier foundation
for when you speak to stakeholders, but it also helps to ensure that the executive and decision-making
stakeholders truly understand the scope and impact of the solution approach that they have chosen. These
questions may include:
• What challenge are we solving or opportunity are we taking advantage of ?
• Are there other changes that are included in the scope of the work (process changes, role descrip-
tions, organizational changes)?
• What alternative solutions were considered? Why were those not selected?
• Are there options to reduce costs in other areas? Reduce non-personnel resources?
• Do you anticipate additional changes in the near future that are related to this work?
As you ask these questions, you may discover that not all of these questions have been discussed thor-
oughly to a point of common message. This shows the BA’s value by helping ensure that needs are being
addressed rather than diving directly into solutions. Remember, cutting staff is simply one solution. The
need to reduce costs, however, could have many solutions.
If the decision makers have already done the analysis at the point you are assigned the project, then
make sure that you have all of the information clearly defined before you dive in and start the redesign
processes. The requirements for successfully reducing a workforce often include more than simply the
elimination of positions. The BA will be gathering numerous requirements that may address such items as:
• The criteria and selection of the positions being eliminated
• The transition process for these positions
• Communication requirements for the individuals in the job roles, the teams, and the organization—
and quite possibly to support external public relations
• Changes to the processes to accommodate the lack of positions
• Updates to remaining job descriptions
• Additional impacts or changes to the organization as a result of the reduction
Reinforcing the strategic ties of the project will help define the scope of requirements—the same things
that a BA would do for any other type of change. This is also the foundation that the BA relies on when
finding it hard to get answers to a number of the previously mentioned questions since it is also possible
82 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
that decisions about personnel changes cannot be determined yet because a business solution/change has
not yet been defined. In these cases, it is important for the BA to be aware that whatever solution design
is recommended, it will have a direct impact on people in the business area. It may be difficult for BAs
to be objective if they see a solution design that will automate someone out of a job. You must remember
that you are working for the organization’s long-term success. Ignoring a good solution that will increase
organizational effectiveness just to save someone’s job will make the organization less competitive and
may decrease its long-term viability. It may be an extreme thought, but if you save one or two jobs now,
you may contribute to the failure of the entire organization in the long run—resulting in a much larger loss
of jobs. You must keep an objective perspective and remain grounded in the goals and strategic alignment
of the project.
With these kinds of projects, the keys to success lie in your communication skills in clearly articulating
the situation. Whether decision makers specifically say up front that they are reducing workforce or you
feel that reduction is the direction they want (and are utilizing the project to prove it), keep your own
personal thoughts out of the discussion and stay focused on what the organization needs in order to be
successful. Facilitated discussions still require you to understand your stakeholders and prepare any en-
gagements for successful, defined outcomes that support achieving the project’s goal. If you are gathering
requirements and are unsure of the alignment with the original project’s goal, then clearly and without
bias articulate this to the PM to clarify—or raise your concerns to the project sponsor. This clarity helps
you continue your support of a shared and consistent understanding among the project team members as
you collaborate on solutions with them.
At times, the stakeholders you have to work with may be difficult when it comes to sharing information
or even when trying to coordinate a meeting time (and may even exude passive-aggressive behavior), but
do not let it keep you from listening and trying to understand their opinions and suggestions. Just like
any other project, go to your stakeholders and collaborate with them to help share their voice and articu-
late how they see that value can be added to the organization. They may even have innovative ideas that
senior decision makers are unaware of. Clearly capturing, articulating, and sharing the requirements that
are identified and analyzed as a result of your meetings with stakeholders remains your goal. Bring the
information that has been gathered to help define the solution and be sure that the solution that is selected
shows the potential to achieve the executives’ intended results. The trust you build with stakeholders and
your commitment to honest and unbiased facts contributes to being part of a successful project, but also
builds your own credibility for further analysis work.
analysis professional is to ask the why questions, even about these projects. Ignoring regulations is
not recommended, but each organization that is impacted by regulations should make a choice about
whether or not to comply. Noncompliance usually results in negative consequences like penalties, bad
press, or elimination from some markets. An organization should develop a business case, including a
cost/benefit analysis—weighing the cost of the regulation against the benefits—which may simply be the
avoidance of negative consequences.
Understand that a change in mandatory regulations requires the organization to analyze the value of
the change. Rarely are any changes simple—even if the change does not affect the technology that the
organization is currently using, training, communication, and updates to existing organizational artifacts
may still be required. All of these changes cost the company (even if not spending dollars, remember that
it costs an organization money whenever they take people away from the work they would normally be
doing). If a regulatory change comes out in which noncompliance within 12 months results in a $100,000
fine, compliance may seem like a priority project. However, if this regulation would take $500,000 in
new technology hardware and an additional $500,000 in organizational resources, then is the $1 million
change worth the risk of a $100,000 fine? The business may decide to take the time and research addi-
tional options, including whether the regulation will change again in 24 or 36 months since it would take
10 years of fines before costing the organization more than the actual change. Of course, if these changes
affect brand reputation or represent a major safety risk, then those are other costly elements that need to
be estimated and weighed against the benefits. All this analysis work should be done before any decisions
are made. These decisions benefit greatly from analytical BAs helping the strategic decision makers see
the entire picture.
In contrast, another major strategic consideration is to change the organization so that the regulation
no longer applies. When the U.S. government enacted Sarbanes-Oxley financial reporting regulations for
publicly held companies, some companies decided to buy back all of their shares and reorganize privately
to avoid the costly regulation. Blindly deciding to comply with every rule or guideline is not always a good
strategic plan. Each relevant issue should be examined and analyzed for its true cost and value. This is why
always trying to present fact-based, objective, and unbiased information in the analysis work is the best
way that a BA adds value to an organization and supports decision makers.
Cost/benefit analysis, alternatives analysis, and risk assessments are all crucial activities that need to be
completed during strategic analysis of regulatory issues. BAs performing these strategic analyses leverage
their communication skills to ask in-depth questions in order to get to the root of an issue and truly un-
derstand the need and possible opportunities. The value of change efforts is maximized by understanding
what has to change and also what should not.
Analyzing an opportunity is the same as any other project—the costs and potential benefits that might
be achieved have to be assessed to determine how much potential value could be added to the organiza-
tion. An estimate of what it would take to modify the organization to incorporate the opportunity and
the costs, time, and resources involved is first identified. Then those numbers are balanced against the
potential value that would return to the organization. Different implementation options may need to be
assessed as part of the analysis to truly understand the opportunity. The additional perspective of consid-
ering what value the organization would get for not taking the opportunity, but rather continuing as-is or
simply waiting until a later time also needs to be considered.
Opportunities do not simply arise from the executives coming up with new ideas in a closed room.
These opportunities may start from customer feedback and interaction, employees talking about how
easy (or hard) their work processes are, or may come from looking at what competitors or the industry
are doing. What is even more exciting today is that opportunities are now coming from looking at differ-
ent industries and leveraging their approaches in new and different ways. Opportunities are arising from
asking, what if . . . ?—and then considering what could be possible.
Some opportunities are large, like offering a brand-new product or redesigning processes, but many
opportunities are smaller, incremental changes to existing products or processes that will improve cus-
tomer service, increase quality or efficiency, or decrease costs. The small opportunities often can have
a huge impact in an organization. Suppose a supermarket chain identifies a change in its distribution
process that would save two cents on every dairy product sold. The savings could quickly reach millions
of dollars. On the other hand, a simple edit to an online form may actually require significant technology,
process, training, communication, and marketing changes.
When opportunities are identified, a business case should be built. Most executive-level managers are
looking for the benefits to outweigh the costs before they will give approval to go forward and fund a
project. Positive cash flow or ROI is typically required because pursuing an opportunity is purely optional
to an organization. A regulatory change or problem resolution may be considered mandatory, whereas an
opportunity is a choice.
for even more criteria because marketing stakeholders frequently assume criteria without realizing it. The
more an analyst knows about the data available, the better the questions that will be asked to completely
detail the request. For example, the analyst might ask: “What about students who have tested out of class
B?” Answer: “Well, of course we don’t want to market to them!” When you hear a stakeholder say, “Of
course,” you are discovering an underlying assumption that the stakeholder has made that should be cap-
tured in the requirements.
For complex query requests, the analyst should not only ask questions to reveal all of the criteria,
but should also review the results before providing them to the marketing stakeholder. Initial query
results often expose problems or challenges within the request that the analyst may be able to catch.
Providing inaccurate data to the requester diminishes credibility and frustrates the requester. Care-
fully capturing the query criteria and reviewing the results will ensure the request is completed quickly
and accurately.
For these new products and opportunities, do not be afraid to ask about or confirm the business cases
for the organization. There is often excitement surrounding the launch of a new and exciting feature to
your customers—especially when concerned with competition and wanting to stay up with the latest
trends. However, business value to the organization should always be the top priority. The BA can help by
either creating or validating the business case to demonstrate the estimated ROI. An exciting new project
is only exciting if it returns value to the organization. And yes, many marketing metrics could include
qualitative factors such as customer satisfaction; however, these still need to be quantified and measured
in order to justify the expenditure of organizational resources.
With the approach determined, the search for the best fit begins. There are three common techniques
used to aid in the selection process: request for information (RFI), request for quotation (RFQ), and re-
quest for proposal (RFP). These requests are prepared by the organization that is interested in purchasing
solutions from vendors. They are sent to vendors that offer solutions in the requested area. Each request
is a formal petition asking vendors to respond.
These formal requests are used to make sure that all vendors are given an equal opportunity in the
bidding process. This procurement process of sending a formal request and receiving formal replies was
first used by U.S. government agencies and private companies that were concerned that employees were
showing favoritism to a particular vendor; they wanted to have a well-documented explanation and jus-
tification for the selection process. It is not uncommon for vendors that are not selected to question the
fairness of the selection process, which then raises questions about discrimination. To avoid these accu-
sations and possible legal action, most large organizations follow a structured process and have rules that
strive to make the process as objective as possible (e.g., employees are not allowed to accept gifts from
vendors over a small dollar amount, employees are not allowed to talk with vendors during the proposal
process, all vendor inquiries and answers are written and published to other vendors, etc.). The BA role
begins here by providing the analysis that clearly articulates the needs, goals, and requirements of the
organization and what it hopes to achieve. The analysis then continues with a review of the responses and
how well each response addresses the stated needs or requirements in order to make a recommendation
on how best to proceed.
An RFI is a document that outlines the business problem or opportunity that a company is trying to
solve and asks vendors to provide initial, general information about product offerings. This is a great tool
to use first if the business is unsure as to how to proceed or to see if the solution is even physically or
technically possible. The RFI may be sent to numerous vendors, giving as many as possible a chance to
participate in the bidding process. Often, some vendors will choose not to reply because their solutions
do not meet the need or they do not think that they can support the customer on an ongoing basis.
The second type of request is an RFQ. This is a document asking vendors to provide a formal price
quotation. These are often very formal and are used when it is explicitly clear what the requirements are
and the specific solution being requested.
The third and most frequently used type of request is the RFP. This is usually a longer document that
describes, in detail, the needs of the company. It asks vendors to describe specifically how their solution
will match the needs of the organization. An RFP is effectively a requirements package (this is discussed
more in Chapter 6) that describes the needs of the business area without defining the solution. The
vendor is expected to propose a solution approach and define how it meets the requirements that will
include implementation, the solution itself, and continuing support. This may include customization
of features, training for software users, consulting on implementation or rollout plans, development
of interfaces to other applications, and ongoing maintenance changes. Creating an RFP and reviewing
vendor responses is often key business analysis work. An RFP may contain requirements related to
the contract (written by the legal department) or the procurement process (written by procurement)
beyond simply technical requirements. Often the PM will be responsible for pulling all the require-
ments together along with other documentation for the formal engagement and contract work with the
external vendors. The BA will review the documentation to ensure that the needs are fully articulated
Your Third Step—Know Your Project 87
through the requirements and then work to help validate that the solution is delivered as defined and
agreed to.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
Projects are initiated for very specific reasons, and those reasons can be traced back to an organization’s
strategic plan. Strategic planning is an important activity for every enterprise. It is the development of a
cohesive, long-term plan for the organization. It helps articulate how the organization will work to achieve
the organizational vision. Strategic planning may be performed at the organizational or department/
88 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Strategic Planning
Portfolio
Project Project Project
Business
Project planning
analysis planning
and scoping
and scoping
divisional level. In some large firms, there are entire departments dedicated to strategic planning and
measuring the organization’s adherence to the plan.
Most junior to mid-level BAs will not be involved in strategic planning, but it is an important activity
for all BAs to comprehend. You need to be able to read and understand the plan because it sets the di-
rection for the organization. BAs should ensure that project work is moving the organization forward in
achieving its strategic goals. Many senior-level and experienced BAs participate in strategic planning ac-
tivities. This is often part of the progression of advancing your analysis activities from targeted-solutions
analysis to project-based analysis to more enterprise-level analysis. If you wish to grow in your analysis
career, maturing to support enterprise-level analysis is a natural progression beyond project-based work.
This type of analysis provides the information that will help the firm choose which projects to undertake
in the first place—by looking at not just one project, but rather all projects and how they blend together.
Figure 3.2 provides an overview of the relationship between strategic planning and individual projects.
In large organizations, strategic planning leads to the identification of programs within which most proj-
ects operate. Many organizations also use the concept of a portfolio of projects that are managed similar
to the management of a portfolio of assets.
multiple related projects. Programs and portfolios are two different ways to group projects together logi-
cally; however, the perspective is part of strategic planning by looking at the enterprise efforts rather than
individual task-based work, an essential element of strategic analysis.
Portfolio and program management are important terms that every business analysis professional
should learn. These disciplines have grown out of the project management profession and represent high-
level management of projects. Small to medium-sized companies may not have formal portfolio and pro-
gram management groups, but the ideas are still important. Projects in a program may be in various
stages: some may just be ideas, some have been approved and funded, and some have been started and are
in the process of being completed.
The goal of portfolio management is to review all of the projects on a regular basis to confirm that the
organization is making the best use of its limited resources. Projects are prioritized, and higher-priority
projects are assigned more resources based on their needs. Analysis is needed to ensure that the projects
are delivering the intended value of the portfolio to support the organization. The decision makers need
to be aware of changes that affect this value since they constantly review and reprioritize to keep the orga-
nization driving toward its strategic goals.
Enterprise Architecture
One of the activities that may take place during strategic planning is the development of an enterprise
architecture. The enterprise architecture is a description of the enterprise and how the organization plans
to achieve strategic goals. It describes the current business and technology components that are required
for the enterprise to operate and it needs to be understood before trying to drive forward any successful
change effort. Enterprise architecture can be thought of as the overarching architecture containing every-
thing about the organization (see Figure 3.3). Often, the architecture is modeled so that stakeholders
can visually understand how a change would impact and be impacted by the enterprise’s structure and
outlook. Figure 3.4 shows an example of some of the elements to be considered when modeling an orga-
nization’s enterprise architecture.
90 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Enterprise Architecture
Business
Architecture
Information
Architecture
(Data and Application
Architectures)
Technical Architecture
Business Architecture
Business architecture is simply a subset of the overall enterprise architecture where the focus is on busi-
ness functions and processes and the assets that enable these operations. Whether at the enterprise or
business level, the architecture is important to understand to bring context to the environment in which
the solution or change must be successful. Do you understand the goals of the organization? Do you
understand how the products and services not only drive revenue but value for the business or how the
organization structures the roles and people? Are you aware of where the physical and virtual locations
are? These are all considerations when analyzing a future-state idea. The business architecture is a way to
understand current states and articulate many of the business and stakeholder needs that a BA will utilize
to ensure that the requirements of the change produce a solution of value.
Information Architecture
Information (or data) is a valuable asset of every organization. Over time, an organization collects bil-
lions of pieces of information about customers, vendors/suppliers, products/services, expenses, etc. The
value of the information is directly related to how quickly a particular piece of data can be retrieved when
needed. An information architecture is a plan for where the organization will store information so that
it is safe, secure, and easily accessible by the right people at the right time. As you work on a project, you
should always be aware of the information used by the project and where it belongs in this information
architecture. Some organizations have trouble articulating this across the entire enterprise, while others
are much more mature and have strict guidelines that fall under the information management plan.
92 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
An example is the requirements architecture. Before a BA starts collecting and analyzing requirements,
the planning includes identifying how the BA will structure requirements and designs to support not only
achieving the project and organizational goals, but also how all of the different information will work
collectively together. Will you be analyzing different types of requirements such as business requirements,
solution requirements, technical requirements, etc.? How do you plan to structure your results such that
the requirements that are identified for the solution not only align with each of the different types, but
also still support the organization? By defining a requirements architecture, you help to ensure that re-
quirements are complete and consistent. An example of a model of the requirements architecture for a
technology project is displayed in Figure 3.5.
Figure 3.5 shows that business requirements will be broken down to identify the functional and non-
functional requirements as part of solution requirements. These will break down further into technology
requirements. What it also captures is the relationship back to the information architecture and enterprise.
Business requirements come from the project objectives and deliverables (information architecture). Then
these project objectives and deliverables align with the enterprise strategies (enterprise architecture).
Business
objectives
Deliverables
Business
requirements
Solution
requirements
This approach allows the traceability to occur that helps validate the right requirements have been iden-
tified. No technology requirement should emerge that does not support solution requirements. And the
business requirements will make sure that the project objectives and deliverables are achieved. This is the
requirements traceability that is discussed further in Chapter 6. Also, from this perspective the analyst can
align the project with the enterprise and see what other elements might be affected by these requirements.
A business case I was working on aimed to upgrade an existing technology that the company currently
had in use. Business requirements had emerged that included both collaboration and communication
requirements. In the initial analysis, we identified that we could deliver these requirements by upgrad-
ing the existing platform. When talking with the technical team, they also wanted to address some
limitations of the current setup by including additional technical requirements as part of the upgrade
approach. These addressed the needs of reliability (disaster recovery), scalability (storage, software,
and hardware), and accessibility (networks and security). While each requirement was easily traced
to the business needs from the simple requirements perspective, these topics led to bigger conver-
sations with the IT team. The IT team was currently redesigning some of the backup and disaster
recovery configurations. Not only was this business case going to have to be aligned and timed with
these other projects, but the architecture decisions of backup and disaster recovery needed to be
made by IT before we could validate our requirements. We needed to be sure that we aligned with the
architecture of the organization.
While more technically focused, this is a great example of how being inquisitive with SMEs as to what
approaches are ideal and should be considered for long-term organizational success is a key trait that BAs
need to possess. Make sure you know the capabilities of your organization—not simply the technical ca-
pabilities, but also the ways your organization exists, profits, and thrives in its industry and communities.
Technology Architecture
While all areas of business operations should have a view of the architecture they need in order to be an
effective component of the organization, the technology teams often have a clearly modeled view on the
technology architecture for an organization. This is similar to the enterprise architecture, but it only
focuses on the technology—such as types of hardware, software, operating systems, networks, program-
ming language, database management system, etc.—that will be used by the enterprise and what tools are
required to support the success of the enterprise. When thinking about technology architecture, think
beyond simply a project. The technology architecture considers the day-to-day operations and what capa-
bilities the technology must provide to enable the organization. By having a long-term plan, IT depart-
ments are better able to obtain beneficial purchasing and licensing agreements with vendors and then plan
for periodic upgrades of equipment. This IT road map often includes an inventory of an organization’s
current equipment and software. This information is incredibly useful when brainstorming for possible
solutions. Teams often need to first consider what already exists versus what needs to be created or
acquired, especially as part of project work. It also helps identify what requirements are needed to ensure
94 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
that the resulting solution of the project-based work can continue to operate and provide value in the
enterprise once the project is completed.
A simple example that comes up often when considering technology purchases is finding out when the
IT teams plan to upgrade software or hardware. An organization wanted to update their external web-
site, so they worked with an external vendor to address their needs. Part of this discussion included
the vendor proposing the use of a common Microsoft tool for the application. Before the marketing
team moved forward with having the vendor build and host the new website, the BA took the require-
ments and ideas to the IT team to review for feedback to confirm that this was the right approach. The
IT team noted that they already used the same application in the organization for internal collaboration.
While IT was not planning to upgrade the application to the newest version for another 6 to 12 months,
the IT team actually wanted to reconsider and discussed upgrading sooner so that the single applica-
tion could support both the existing internal collaboration as well as the future external customer por-
tal. This would be easier for the organization to support and provide consistency of infrastructure as
well as alignment with their current IT plan to consolidate applications. While the marketing team was
not fond of waiting for the upgrade, the change in solution to utilize the organization’s own application
after it was upgraded offered the enterprise more value and easier integration than simply purchasing
another technology.
Business goal:
Technology
Leader
Solution goal:
Hosting
Solutions
Project: Setup
Hosting
Infrastructure
Define
Identify Validate Test
Operational
Requirements Plan
Support Model
completing the requirements, test plans, and operational support models, they are helping the organiza-
tion achieve its business goals.
Project Identification
Once strategic direction is determined, tactical or short-term goals are determined. These short-term
goals will support the long-term strategic plans. Projects to accomplish these tactical goals are identified
and prioritized. As those on the planning team complete the strategic plan and business architecture, they
begin to see where the major problems are with the organization and where the biggest opportunities lie.
These areas are where projects are often identified and outlined. BAs can assist in this project identifica-
tion by examining the business architecture and strategic plan. They provide the analysis on the organiza-
tion’s current capabilities and what is lacking to achieve the business plans. The BAs can help stakeholders
by suggesting projects that are of a manageable size and that address the needs, gaps, or opportunities that
arise from understanding where an organization is and where it wants to be.
PROJECT INITIATION
Ideally, a PM and BA are assigned to each project at its inception. These two highly skilled professionals
work together to assess the project request, talk with the sponsor to understand the objectives, and bring
the team to consensus about the scope of work to be done.
96 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Realistically, there may be one person playing the role of the PM and BA or one of the roles may be as-
signed to the project before the other. Business analysis professionals must be flexible and be able to come
onto a project at any point. If you have a PM, work with him or her to scope the project. If you do not have
a PM, be sure to initiate the project as a PM would, in addition to scoping the analysis work.
Initiation
When a project is initiated, it is important for the team to truly understand and agree upon its definition.
Organizations with more formal, structured approaches to project management may provide a full busi-
ness case, whereas more fluid organizations may have little more than a user request or idea. Regardless,
the BA should work with the PM to more finely detail their understanding of the project, the project’s
goals, and their expected outcomes.
Key to project initiation, the BA should understand and be able to articulate to the team for validation
the following project considerations:
• Approach or methodology
• Statement of purpose
• Objectives
• Problems/opportunities
• Stakeholders (all SMEs and team members)
• Business risks
• Items out of scope
• Assumptions
• Scope of the business area (external interactions and high-level processes)
Project initiation work and the resulting documentation will vary depending on the importance and size
of a project. A small enhancement project may only require a few minutes of thought and a few sentences.
But even on a small project that may appear simple, a few minutes spent at the beginning doing some plan-
ning and definition will be well worth the time. Even if the team says they know what is going on, doing
this as the BA helps to ensure your own understanding of the initiative, allows you to do better business
analysis planning, and supports your efforts in the BA role. The goal of project initiation work is to make
sure that the project makes good business sense and that everyone on the team has the same expectations
about what will be accomplished.
Approach or Methodology
This is simply an acknowledgment/description of how the project work will be done. It is a paragraph or
two describing the overall approach that will be taken by the team and can be as simple as articulating an
iterative or agile approach to development of the solution (see Chapter 5 for more on this). Organizations
may have a standard software development methodology with analysis guidelines, a project management
methodology, or a structured analysis road map to leverage. The BA should review these and note any
variations or challenges that are anticipated. The approach may also include a description of require-
ments management software that will be used. The purpose of this analysis is to confirm with all project
Your Third Step—Know Your Project 97
stakeholders the approach to getting the project done. The project initiation documentation may also
include the next steps for the project.
Statement of Purpose
This is a short description of the project that is focused on explaining why the project has been initiated,
approved, and/or funded. It is the elevator speech that can be given quickly when someone asks you what
you are working on. It should be written in business language and be at a fairly high level so that everyone
in the organization understands the project goal.
Do not discount the importance of formally writing this description. It may be more difficult to write
than anticipated, so several revisions may be necessary. The act of writing something down, reading it, and
revising it forces analysis. Try to do this with your teams. This will not only help you complete the defi-
nition but will also build buy-in through collaboration. Think about each word being used. Does it truly
convey the meaning intended? Is it accurate? The project statement of purpose should not describe how the
project objectives will be met, but it should clearly describe what will be accomplished. It may also include
a sentence on the current environment or situation and should describe the main problem or opportunity
being addressed. This is the one component of project initiation that must be formally documented. Even
if no other document is produced, a project must have a clearly stated reason for its existence. This de-
scription may be referred to as the problem description, vision statement, or project request.
Objectives
An objective is a specific goal or outcome of a project. There are many great resources and tools to help
PMs and BAs develop outstanding project objectives. Spending time clarifying these objectives with the
business stakeholders is a valuable task. Objectives should be SMART—specific, measurable, achievable,
relevant, and time-bound.
Having written, clear, and accurate objectives is important because they define the success criteria of
a project. They help to articulate what done looks like. They also give the project team clear direction for
project work. Project objectives, once approved by the sponsor, should be shared with everyone on the
project team and reviewed frequently throughout the life of the project. This is a great resource for the
BA if they start to experience analysis paralysis (discussed more in Chapter 7) or get overwhelmed by
the work of eliciting, organizing, and analyzing requirements. Take a few moments to reread the project
initiation documentation and focus on the objectives. Remind yourself why the project was started and
what goals are to be accomplished. As previously discussed, your requirements should always trace back
to supporting the goals of the effort. Taking a step back from the details (seeing the forest, not the trees) is
an excellent way for a BA to regain perspective and to refocus on the most important requirements work
that trace directly to delivering the objectives.
Problems/Opportunities
As discussed earlier in this chapter, projects are typically initiated in response to a business problem or
opportunity. At the beginning of a project, the business stakeholders often state a number of things that
they want from the project (opportunities) or problems that they currently have. In many organizations,
98 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
these are referred to as the high-level business requirements, but these items are not necessarily require-
ments yet. They are raw and unrefined. They have not been analyzed or approved. These problems and/or
opportunities should be clearly stated and included with the project initiation material. This is the place to
give more details than those found in the statement of purpose regarding why the project work is impor
tant and how it will benefit the organization. Table 3.5 lists some sample problems and opportunities you
might hear. Note that every problem does not necessarily lead to an opportunity and every opportunity is
not identified as a result of a problem.
Stakeholders
As discussed in Chapter 2, identifying and understanding project stakeholders is a fundamental task of
the PM and BA. An initial list of stakeholders should be included in the project initiation documentation.
An important component of scoping the project is knowing who will be involved and how many individ-
uals will be participating. At initiation, while some individual members may not have been assigned yet,
articulating the roles that need to be filled to help ensure project success is key to showing the estimated
breadth and depth of the effort. Know, though, that this can always be refined (and often will be) as the
project moves forward and specific requirements are defined that drive which expertise the team will need
to access for delivery of the project. And be mindful that there are often multiple stakeholder lists. Primar-
ily there will be the project stakeholder list that identifies the core team members assigned to the project
who are responsible for delivering the change. Then often there is the analysis stakeholder list that the BA
will put together. While many stakeholders will be included on both lists, be aware that there will often be
additional stakeholders that the analyst needs to work with to define, verify, and validate requirements and
designs that the project team does not identify as included in the work. One example is having the marketing
manager be part of the project team to ensure the appropriate messages are getting created and the vision is
clearly communicated throughout the change effort. The BA, however, may sit and work through the website
designs with the company’s website administrator. The website administrator discusses the opportunities
and challenges on the specific requirements and design with the BA, but rarely, if at all, attends a project
meeting. The BA then reviews and validates the requirements and design elements with the marketing man-
ager (and the rest of the project team) as they move forward with implementing the requirements.
Your Third Step—Know Your Project 99
Business Risks
There are two types of risks to be considered for a project: project risks and business risks. Project risks
are potential problems or events that may impede the success of a project. These are typically identified
by the PM and include things like a resource not being available when needed. Business risks are potential
problems or events that may impede the success of the business with respect to the project. These risks
could be solely focused on ensuring that the product of the project generates value (i.e., revenue) for the
organization or they could be as large as disrupting current operations and industry position. These risks
should be identified by the BA when working with the SMEs. This is often one of those areas where having
a separate PM and BA is important. The PM can remain focused on the successful delivery of the project
while the BA continues looking at the project both internally and externally to ensure solution success.
It is important to understand these business risks because they help to prioritize requirements, test cases,
and implementation plans.
It is worthwhile to think about risks and to formally document and communicate them, especially on
large-scale projects. Each risk should be clearly stated, along with the potential impact and a risk strategy.
Risk strategies are recommendations on how to approach each risk. Table 3.6 lists risk strategies and con-
siderations for each. Notice here that not all risk is negative. There can be positive impacts that were not
considered but that may lead to additional opportunities and greater value. See Table 3.7 for an example
of a business risk assessment.
Assumptions
Another section of project initiation is assumptions—essentially, facts that are assumed to be true and will
remain true for the duration of the project. A false or missing assumption can steer the project team in
the wrong direction. People and projects always make a lot of assumptions, and the PM and BA—having
experience—will be able to discern which assumptions should be explicitly stated. For example, the exter-
nal vendor is assumed to provide training as part of the deliverables on the project. Until confirmed and
validated in the requirements, the BA may want to explicitly state the assumption that the organization’s
training team will still be expected to provide classroom-delivered end user training on the new solution.
This reveals to the organization that there are assumptions on the organization’s training team and their
level of competency, participation, availability, and overall understanding of the effort.
Some organizations also include constraints with assumptions. Constraints limit the solution, whereas
assumptions are underlying circumstances within which the solution will operate. A constraint can be as
simple as the availability of a resource or it could be a more complicated, larger, industry constraint.
Like risks, assumptions and constraints should be identified according to
the methodology, organizational standards, and overall information manage-
“Every activity the ment plans and architecture. Not every risk, assumption, and constraint needs
BA does should to be identified and documented—this would take too much of the BA’s and the
add lasting value.” team’s time and not produce much value. As the BA, look for key elements that
would directly affect delivering a valuable, long-term solution. Staying focused
on the goals and objectives of the change effort helps you target the areas where
you should concentrate the most analysis.
Need
Context Change
Value Solution
Stakeholders
by the business is the Business Analysis Core Concept Model™ (BACCM™) (IIBA 2015). Figure 3.7 shows
the BACCM elements and how they impact each other. To use this approach, begin by answering the fol-
lowing questions:
• What is the problem or opportunity being addressed?
• What ideas exist for the solutions to the problem or opportunity?
• What changes are occurring or need to occur to make the solution successful?
• Who is affected by the changes? Who could impact the solution or change effort?
• Within what environment, circumstances, and other context must the changes occur?
• What is the value the project or solution is delivering?
When you as the BA have brainstormed these questions, the next step is to consider how they are related.
If you change the solution, what impact will that have on stakeholders and the value proposition? If the
context of the environment or organization changes, does that affect the scope of the problem or oppor-
tunity? When you consider the holistic view of the project from the business perspective, it helps give a
better understanding as well as ensures that overall value is being addressed. If you have trouble answering
any one of these questions, you need to discuss it with the PM and the project sponsors or business rep-
resentatives in order to clarify before moving forward. This is a great way to acquire the understanding of
what is going on before you dive headfirst into the details.
helps the BA and the entire project team stay focused and to be aware of what effects the changes are hav-
ing on the organization around them.
As a BA, communication is a key competency and thus, understanding that visual models can help
articulate massive amounts of information very quickly is paramount to your professional success. Busi-
ness analysis work often includes multiple ways of presenting information so you should get comfortable
with modeling tools and techniques that help you describe the changes and the value of the work you are
doing. These are extremely valuable from not only project initiation, but also throughout the life cycle of
the project.
Database
Another
Query Customer
System
Data
Response
Confirmation, Return
errors
Printer Send validation Website
request result
3rd Party
Validation
Tool
to the far corners and purposely not connect them to show that these elements are not simply out of scope
but, more important, have no relationship to the change. This starts to paint a picture for the stakeholders
on the design and delivery of the solution.
Do not worry about being right or complete at this stage; it just lets you articulate what you know
already (or do not know) about the project so far. The PM can help fill in details as you get started. Also,
think of this as a working document that you will utilize as a tool to engage with stakeholders and get
their perspectives.
On a project where the organization was upgrading its workflow system, the project team kept dis-
cussing all of the systems that were going to be affected. There were serious debates about whether
those systems affected were included in the project work. As I came in after project initiation, I was
forced to come up to speed quickly in order to be helpful to the team. I started a document where I
put the system we were upgrading in the middle. Then every time another system was mentioned, I
added it as a new entity around our main system. As I learned about the other systems’ relationships
to the workflow system, I would connect the two systems with a line—labeling the line with the nature
of the relationship (such as “sends data,” “receives data,” “produces report,” and other integrations). I
would then show the updated diagram to the project team. I would bring the diagram to every project
meeting, either to add more systems as we discussed other topics or to have it ready to validate the
discussions on the scope and work levels. It became such a great visual model to aide discussions
that we started to color code the depicted entities to more clearly articulate where changes were
occurring. I did not have to worry about being right at meetings. Rather, I utilized the drawing as an
elicitation tool when working with the stakeholders. It helped everyone get on the same page (literally).
In fact, they would often tell me to “add another bubble” when they found another system, even when
we were well into the project. It was an incredibly valuable tool to keep the project team focused on
where we were working (and where we were not) for our project scope.
This seemingly simple diagram requires the business stakeholders to answer several key questions and
clearly articulate what part of the business is to be studied. BAs should be familiar with this technique and
be able to use it at a moment’s notice. Even a project that appears small may have hidden complexities that
will be revealed by using this analysis technique. The power of the diagram is in its simplicity. Anyone
reviewing the diagram can quickly learn and understand the scope of the work to deliver the change and,
more important, how the change works within the whole of the organization.
The context diagram can serve to give the BA boundaries around which to analyze and understand.
Obviously, no one has the time to learn everything in an organization, so some limits need to be put
around the analysis work. A clear scope helps the analyst stay focused and not get overwhelmed with
business modeling (see more on staying focused in Chapter 4). The context diagram provides the analyst
with a clearly defined area of study but should not prescribe any particular solution or answer. It should
simply guide the analyst and business SMEs in their learning about business needs.
Remember that the true value in using this technique lies in the development of the diagram, not the
diagram itself. By asking questions about who is affected by the project and what relationships they have
104 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
with the solution, the team thinks about the scope of the upcoming work in more detail. Traditional
project scoping performed by the PM does not usually include discussions about relationships, informa-
tion flows, and external entities and processes. This is necessary specifically to define the scope of the
analysis work.
constantly be looking at solutions and how the project work will affect and produce value for the organi-
zation, not simply the project scope. A regulation change that costs $1 million in system changes to the
organization may be worth waiting a few months and paying only $50,000 in fines while the organization
reconsiders its strategic plans. Having a project scope managed by the PM and an analysis scope managed
by the BA helps to truly articulate the effort and what considerations the business will need to address to
bring lasting value.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Green Car Congress. (2011, April 11). “NIST Prototypes Framework for Evaluating Sustainability Stan-
dards.” https://www.greencarcongress.com/2011/04/nist-20110427.html.
106 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). (2015). Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK ®
Guide). IIBA: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Project Management Institute (PMI). (2017). The PMI Guide to Business Analysis. PMI: Newtown Square, PA.
The title business analyst (BA) is so named to emphasize the importance of the business in analytical work.
Understanding the business requires that business analysis professionals understand the organization’s
business model, products, and services offered. They need to know why the organization exists. To per-
form detailed analysis, they need an overall understanding of the business and the context within which
they are working. BAs must understand how all of their change work ties back to the high-level corporate
goals and overall strategy.
As a BA, from the moment that you start work at a new company, take every opportunity to learn about
the organization from the top down. Use time between projects to brush up on new products and services.
Encourage your BA community of practice to highlight different organizational divisions and share infor-
mation about various business areas. A BA is never without work; if you find yourself with spare time, use
it to learn something new.
To learn about your business, start with the company vision and mission statements. A vision statement
is an enduring reason for being and energizes stakeholders to pursue common goals. A mission statement
describes the operational, ethical, and financial guidelines of the organization. Most organizations, in-
cluding not-for-profits and service organizations, have a vision and/or mission
statement. These statements have been developed by company owners or key
stakeholder representatives and tell an enormous amount about the business “Every project
as a whole. In a well-run organization, every project should tie back to the cor- should tie back to
porate vision; otherwise the organization would not fund the project. Everyone the corporate
in the organization should always be working toward the organizational vision vision.”
and mission, making sure that all work is in line with those goals (see the sec-
tion on strategic planning in Chapter 3).
107
108 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Vision and mission statements help drive the excitement and energy of the organization and give
teams who are introducing change to an organization a reason why their work is so important. These
are high level and often inspirational to encourage activity, drive, and passion for the tasks to be un-
dertaken. Microsoft’s mission is “to empower every person and every organization on the planet to
achieve more.” Southwest Airline’s mission is “dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service
delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit.” Virgin’s mission
is “to embrace the human spirit and let it fly.” These statements clearly set the tone and direction of
each organization.
BAs should also understand the industry in which their business operates. Knowing the competition,
competitive pressures, innovations, and market forces will put the BA in a better position to make rec-
ommendations for long-term solutions to business problems. The BA should know where the industry is
headed, what the popular trends and major organizations are, what technologies are being used, and what
vendor packages are available that support the industry and business.
Part of knowing your business environment is being aware of the job roles of the stakeholders working
in the business area. Do these workers have specialized training or certification to do their work? Have
they been trained by the current organization or did they learn their skills in another organization? Un-
derstanding the background and experience of the business stakeholders improves your communication.
The BA must not only be aware of how the organization structures itself, such as specialized depart-
ments or cross-functional teams, but also how these departments support the organization as a whole.
Is a department a mission critical area or is it a support area? Is it a profit center or cost center? Under-
standing the priority that the enterprise places on each particular business unit involved with a project
helps BAs choose how to spend their time and drives what types of recommendations to make. Review
the corporate organizational chart and learn the reporting structures of the organization. Remember, the
BA skills of listening, observation, and inquiry are some of your most valuable assets to drive value for
the organization.
on the company as a whole. Knowing how your project or change initiative compares to the organization’s
size tells you about its importance (priority) and will give you the facts you need to convince stakeholders
that their time spent on the change is important. If your change is specifically mentioned in the financial
statements, shareholders will expect to see progress and may pressure senior executives throughout the
initiative. Announced projects or change efforts are highly visible and have high business impact.
Each day, customer service representatives (reps) come to their desks, wait for their phones to ring, and
then answer the questions that are posed. Most questions are ones they have answered before. Some
may require looking up an answer, but in general the call comes in, they answer, and the call is logged.
As each call is completed, the rep has finished the task and is ready for another. There is no work at the
end of the day and they come back the next day to perform the same tasks.
Suppose that Jan, a BA, arrives to discuss the development of a new customer relationship man-
agement (CRM) system that the organization is thinking about implementing, that not only better tracks
customer data and their interactions but also helps to report on employee activities. Jan wants to sched-
ule interviews with all of the customer service representatives to discuss their needs. When would be
a convenient time? The reps acknowledge that call volume is low on Friday afternoon, but the rest
continued
Your Fourth Step—Know Your Business Environment 111
of the week it is pretty steady. Jan quickly learns that she will need to tailor her schedule around the reps’
daily schedule in order to not only get good, focused feedback, but to also get their support for the
change effort. She realizes that every time she asks a question, she prevents the reps from doing their
job and making customers wait goes directly against the department’s goal of low customer wait times.
If she plans to talk to the reps, she will need to do some planning work so that she can ask all her ques-
tions in one session.
Also, Jan should engage managers and team leads and explain that she
is working on a project that is supposed to make the reps’ daily activities “Leadership
easier and give them more time to spend with customers. This will help buy-in is a key
gain some immediate support as leadership buy-in is a key success fac- success factor for
tor for all projects. These leaders can then help articulate the value to the all projects.”
team members and why a few minutes with Jan will ultimately help them
in the long run.
This example points out a fundamental difference between project and operational work. Many busi-
ness people respond to customer needs immediately while project work (solutions) takes much longer to
implement and may not produce immediate results. This task-based work approach and prioritization is
not the same as a project-based work approach. Project prioritization is much different, and often is what
leads to project management offices that prioritize project resources, timelines, deliverables, and internal
and external influences. Be aware that just because the organization prioritizes your project does not mean
that the individual stakeholders may see your work as high priority. Taking this into account in your plan-
ning work (see Chapter 7) will help you define ways to be more successful.
use of their stakeholders’ time in their BA planning work. Choose techniques that are the most efficient
and effective based on your understanding of the individual stakeholders and what goals you have to achieve
from your interaction with them. Always try to minimize taking people away from their work as much as
possible. Rather, aim to incorporate your analysis work into operations and the growth of the business.
Take note that when you are eliciting here, it is important to focus on un-
derstanding the situation rather than worrying about getting the right answers.
“Focus on under-
Elicitation means to draw out information so that you understand it from the
standing the
given point of view and context in which it was provided. It is important to see
situation rather
than worrying
the whole picture—understand the solution, the requirements, the user, and
about getting the the needs—so conduct more than one interview and/or use multiple elicitation
right answers.” techniques. Practice and experiment with these techniques (and even others
not mentioned in this book) to uncover what techniques draw out the most
information based on the type of scenario. The previous list is only partial—the
references and additional reading sources at the end of this chapter will supply
you with many more techniques that you may want to try. Make sure that any elicitation technique be-
gins with a goal that you hope to achieve through your actions. Then afterward, reflect on whether you
achieved that goal and modify your plan to continue moving your change effort forward.
Documentation can prove invaluable for introducing key concepts and concerns of stakeholders. On
one project, I was completely new to the subject matter at hand, whereas many project team members
were well experienced. One of the key deliverables was training documentation for the client’s team.
While many of the staff had lots of information and knew in general how things worked, the goal of the
project was to standardize and streamline training for a more positive customer experience. There was
an extensive user manual on the system that the IT leads had created that they were quite proud of.
However, the business area admitted that not only did they not read it—many of them did not even know
it existed. Our goal was not to duplicate this manual, but rather leverage the work already done by team
members to improve the processes.
continued
Your Fourth Step—Know Your Business Environment 113
I took on the task of going through the existing system’s user manual to help validate that the required
training competencies had been accurately captured. I read the manual as written and without bias, and
then made sure the concepts or processes defined were articulated in our competency models. I did
not judge whether the process was customer-centric, but rather looked for whether the topics that were
documented in the system’s how-to manual should be part of the training materials.
In going through this massive document, I observed how the material was written from a system
and functionality standpoint. I could quickly see why someone who is servicing a live customer may
have trouble using it. I was able to identify key functionality of the system, but also noticed where and
how validations and approvals occurred that could easily lead to bottlenecked processes. It gave me a
chance to learn a process and identify some opportunities for improvement—all without having to ask
any stakeholder for their time.
Technique: Observation
One of the most enlightening ways for a BA to learn about a business area is to work in or observe the
work as it is being performed. This is easier for some types of businesses than others, but it is always
worthwhile for BAs to physically see where their stakeholders and customers work to best understand
context and scenarios.
Basic observation can be as simple as watching stakeholders in their traditional office setting. The work
setup and general environment in the most basic of settings still offer quite a bit of useful information.
Does each employee have an office? This implies that the work requires individual or quiet time. If a one-
on-one interview is warranted, there is a space to do it. If employees have their own spaces, they may not
interact with each other frequently. This implies that talking to one person about your project will not
necessarily mean that everyone else will know about it. When workers interact frequently and can hear
each other’s conversations, word of the project will spread quickly—both good and bad news. Be aware
that when you ask a question of one employee in collaborative environments, others will know about it.
They will anticipate you asking the question of them and may be more prepared.
Consider who is in the office. Are a number of offices empty but message boards or notes are left that
say “on site” or “at (customer) location?” This implies there is a lot of work directly with end users of prod-
ucts. This would allow you to ask questions of these stakeholders who could give you awareness into the
customers. Are employees using chat and virtual office tools? If so, many of the employees may be able to
work remotely and thus may be comfortable with virtual calls and online meetings. All of this information
will help you to better understand how best to solve their business problems.
For workers in warehouses, factories, mail rooms, distribution centers, clinics, outdoors, and other
environments outside of a traditional office, observation will be an extremely important source of in-
formation. Often, these employees are doing the primary work of the business that all other employees
are supporting. If you work for a shipping company, spend time observing the movement of packages
(sorting, moving, and delivering) to get in touch with the core business. If you work for a manufacturer,
observe the assembly line or production process. An understanding of the core business work helps you
think about how users could be better supported by solutions, and prevents you from suggesting changes
that will negatively impact the work environment.
114 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Even as the world goes to more digital and paperless solutions, there is still significant work being
done manually. During a visit to a legal department at a major financial organization, I was invited to a
space that was not only lined with bookcases, but the office area was filled with desks that had papers
stacked on them almost a foot high. As one worker called to another, I could hear comments of, “I’ll print
that out for you” and watched people with hard copy papers walk to each other’s desks. There were
laptops on each desk docked to workstations, but I never saw anyone pick one up. This led me to be-
lieve that these team members might not be comfortable using online collaboration tools. I might need
to guide them on how to access and update a shared document versus e-mailing the information—or
worse, printing it and bringing it to me. This observation was done in a matter of a minute or two. Sim-
ple, but it gave me insight into what was the comfortable practice with these stakeholders.
Observation may reveal that there are variations in how a process is performed. This is another reason
why it is an important elicitation technique. There can be three “descriptions” of a single process: (1) the way
the process should be performed (usually documented in a procedure manual), (2) the way an employee
describes his or her process, and (3) the way an employee actually performs the process (seen through
observation). When a worker performs a process, you may notice that he or she makes assumptions or
performs steps that are not in the procedure manual. The worker may forget to tell you about these steps
when describing the process because they have become second nature and the individual is not even aware
that he or she is doing them. Be aware of the possibility that employees may behave differently because
they know that you are watching. Workers may follow an established procedure only because they want
you to think that they follow it. Encourage employees to perform their work as they normally do.
Observation requires patience on the part of the BA and the worker being observed. The BA should
limit questions during observation because interruptions may prevent a typical procedure from being fol-
lowed. If you think of questions or comments during an observation, write them down and save them for
a follow-up interview. If employees feel that their work is not very interesting, remind them that you are
trying to learn as much about the business as possible, that their work is very interesting to you, and that
they should try to work as they normally would.
There are additional alternatives to in-person observations that you could consider. Ask the stakehold-
ers if you could take some pictures or even better, record some of the activity, especially when you are try-
ing to understand a process or interaction between groups. This allows you to play back the interactions
slowly to see what subtle clues are being missed on any discussion you might have with the stakeholders.
Did they smile as they greeted the customer? Did they walk back to their computer more than once during
the transaction? Did they scribble information on scratch paper versus typing it into the computer in the
same room? This visual approach lets you see more than what you may see in a quick site visit.
Planning for observation often takes more work than simple document reviews. When planning for
observation, consider timing and business activities. Be aware of daily, weekly, monthly, annual, and sea-
sonal fluctuations in work volume and requirements. Are there access or security restrictions for obser-
vation or the information? Does the team rotate locations or have changing schedules that would impact
Your Fourth Step—Know Your Business Environment 115
what you see? A little planning helps you to make sure that the time being spent is valuable by having the
right people ready to observe when you show up.
Having a goal in mind as to why you are observing in the first place also allows you to validate that
you are watching the most appropriate stakeholders and customers for your change effort. Do you need
to observe different skill sets or managerial levels? Determine what observation options would help you
validate some assumptions quickly—such as observing more than one employee perform a task to see
variability. It may not be possible to observe everything, but covering a broad range in a quick but efficient
manner while not disrupting current operations should be your goal.
Technique: Interviews
When we think of elicitation and drawing out information, the main tool in the analyst’s toolbox is con-
ducting interviews. Interviews are systematic ways to use questions to elicit responses from your stake-
holders. These are often the quickest and most convenient form of information gathering, especially when
working with one or two stakeholders at a time. These conversations allow the analyst to learn about the
existing business and/or talk about possible improvements. For an interview to be successful, the analyst
must carefully plan the questions and the focus of the conversation. An interview can be any length of
time, but should always be balanced according to the amount of stakeholder time you are taking compared
to the quality of information you are receiving. The analyst must estimate how many questions can be
covered in the allotted time while staying focused on achieving the goal of the interview. Having reviewed
existing documentation, the BA can develop very pointed questions to confirm understanding of overall
business functions. Alternatively, the BA can utilize open-ended, probing questions to expand on an
unknown area. Then they can follow up with more detailed questions on a particular topic and narrow the
scope, as required.
While interviews can vary from fully structured questions to free flowing,
“There always
there always needs to be a clear goal or objective to the interview—that is, what
needs to be a clear
you are trying to accomplish during the session. For example: I would like to
goal or objective to
come away from the interview with a clear understanding of why the accounting the interview.”
department categorizes vendors and obtain a list of the categories that are cur-
rently used. Without a clear objective, an interview can turn into a conversa-
tion, meandering in many directions and not meeting project needs. When a
subject takes longer than the allotted time, ask the stakeholder for another appointment. Do not assume
that he or she can spend more time with you than originally planned. However, do not rush through your
interview either because this is a great chance to build rapport and trust with the stakeholder. Allow the
conversation to flow at a good pace, but stay focused on the objective. If you ever feel like you are me-
andering too far from the original subject, simply restate the objective to bring the stakeholder(s) back
to the topic.
To prepare for an interview, the BA should become familiar with the individual being interviewed.
Where does the stakeholder report in the organization? What is his or her title? How involved has he or
she been with the project? Will his or her work be significantly impacted by the project? Is this person a
decision maker? Understanding the position of the stakeholder will allow the BA to develop questions that
are at the proper level (see Chapter 2).
116 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Consider how you plan to capture the results of your interview. Just like planning the questions, there
are a number of techniques to consider that each have their strengths. The simplest is taking notes as
you talk with the stakeholder. Get in the habit of writing down short statements and key words rather
than writing full sentences. Stay focused on your objective and capture the information that is directly
relevant—the key elements that are related to the change and the context around it. Taking notes during
the discussion may seem a little rude to your stakeholders if you appear more interested in your notes than
in the person you are talking to, so consider getting a scribe. This is a great opportunity to bring another
project team member along to learn more or even a junior BA to watch you in action, but most important,
it allows you to engage directly with your stakeholder and really focus on him or her.
Of course, you could always record the session; however, know that your planning work for these meth-
ods can be more involved. You will want to inform the interviewee ahead of time of the format and explain
thoroughly why you are using this method—emphasizing the desire to focus on the person and not miss
any pertinent information. Clearly emphasize that it is in no way meant to judge or assess the person or
their skills. Video recording may require more setup planning to ensure that you are able to get the infor-
mation appropriately during the session without it becoming a distraction; but again, this is a way to see
the body language and facial expressions. Also, you will need to plan additional time after the interview to
go through your recordings and ensure that you captured the necessary notes.
Circumstances in today’s world may not allow for an in-person discussion, so getting comfortable
with utilizing technology that allows for virtual interviews is key for analysts today. The best part is that
you can still do the face-to-face interaction with video displays while recording the session for playback
and review, as required. Keep the person engaged so they are not distracted by their environment. This
pertains to you as well. Be sure that you stay focused and work quickly to gain information regarding the
issue at hand. Of course, simply picking up the phone can be the easiest way to ask a question and get the
answer. The synchronous interview to explore concepts is one of the easiest and fastest ways an analyst can
get information for requirements specifications.
Regardless of your approach, you need to do proper planning. As always, be clear on your goal and
what you hope to achieve. Then, once you decide the most appropriate approach to learn more about
the business, stakeholders, and general situation, plan out your questions and interview structure. Build
in some contingency to explore ideas in more depth or discuss areas that you had not considered before
but are relevant to your change effort. Make sure to be comfortable with the technology you are using so
that you can focus on quickly getting valuable information and minimize the amount of time that you
are asking of your interviewee. The last thing you want to do is come back to the same person with the
same question.
As part of your planning, also identify how you plan to follow up with the interviewee. One recom-
mendation is to send the interviewee a copy of your notes as soon as possible after the interview. This
allows the interviewee to correct anything quickly, as well as include additional information if they feel
so compelled. This can also build trust and grow your relationship with stakeholders since if they see that
your notes are objective and task focused, then they can feel comfortable that you are indeed focused
on understanding the facts for building solutions. This is a simple and valuable way to verify and even
validate your notes quickly and holds more weight the closer to the end of the interview you send them.
Showing action also engages the stakeholder to be more proactive than if you e-mailed them a copy three
weeks following the interview.
Your Fourth Step—Know Your Business Environment 117
Database
Another
Query Customer
System
Data
Response
Confirmation, Return
errors
Printer Send validation Website
request result
3rd Party
Validation
Tool
context diagram with the information. A great approach is to actually share your context diagram with
the business.
There are many context diagram approaches that are free flowing, such as mind maps, and others that
are more detailed such as interface analysis and data flow diagrams (see Chapter 6). BAs will often find
that their challenge is getting people to understand the solution and what is being affected and that visual
images quickly (and literally) get people on the same page.
around an impartial, trained facilitator who conducted each session with specific rules and leadership
skills to obtain a desired goal. A facilitated session can also be referred to as a workshop with the under-
standing that work is expected to be done during the session to complete a product, which is normally the
intended goal.
Facilitated sessions and workshops are not meetings. They are structured, planned working sessions
where every participant is carefully chosen and has a critical role to play. Planning and preparing for a
facilitation session are significant tasks that, if not done well, results in a poorly run session and a waste of
time for the participants.
Knowing when to conduct a facilitated session is very important. These sessions can be costly in terms
of the number of participants and the time required. They should be scheduled and conducted only when
there are more than two viewpoints that must be represented. Every business analysis professional must
be familiar with the steps required to conduct a session successfully. Ideally, a junior BA will be able to
observe several sessions before conducting one of his or her own.
Facilitated sessions are an excellent technique for project initiation activities. The newly formed project
team of business and technical stakeholders can come together to clarify their understanding of the ob-
jectives of the project. In addition, the team can help to develop the scope or boundaries as well. Bringing
together project participants at the beginning creates team enthusiasm and synergy. Everyone feels a part
of the planning and decision making. They buy into the project goals and will be advocates for change in
their departments. These initial project kickoff sessions are even more valuable when the project sponsor
starts the session by telling the group the reason for initiating the project and explaining its important
business value to the organization.
Facilitated sessions are also useful for detailed requirements gathering, elicitation, and design plan-
ning. A particular business process or set of business rules may be the focus of the session with partici-
pants providing content for and review of requirements diagrams or models. These gatherings can also be
structured as brainstorming sessions where participants generate ideas for process improvements or new
product designs.
These information-gathering sessions are led by a facilitator who is usually supported by a recorder and
a timekeeper. The session is carefully planned by this facilitation team. Topics on the agenda, participants,
meeting location, and length of sessions are all carefully considered and documented.
It is important to recognize that a BA acting as a facilitator on their own project is not independent
or completely objective, as traditional professional facilitators are. The BA brings his or her business area
knowledge and understanding of technological options and organizational environment to the session,
making him or her not only the facilitator but also a valuable member of the group. Part of the planning
work often weighs the value of getting an external facilitator who is unbiased on the project versus lever-
aging the BA to drive toward the needed business requirements. The facilitator needs to keep the group
focused and on track while still allowing the free flow of ideas and conversations.
• Resolution of differences: individual interviews with stakeholders often result in different answers to
the same question. This causes the BA to re-interview people to try to resolve the discrepancy. By
using a facilitated session with all parties involved together, the BA can help them discuss their dis-
parate points of view while they are all together. Often, these differences result from something as
simple as different use of terminology or different assumptions. When a requirement is discussed
by the group, these differences may be resolved quickly.
• True differences in requirements are identified immediately: the team quickly becomes aware of
issues that will need to be addressed. The entire group recognizes that the ultimate solution must
be able to address a variety of needs. When it becomes clear that stakeholders have conflicting
requirements, the BA and PM may need to adjust the project plan to allow time to address these
conflicts.
• Balancing priorities: different stakeholders often have different priorities with respect to require-
ments. Leading the group through a discussion of priorities will result in everyone understanding
other stakeholders’ needs. The facilitator can direct the negotiation among stakeholders to arrive
at one shared priority list.
• Scope the project: a facilitated session is very beneficial at the beginning of a project as a way to
develop the scope or area to be studied. This session is planned and prepared by the PM and the
BA and can increase the likelihood of project success by having all of the stakeholders understand
and agree to project boundaries.
• Team building: as with any well-orchestrated group work, team members develop rapport with
each other and become more vested in the success of the project. Teams often behave dysfunc-
tionally at the start of a project. Participating in group sessions increases team cohesiveness and
helps to create high-performing teams as they learn to understand and then respect the unique
viewpoint that each brings with them.
• Process improvement identification: occasionally, as people from different departments talk about
how they do their work and exchange experiences, one may learn of a different procedure or policy
that could solve a business problem right away. These business process improvements often can be
implemented before a project is complete.
on the information needs. The BA can also help develop specific questions to
“The focus group is
drive the session toward the intended goals. The BA is often a key analyst of the
meant to get a wide
resulting feedback as well. If required, BAs can conduct their own focus group
range of feedback
as long as they stay focused on the facilitation aspect and avoid trying to analyze on a specific topic.”
any feedback or sway the conversation to a particular outcome. The focus group
is meant to get a wide range of feedback on a specific topic, so free-flowing con-
versations are encouraged. Make sure that the scribe or recorder for the session
is comfortable with capturing all of the information being shared so that the BA is not distracted by this
task and can focus on the participants.
In one project, changes were being implemented that did not go as planned and caused issues for
the organization’s customers. While the issues were addressed and the project eventually completed
successfully, the organization wanted analysis on why the issue occurred in the first place and what it
could do to prevent it in the future (a great example of lessons learned—see Chapter 7). I was asked
to help facilitate the session since management wanted someone who was not tied to the project to
help encourage open and honest feedback. The session had to be carefully planned to ensure success
on this sensitive topic.
The PM helped me identify the appropriate team members to invite to the session. This was a mixed
group of stakeholders across different areas of the organization, but all were familiar or had partici-
pated with the project. Then I had to coordinate the time and location to get everyone together. A site
was chosen away from working areas that was private and would not have interruptions (i.e., not near
a common area or frequently used meeting room). I had to choose the format with which to conduct
the session and what questions I would ask. I also had to consider how I would capture the results. I
decided on a collaborative game approach (see later in this chapter) that would encourage equal par-
ticipation by all attendees so that I could include feedback from all perspectives.
I got the project business owner to attend the first few minutes and let the attendees know that their
time and input was important and truly valued. This was the leadership support that I planned into
the session in order to help validate the participants’ attendance and, of course, time. I explained the
ground rules and emphasized again that the goal of the session was to focus on getting a clear under-
standing of the situation and what could possibly be done to improve future processes. We then began
with one of my planned questions where each member took a turn sharing their views. Thoughts were
captured by attendees on sticky notes as comments were shared. I did not participate in the discus-
sion directly. Rather, I occasionally would have to encourage attendees to stay on track or even explain
a little more detail with a guiding question or two. In general, the approach of everyone taking a turn to
share opinions while hearing from each other helped to get the desired feedback.
At the end of the session, I thanked and dismissed the attendees. I then took the feedback captured
on the sticky notes and documented it in an electronic file. As follow up, I e-mailed all of the attendees
to thank them for their time and let them know where the feedback was going, in addition to attaching
a copy for their reference. My plan also included how I was to present this information to the leadership
team. In this case, it involved e-mailing the feedback to leadership team members and then discussing
questions or key aspects in a meeting with them the following week.
122 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
successful solutions. The power of the collaborative games lies in building joint understanding of a situ-
ation through encouraging all attendees to participate. There are many structured types of collaborative
games—such as product boxes, affinity maps, and the fishbowl approach (IIBA 2015)—but really, any
technique that incorporates gamification and encourages interaction and collaboration can be consid-
ered collaborative games.
Even though these are called games, there must still be a structure for it to be an effective technique.
The game should always have a clear purpose. The BA will need to make this purpose clear before starting,
emphasize it again during the game, and then reinforce it at the conclusion to make sure that the desired
outcome is achieved. Each game should have a process; these can be simple or elaborate, but the BA will
focus on making sure the process is clear. Then the BA allows the participants to share and collaborate.
The BA will then bring everyone together to close the session, reaffirming the goals. Of course, the most
important part is the outcome of all this work. The BA should have a clear elicitation goal and emphasize
what was collected. They should also highlight the learning and collaboration of the attendees that often
occurs with this type of activity and leverage it as the team moves forward. Often, having the attendees
share their thoughts and feedback helps reinforce the learning and secure the buy-in and continued sup-
port of stakeholders.
When starting out on a project, these types of sessions are beneficial because you can learn who the
organizational members are, not just their job descriptions. Collaborative games can allow active brain-
storming and visual role playing of what happens in the work environment to give a BA insight that would
not necessarily come from the structured work environment. As you get further into a change effort, these
sessions are effective for exploring solution options, defining the needs for implementation, and ensuring
that solutions are successful.
personal attachment of Joe or Linda and instead focus on the details of the user. This allows you to have
free discussions with stakeholders on envisioning the business process and often what it should be versus
only hearing how it is today because a certain person does it that way. Asking how Joe performs a process
is different than asking, “If a new financial analyst was hired with a financial background but no industry
background, they would first need to . . . ?” This allows the BA to hear more about the process than may
be disclosed by someone very comfortable with it.
Personas are exceptionally valuable when eliciting requirements, discussing design ideas, testing solu-
tions, and confirming an implementation. Describing a very specific customer comes into play all the time
on market analysis and product discussion. It defines characteristics that shape specific scenarios and help
team members visualize the person/solution in question. How your organization markets to a single male
with a good credit score, no children, rents an apartment, and has been employed less than 6 months may
be very different than how the organization considers a retired couple, married over 30 years, good credit
score, 12 grandchildren, owns home with no mortgage, and is receiving social security benefits. Putting per-
sonas into your work with stakeholders can help you gain greater insight into the business and maximize
solution value.
Ticket/e-mail
submitted by
customer
Support case
is created and
assigned
During
standard
business
hours?
Yes No
Ticket is reviewed
Reminder Is ticket
Yes based on priority
is sent assigned?
by support team
No
Ticket is
Was Support
closed and
End Yes issue team resolves
system sends
resolved? issues
follow-up e-mail
No
First, the BA must understand the business area in detail before even thinking about making any solu-
tion recommendations. One of the worst mistakes that a BA can make is to tell a stakeholder how to fix
a problem (i.e., toss a solution out) without fully understanding it. The BA may be giving a solution to
the wrong problem. The stakeholder will be annoyed and lose faith in the BA. Think of how you would
feel when you have been struggling with a technical problem for several hours and the person at the help
desk suggests that you reboot the computer. You already tried that in the first five minutes and know that
it does not work!
Do whatever you need to understand the business as quickly as possible. If that means drawing work-
flow diagrams of current procedures, draw them. The diagrams may be rough, handwritten drafts—just
enough to aid in learning and to generate follow-up questions. If you learn through understanding infor-
mation or data, sketch a data model. If the business area has complex rules, make a list of them. The docu-
ments and diagrams are simply a means to an end—your understanding. Taking a few minutes to capture
what you know about the business processes is actually a great way to identify what you do not know and
is an important part of your BA planning work to acknowledge your understanding before diving into a
change effort. Of course, once you truly understand the current environment, you can then decide if these
notes may simply be filed away or are valuable to the change effort and beyond.
A second consideration is whether anyone other than the BA needs to understand the current proce-
dures. If the answer is yes, then you need to consider what the most appropriate way is to communicate
the information needed. Often your previously mentioned notes are great for facilitating conversations
with stakeholders during meetings because they present a visual with which everyone can picture the
same thing. You may edit and redraw and keep these pieces informal during conversation and then for-
mally document them as an outcome after the discussion is completed. At other times you may bring
your analysis of what is currently happening in order for key decisions to be made; these need to be
more formal and validated artifacts before discussing with the larger group. See Chapter 6 for sugges-
tions on deliverables.
There are several reasons why a project team might decide to formally document the current or as-is
business system:
• Having a clear definition of the old procedure along with the new will help the team understand
the extent of the change and its ramifications
• It highlights processes that need further analysis by identifying gaps and problems
• A clear solution has not yet been identified, so alternative solutions will be compared to the current
state
• During an interim period, the old processes may continue to be used in conjunction with the new
process created
When you have the opportunity to brainstorm possible solutions and make recommendations, be sure
that you completely understand: (1) the core business requirements and (2) the current how—that is,
the system and procedures currently used to accomplish the work. Understanding the needs of the core
business independent of how they are currently performed allows for creativity in solution brainstorming.
Understanding the current procedures prevents you from redesigning the same processes.
BAs will often ask if there are scenarios when you do not need to document the current processes.
Again, you need to separate the actual documentation from your understanding. BA planning will always
Your Fourth Step—Know Your Business Environment 127
In this scenario, a retailer decided to create a mobile app to help engage with customers. This is the
organization’s first dive into using mobile technology. As the BA, I realized that there really was no
current process to capture. The planning sessions were all about brainstorming ideas and ways to
design the solution to satisfy business needs and customer requirements. However, in order to help
with the solution, I considered what support processes the organization already had. How do we
support our websites? How do we engage with customers (i.e., in person) in our stores? I captured
these processes to help articulate the scope of change so that we could identify what we had in place
already to support the product/change and what would need to be done so that the new product
would become successful. The product itself had no documented current processes, but the support
models and processes were captured to highlight the changes needed for a successful total solution
(not just a product).
meaning from the context within which they are used. The terms that are used to describe business ac-
tivities and processes have subtle differences that are often lost when people do not understand what the
original author or analyst intended. Table 4.1 gives the proper usage of terms that are commonly used to
describe business processes.
When focusing on understanding the business and what the current state is, sometimes it is most help-
ful to start by asking what capabilities the business has that can be utilized to achieve the organization’s
goals. As discussed with enterprise architecture (see Chapter 3), knowing the capabilities of an organiza-
tion is key to understanding the value stream regarding how the organization is successful and gives you
insight into what is required to achieve the success. Once you have learned about the business capabilities,
then the process is really how they perform those capabilities. Part of a good BA skill set is asking probing
questions that elaborate on a situation or item—that is exactly the step here. How does the department or
staff provide that capability or feature to the organization? If you are talking with IT, asking “How do you
support the application?” is a good starting point. Have them walk you through what activities need to be
completed in order to achieve their goals.
When understanding how business works, asking about capabilities is a good way to keep the stake-
holders talking at a high level and focused on the business goals and features that they provide to the or-
ganization rather than focusing on details concerning technology or specific individuals doing the work.
People and roles will change, so ask questions that center on the activities. Try to focus on the function
to be completed when work-arounds or other challenges or constraints are discussed, and identify what
needs to be completed for business success. Technology should be replaceable, so again, understand what
steps are being taken regardless of the technology that is being used when you are still at this high level
and trying to understand what the business level does. The systems that a business uses today may be
different tomorrow, but the process and ultimately the desired capabilities that are needed to support the
organization will still be performed.
When modeling business processes, always start with what should be happening or the perfect world
scenarios first. If “80% of the time the process acts this way,” capture that information first, then move to
the exceptions. People often spend 80% of their time on those 20% of exceptions that make the minimum
business contribution. This is a good time to consider what your time is worth. Like all of your business
analysis activities, you will want to weigh the amount of time you spend understanding existing processes,
and especially the time spent documenting these items, against the value achieved from your activities.
Spending time mapping a process that is not part of your change effort’s scope may be valuable to you
but may have little immediate reuse and, therefore, minor value. Will the process change by the time you
need it again? Is there another process that is directly affected by your change and you plan to show the
process at multiple project team meetings so that everyone understands where the impacts are? In this
second instance, you will want to spend the time accurately capturing the process in a format that is easy
to share and reuse.
Many BAs get excited about starting process modeling for anything they can get their hands on, but
they should always remember to ask what the organization already has. If your organization has a more
mature business analysis approach, there may be a repository of processes already captured that you can
simply review and leverage during your change effort. If the stakeholders know they have already captured
a process, you will get push back if they feel you are not valuing their time.
Describing a Process
As each business process is identified and named, detailed questions should be answered about why it is
done, what information it uses, and what business rules constrain or guide it. The successful analyst will
delve deeply into each essential business process to make sure that its purpose and fundamental value to
the organization are captured. Many of these questions may be difficult for SMEs to answer. The analyst
must work with the business stakeholders to talk through the whys and whats of the process because only
a deep, thorough understanding will give rise to improvements. By discussing each process in detail, the
business SME thinks about the work in a new way. Often during analysis work, the SME comes up with a
process improvement idea because the process is being examined from a different perspective. Figure 4.3
shows a template for describing a business process.
130 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Additional notes:
Information source: Mary Smith
Functional Requirement—AS-IS
List the group(s) that currently Customer Service
performs this process.
How is the process currently An online inquiry/update screen accesses a customer
performed? database.
Who uses the output? Order fulfillment, Shipping, AR, Marketing
Metrics (only required if the process is a candidate for re-engineering):
How often is the process performed currently? Daily
(i.e., daily, weekly, monthly)
How many occurrences of the process are completed within the 100
above time frame?
How long does it take to perform the process in the current 1 min
environment? (specify minutes or hours)
Efficiency rating (1 to 5, 1 is lowest) 4
Naming processes is important, yet is often done carelessly. Names should be chosen to accurately
communicate the activity of the business (verb-noun), so that when the process is shown on diagrams, it
is immediately recognizable. Process names should describe the what, not the how. Analysts can use the
business glossary to help determine good business names. Strong verbs to use in process names include:
• Accept
• Add
• Calculate
• Capture
• Communicate
• Delete
• Dispatch
• Generate
• Place
• Prepare
• Provide
• Receive
• Record
• Remit
• Request
• Send
• Submit
• Tabulate
• Update
• Validate
• Verify
In addition to a strong, clear name, a description of the process must also be written. A name can only con-
vey the basic information about what type of activity (the verb) is being performed on what type of data
(the noun). A few sentences will elaborate on this name, providing all stakeholders with a clear, consistent
understanding of the process. This description should explain why the process is important.
During process analysis, it is important for the analyst to ask questions about sequence. What happens
before this process (i.e., what triggers it)? What other processes are triggered by the completion of this
one? And most important, why are processes performed in this order? One of the common mistakes made
by new analysts is assuming that the current order of work is a requirement and must be maintained. This
assumption locks the business into its current procedures and leaves little room for creative new solutions.
Each process must also be examined for business rules. There will not always be a rule for every pro-
cess, but most processes are guided by some type of a constraint (e.g., invoices are paid on the 15th and the
last day of each month). As you identify business rules that are used during a process, think about whether
each rule may also be used by another process. These shared rules should be defined consistently and their
descriptions reused to save analysis time. Business rules will be discussed further in Chapter 6.
For each process, the analyst should think about the individual data elements needed to successfully
perform the process. These data elements may (1) come into the process from an outside source, (2) be
created by the process, or (3) be retrieved from a storage facility (i.e., filing cabinet, database) inside the
132 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
business. Businesses store a lot of data so that processes can use them whenever needed (e.g., customer ad-
dresses are stored in a database so that customers are not asked for their address every time they place an
order). Process analysis includes verification that all of the data elements needed by a process are available
to it. The importance of data requirements will also be discussed in Chapter 6.
While analyzing, naming, and documenting essential business processes are important BA work, un-
derstanding how a process is currently performed can sometimes be just as important. Often when you
ask stakeholders questions about core business activities, they want to talk about the how. They feel that
it is important for you to know, step-by-step, how they perform this business process. Listen carefully
and make the notes that you need. Listen for gaps in the process or between processes. If you know that
the technology currently supporting the process will be changing, understanding the details about the
current how may not be critical. Listen for problems and complaints to make sure that the new design
will address these issues.
In addition, make notes about metrics. How long does the process take? How many times is it per-
formed? Make sure you also understand who currently performs the process and who benefits from it. All
of these things may change as your team brainstorms alternative solutions. Understanding how the work
is currently done prevents you from redesigning the same system. Finally, when talking with stakeholders
about a process, listen to their suggestions for changes. They may have some great ideas about how the
process could be made more efficient.
When the reason for a process is understood, as well as its constraints and data components, different
creative approaches to accomplishing it can be imagined. In what ways could the business receive an or-
der? Via a text message? In an e-mail message? On a handwritten note? Suppose the products being sold
are car parts. Could the car itself send an electronic message when one of its parts is wearing out and place
an order for a new one? This core business activity may be performed successfully in many different ways
(different hows). When business requirements and processes are documented independent of current
technology, they can be reused on future projects in the same business area. This can save the BA a signif-
icant amount of time while opening up the business to many new opportunities.
This is where an analyst’s creativity can really shine. True innovation occurs when the innovator strips
away the current procedures and looks at the base requirements. Then he or she can be creative in meeting
those requirements. When you see a new product or service offered, think about how the inventor might
have come up with the idea. Was it in response to a problem? Was it designed with the goal of increasing
productivity or quality? Was it created to increase sales? Remember the primary business drivers (i.e., in-
crease revenue, decrease costs). Any improvements made to an individual process will end up helping the
entire organization.
Excellent BAs balance creativity with facts and metrics. Each process should
be measured for its resource use, time to complete, efficiency, and number of
“Excellent BAs times performed. Process improvements are evaluated by their improved met-
balance creativity rics. Can the improved system get the process done faster? How much faster?
with facts and Can the improved process allow the organization to handle larger volumes of
metrics.” transactions? How many? Will the improved process result in higher quality
products or services? By how much? Effective business analysis professionals
ask these questions because they understand that measuring process improve-
ment quantifies the success of a project.
Your Fourth Step—Know Your Business Environment 133
Six Sigma is an approach to business process improvement that relies heavily on metrics. The objective
is to eliminate defects and variations in processes. Lean focuses on customer value while eliminating waste
or inefficiencies in processes. The 5S methodology looks at organizing workspaces for performing work
efficiently and effectively. See the references at the end of the chapter for resources on learning more of
these popular process improvement approaches.
Implementation Planning
Part of knowing your business environment is truly understanding how the business area will be impacted
by the solution that has been designed for a project or change effort. Implementation or transition require-
ments describe the necessary actions to ensure a smooth transition of the product into the day-to-day
operations of the business. This is what makes it a solution. No matter how well-built the product is, a
rough, unplanned implementation may be disruptive and negatively impact the business. The BA helps
ensure the continued success of the change long after the project or initiative has been completed.
BAs are the change agents tasked with assessing the impacts of a change
and planning the best approach to implement it. Implementation planning in-
“BAs are the change volves analysis of the current (as-is) business environment against the future
agents who are (to-be) business environment. The analyst identifies all aspects of the business
tasked with assess- that will be impacted by the change and then plans each transition. Change
ing the impacts of impacts may necessitate training, coordination of an implementation timeline
a change and with other initiatives, and updating employee job descriptions, procedures
planning the best manuals, policies, and more. Considerations of these elements should start
approach to during the planning stages so that they are worked into the overall change
implement it.”
effort or project work. BAs are essential for helping prevent additional work
during implementation. Their “solution” perspective versus “project” per-
spective ensures the solution is received, incorporated, and continues to add
value per the given strategy.
requirements for implementation, training, and continued support of the product or deliverable
for continuous value. This is solution focused.
Business analysis often involves eliciting business requirements from various stakeholders whose view-
points are different. The BA confirms his or her understanding by learning from various sources, filling in
gaps, and developing complete business models.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). (2015). Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK ®
Guide). IIBA: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Project Management Institute (PMI). (2017). The PMI Guide to Business Analysis. PMI: Newtown Square,
PA.
Whittemore, C. (2017, October 10). What Great Brands Do with Mission Statements: 27 Examples. Sim-
ple Marketing Now. https://www.simplemarketingnow.com/blog/flooring-the-consumer/bid/168520/
what-great-brands-do-with-mission-statements-8-examples#virgin.
Business analysis is about helping to define valuable solutions for organizations. While rooted in tech-
nology, the role of a business analyst (BA) continues to evolve where analysis occurs in all areas of orga-
nizations today. However, many solutions still utilize or even rely on technology to enable their success.
Technical awareness of the possible is one of the values that business stakeholders expect from business
analysis professionals. Much like knowing the business environment and what the trends are in the indus-
try, it is important that you stay current on what technology is being used for what purposes. Not everyone
needs to be a software developer or programmer, but business stakeholders expect BAs to recommend
technology that supports the business requirements and will help the business operate more efficiently
and effectively. Information technology (IT) stakeholders expect BAs to communicate requirements in
their language and not over-promise to the business stakeholders. Often your business stakeholders will
hear of a new technology and then ask you if it could be used in their business area. The more that you are
aware of technology, the more valuable you will be to your stakeholders. Sometimes the new technology
is in its infancy and not yet ready for production use. Sometimes the technology is too expensive for the
business area being addressed. Maybe the new technology holds promise for the future and should be
included in the business’ strategic plan. Even if you are not an IT expert, you should be able to talk intel-
ligently about the possibilities.
And remember your stakeholders—on the business side many of them do not care much about the
technology just as long as they are able to get their work done in an easy and efficient manner. You will
probably hear more complaints about technology rather than how awesome it is. Your job should be to
turn this around. Most complaints come when the technology does not perform in the way that the user
expects it to. Were the user’s expectations ever clearly captured and articulated in requirements as the
system was being implemented? Technical requirements often reflect functionality versus understanding
how the user intends to use the system. But even more so, is the user trying to do something with the
system that the system was not designed to do—or is even capable of doing? If you do not know the capa-
bilities of the system, then you may start spending a significant amount of time troubleshooting a problem
that does not actually exist. While this chapter shares a lot about current technologies, like all of your
analysis work, understanding why you care about this information will help you gain the most value from
your decision making—including solution designs and investment decisions around technology and how
you are helping to continuously enable the business.
A BA’s background drives the way they approach analysis projects and think about business solutions.
When your background is in IT, you may be in the habit of thinking about how to automate and integrate
137
138 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
repetitive tasks and provide more sophisticated data for decision making. When your background is busi-
ness, you may be thinking about new ways of doing business—how better to support customers and how
the business can be more successful. These two modes of thinking are both useful in business analysis
work. A business analysis professional who combines these two perspectives is the most valuable of all. In
developing your skill set, look at your personal background to determine your primary thinking patterns
and then work to develop other perspectives. Again, learn as much as you can about technology and its
possibilities while constantly working to understand the business needs of the organization and where
more value can be achieved.
the possible options. Again, this does not imply that you need to know how to build the software or hard-
ware components, just that you need to know what can be built and what will work in the environment.
Each organization operates within many constraints and limitations (i.e., budget, resources, regulation,
standards). When considering new technology for a business area, consider the environment into which
it would be deployed. The question often is not only, “Can it be done?” but rather, “Can it be done here?”
Sometimes the answers to these questions are very different. The more a business analysis professional un-
derstands the current environment and enterprise technical architecture standards, the quicker they will
be able to answer user questions about why certain changes may not be feasible. A question like, “Can’t we
just add a column to this report with the current market price?” should trigger a whole series of thoughts
in the business analyst’s head:
• “Where would the system get the current market price to print on the report?”
• “How often does the price change?”
• “What external agent or company would provide the price changes?”
• “Who else would use this?”
The BA should be able to respond to the business user with follow-up questions or offer to investigate the
idea. Some business users may expect the BA to have all the technology answers on building solutions.
However, the BA should be focused on responding to capabilities and possibilities that need research and
validation to confirm the best solution approaches.
The third reason that a business analysis professional must understand technology is that they must be
able to see possibilities beyond the solution to the immediate problem. An experienced BA will always be
looking at both tactical (short-term) and strategic (long-term) business solu-
tions. The current project may be a small enhancement to an existing system
“BAs must be able
and not require any detailed analysis. An experienced BA will think about this
to see possibilities
small change within a larger context. Maybe the BA has assisted with several of
beyond the solution
these small change requests and begins to see a pattern that might be addressed to the immediate
with a larger, more strategic change. Are you constantly fixing bugs in an out- problem.”
dated application versus buying a new one? Maybe a new technology would
provide a breakthrough in efficiency, but it is not yet cost effective. Knowing a
good enterprise architect from whom you can learn about upcoming changes
helps you consider the bigger picture and direction of technology capabilities in the organization. The
business analysis professional stays aware of upcoming features and capabilities and works to move the
business in a direction where these new capabilities will be feasible in the future.
Technology is changing at a rapid pace. Keeping up with the current capabilities and limitations is an
important part of the ongoing professional development of a BA. Subscribe to IT newsletters and mag-
azines. Build good relationships with those who work in IT. Attend lectures and webinars. Experience
new technologies as often as possible (ask school-aged children how to use the latest technology—you
will learn a lot). There are so many sources available in which to learn about what is happening with
technology—and the more you know, the more valuable you are to your organization. Focus on under-
standing how these technologies can impact, disrupt, and drive business and what decision makers need
to know. BAs are more successful when they are aware of trends and terminology to have discussions
about capabilities and impacts.
140 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
• Operating systems
• Computer networking
• Data management
• Usability and human interface design
• Testing phases, techniques, and strategies
Plan
Test Analyze
Code Design
and then flop. There are very few blockbusters. Although moviemaking sophistication has increased over
the years, so has the sophistication of the audience. Expectations are higher, so doing what you did on the
last movie will not be good enough. This is very similar to IT development, which faces the same chal-
lenges and odds against success. Every project is different with different needs and different stakeholders.
The technology available continues to evolve and become more complex. Users continue to increase their
sophistication and expectations. Using a software development process or methodology provides guide-
lines for the team based on best practices both inside and outside of the organization. But no matter how
good the process is, having competent, trained team members will always be the key to the success of the
project. Blind adherence to a process will not necessarily produce the correct product. This section gives
a brief overview and history of software development methodologies.
Waterfall
First structured approach to software development.
Introduced the concepts of phases, tasks, roles, and deliverables.
The waterfall approach to software development is so named because it has distinct phases that are meant
to be done in sequential order where high-level project objectives and requirements fall through from one
phase to the next. The waterfall methodology also introduced the concepts of team roles, deliverables,
and sign offs. Team leader, programmer, and user were the first roles that were specified. Deliverables or
software design documentation was introduced as a method of getting user agreement on work before the
work was done. Sign offs were introduced to get user buy-in to the work.
All other software development methodologies are based on the waterfall method. Most of the concepts
of waterfall are still important and are included in subsequent methodologies. Figure 5.2 shows the classic
waterfall approach.
In the waterfall approach each activity or phase is dealt with once and completed for the entire system
before the next phase is started (i.e., all analysis activities are completed before the design phase is started).
This structured, sequential approach lent itself to being quite successful for certain development projects
where teams needed to be up to speed quickly and everyone understood the same concepts. As well, the
waterfall approach minimizes risks with schedules and budgets by knowing exactly the work needed to
deliver the goals (Kienitz 2017).
Demonstrate
Analysis and
Quick Design Testing Deployment
Build
Refine
However, this same structure also limited the methodology’s success. Teams often spent too much
time in the early phases of the project and then had to rush through the rest of the process. It is unfor-
tunate that the waterfall approach has suffered from negative publicity because the tasks and delivera-
bles recommended by the approach are necessary and useful. The fundamental idea behind the waterfall
approach—analyzing before designing and designing before implementation—is still the most effective
route to success, not just in software development, but in your own business analysis work (Royce 1998).
As mentioned, planning before you engage with stakeholders, analyzing resources, and then jumping into
your business analysis work can lead to greater success.
Methodologies that were built around the waterfall approach acknowledge the importance of first
planning the work, gathering/understanding requirements, and laying out a software design plan before
starting to write code. Early developers did all of this work themselves. Prior to the concept of an SDLC
or methodology, developers spoke with SMEs briefly and then began coding. This approach is often still
used on maintenance projects. As projects became more complex, software also became more complex.
Coding without an overall design plan was problematic—like trying to build a house without blueprints.
• Planning phase: the planning phase was intended to help the IT team ask high-level questions of
the executive sponsor to determine the true project objectives. This was the first attempt to set
customer expectations for the IT work that would be done. It was also intended to help IT people
understand business needs and priorities.
• Analysis phase: definition of the analysis phase was really the beginning of business analysis work.
The waterfall approach recommended that software requirements be written down and reviewed.
This was a radical idea in the 1970s when most developers only wrote code. This phase was created
because developers had been creating software that did not really perform functions the way that
SMEs needed. Initial requirements were very brief and were all functional—they described what
the software should do.
• Design phase: as software supported more and more business activities, developers created many
programs and files to perform different functions. Programs have to know how data is stored in
files to be able to share information. Early software systems were much like patchwork quilts with
random pieces sewn together. Development was slowed for several reasons: (1) early programs
were not documented so developers had to read each other’s code to be able to share data, (2) as
more and more programmers were working on the same systems, original programmer knowledge
was not available, and (3) early programming did not follow any programming standards, so every
program was different. For all of these reasons the waterfall approach suggested that someone in
IT (a systems analyst or architect) draw a design of the programs and files needed by the system
before coding started. These designs also began to document file exchange formats so that differ-
ent programmers could be working on different yet related programs at the same time. The design
phase also included documents called program specifications that described to the developer what
the program was expected to do. These were initially very brief and evolved into more complete
documents over the years.
• Development phase: only after completion of the first three phases did actual coding or develop-
ment begin. This might have seemed a little radical back at the time, due to the massive amount of
time and work that occurs before a developer ever actually starts coding. Yet even when you talk
Your Fifth Step—Know Your Technical Environment 145
to a number of IT professionals today, most agree that some planning, analysis, and design work
should be done before people start creating anything.
• Testing phase: the waterfall life cycle helped to really shine a light on a defined testing stage. Prior to
this, coding was done directly in production environments (there often was not a test environment,
development, or sandbox area) and the user was given the results. If the results were not correct, the
code was changed live on production. The waterfall approach recommended that code be tested
before being used by business people, leading to many of the testing cycles that organizations often
follow today.
a little more history on how methodologies such as iterative or agile came to be is important so that you
know the strengths and weaknesses of each methodology to help teams align their approach and achieve
the desired outcomes.
As the waterfall methodology gained popularity, it started to bring cross-functional groups of SMEs
together to do the planning versus the developers doing all the work. Questions would be asked as more
people would need to be brought in to understand the requirements and expectations. As IT systems
expanded to support multiple business areas, joint application design emerged. Here, facilitated sessions
were conducted to help bring in business owners to get a shared understanding of the requirements with
an agreed-upon design. Joint design acknowledged that the IT team members needed to work closely with
business SMEs (Wood and Silver 1995). This concept was further expanded on with the desire to speed
up the development process. Rapid application development (RAD) centers on including prototyping and
involving users in the development/coding work. The idea is to give the business areas and users some-
thing to give feedback on sooner in the development process. Features, functionality, and design elements
are confirmed and approved for release or changes are given back to the developers to incorporate. RAD
also de-emphasized long documentation in place of faster delivery of prototypes (see Figure 5.3). The
cross-functional working sessions versus reviewing requirements and designs allowed for greater under-
standing of users’ expectations (McConnell 1996). This approach is the forerunner to the latest group of
methodologies known as agile.
Evaluation Implementation
Deployment
Testing
Planning
(Requirements)
Analysis
Design
Implementation
Testing
Deployment
Maintenance
(unless the scope is not feasible). Changes to requirements are considered for a subsequent
iteration.
4. No voluminous requirements documents are written. BAs do not have to spend hours fine-
tuning every word in the requirements package in long document-review sessions. Require-
ments are confirmed during demos of the product as it is developed or on whiteboards in the
team workroom.
5. Working prototypes evolve from design artifacts to production software so business users can see
their requested changes and developers can easily make additional changes to improve usability
as the project moves along.
6. Dedicated team involvement including a full-time business stakeholder means everyone stays
focused on achieving the objectives within the specified time frame.
These benefits are only achieved by a very high-performing team that understands the agile approach and
commits to these characteristics. Including a high-performing business analysis professional on the team
increases the likelihood that the resulting product will meet true business needs and fit in well with the
current business environment while delivering measurable value. If an experienced BA is not available,
at least one team member should have extensive business analysis training and experience (Carkenord
2007). And this is an important consideration for any analyst professional. Even if the roles change based
on methodology or other organizational decision, the analysis does not go away. An experienced BA will
add significant value to the team. There are still business objectives that need to be achieved. There are still
requirements needed to deliver value. Requirements need prioritization. User feedback and alternatives
discussions need to happen. And in more agile environments, these happen on a fast-moving timescale.
When a business analysis professional is not available, developers are expected to perform analysis and
communicate directly with business stakeholders.
the methodology then you were not agile. What businesses started to see and are embracing today is the
agile mindset, regardless of the approach to the methodology or structure that the organization uses. Are
you agile enough to be flexible and reconsider ideas, stop current work to pursue a higher priority, and
respond or even drive changes that customer’s demand? This is more of a discussion of agility and deliv-
ering greater business agility. While some organizations leave methodologies to the developers, the BA
should be aware of the organization’s processes to deliver value and how the development teams fit into
the value stream. The BA role, whether titled in position or simply in the analysis work done by multiple
team members, continues to evolve as it aims to facilitate innovation through creativity, rapid learning,
and experimentation in these more fluid agile environments (IIBA 2017).
If you take an informal survey of stakeholders about their previous experiences with requirements, you
will likely hear things like: “That thing John wrote was unbelievable. It was 100 pages long and he expected
us to read every word!” or “We didn’t look at anything from Mary’s last project, but then the screen didn’t
really work the way we needed it to. Hmm—maybe we should have looked at it.” or “That consultant who
was here last year—what was his name—Kevin? He drew a really great flowchart of our whole process and
then highlighted in red the areas that were going to change. We all really liked that. I still have it tacked to
my office wall!” These types of statements, while ignored by 99% of the corporate population, are like gold
to the BA. They hold clues to what the stakeholders liked and what they did not. Success breeds success,
so if Kevin was successful, take advantage of his technique and use it. Listen especially to your business
stakeholders as to what approaches have worked well for them and then work to integrate these into the
overall development approach. The whole point here is to stress excellent communication. BAs need to
communicate in the most efficient way possible such that end-user expectations are clear and develop-
ment is actively aligned to delivering the value-based expectations that best fit the organization’s goals.
Technical Architecture
Know your organization’s standards and basic architecture.
While it is useful to understand methodologies by considering the systems development process, success-
ful BAs, whether they report to groups within IT or outside IT in the business areas, need to understand
the overall structural design of IT—the technical architecture. The software development process is a piece
of the overall architecture. Like enterprise architecture (discussed in Chapter 3), knowing the compo-
nents, capabilities, and structure of an organization’s IT is almost more powerful than knowing how each
of those components work. The overall enterprise architecture is the top level of technical architecture that
helps define principles, standards, and models used by the entire organization. A BA who has to work with
any technology should understand the enterprise and technical environment.
There are many components that make up an information system. The foundation of an information
system is often referred to as its architecture. This is a great way to describe the design and construction of
a system because people can visualize a building’s architecture. A BA does not need to understand every
possible component or architecture that is available. They need to understand that information systems
are made up of a group of objects or components that work together to accomplish a goal. These com-
ponents may be built by an internal development team or by an outsourced team, purchased or acquired
and used as-is, customized, rented or leased, or accessed remotely. The interconnection between these
components is much of what makes an information system so complex. Each component interfaces with
others and expects the others to perform. Many of the components are very small and on their own do not
appear to do anything or have much of a purpose. When combined with other components, however, they
provide powerful functionality. The advent of more and more independent, reusable components makes
systems development faster. Developers can use pieces of code from various sources and combine them
into a new, working product. A simple analogy would be the inventory of a hardware store. Each customer
who shops at the store may buy a different combination of parts, lumber, and fasteners, and then go home
to build a completely different product. There is an infinite number of products that can be built with the
technology components that are available.
152 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
One of the important things to understand about the technical architecture is that there is no one com-
mon design. Each organization’s technical architecture has evolved over the organization’s history and is
unique. Often, there are many different brands and versions of hardware, networking software, operating
systems, communication systems, and packages all running simultaneously to support the organization’s
goals. BAs should consult with IT architects at the beginning and throughout planning of their projects to
discuss the feasibility of solution options. BAs who are aware of the complex web of old and new technical
components will make more intelligent recommendations and more clearly communicate the possible
ramifications of changes to their business stakeholders.
When looking at technical architecture, the elements that are important for a BA to consider include:
• IT governance
• Information architecture
• Data architecture
• IT risk management and security architecture
• Systems architecture
• Application architecture
IT governance includes the rules or oversight of the IT strategy of the organization. It helps align changes
to the enterprise architecture and business strategy. It is important for a BA to focus on the rules and deci-
sion-making processes that the governance team uses versus the people who help ensure governance is
followed, as this plays greatly into the solutions that IT teams can deliver and can even be the deciding
factor on funding.
When discussing information architecture, BAs focus on what information is being used and by whom.
Information structures are then put in place to enable the use of this information. How is information
organized, accessed, reused, and leveraged in the organization? An IT system
“BAs focus on should be built to enable the use of the organization’s information. And this
what information leads even further into data architecture. Here, BAs focus on how the data needs
is being used and to be structured so it is not only used, but leveraged and reused across the or-
by whom.” ganization. Data silos are very big issues today that can be easily overcome by
technical solutions that are built with smart architectural designs and will bring
great value to stakeholders who are using the data.
IT risk and security are growing areas of increasing demands as technology
becomes a bigger part of business. A BA must understand how the organization views risk from the IT
perspective and its posture for addressing and managing risk. Understanding the risk tolerance levels and
how an organization plans to respond to IT risk are key inputs on design solutions and can limit or expand
the options available. This applies especially to the security architecture that the organization puts in place.
Consider the policies, processes, controls, and security models that are used by the organization. What
approach is utilized? What is never allowed and what is always allowed? Like risk, the security structure
for an organization exists to protect and enable the organization, not hinder it; so a BA needs to under-
stand what is in place and why in order to support the organization and keep it safe with smart technical
solutions.
Knowing how the organization views systems and application architectures is critical for any BA who
is working with developing and changing systems and applications. Applications are simpler and provide
Your Fifth Step—Know Your Technical Environment 153
functionality to the users and the organization. A BA working with application teams needs to under-
stand not only what languages are used, but how the developers reuse elements, create features, com-
partmentalize their work, and approach testing. Systems architecture looks at how applications and other
technologies work together to automate and deliver business value. Applications do not always operate
by themselves—they sometimes need services to enable them. Understanding the core operational tech-
nologies that enable data processing and automation and support the day-to-day technologies plays into
technology designs for successful solutions.
As much as knowing the technology structure is key to solution designs, make sure you do not lose
sight of the purpose and value that these technology solutions need to provide. It can help to know the
background of solutions, how long ago they were created, and why. So much is changing not only with
technical environments but also business goals and perspectives that the original goal may no longer
apply—so is the technology still providing a solution? Yet, knowing how all of the technology is re-
lated and connected helps to understand why legacy technology is often very costly (both in time and
resources) to replace or upgrade. You should reconsider outdated technology if there are options and
value to update it while delivering needed change. Most IT organizations have an architectural road
map that describes their long-term strategy for building and maintaining systems. Learn as much as
you can about this plan and understand how the current change or project is delivering as part of that
overall plan.
Operating Systems
An operating system (or OS) manages computer resources and provides applications with an interface
to access those resources. A BA needs to be aware of the operating systems used in their organization.
Common operating systems are Microsoft Windows®, Linux, Mac OS X®, and Solaris. This knowledge is
important on projects where the operating system becomes part of the requirements. For example, when
searching for packaged or commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software applications, the vendor response to
a request for proposal (RFP) must specify the operating system(s) on which the package runs.
Operating systems are occasionally changed or upgraded. Operating system changes are usually
prompted by the increased functionality available in the new version. These changes are often imple-
mented in a project referred to as an infrastructure project, which implements changes to the underlying
IT architecture to improve system characteristics (performance, security, reliability, and expandability).
Ideally, the infrastructure changes are transparent to business users, and because of this assumption, busi-
ness analysis professionals are often not assigned to these projects. This is unfortunate because many
times infrastructure changes do impact end users. A simple change, like a new system menu for example,
impacts business workers and should be communicated before the change is made. Encourage your man-
agement to include business analysis in all infrastructure projects. A BA is the best person to assess the
154 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
impact of a change on the business community. The BA can communicate changes to the business and
prepare users for any possible issues.
Networking
A computer network is an interconnected set of computers. This simple definition belies the complexity
of the networking systems used in most organizations. A network of computers is created using a sophis-
ticated combination of hardware, operating systems, networking software, and communication proto-
cols. There are many different types of networks: LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),
intranet (internal closed network), extranet (internal network with controlled access by outside parties),
and internet (an interconnection among or between public, private, commercial, industrial, or govern-
mental networks). There are IT professionals who specialize in setting up and maintaining networks.
These professionals should be consulted on any projects that will utilize networking. Business analysis
professionals should be aware of potential networking changes and work with the IT professionals to learn
about the ramifications for the project and, most important, the business environment.
Data Management
Every successful organization in the world needs information—and a lot of it. Organizations especially-
need reliable data to make intelligent decisions about launching a new product (e.g., knowing the char-
acteristics of potential customers). They must adhere to government regulations by being able to report
financial statistics along with descriptions of where those numbers come from. Organizations that wish
to offer useful employee benefits need to know important data about their families. But how do organiza-
tions efficiently keep track of all of this information? BAs must understand the importance of data, how it
is stored, and more important, how it is accessed.
While a fundamental understanding of the types of databases and how they are constructed is valuable,
BAs often need to understand the wider view of data that includes topics such as data governance, business
intelligence, data analytics, and artificial intelligence. First, knowing general background information on
these topics and why businesses should even care about them is critical to solution designs. However, as
you learn the organization, work to understand the organization’s approach to data management. Are
there centralized data warehouses that are used by the entire enterprise? Are there databases all over the
place for every system that was created? Is there a data governance group that meets regularly? Maybe you
should ask to join a meeting or two to learn more.
For information that will help to focus on these data management concerns, you should ask ques-
tions such as:
• Who owns the data? How is this ownership maintained?
• How is the data used? Why is it maintained?
• What volume of data is expected?
• What is the data’s golden source? In how many places is this data stored?
• How is data mapped after a merger or acquisition?
• How will data be converted from a legacy system to a new web application?
• How often does data change?
• How often is data in the data warehouse refreshed? Is real-time data needed?
Your Fifth Step—Know Your Technical Environment 155
Only when the data is accurate, accessible, and understood can it be lever-
“Only when the
aged into solutions that drive greater value than simply remaining artifacts data is accurate,
of older systems. accessible, and
understood can it
Cloud Technologies be leveraged.”
Today’s environments—both inside and outside of the business—often leverage
cloud technologies. In simple terms, this references the ability to have your data,
services, applications, and other technologies hosted by a service provider that
are then accessed via the Internet. Again, the BA is not required to know how all of it works or is pro-
grammed; however, cloud technologies offer significant advantages over traditional in-house manage-
ment of technologies that are important to decision makers. BAs must be familiar with the concept of
scalability and how this works with cloud services. Cloud services often give organizations the option to
pay for use. This means you pay for what you need; if you need more then you get more (and are charged
for it). If you need less, then you get less (and likewise enjoy a cost savings). The flexibility to scale remains
very dynamic and on-demand.
An organization hosts their own website. This means there are servers, databases, networking, se-
curity, and content all managed by the organization. As the organization improved the content of the
website, the website traffic increased. The more the traffic increased, the more the IT team had to
respond in order to address any connectivity issues (i.e., ensure no latency) and storage space for all
of the new content. After a year of getting set up, marketing decided to streamline the content and
really scaled back the amount of content used and leveraged applications and other services that
could be linked rather than directly placed on the website. The IT team kept asking marketing if they
could delete the old databases of content in order to free up room that could be used for their other
applications. If not, they would have to keep buying more servers.
The decision was made to migrate the website hosting to a cloud services provider. The provider
would host the website, ensure that there were no latency issues, manage content storage, and pro-
vide other services that aligned with the organization’s IT governance. Now the marketing team could
add, remove, and change content whenever their business needs desired. The service provider was
responsible for ensuring there was space allocated for use and then billed the organization based on
usage. The IT team preferred this solution because they no longer had to set aside server and data-
base space for marketing just in case they needed more.
There are benefits and challenges to any technology. As you read the example you might wonder why
everyone does not choose a cloud service provider to help with their technology needs. Consider an or-
ganization that does not want to put their valuable information out on the Internet where it may be more
exposed. Hosting providers often maximize space by storing multiple clients’ data on the same server. The
hosting provider must then ensure no data leakage across clients. The organization has to trust the hosting
provider for securing their information and validating no loss of data or inaccurate access. The flexibility
gained with cloud solutions is often balanced by many security considerations.
156 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
As with the other technologies, understand the pros and cons of solutions and the key features they
offer organizations today. This is the best approach to supporting the organization rather than learning
specifically how to build and connect the technology yourself. Understand software-as-a-service (SaaS),
infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and how organizations are using
them today, including if there are requirements around high demand and availability. BAs should also re-
view edge computing, which uses a distributed model of cloud computing that brings the information and
its use and processing closer to the source. This addresses issues such as latency and other cloud concerns
to drive more functionality. These are shifts in IT approaches that are quickly bringing benefits to orga-
nizations, but only if they are fully considered and integrated with the organization’s technology strategy.
Virtualization
Another trend in technology that BAs need to understand is the concept of virtualization. This has added
tremendous capabilities for organizations while providing significant cost savings. In simplest terms,
every employee at an organization no longer needs a physical personal computer (PC) individually set
up for that user’s needs with specific software. A computer is virtualized so that while there is a monitor,
keyboard, and other peripherals, the actual terminal is connected to the organization’s network. It looks
like you are logging into a computer, but you are actually logging into a hosted view of a computer. You
are granted access to the software and systems that you need based on your user login. This is beneficial
because you can then log into any terminal across the organization and it will seem as though you are
sitting at your own desk. All the virtual computers are hosted from a single source that IT manages. There
is less hardware to maintain and new computers can be created in a matter of minutes, fully configured
and ready to go without having to buy any new equipment. Of course, the infrastructure and operations
support staff needs to be in place to support this kind of approach. Small organizations may not find it
worth the time if every individual has their own desk and does not move around very often. However,
understanding the power of what this type of technology can provide to the organization is critical as
organizations shift to providing more services rather than providing physical equipment.
Mobile Technologies
Many professionals today work in a mobile environment. They may have an office, but they go to clients’
sites. Teams are virtual and work from varied locations, yet all access the same company knowledge and
systems. BAs must know and be familiar with the infrastructure and networking that is required in order
to allow this seamless access. They must understand how teams can work remotely by utilizing virtual
private networks (VPNs) along with the security requirements involved to
“Security serves a allow the access while ensuring the integrity of systems and data. It is also
purpose that is important to learn the reason why IT may not allow an application, system, or
meant to be data to be accessible off the premises of the company. Security serves a purpose
balanced with that is meant to be balanced with business need and value. Include in your
business need understanding of mobility items such as speech recognition, facial recognition,
and value.” and other technology features that were often back end, security features only
for those most heavily-invested IT customers. These features are now in the
hands of the employees and customers as a capability, not a simple support
Your Fifth Step—Know Your Technical Environment 157
mechanism. This is an area where BAs need to truly understand the implications of both sides of the
technology. Consider that almost all of the users whom you work with (business owners, technolo-
gists, and end customers) have personal mobile technologies they use daily in their lives already. A
challenge for BAs is that business owners and users often expect their work technology to function and
operate in the same manner in which they use their personal mobile technology. While this is a great
user-centered design perspective, there are risks and costs that must be considered when it comes to
how the organization accesses information and what it takes to enable the technology. Obviously,
there are a great number of ways that users can approach the technology and gain value. However,
understand the architecture that it takes to deliver mobile technologies since this is important for
valuable solution designs.
A financial institution wanted a mobile application or app. While the requirements for the intended use
were easily captured from the business area, an understanding of the organization’s infrastructure,
technology capabilities, and approaches to mobile development were required to help the team design
the best solution approach. The requirements were clearly captured from the business perspective and
sent out in an RFP from multiple vendors.
The project team then experienced sticker shock when the proposals came rolling in on how to best
approach the application. They could not believe the cost that was being asked for the creation of the
app. The funny thing was—the quotes were all very similar because they all approached the develop-
ment utilizing native apps. This meant a separate app was being built for each mobile device that the
app was intended to be used on, so that it would provide the functionality in the manner as described
by the business. The business had wanted a very large number of smart devices to be able to access
the app, so each designated device required a custom build.
As the BA, I sat down with the developers and shared the concerns on the costs. And, like the busi-
ness owners who asked me, I asked them why it was so expensive versus how I viewed the apps I
used on my smartphones—apps that were simple and seemed available regardless of device. Here is
where I learned how the decisions on design and appearance of an app were affected by the device.
The developers could not guarantee that the app would look as the business wanted it to because it
was not dynamically adjusting content based on the type of device being used. If that is what the busi-
ness wanted, then the approach to development could be changed. They explained an HTML solution
that allowed the app to instantly be available on any device that could get on the Internet. Since they
only had to make one app now, the costs were significantly reduced. However, they explained that
certain features would not work with this new proposed HTML solution since the app would not be a
native app that was built to leverage the platform of the device. I had to explain the balance of cost
versus functionality/user experience back to the business for them to make their decision. When I
did present the options, I had to be comfortable with explaining the different technology approaches
and what it meant to the end users and support teams. So, while I was not doing the development
or programming work myself, I had to be aware of what the technology options were and how they
worked. I could then articulate the infrastructure questions that were greatly impacting the quotes and
functionality that the business was receiving.
158 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Technology Usability
The BA plays a key role when considering how to best use technology to create a solution that meets busi-
ness needs. And the BA needs to ensure these needs are met with the best possible solution regardless of
how “exciting” or simple the technology may seem.
Usability is about ease of use. Think about how easily a person can use a tool to achieve a particular
goal. The “tool” in this case is technology. It is important for BAs to understand some core principles of
technology usability to help design ease of use into solutions. These tools help you focus on the end users
and how to position solutions that solve their needs while providing business value. User-centered design
(UCD) is one approach that helps increase usability. UCD is particularly helpful in technology solutions
because it focuses on the user of the technology throughout all stages of development. A lot of work today
focuses on user experience (UX) to create value-adding solutions. Understanding how users are going
to interact, evolve, and leverage the technology early on in development allows for the creation of better
solutions later.
If your organization employs usability professionals, request their involvement on your change efforts
as early as you can. If possible, include them in requirements elicitation so that they can learn about the
business needs and the business environment as you do. If your organization expects usability design as
part of the role of the BA, you will need to learn about the principles and concepts. See Additional Reading
and References at the end of the chapter for some great resources.
Considering that UX is always key to solution development, the BA needs to understand the impact
these usability decisions have on the technology and overall solution. While a business may want some-
thing faster or with less issues, the question often comes up as to whether or not it is worth the cost.
Continue to present the business case when making decisions where the value for each option is clearly
articulated with risks and impacts.
Testing
One reason why you need to understand the technical environment is that you will probably be involved
in testing solutions. Even if not directly involved, successful business analysis professionals appreciate the
importance of quality assurance practices and are able to step in and help when necessary.
Understanding the testing process helps with requirements elicitation and analysis. The BA must make
sure that each requirement is testable or verifiable. The classic example of a requirement that is hard to test
is “the system should be easy to use.” There is not a straightforward test that could be designed to validate
this requirement. When an analyst thinks about how each requirement will be tested, they write much
more detailed, precise requirements. The experienced analyst also considers performance requirements
when helping to design a solution. Specific performance requirements must be elicited by the analyst even
though they will often be difficult for SMEs and users to articulate. Have questions and examples ready to
help users determine their performance tolerance:
• If the query request was returned within 30 seconds, would you be satisfied? Let us sit here quietly
for 30 seconds to see what that much time feels like.
• Would 45 seconds be too long?
• Would you accept a system that returned short, simple queries in an average of 15 seconds, while
complex queries might take up to 60 seconds?
Your Fifth Step—Know Your Technical Environment 159
Understanding what the users and customers are willing to accept is a key link between requirements
and the technology solution since it defines the acceptance criteria that is necessary to articulate user
expectations.
BAs are often involved in test planning and in designing realistic, useful test cases. When the require-
ments are written well, it is easier to leverage acceptance criteria, use cases, and scenarios to create descrip-
tive and valuable test cases (see Chapter 6). BAs are also considered key team members in testing as defects
are found and corrected. This should feel natural to BAs, who often enjoy problem solving. Since BAs
understand the requirements and the solution design, they often are quick to understand whether a test
case that “failed” was due to a defect (the system does not perform as designed) or a missed requirement
(system performs as designed but the user expectation was not captured as a requirement). BAs help with
troubleshooting and root cause identification as well—clarifying the steps that are necessary to address the
issue along with the risks and impacts associated with the issue.
There are different schools of thought when it comes to a BA’s role in testing. Some organizations will
have a testing team where the BA can simply hand off requirements. Others expect the BA to write and
then actually execute the testing of each scenario, even with the risks involved when a person performs
the testing on their own test cases (missed issues or opportunities due to lack of objectivity). BAs needs to
realize the organization’s approach to testing prior to implementation. They must know at which stages or
phases the solutions are tested before they are ever released to the end customer, and then consider how
the requirements are driving the test cases and plans. How are test cases created and validated prior to
executing? What are the considerations needed for testing, and which types of testing are done? Do not
be afraid to ask the organization to bring in help with testing—from the creation to the verification to the
execution and validation. Often deciding how much effort, energy, and resources are necessary for testing
can be determined by asking the decision makers to answer the question: “Do you want your customers
to find the defect first or your own internal team?” And testing is not just about finding issues; it is also
about seeing opportunities that could be leveraged as part of implementation or in the near-term future.
There might be ways to gain more value from solution designs that were not thought about previously. For
example, an end user who is testing time-tracking software may try to filter by certain projects and tasks
to report on time spent. While the software originally focused on giving departmental teams the oversight
of where their teams were working, the new perspective to think from a project and portfolio viewpoint
gives the development team a new angle to consider how their solution can deliver organizational value.
Understanding how testing can be of value before, during, and after implementation is key to helping a
business analyst continue to deliver value.
Even if they are not directly responsible for planning and executing tests, every BA should understand
common testing phases and practices. When a project’s solution is in the testing phase, the BA should be
closely involved. As tests are executed and defects found, the BA is a great resource to help determine the
cause of the defects and to help with ideas for correcting them. Some of the problems found will require
business stakeholders to make decisions, and the BA can help with these. The BA should also be watching
for results that were caused by poor requirements. BAs can significantly improve their elicitation and anal-
ysis skills by learning from prior mistakes. Look upon these mistakes as lessons learned.
Unit Testing
Unit testing is usually the first level of testing and is performed by the developer. A unit is a small piece of
the system that can be tested individually. The objective of unit testing is to find problems in the smallest
component of a system before testing the system in its entirety. BAs may assist developers by identifying
test cases and reviewing unit test results.
Integration Testing
The next level or phase of testing is referred to as integration testing. Integration testing requires the
individually tested units to be integrated and tested as a larger unit or subsystem. The objective of inte-
gration testing is to find problems in how components of a system work together. These tests validate
the software architecture design. The development team or quality assurance team are often the people
who perform integration testing. BAs may assist by identifying test cases and reviewing test results. Inad-
equate integration testing, often due to waiting too late in the development process, is one of the main
causes of project failure.
System Testing
The next level or phase of testing is called system testing. System testing is the last chance for a project
team to verify a product before turning it over to users for their review. The objective of system testing
is to find problems in how the solution meets the users’ needs within the entire system that the solution
operates. These tests validate that the solution meets the original requirements. BAs are involved with
system testing by making sure that the solution meets business requirements.
Regression Testing
Regression testing is a specific type of testing with which a BA must be familiar. The concept is simple:
after any system change, retest the functions of the system that have not been changed to make sure they
still work. As simple as the concept is, it is one of the biggest areas of failure in the testing discipline.
Why? Because who wants to test something that has already been tested? It is not glamorous or exciting,
it often does not expose any defects or quality enhancements, and it can be very tedious and boring.
Having acknowledged these issues, regression testing must be done because it is often the easiest way
to catch unknown issues with the overall system. Technology solutions can frequently be very complex,
and a small change can easily break something that was previously working fine. Regression testing is
performed throughout all of the other testing phases when changes are made after the initial testing has
been completed. And this is exactly why it is so valuable to build traceability and reusability into all of your
requirements. Those requirements, acceptance criteria, test cases, and results that you did the first time
Your Fifth Step—Know Your Technical Environment 161
the system was rolled out can then be quickly reused on all future change efforts that involve the system.
Requirements that drive solutions last well beyond the scope of the project because they represent the
scope of the solution.
UAT
Most BAs are involved in UAT—the final phase of testing. Users test real-life scenarios to verify that the
system will meet their needs. UAT is an important step in validating that the end solution meets business
needs. This conformance testing is named as such because the intention is that the users of the system
will run the tests and accept the product. As systems continue to become more complex and less proce-
dural, testing becomes more complex. Testing systems is challenging for even the most experienced qual-
ity assurance professionals. If it is difficult for them, think about how overwhelming it may seem to users.
This complexity is why many organizations ask BAs to get involved. Typically, when technical solutions
are sold outside of the organization, UAT is referred to as beta testing and allows users to try out a new
version of the solution before its general release.
Why should users do UAT? Ideally, users are executing tests as they would expect to do with the solu-
tion in production. UAT builds the users’ confidence that the solution does what they hoped it would
do. Unfortunately, assigning a BA to this task often gives users the idea that the end users do not have
to participate. They feel that they have told the BA all of their requirements, so the BA should be able to
accept the software. Do not allow this to happen. Losing stakeholder engagement at this critical junction
in a project may create dissatisfaction with the solution being implemented. This is a dangerous situation
and one that every BA should work to avoid. There are several common reasons why this occurs—a few
are listed here:
1. Users, like everyone else, are very busy. If they think that the BA can do the work for them, they
will be happy to let him or her do it.
2. Testing is hard work, and most users have never been trained in how or why they are doing it. No
one likes doing something that they do not really know how to do well.
3. Users often do not realize the likelihood of errors in developed technical solutions. This is not a
negative statement about developers; it is a fact that the process of developing systems is difficult
and that discovering defects is a normal part of the process. Users may not be aware of the risk if
a defect is not found.
4. Finally, users do not realize the significant impending change that the system will have on their
work environment and they need to get prepared. When users actually work with the system
during UAT, they realize how their corresponding procedures are going to have to change.
As the users interact with the system during UAT, updates to processes and procedures should be captured
so that the transition to full use in production is much smoother. Everyone utilizing the system should
understand how it will affect their respective work.
Although there are a few obstacles to overcome when trying to get users more involved with UAT, the
benefits are enormous. Users who actually participate in UAT are usually more satisfied with the end
product than those who do not. They are not shocked by the change after deployment, but rather are gen-
tly prodded toward the change during UAT. Users who are committed to the entire software development
process are more likely to get the product they need (Kupersmith 2007).
162 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
WORKING WITH IT
BAs in the past have been key for the successful communication of business areas and IT. Many IT profes-
sionals appreciate BAs learning the technology so that there are successful and open discussions with the
project and business teams. Like any other stakeholder, understanding IT’s role, purpose, approaches, and
area of expertise, along with building trust and open communication, are vital. The same consideration
should go into explaining your role as the BA and how you plan to approach requirements elicitation,
documentation, and the hand off to the technology teams for implementation. You want to encourage an
idea-generation discussion with these technology experts so that the best possible business solutions can
be considered. Clearly articulate what you will and also what you will not deliver. If your role is supporting
the business operations more than technology, you may need to be clear regarding the level of detail at
which your business requirements will be. For example, business requirements may not have enough
information for technology teams to design the solution. It is then important to have a plan to handle
this type of situation. Or if your BA role reports to technology in the organization, then you may be
expected to deliver very detailed technical requirements from which the developers can instantly start
to build the solution.
Work with the developers to encourage them to review requirements by walking through your require-
ments with them—helping them to see that they are getting useful information. If the developers are not
Your Fifth Step—Know Your Technical Environment 163
accustomed to using or working from requirements, you may want to give them a small piece of a require-
ment, schedule a walk-through over the phone or in person, and lead them through the document. You
may want to present a use case or a subset of the data model. As you walk through the document, section
by section, ask if they have questions or comments, and do not be afraid to ask them what they would
want to see that would help them move forward. Too many analysts worry about writing, re-writing,
and over-analyzing their requirements rather than simply sharing the requirements they have already or
flat out asking the developers what is needed. As the developers begin to develop the system and come
back to you with questions, point them back to the document if a question is one that you have already
addressed. You want to get them in the habit of looking at the requirements artifacts when they have
questions. As they begin to see that you have already thought about things like exceptions and alternate
paths, they will become more confident in your documents and more willing to read them (see also Re-
view Sessions in Chapter 7).
Most developers are creative and enjoy offering suggestions. Whenever possible, ask developers for
ideas within the limitations of the requirements. This is another reason why written requirements are so
useful. If you give a developer clear guidelines within which he or she can be creative, you will often get
a great design. When not given clear boundaries, a developer may create something that looks great but
cannot be used because it does not meet user needs. This can be discouraging for the developer. Be spe-
cific about the functionality that is needed and the business rules that must be adhered to but you do not
necessarily have to worry about providing every last tiny detail.
Some developers will be interested in understanding why the business needs a particular function,
while other developers will be satisfied just to build it. For developers who ask why, share business infor-
mation. This will help them better understand the reason for their work and often make them more com-
mitted team members. For developers who are not interested in understanding the business reasons for a
function, do not give them too much information. Many developers are very black or white: “Do you want
the source data field converted to a data field called Lead Source? Yes or no?” Answer questions directly
and concisely. A three-paragraph dissertation on what a source is and how the business people use sources
to generate more business is too much information for many developers. Working with the IT teams is no
different than any other business partner or stakeholder though. Understand roles and capabilities and
work together with team members on how to best deliver solutions that provide lasting value well beyond
the immediate change effort.
• Technology is changing every day in new and unpredictable ways. It is very exciting, but it can be
very intimidating and overwhelming to try to stay on top of everything. Focus on key topic areas,
not the specific software or hardware that is implemented, but rather the type and the purpose—
and most important, how it drives value for an organization.
• It is important for BAs to understand the development methodologies and their requirements de-
liverables that are used in an organization. Knowing what approach the change effort should take
to ensure effectiveness and efficiency is a key element of BA planning.
• Business analysis professionals do not necessarily need to understand the underlying details of the
technology infrastructure, how it was created, or how it is maintained; however, they must know
key terms in order to communicate with IT architects, developers, data managers, and infrastruc-
ture support personnel.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Beck, K. et al. (2001). The Agile Manifesto. http://agilemanifesto.org/.
The Business Analyst Job Description. (2018). “Key Skills that Every Business Analyst Must Know.” http://
thebusinessanalystjobdescription.com/key-skills-that-every-business-analyst-must-know/.
Carkenord, B. (2007). “How Does a BA Add Value to an Agile Project?” B2T Training: Fall 2007. www
.b2ttraining.com.
Code Academy. (2018). “MVC: Model, View, Controller.” https://www.codecademy.com/articles/mvc.
DAMA International. (2017). DAMA-DMBOK: Data Management Body of Knowledge. 2nd Ed. Technics
Publications: Denville, NJ.
International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) and the Agile Alliance. (2017). Agile Extension to the
BABOK ® Guide. IIBA: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Kienitz, P. (2017, February 27). “The pros and cons of Waterfall Software Development.” DCSL Software.
https://www.dcslsoftware.com/pros-cons-waterfall-software-development/.
Leyton, Ryland. (2015). The Agile Business Analyst: Moving from Waterfall to Agile. Leyton Publishing.
McConnell, Steve. (1996). Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules. Microsoft Press: Red-
mond, WA..
Project Management Institute (PMI). (2017). Agile Practice Guide. PMI: Newtown Square, PA.
Royce, Walker. (1998). Software Project Management: A Unified Framework. Addison-Wesley Object Tech-
nology Series. Addison-Wesley Professional: New York, NY.
Spacey, J. (2018, March 13). “12 Types of IT Architecture.” Simplicable. https://simplicable.com/new/
it-architecture.
Wood, Jane and Denise Silver. (1995). Joint Application Development. 2nd Ed. John Wiley: Hoboken, NJ.
Your Fifth Step—Know Your Technical Environment 165
Business analysis professionals spend the majority of their time working with requirements: eliciting
requirements from business stakeholders to understand needs, analyzing requirements for teams to use,
presenting requirements to business stakeholders for acceptance criteria and decision making, and review-
ing requirements with solution teams for execution. Presenting requirements refers to communicating
them to the appropriate stakeholder in the most appropriate format. Business stakeholders must review
and confirm business requirements before they are used to design solutions. Depending on the individual
business stakeholders, the appropriate presentation may be a formal requirements package or a work-
ing simulation of the potential software. Information technology (IT) architect stakeholders and solution
designers must review functional requirements to understand the needs of the business and the desired
solution functionality. These stakeholders may prefer to see requirements in diagrams or models that
mirror system design specifications. Developers must review technical requirements and specifications to
build the solution. They often utilize prototypes of screens, report layouts, and use case descriptions that
show expected user interaction with the system. Any of these requirements may be presented formally in
a traditional requirements package or informally in a slide presentation or handwritten on flip charts or
whiteboards in small group discussions. The business analysis professional makes decisions about how to
best analyze, understand, and communicate requirements to best support the business goals and values.
Because requirements are so important, every project team should understand and agree upon what a
requirement is and how requirements will be expressed and presented. This chapter discusses planning
requirements elicitation and analysis, the categorization and management of requirements, useful analysis
and presentation techniques, and the criteria for deciding the formality of their presentation. As different
techniques are discussed, take special note of the visual communication tools as well. These include dia-
grams, models, prototypes, simulation, tables, and more. Know your stakeholders and how they respond
(or sometimes do not) and consider showing your requirements and what they mean as opposed to just
telling people the requirements. The BA’s (business analyst’s) role is to work with stakeholders to deliver
the business solutions. While the BA may be tasked with doing the work, remember that the ownership
is on the stakeholders; thus the BA must ensure they not only understand but also own the resulting re-
quirements and solution designs. To re-emphasize—a requirement is a “usable representation of a need”
(IIBA 2015), not a want or demand. Requirements help to break down and deliver how the organization
will gain value from the change effort or project. The requirement itself does not deliver the change. The
BA works with the requirements in order to move efforts forward, regardless of the approach or where in
the change effort they are used.
167
168 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
And while only a subset of the possible techniques and approaches are presented here, know that there
is no wrong or right way of truly using any techniques. There are best practices that are best for that time,
in that context, with those stakeholders, and with the information that was available to that BA. Does that
mean it will work for you? Perhaps. The right or best technique to use is the one
“The right that works. What approach do you need to move the change effort to the next
technique to use is step? What do stakeholders need to do to keep the project moving forward? The
the one that works.” purpose of each technique will be highlighted because the common issues that
junior BAs face is that they often use a good technique for a different purpose.
Planning and prioritizing the analysis that is needed and determining which
techniques might be the most successful in order to deliver the need is almost
more important than the time spent on the actual requirements analysis. Best techniques are the tech-
niques that deliver value while moving changes forward and supporting organizational structure. There
is no wrong way to analyze or think. These techniques are simply tools to help the analyst see a problem
or situation from a different perspective. Most change efforts and projects will benefit from the use of
several techniques.
information? Much of it is given to you verbally, but additionally you will re-
“A requirement is
ceive e-mail messages, documents, forms, example reports, files, old require-
anything that can
ments documents, and much more. One of your critical skills as a BA is the
be used to deliver
ability to organize all of this information, consider its importance to your proj- the solution and,
ect, and maintain it in a retrievable, usable form. You are effectively considered ultimately,
the repository for the project or change efforts’ requirements. You will want to business value.”
expand your repository beyond documented words. Consider process maps, a
prototype of a screen layout, scenarios described, and user stories. Your require-
ments packages or deliverables consist of whatever artifacts you can create to
help the organization define the needs in such a way that teams can implement valuable solutions. Plan-
ning how to manage, organize, and continually leverage your hard work well beyond the current change
effort constantly promotes the true value of the BA.
The other key consideration in how you organize requirements is traceability. The idea behind trace-
ability is critical to quality analysis. Traceability ensures that every requirement is addressed and every-
thing addressed is actually a requirement. Every requirement should be supporting the achievement of
the change goals and providing business value. Otherwise, it is not a requirement. Regardless of the meth-
odology being used to implement the requirements, consider how you will show that the requirement has
not only been delivered as expected but also that the desired business value outcome will be achieved. If
you are working with other BAs or team members who will be providing input while the requirements are
broken down in further detail, how are you tracing each of their details back to the original request? Risk-
averse change efforts and projects will need to have this traceability from start to finish. Prior to starting,
it is important to set up how you plan to capture the requirements with their origins, approvals, changes,
acceptance criteria, and other factors.
Some organizations have sophisticated requirements management tools or systems. These allow re-
quirements to be captured, categorized, and retained for ease of reuse, governance adherence, and overall
management. Some organizations are lucky if any requirements are captured during a change effort or
project. Hopefully, this is not the case, but realizing that you might have to start from scratch is important
during planning so that you set yourself up for success. You want to consider reuse of all your business
analysis work, particularly the requirements, as much as possible and at every step.
Now not only should you plan to reuse your own requirements artifacts, but you should also consider
what requirements you are able to reuse. Are there requirements documents or artifacts from a similar
project that had been created for the same system or business function that would give you a good starting
point? Iterative work will have you building on the requirements of the prior iteration.
approved after a structured walk-through session with the project team? What about verification or vali-
dation of each requirement?
Knowing your governance needs before you start is important in order to drive the decisions on how
you plan to support the governance. A long list of requirements in an easy-to-read format is not necessary
if your stakeholders are helping you write them and approve them on the spot. However, if a technical
team will not move forward with technical requirements until the business has signed off on their com-
pleted business requirements, then you need to structure your approach to clearly show the sign-off.
On a project, the project manager (PM) wanted to know when requirements sign-off would be com-
plete. I asked her what she meant by this and she said, “When will the requirements be approved by
the project sponsor?” She told me that development on the project should not move forward until the
project sponsor approved all of the requirements.
I considered that there were a number of technical requirements that would need to be defined to
address the initial business requirements we had elicited that the project sponsor may not understand
(or even care about). Since we were just beginning the project and planning our approach, I recom-
mended that we do two structured walk-throughs of the requirements with different groups of the
project team. The core project team (which included representatives from all business areas involved in
the project) would walk through the business requirements to verify that they were correct and validate
any assumptions. They would also verify the acceptance criteria needed to help build test plans. Then,
upon verification and validation of the business requirements, solution and technical requirements
could be defined. I would then walk through the solution and technical requirements with the technical
team members to verify the requirements and validate the solution approach. After both sessions, the
project team confirmed that they had no more questions or changes to any of the requirements. The
confirmed requirements could then be provided to the sponsor with a recommendation for approval;
at which time the sponsor could approve or deny the requirements to quickly move to development.
Once the project sponsor approved the requirements, any changes to requirements would need a
formal change-control process and this is where I asked the PM to set up the structure for the change
requests. I would capture only approved changes and the updated verification and validation in the
requirements documentation. The PM would get the official approval on changes and record that the
approval had been made to change a requirement.
I utilized a requirements traceability matrix (RTM—discussed later in this chapter) with columns for
verification and validation included that were checked complete during the structured walk-throughs.
With each requirement traced through its appropriate hierarchy, it was easy to show the complete-
ness of the review. As the team discussed requirements and agreed in person at these structured
walkthroughs, changes were made live without an official change management process; however, any
changes made after the sponsor’s approval would go through the formal change process.
Your Sixth Step—Know Your Requirements Analysis Techniques 171
Technique: Estimation
One of the common techniques that a BA will utilize in planning is estimation. Before starting, you will
need to analyze the current situation and create an estimation of not only what work the BA role should
be performing, but how long it will take and with whom the BA will need to work. Regardless of the
project approach that is being used, there is basic information that will need
to be addressed.
“Estimation is
Estimation is a powerful technique that aims to forecast the effort and cost of used to support
a particular course of action (IIBA 2015) by providing quantitative assessments decision making.”
(PMI 2018). Estimation is used to support decision making because it can help
give insight into items such as expected benefits, potential value, and potential
risk impacts.
When estimating anything from the time it will take to complete requirements elicitation to the com-
pletion of user acceptance testing, consider the following:
• What you are estimating (Clearly defined scope!)
• Due date of estimate
• Type of estimate requested
• What you have access to
• Your experience with estimating
• Resources to support your efforts
• Dependencies on the estimate
• Consequences of the estimate
• Risk adversity of owner, team, and organization
• Measurement of success and improvement plan
Estimation is a skill that BAs continue to hone throughout their careers and is needed for many analysis
positions. While challenging at first, remember that your estimate will only be as accurate as the time you
put into it. Acknowledge that you will not be able to come up with a valuable
estimate on the spot as to how long it takes to define all the requirements for a “Your estimate will
large project without first taking some time to research and define an approach. only be as accurate
Always consider the complexity of what you are estimating and clearly articu- as the time you
late what is known versus unknown. Call out what the risks are as you consider put into it.”
the organization’s risk tolerance level. And not only aim to put the quantitative
numbers in your assessment but also highlight the qualitative measures and the
expected value of the estimate efforts.
We will talk further about the presentation of business analysis information later in this chapter—and
the same concepts also apply to estimation. Too often BAs will either give a number with no context or
provide too much information when all the stakeholder needs to know is the date you can deliver the
task assigned to you. When presenting estimates to others, again, like all of your other business analysis
deliverables, think about why the person needs the information and what they are going to do with it.
This shapes what information you present. To keep estimates simple and effective, consider presenting
information in the following format:
172 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
CATEGORIZING REQUIREMENTS
Typically, requirements need to be categorized. Categories are needed because when requirements are
correct and complete, they are usually detailed. Most projects include a large number of these detailed
requirements. When there are a large number of things to keep track of, organizing these things into logi-
cal categories allows them to be found easily and used quickly.
Requirements are the same. Separating them into categories and uniquely identifying them helps keep
requirements organized and easy to reuse. To build consistency into the analysis process, the same catego-
ries should be used on every project within an organization. Any team member on any project will know
the categories and be able to organize and review requirements quickly.
The second and maybe most important reason for categorizing requirements is to separate them by
audience. Remember that the only reason why requirements are formally documented and presented is
to communicate and confirm understanding (and to decrease reliance on people’s memories). Different
types of requirements will be reviewed and approved by different stakeholders. Business stakeholders re-
view business requirements to make sure that the true business needs are understood and that nothing has
been missed. Developers review detailed solution and technical requirements. This points to the practical-
ity of categorizing and presenting like requirements together. Using the same logic, technical requirements
Your Sixth Step—Know Your Requirements Analysis Techniques 173
are rarely reviewed by business stakeholders and as such should be categorized separately and presented
specifically to the technical team.
A third reason for categorizing requirements is reusability. True business requirements will outlive any
systems, technology, or procedures. This is why business requirements are so focused on what the busi-
ness hopes to accomplish and not how it would be accomplished. This way the technology can always be
changed to support the business need. Reusing requirements saves time and encourages enterprise-wide
consistency. These are excellent results of the business analysis discipline. Functional requirements may
be reused when enhancements are requested to existing systems. The original functional design can then
be used to show the change. Technical requirements become important documentation for developers,
support people, and the maintenance team. In addition, a successful technical design may be copied and
reused for another application. Reusability goes well beyond your own ability to reuse your prior require-
ments work. Consider as you approach requirements if any person in the organization could pick up your
requirements and easily reuse them?
Finally, a reason to categorize requirements is to facilitate impact analysis for managing change re-
quests. Impact analysis refers to the assessment made to determine the ramifications (impact) of a pro-
posed change. Impact analysis relies on requirements traceability. After a solution has been deployed,
changes are often requested. Maybe the business has decided to offer a new type of product or service.
Business leaders will ask: “What is the impact of this change? How much will it cost to change our sys-
tems?” Impact analysis requires the analyst to review existing systems to determine what changes need to
be made. Having requirements clearly categorized and organized provides the analyst with the material
needed to quickly assess the task at hand.
Deciding on categories is time consuming and challenging, so it is inefficient to develop a new set of
categories every time you start a project. An organization will be most efficient if it decides on one general
categorization scheme and uses it consistently. Review the system periodically to make adjustments. The
following are some suggestions for setting up your own system.
order. Simply placing them on the shelf as they come in will not be useful when a customer is looking for
a particular book.
Who will review each requirement? A BA’s most important job is to clearly communicate with stake-
holders. Often, several stakeholders will be reviewing and even collaborating on the requirements docu-
mentation. It would be most efficient for the BA to present the requirements in an order that will make
reviewing as easy as possible. Is a stakeholder from accounts payable who only needs to review a few key
financial requirements required to read the entire package and search only for the items in which he or
she is interested? On the other hand, do many of the requirements that affect accounts payable also affect
other stakeholders?
How is each requirement used? Which different group of stakeholders needs to utilize certain require-
ments? Most developers are not anxious to read volumes of business requirements. They want to know
exactly what you want the system to do. They also prefer the requirements to be separated by the tech-
nology needed. For example: put all data elements together to assist the database designer, or list all users
together to make the security access design easier. Is it easy for the marketing and training staff to review
the transition requirements that they need in order to ensure successful rollout of the solution? And also,
consider the team composition. Are all team members on site or are you working in virtual teams? Do you
have external stakeholders such as consultants or developers who will need to access the requirements?
These factors will also play into your decision (and why your stakeholder analysis is so important).
How are the requirements related to each other? Tracing requirements to each other is a very important
technique in order to ensure completeness and decrease change management time. These relationships
between requirements make their presentation more complex. This aspect of requirements argues for a
unique name or number for every requirement. These unique identifiers are invaluable for tracing (see the
section on traceability matrices later in this chapter). This is one of the many areas where a requirements
management tool is very beneficial.
Should the same requirement be presented in different ways for different
stakeholders? Ideally, the answer to this question is no. It is not efficient to re-
“A BA’s most
package the same information in multiple ways. However, a BA’s most impor
important job
is to clearly tant job is to clearly communicate with stakeholders. If a requirement is clear
communicate to one stakeholder in a graphical format and clear to another stakeholder in a
with stakeholders.” sentence, then it may have to be presented in multiple versions. If this is neces-
sary (make sure that it is absolutely necessary), then both versions must be kept
up-to-date when there are changes.
Which requirements are reusable? Many requirements are reusable on future
projects, and it may be helpful to document them together. Business requirements that are technology
independent can be reused on future projects and as such should be kept together in a format that allows
other analysts to access them. Data requirements are reusable and most easily referenced when they are
documented in the same format in the same place. This is another area where a requirements management
tool is very helpful.
If your organization does not have a consistent categorization schema—implement one. Create one,
try it, revise as you learn, and incorporate changes as part of your business analysis improvements (see
Chapter 7). Any system is better than none. Most projects have a large enough number of requirements to
justify categorizing them into groups. These groupings make the requirements easier to document, double
check, and review.
Your Sixth Step—Know Your Requirements Analysis Techniques 175
As often mentioned throughout the discussion of business analysis, four very common categories
emerge when discussing requirements: business, solution, technical, and transition. These categories are
fairly common and are used in many industries. Organizations are most successful when they initially im-
plement a simple system with a small number of categories to get the people in the organization familiar
with the categorization idea. Categorization can also help ensure that areas are not missed as analysts dive
into gathering detailed requirements. They help articulate the entire picture regardless of the methodol-
ogy or approach. Of course, many organizations utilize additional categories as well, so as part of your
business analysis planning and research of the business, ensure that you find out what categorization
schemas may already be in place before you create another one. Remember—reuse is a BA’s middle name.
Business Requirements
Business requirements are the detailed descriptions of information, business activities, business rules, and
external interactions that are needed to accomplish the business mission. They are described using busi-
ness terminology and presented in formats that are easy for business people to review.
Business requirements address business problems, needs, and goals independent of how they might be
solved and accomplished. Business requirements include the project initiation components (statement of
purpose, objectives, risks, etc., discussed in Chapter 3) and the core components of data, processes, and
business rules. These components together comprise a picture of the business, which may also be referred
to as the business model. Business requirements should be understood in detail. A common misconcep-
tion is that business requirements are high level only. This view causes analysts to miss critical business
needs. These requirements are elicited and analyzed to gain a complete understanding of the business in
order to recommend effective solutions. If the business is not understood in detail, solution recommenda-
tions may be inappropriate and not solve the business problem. You may also hear business requirements
defined as stakeholder requirements.
Some classifications utilize this additional category of stakeholder requirements to break the require-
ments apart in order to separate the business goals and objectives from the specific stakeholder needs
that are to be addressed. As long as you can show that the requirement delivers the business value of the
intended change, then it is fine to lump them together. However, occasionally the business requirement
focuses on a high-level goal, such as to increase revenue, while the stakeholder need is more specific to
their process or product that generates the revenue. In this case, as long as you show the traceability, then
the subcategory can be helpful.
Business requirements do not describe how work is done but rather what work is accomplished. Busi-
ness requirements are elicited, analyzed, and documented by business analysis professionals. BAs must
be able to differentiate between a business need (what) and a procedural or system function (how). To
understand the difference between a what and a how, look at a business process such as selling a product.
This process is a business requirement because it is a core business need (see the section in Chapter 4,
What Is a Business Process) and is named to describe the business goal without indicating how the goal is
accomplished. There could be many ways that this business process can be performed. Once a product is
sold in a store with a customer and salesclerk talking face-to-face, the customer could pay for the product
with cash, a check, or a credit card. The clerk could record the sale in a ledger book, on a cash register, or
with a scanning machine. The customer could carry the product out of the store or request that it be de-
livered. Another way the business process could be accomplished is that the product could be sold via the
176 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Internet. A customer in a remote location could select the product from an online catalog, pay through an
online service, and request shipping. The salesclerk in this case may be a fulfillment worker who boxes the
product and gives it to the shipper. If the product can be transferred electronically, another possible sale
could be a download to the customer.
All of these possible procedures support the core business process of selling the product. Business re-
quirements are those core, fundamental components of a business that change only when strategy changes.
They are aligned to the organization’s strategy and therefore support the mission and vision of the orga-
nization. They are the most important requirements because all procedures, solutions, and even business
decisions should support the core business requirements. Identifying the true fundamental business needs
allows many possibilities for delivery or distribution. These possibilities are the solution requirements.
Solution Requirements
Solution requirements describe how work will be done. How does the solution function? How will data be
collected and stored? How will business rules be enforced? How will communication with people, orga-
nizations, and systems take place? For each business requirement, there may be several solution require-
ments that support it.
These solution requirements are often further broken down into subcategories of functional and non-
functional requirements. Functional requirements focus on the capabilities of the solution. These are the
features and how it works. Nonfunctional requirements, which include quality-of-service requirements,
describe the conditions that the functional requirements must operate within (IIBA 2015). Keep in mind
as we talk through these types of requirements that your stakeholders may often not need to know (or
even care) about the categorization you are using because it could confuse them. Focus on categorization
for what helps you stay organized and is easily reusable by any analyst. No matter what analysis activity
you are doing, never forget the why or the value that you should be producing with all of your efforts.
Functional Requirements
Functional requirements describe observable behaviors the system should exhibit. They are a view from
the user’s perspective of how the system or process will work. Functional requirements typically include
a design area scope description that shows the boundaries of the solution. This scope may be shown
in a use case diagram, with a list of processes or features, or in a narrative. Once the scope of the solu-
tion is defined, functional requirements are developed to describe the functionality. Functional require-
ments include descriptions and diagrams showing how the user will interact with the solution. This could
include screen designs, report layouts, and warning messages based on business rules. To design these
components, analysts and solution architects will often develop a list of potential users, indicating each
user’s needs and goals (called a use case). In addition to describing how the solution will interact with
users, functional requirements also include detailed data definitions. These definitions are developed
directly from the business data requirements and describe how the business data will look, be entered, be
validated, and be reported.
Functional requirements are typically documented by BAs. Deciding how a solution will be designed
is a collaborative effort between the business people and all staff designing the solution. The BA facilitates
discussions with individuals from various stakeholder groups to come to a consensus on a design that
meets business needs and is technologically feasible.
Your Sixth Step—Know Your Requirements Analysis Techniques 177
Nonfunctional Requirements
Once the features are defined through the functional requirements, great consideration should be given to
what is needed to ensure that these features deliver the intended value. The qualities that a solution needs
to have and the conditions where it will operate and provide the intended value emerge in nonfunctional
requirements. The list below of considerations helps to drive a meaningful dialogue when the BA is facili-
tating a discussion around the solution so as to not end up with any missed requirements. As you can see,
nonfunctional requirements are often referred to as the -ility requirements.
• Accessibility
• Auditability and controllability
• Availability
• Certification
• Compatibility
• Compliance
• Effectiveness (resulting performance in relation to effort)
• Efficiency (resource consumption for a given load)
• Extensibility (adding features and carry-forward of customizations at next major version upgrade)
• Legal and licensing issues
• Maintainability
• Performance/response time
• Portability
• Quality (e.g., faults discovered, faults delivered)
• Reliability
• Resource constraints (processor speed, memory, disk space, network bandwidth, etc.)
• Safety
• Scalability (horizontal, vertical)
• Security
• Stability
• System availability
• Usability and learnability
These nonfunctional requirements may be elicited and documented by the BA in conjunction with subject
matter expert (SME) resources. While not every term on the previous list will apply to every solution, the
importance of recognizing these types of requirements and ensuring that they are captured helps to create
solutions that add value well beyond the initial implementation or rollout (a key BA concern).
Technical Requirements
While not every solution has to have technical requirements, the subject matter expertise that is required
to break down solution requirements to a level that can be used to start delivering change often calls for
technical or other subcategories of requirements. While technical requirements are discussed here, the
same concept applies to any functional area. Remember the goal of requirements is to provide a “usable
representation of needs” (IIBA 2015). You can break down solution requirements into subcategories as
178 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
long as you can trace the requirements and manage/track them so that every subcategory requirement is
traced to a solution requirement. Later in this chapter, traceability will highlight the fact that decomposing
into further detail is always a great approach when it comes to ensuring clarity on requirements as long
as they are needed. The traceability will prevent SMEs from adding requirements simply because they
want to add them. Tracing the requirements helps to prevent scope creep and ensures each requirement
achieves the intended value.
Technical requirements include detailed descriptions of the technical architecture framework, database
definitions, business rule engines, program logic, development objects, application interfaces, network
architecture, security components, and many other of the technical specifications of a solution. These
technical requirements (also referred to as specifications) specify how the solution should be built and
integrated into existing systems in the organization. The technical requirements are developed based on
the functional and nonfunctional requirements that were agreed upon by the business stakeholders and
sponsor. They include hardware descriptions, database designs, programming standards, and guidelines.
They may include specific product names of software development tools that will be used. In addition,
the technical requirements will include a description of how interfaces to outside systems will be accom-
plished. These descriptions include data sent to, or received from, other applications and any required
conversion algorithms. BA roles may or may not write technical requirements based on the role expecta-
tions and responsibilities, but they are almost always involved with reviewing the resulting requirements.
This review process allows the BA to confirm that the technical plans support the true business needs (via
traceability to the functional and nonfunctional requirements).
Stepping through the categories of requirements and their relationship to each other shows the impor-
tance of identifying complete requirements from the beginning. When business requirements are used as
the basis for solution design discussions (as they should be), they must be complete. A missed business
requirement will result in several missed functional requirements and may drive the technical architecture
design in a way that prevents the business need from being easily added later. However, this does not mean
that requirements are only categorized and broken down on traditional or waterfall projects.
Transition Requirements
One core area that is often missed, but is key to solution success, is the transition requirements area. These
are the requirements to get the solution from the current state to the future state successfully, but often are
no longer applicable once the new solution is in place. Think about the training, communication, market-
ing, and other activities that often are involved with launching new products, changes to existing products,
or complete removal. The focus is on ensuring the successful solution, not just the product, so there needs
to be consideration to things such as: Who is going to support the solution? Do they know how to support
the solution? Do we need to update existing users about the changes? Sometimes PMs may suggest that
these requirements are outside of project scope; the project implements the change. However, a BA should
stay focused on whether or not the solution is providing organizational value. Share with the PM that the
project effort to implement a new product or system is not successful if no one knows how to use the final
product or even knows that new features or capabilities now exist. Be sure that these requirements are
part of the solution scope that is clearly articulated to the stakeholders so that the requirements are fully
addressed and enable the change effort to provide the most value.
Your Sixth Step—Know Your Requirements Analysis Techniques 179
Initiative 1* Initiative 2*
Epic Epic*
Epic* Epic*
Story* Story*
Story Story*
* = Theme 1
Backlogs may have their own categorization to help organize the requirements. Product backlogs de-
fine the list of everything needed for a product. This is owned and maintained by the product owner. A
sprint backlog is defined by the development team that articulates what requirements from the product
backlog are selected to be worked on in the next iteration as well as the plan to achieve the goals of that
iteration. And then increments identify what work has been delivered (is done) during the increment and
the value of all previous increments. Additional backlogs used in some agile methodologies might also
include program backlogs or solution backlogs. See Additional Reading and References at the end of this
chapter for more sources on how to categorize your backlogs.
As work is prioritized, the product owner will help to lay out how the requirements are addressed for
implementation. With the product vision in mind, the product owner may prepare a product roadmap
that will help the team with release planning. This articulates what functionality is being delivered by
breaking down into iterations that define the features (user stories) that will be implemented (PMI Agile
2017). See Figure 6.2 for how this breakdown delivers value.
Regardless of how detailed the categorization gets, remember that the categorization itself is simply
meant to help the teams have meaningful and productive conversations in an efficient manner. Do not
overcomplicate it if you do not need to and only categorize if it adds value. The categorization style and
names may appear to be different in agile and adaptive methods then when done in a traditional setting.
But, the need to continue to capture and organize needs in ways that teams can utilize them in order to
provide meaningful changes does not disappear. Enabling others to use your valuable analysis outputs
should remain at the heart of your requirements work.
Your Sixth Step—Know Your Requirements Analysis Techniques 181
Product vision
Release 1 Release 2 Release 3
drives product
roadmap
Product
Release Plan
roadmap drives
release plans Iteration 0 Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4
Iteration plans
Iteration Plan
schedule features
development by User Story 1 User Story 2 User Story 3 User Story 4 User Story 5
prioritized user stories
Task A - 5 hours
Task B - 4 hours
Tasks created to Task C - 2 hours
deliver user stories Task D - 1 hour
analyst you may succeed. But new analysts will be wise to use well-established
“Presenting
techniques as they were intended until they have gained enough experience to
complex require-
ments simply and
feel comfortable making adjustments.
clearly is an Every technique in this section has been described in other books and pub-
essential skill for lications, which I encourage you to review. As you learn to use each technique,
a business analy- you will come to appreciate the ability to present complex requirements in sim-
sis professional.” ple formats. Try using a variety of analysis techniques on the same problem
to see what new information is exposed. It is amazing how well some of the
older techniques work. Presenting complex requirements simply and clearly is
an essential skill for a business analysis professional. This section gives a brief
overview of some techniques and the reasons for using them as you dive into your analysis work.
helpful because you do not want to waste your time breaking down and analyzing business requirements
that have not been verified and validated in case they are not applicable. A key element that is encouraged
on most traceability matrices is the acceptance criteria. Walking through the requirements with the stake-
holders to define what they are willing to accept as delivered for each requirement is extremely valuable.
First, you clarify the expectations as the stakeholders and get a better understanding of what they are
picturing in their minds of the end solution. Second, the established acceptance criteria lends itself to
more easily creating test cases. You have a sense of the expected use and behavior that the solution should
provide, which is valued by all who use the requirements.
This increases the value of the traceability matrices. Each requirement should be validated that it is de-
livered, which is done with testing and thorough test plans. For each requirement, there should be the cor-
responding test case(s) that validates that the solution does provide the required functionality as defined.
Now each requirement may have more than one test case since there may be many ways to validate the
solution; however, once all test cases have successfully passed, by using traceability you can then validate
that the requirement has been delivered. Table 6.2 shows some test cases for the previous requirements
examples. These are great for helping to make the BA’s work even easier, especially if he or she is respon-
sible for creating the test plans. While it may take some significant time to trace all of the requirements to
the detailed level that the team needs in order to successfully implement the solution, a thorough RTM
provides a foundation to quickly produce quality test plans that stay in scope.
Traceability matrices are most often valuable on traditional project approaches especially where there
is a low risk tolerance, such as in highly regulated or risk-averse industries. Traceability helps to verify that
no aspect is missed and complete solutions will be delivered. However, traceability can also be utilized on
more adaptive projects. In fact, backlogs are great ways to trace the requirements to delivering the goals
of the efforts, such as discussed earlier with product and solution backlogs. Further, product roadmaps
and iteration planning are used for this same approach since the traceability aspect of these adaptive tech-
niques helps to validate that the resulting solution provides the intended value.
184 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
CUSTOMER
Presents Provides
Walks Finds Walks to Leaves
item for payment
into store item counter store
purchase amount
Looks up Tells
SALES
Completes
item’s customer
sale
price price
Adds item
CUSTOMER
understand the process and confirm that understanding with the SMEs. Using a process model as a con-
versation tool does not imply that it must become a formal deliverable; however, if it helps other team
members understand the challenge at hand or envision the solution, then be sure to share the resulting
diagram and continue to reuse it whenever the process is brought up. Process models are especially helpful
as part of a requirements package when the requirements are going to external or third parties.
Process models are such powerful tools that BAs should become quite comfortable creating and work-
ing with them. A junior BA may elicit information about processes and then go back to create the models
for the next meeting with stakeholders. However, mid- to senior-level BAs should become quite com-
fortable creating these models immediately with their stakeholders. Regardless of whether you create the
process using sticky notes on a whiteboard or utilizing technology such as Microsoft Visio®, creating the
process flow visual model live enables the collaboration with your stakeholders that good solutions re-
quire. When you have a diverse team present to see what others are doing throughout a process, you are
encouraging understanding. Decisions on which elements are changing and what the downstream effects
are can be quickly and easily discussed as a team so that your stakeholders have a better understanding of
the change effort or project. Getting everyone on the same page is one of the most valuable facilitation ac-
tivities a BA can do. Ensure that whatever is produced—whether it’s working materials or a final approved
model—is shared with your stakeholders for immediate feedback. Then continue to bring the model to
every discussion and meeting so that if there are questions or new information arises, you can quickly
reference and update the model for continued use.
Because workflow diagrams are so flexible and can be created using many different standards and
notations, they are useful on many types of projects. Business process improvement projects rely heavily
on as-is and to-be diagrams. Software development projects benefit from their use at either the business
186 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
requirements level (what will the user do) or the functional requirements level (how will the user do it).
They are also very helpful for enterprise-level projects like mergers and acquisitions. When two depart-
ments are being merged, it is worthwhile to analyze each of their current procedures (as-is) and compare
them. This allows the common activities to be identified and differences to be highlighted. The project
team can also use metrics to identify best practices for recommending the merged future (to-be) pro-
cedures. Additionally, workflow diagrams have become critical for organizations that are developing a
service-oriented architecture.
While there are many different nomenclatures, model formats, and technologies, a BA should stay
focused on presenting clear models that utilize a consistent formatting. Like other techniques, the best
format to use with the present process models is the one that works. Review the standards and common
techniques that your organization uses for process models. Also, find out if there is any kind of tool or
repository for processes that are captured. An organization that categorizes and tracks all of its processes
helps to ensure organizational understanding of the business and quickly promotes not only reuse but also
faster and more efficient changes. Whichever format, symbols, and structure presents a clear picture for
you and your stakeholders is the one that is best. And like all techniques, ensure you always think about
what you hope to accomplish before diving into the diagram. Process modeling provides the visual so that
you can then do the process analysis.
Order
Customer Product
Bulk
Last City
Price
State
element of a solution. Trying to find substitutions or optimizing bottlenecks and identifying areas of reuse
are other common goals. Knowing the objective of your element helps you know how far to break down
the topic at hand.
As with many diagrams, the decomposition diagram is easy to review. This clarity deceives readers into
believing that the development of the diagram is just as easy. In reality, this is one of the most difficult
diagrams to create. There are few rules for its development, which leaves the analyst room for subjective
representations. SMEs may get frustrated if presented with an empty whiteboard and asked to describe
their organization’s processes using a top-down approach. When using this technique, draft a diagram of
your functional breakdown on some of the key elements you already know and even some of the assump-
tions present. Then show your draft to the SMEs for feedback. SMEs will be able to more easily correct a
partially drafted diagram than build one from scratch.
There are a few key rules for building a decomposition diagram that enforce consistency and rigor.
Having guidelines for requirements helps all BAs use them consistently and helps stakeholders who are
reviewing them to expect predictable patterns. Rules for building a decomposition diagram are:
• Only one type of relationship between components is shown on the diagram—parent to child
(shown with a line between boxes)
• Only one type of requirement is shown on a diagram (i.e., if you are decomposing processes, do not
show any business rules—show only processes)
• Every parent has more than one child
• No sequence is shown (no arrows)
• A child must be at a lower level than its parent (more detailed, finer distinctions)
Although there are specific rules for developing a decomposition diagram, no two BAs would create
an identical diagram, even when given the same set of requirements. Each decomposition diagram can
188 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
represent a different perspective and contain varying levels of detail. Typically, the processes at the top and
bottom of the diagram are easier to identify than the ones in the middle. Do not spend too much time dis-
cussing the middle-level process names. Remember the purpose of your technique and why you decided
to use it in the first place. The diagram is useful for organizing and structuring analysis work. It gives the
team a visual way to see each process within the context of the business and allows the group to then focus
on one particular process at a time. It helps to set boundaries for detailed analysis work.
a rule. Exposing these unknown discrepancies is the value of analysis. Business areas realize improved
communication and increased consistency immediately.
Often, business rules are exposed during requirement elicitation around processes and data. As busi-
ness SMEs discuss their work, you should listen for decision words like verify, validate, check, determine,
and assess. When a person or system makes a decision, they are enforcing a business rule. That rule needs
to be articulated, reviewed, and documented. Business rules are an important requirements component
that should be managed and maintained after the implementation of a solution. Once implemented and
“designed” into systems, procedures, or processes, these rules drive the work of the business and should
be easy to review and change.
Redeem First
Class Ticket
Airline Miles ≥
45,000
Airline Miles ≥ Redeem
15,000 Economy
Ticket
Purchase
considering how you earn free flights or other perks with your airlines miles, the business owners would
want to consider if these awards were appropriate. If they are too low, that might scare off customers
and affect the revenue the airline receives. If they are too high, that might see costs rising more than
expected. Until all the options are laid out, it is hard to decide if the current setup is driving the most
value. Having the visual before you start a deep discussion and analyze options can save BAs a lot of
time and avoid rework with stakeholders.
Technique: Glossary
An important component of strong communication is the consistent use of terms and phrases. It is
easy to forget how dependent human beings are on language. Every conversation involves a common
understanding of terms. When someone uses a term that you have never heard before, or uses a known
term in a different way, the message is incomplete. Your brain may even get distracted thinking about
the unknown term and miss the rest of the communication. Understanding the importance of terms is
critical to successful analysis. Analysts must be precise when discussing and presenting requirements.
The accurate use of terms, especially terms that are unique to a business domain, will ensure successful
communication of requirements.
This points out another important lesson for the business analysis professional. You must be able to use
the terms that are used by each business even when they are foreign or unfamiliar to you. This is where
a glossary can help. The analyst should begin jotting down important terms from the very first meetings
with stakeholders. Terms that seem common and well-known should be confirmed. Each term should
be defined and the definition should be agreed upon by all project stakeholders. Undefined terms create
ambiguous requirements.
An SME may describe a process as: “A customer purchases products by logging into the website and
placing items in the shopping cart. When the buyer is ready to check out, the screen should display the
total shipping charges and the total order amount.”
Is the customer the same person as the buyer? Is an item always a product? What is the difference
between the shopping cart and the order? Using inconsistent terminology in requirements often leads to
mistakes in solution development.
Analysts must listen carefully to the use of terms by stakeholders. As inconsistencies are found, they
must be exposed. Be aware, though, that simply exposing an inconsistency will not correct it. If one de-
partment has been using the term customer and another department has been using the term client, you
will not be able to quickly change either of their habits. You must first determine if they are using the terms
in exactly the same way. If not, there may be two different words that are important and relevant here.
Your job as the analyst is to point out the inconsistency, get agreement on the term’s definition, and work
to bring the group to consensus on shared language to be used in procedures and systems.
The glossary itself can be a simple list of terms that, in general, only you may use. Or the glossary can be
a full appendix to your requirements package as part of the deliverables. As a good rule, include a glossary
of terms in all your documentation when you start out. Find out if there are any knowledge management
systems in use at your organization where you can add terms with their clarified definition so that it is easy
to reuse on future analysis work. However, if your requirements are going to any external entities, such as
a vendor or consultant, ensure that you include the glossary in your deliverables to help the parties clearly
understand what is meant in all documentation.
Your Sixth Step—Know Your Requirements Analysis Techniques 191
Data Modeling
Data models help visually show data attributes, characteristics, and relationships between the data. The
models allow data to be better managed as a resource. Like other modeling, the visuals allow for easier
analysis and design as well as helping to support solution evaluations and continuous improvements.
These can begin as conceptual models that are independent of technology or implementation that artic-
ulate how the business perceives its information. Then the conceptual models can evolve into logical data
models that include normalization rules that are used with the design of the solution. As is often the case
with a technical solution, these models can be further defined into physical data models that implementa-
tion experts use to build the solution.
Data model diagrams—often referred to as entity relationship diagrams (ERDs)—are often used along
with class diagrams. Both help the analyst develop questions about information needs. The popularity
and long life of data modeling is attributed to its rigor and simplicity. The diagram can show a complex
business domain in a straightforward, concise manner, making communications much clearer. The model
shows not only information needs but also many business rules as they relate to data. The rules are the re-
lationships in the ERD. When using an ERD to document business requirements, the diagram and related
details combined make up a logical data model. Object-oriented programming leverages the use of class
diagrams to help define data requirements. Figure 6.6 shows the example formatting used for an ERD that
helps with these models. Figure 6.7 then shows an example ERD with the data structure for school data.
The most important reason to build a data model is to confirm the user’s and the analyst’s understand-
ing of the business data requirements and ensure that the solution that was developed satisfies the business
need. Data modeling provides the analyst with a structured tool and technique to conduct analysis. Most
SMEs can articulate problems and possible solutions; unfortunately, their problems and solutions are of-
ten based on current system constraints, not true business needs. Asking business people to detail every
piece of data (attribute) requires them to understand and articulate every aspect of their business. This
approach allows the business to drive the system design, not the other way around. It also stimulates more
detailed discussion and thoughts. By identifying and detailing data in a model, further requirements and
problem areas arise and are dealt with long before solution design.
A logical data model also facilitates data reuse and sharing. Data is stable over time; therefore, the
model remains stable over time. As additional project teams scope out their project areas, they can reuse
the model components that are shared by the business. This leads to physical data sharing and less storage
of redundant data. It also helps the organization recognize that information is an organization-wide re-
source, not the property of one department or another. Data sharing makes an organization more cohesive
and increases the quality of service to outside customers and suppliers.
Data modeling is very useful on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) projects. Understanding the busi-
ness data needs and including them in a request for proposal (RFP) is crucial for package selection. Repu-
table vendors should provide an ERD that represents their system’s underlying data structure. Comparing
the COTS data with the business data requirements, attribute by attribute, allows the selection committee
to make an accurate assessment of how well each package would support the business. If a package cannot
Your Sixth Step—Know Your Requirements Analysis Techniques 193
accommodate business data requirements along with their associated business rules, then it should be
rejected. Missing data cannot always be rectified by custom programming.
There are data modeling tools that support the creation of an ERD and its associated details. Many of
these tools are capable of using the ERD requirements to build a database design. These tools are used by
data analysts, administrators, and database administrators to create, update, and maintain data structures
used by application software. Even if you do not have access to these tools, the absence of a tool does not
mean that one should ignore this technique. Many process modeling software programs include stencils
for articulating the models that developers can then use. Again, BAs should seek to understand how best
to present information to the developers and others who need to know about data requirements and their
structure so as to help facilitate the efficient development of the solution. Data models are great additions
and compliments to other models, diagrams, prototypes, and visuals that help articulate the overall solution.
External External
Input Data Output Data
Entity Entity
Data Process
Verb/Noun
Data Dictionary
Just as the glossary helps provide a standard vocabulary, a data dictionary can provide a standard defini-
tion of the data elements you are working with. Data dictionaries aim to provide a common explanation
of each data element, what it is used for, or where it is applicable, along with the values the data may have.
They define the metadata for the specific data element and also show the composite values the data may
possess. See Figure 6.9 for an example section of a data dictionary.
For maximum value, the metadata for the data elements needs to be leveraged for the enterprise.
Organizations often have data warehouses and data governance teams that work to organize and catalog
the data. Always try to leverage existing data before creating anew. If you have to create a data dictio-
nary of new data elements, then work to incorporate it into organizational standards so that it can be
easily reused.
Look up Book
Includes
flights flight
Potential Travel
Customer Agent
Extends
Change
reservation
Current
Customer
Figure 6.10 Use case diagram example
196 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
business and technical stakeholders. The resulting diagram is not as important as the discussions and
decisions that are made during its development. This is a great technique to use with business stakehold-
ers, specifically decision makers, because it requires decisions about how people (actors) will work with
the solution. A simple line on this diagram between an actor and a use case could completely change a
business person’s job. It may necessitate job description and responsibility changes and new procedures.
When defining a use case, begin with a clear name. Utilize a noun-verb association to clearly depict the
action that is being taken. Then, articulate the goal to identify the outcome of the use case, keeping the
perspective of the actor in mind. Identify all the actors from the perspective of any person or system who
interacts with the solution. Preconditions are defined along with the trigger that initiates the steps of the
use case. Then, identify the steps to execute the use case, often called the flow of events. Once finished,
find any post-conditions that must be true at completion of the use case. Table 6.3 shows the structure you
can use to clearly articulate a use case.
One of the major weaknesses of the use case approach is that a use case description may contain several
requirements components (data, process, business rules, external agents) instead of documenting them
separately. Documenting components together makes it easy to miss requirements and makes reusability
of components difficult. To make your use case descriptions more concise and consistent, define the indi-
vidual requirements components separately (with unique names) and simply refer to them in the use case
descriptions. This alleviates the need to change every use case description when a data or business rule
requirement is changed.
Use case descriptions—especially the primary and alternate paths—are great for brainstorming with us-
ers of the solution on design options. Working through the specific interactions between the user and the
solution helps design a system that more accurately mirrors the natural workflow of the user. Even when
the team thinks it has a consistent vision of the solution, writing down these specific steps/interactions
highlights different views and allows decisions to be made before coding begins.
Technique: Prototypes
Prototypes are great approaches to product design that can truly consider the end user perspective. It
allows the stakeholders to interact and engage with an early model of the final solution, the prototype.
These can be non-working mock-ups, representations with partial functionality, or digital solutions
including simulations. Simple sketches on paper of each screen the user may encounter in a system, for
example, can validate the user’s expectations in a quick (and inexpensive) manner while forming the
basis of the design. Alternative process flows with exceptions are identified and alternate behavior of
the user that was not planned for can now be addressed in solution requirements as you watch the user
and verify their expectations.
Anything that allows the user to experience the solution is a successful prototype. Think in iterations
rather than trying to deliver the final solution in one try. You present the prototype and get feedback to
incorporate. You incorporate and present the revised prototype back to the user
and get additional feedback. New ideas can surface and build on prior ones. “You have
Places where you thought you addressed the user needs are no longer missed presented the
because the requirement will come up in the next iteration. Do not get married correct solution if
to the first iteration. Feel free to use throw-away prototypes, where you literally the stakeholders
scratch the design and create a whole other prototype for the next one. This is are all willing
why scratch paper and using arts and crafts supplies can be beneficial. The BA to accept it.”
is looking for what the stakeholder is willing to accept, not the BA. You have
presented the correct solution if the stakeholders are all willing to accept it.
198 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Solution evaluations produce opportunities and corrections through the experience that end users can
share with the analyst. Prototypes are valuable for the BA and should be considered as part of your plan-
ning work when the success of the solution is based on the end users’ use of the solution. Finding out how
the users intend to use a solution and whether they are willing to support the continued development is
important to do early on in development where changes are less costly and easier to implement. However,
do not get frustrated if after multiple iterations, you feel that you have to scrap the design and start all over.
You at least have feedback of what the solution is not. This is important as you move forward since a two-
cent piece of paper with pencil drawings is easier to throw away and repeat than having the organization
invest millions of dollars only to find out the user has no intent to interact in the manner the organization
had assumed.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, be careful with doing prototypes too early on projects where
stakeholders do not fully understand the purpose of the prototype. A risk with prototyping is that it can
set some unrealistic expectations. Stakeholders may see a design idea and then hold the team to deliver
that design. You do not want to show a design the organization is not capable of implementing or support-
ing. Also, stakeholders often notice the aesthetics and worry more about the look and feel than the core
functionality. Ensure the expected use is addressed in your reviews, not just the presentation. This is why
active collaboration with your stakeholders is so important. Utilize multiple iterations of the prototype so
that stakeholders see how their feedback is incorporated into the design and continues to evolve the re-
quirements. Keep communication open and continuous so that stakeholders remain active and involved.
requirements document. It is instead the collection of user stories that the team prioritizes and reviews to
pull the prioritized pieces of work from. In colocated teams, this could be the physical notecards or even
sticky notes that user stories are written on and posted to the wall. Virtual teams use the same approach
with online collaboration tools. Like most tools, the backlog is only as good as those teams that use the
tool. Successful agile teams spend time doing plenty of backlog grooming. The analysis of what has been
added to the backlog is done to ensure there is clarity of details so that implementation teams can quickly
deliver the intended functionality without questions. This is where feedback and improvement opportu-
nities from retrospectives (see Chapter 7) are incorporated. Collaboration with the stakeholders is key to
clarifying the user stories down to the detail that the implementation members are comfortable assessing
and quantifying the effort. Decomposition (see earlier in the chapter) is commonly used to break down
the stories into manageable work efforts, and this is also a great time to elicit acceptance criteria if not
previously identified. Having a prioritized backlog helps teams determine which stories are further de-
fined in greater detail first since lower prioritized items often have less detail. This process continues with
a team through each iteration of the solution so that teams can not only plan the next piece of work but
can also look forward to future iterations by knowing what may be involved. This analysis work is what
drives value in these agile artifacts.
Technique: Storyboarding
As you work to collaborate with your stakeholders on solutions, storyboarding can be a valuable tech-
nique to add to your requirements toolbox, especially if you work in more adaptive environments. This
technique asks you to describe the requirement from the perspective of how stakeholders interact with
the solution. This allows the requirements to be presented both visually and textually by articulating the
user’s interactions with the solution by the sequence of activities that occur. Think of comic strips; simple
sketches depict what is happening at each step with added notes or clarification (see Figure 6.11).
Storyboarding is a cheap and easy way to do prototyping as again you are focused on the customer
experience. It facilitates the validation of requirements with your stakeholders when they can visually see
what the expected user behavior is. Storyboarding is also valuable to technical teams because it provides
expected outcomes and acceptance criteria within which developers can work. This clarification then
helps facilitate testing and validation work. Start by looking at the scenarios for the solution. It is best to
pull out the most complex scenarios with which to develop a storyboard. The visuals help to eliminate
the complexity by looking at each step (see functional decomposition earlier in this chapter). Draw out
the sequence of steps for that scenario, sketching an image for each step. As needed, add clarifying details
in notes. You want to make it so that each segment of your storyboard is able to stand alone for analysis
with the team. Review the storyboard with the team members one scene at a time. Then walk through the
entire storyboard and confirm the flow of events and expectations. Try to stay away from how each step
will be done and drive the team to focus on ensuring that the steps add value and help achieve the goals.
Couple this technique with business rules (see earlier in this chapter) to help ensure that no constraints
were missed.
Remember that a BA needs to value the time they spend on all activities and ensure that they are delivering
the value of the intended activity. Do not write requirements for the sake of writing requirements. If you
use a text format for your requirements, it should be to help others be able to use them. Write only enough
to move the change effort forward. If text is not working, then try a different format.
you begin to collect. As you get more comfortable with these techniques, try more visual formats. See what
kind of feedback you get. Many mid- to senior-level BAs, once they get comfortable with the techniques,
find that creating visual models of requirements actually takes them less time than capturing all of the
requirements details in a text format.
In replacing a critical piece of software, multiple departments needed to be consulted because the
software supported numerous processes in the organization. Since the software replacement effort
was to be bid on via an RFP process, there was the need to have very detailed and specific require-
ments developed for the potential vendors. However, there was concern that the stakeholders who
managed these processes today would not be able to articulate to this detail. This was where the need
for a BA was identified.
Stakeholders were invited to a one-hour meeting to discuss what processes they performed that
(possibly) utilized the software (assumed to be true, but asked to validate). The PM literally identified
a different group every hour that would walk in and for 60 minutes explain to the BA (me!!) everything
that they did and how it worked. To capture the processes, we used process modeling where I would
map out the processes as they talked. Doing the models live in front of the stakeholders allowed them
to quickly correct me and then verify that the models were reflecting what they were articulating. This
worked well because often there were cross-functional teams present for different process discus-
sions, allowing them to each better understand the entire process by hearing and seeing what the
others did to complete a task. They often asked clarifying questions of each other while I acted as the
facilitator who kept us on track and on time, as well as the scribe. It also allowed us to get through
numerous processes over the course of a week since all the stakeholders did was talk while I captured
information. Models were then printed and all stakeholders were given copies to review and validate.
This made review sessions go quickly as people came in ready with their changes and validated
follow-up information.
After 161 process models were completed, the text-based requirements were then captured. Pro-
cess analysis clarified business rules, data requirements, and information flows in a text-based format
that accompanied each process model. These made the details specific and clear to the vendors
included in the RFP discussion. In addition, the PM appreciated the approach since she was com-
fortable with text-based requirements from prior project experience and utilized these for her vendor
selection process. She then reused the process models when testing came into play to help validate
the outcomes of test scenarios back to the deliverables that were produced through the process
models. As a bonus, the business areas actually leveraged the process models to help with turnover
and new-hire training to articulate how processes worked at the organization.
Choosing an Approach
As part of the business analysis planning work (see Chapter 7), the BA needs to consider what approaches
and techniques will best move the change effort forward. Requirements are not captured solely for the
purpose of capturing requirements. Requirements have a purpose. While it might be easiest for you to
track all requirements in text format in a long spreadsheet, this may not be easiest for the person who has
to use the requirements. Consider who will be using the requirements and what they intend to do with
Your Sixth Step—Know Your Requirements Analysis Techniques 203
them. Feel free to combine multiple approaches to the requirements so that there is no ambiguity as to
what is expected, and remember to only capture as much as adds value to the change effort. Short, iter-
ative development cycles need only enough information to create the prototype or solution component
that stakeholders can comment on. Highly regulated environments will need to see all the details laid out
that address each regulatory requirement and can benefit from detailed, traceable text formats. Always
consider who is using your requirements and what they are doing to best detail the requirements for their
use. You may produce the requirements but, remember, you do not own the requirements.
Consider everything that you know about one of your key stakeholders. Does the person like to talk
about what he or she does? Does the stakeholder sometimes draw diagrams to explain his or her processes
to you? Does he or she write long textual descriptions? Being aware of how the SME presents information
will give you a clue as to how the person would like to see information presented back to him or her. If
you are working with an SME who is a financial, accounting, or numbers person, you may be successful
using Microsoft Excel® spreadsheets (or something similar) to present requirements. Accountants see the
world as rows and columns, so if you can present your requirements in a similar format, an accountant
will be more likely to review them to help you spot errors and holes. An SME who is a marketing person
may like to see colorful graphs, pie charts with percentages, or high-level slogans. This SME is more likely
to review a requirements document that is pictorial—maybe colorful with clever icons. Remember that
the whole point of requirements documentation is to communicate. If you cannot get an SME to look at
a requirements document, you have wasted time creating it and you are going to lose valuable feedback at
a critical point in the project.
Another approach to consider is giving an SME small chunks of requirements to review, one chunk
at a time. This helps the SME feel less overwhelmed and allows him or her to focus on a particular area.
Eventually you can put all of the pieces together and remind the SME that he or she has already reviewed
this document piece by piece. One advantage of this approach is that as you are preparing and reviewing
each section, you can ask follow-up questions and get clarification as you go. The SME will also see value
in your documentation because it helps you both find missing pieces. It also helps the SME see progress
on the project and become aware of how much work the project really entails.
Some SMEs may prefer to write down their requirements instead of spending time talking with you.
This is a tricky situation to manage because often the requirements that an SME documents do not meet
the criteria for excellent requirements. The good news is that these documents give you a lot of informa-
tion about the SME. The level of detail in the document tells you how much complexity the SME sees in
the processes. Many SMEs do not realize the complexity in their business area because they are doing the
work every day and it is simple to them. It also shows you their priorities because the most important
issues are likely to be mentioned numerous times. If an SME says he or she will write the requirements,
always take it and tailor your tasks to help verify and validate them. Think about working with the SME
to deliver the requirements. Requirements should be as much of a collaboration activity as they are a
communication tool. The entire team should help collaborate on getting the requirements captured well
enough to deliver the changes requested while providing the information necessary to ensure solution
success.
Your planning work should consider not only the deliverables needed and the organization’s approach
to requirements, but also the approach to the change effort. RTMs work great for very traditional (wa-
terfall) projects, but what if you are working with an offshore vendor whose team members utilize agile
methodologies? Or, what if you are working with a finance technology whose product owner wants to roll
204 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
out one feature or piece of functionality at a time, waiting to validate after each month’s end closing? Cus-
tomer-centric approaches where the user or end product owner is heavily involved (i.e., agile) will often
use much more visual approaches and keep documentation to a minimum (note: not ignoring informa-
tion, but only writing down the minimum to help move the effort forward). Highly regulated industries
and risk-averse efforts will insist that the details are clearly spelled out to very specific levels that might
require a lot of written documentation. Consider the change effort as well as your own skill set. Do not
be afraid to try another technique and/or combine it with your tried-and-true approach (see Chapter 7
regarding your skills). Using more than one technique is often valuable because additional techniques
can increase clarity, but you will need to balance the time that you are given to create and facilitate the
delivery of these deliverables as well as the stakeholders’ availability to share, collaborate, confirm, and
validate the requirements.
Standards
Setting standards for analysis techniques and deliverables is difficult. Projects and change efforts vary
greatly, and the necessary analysis differs in quantity, perspective, and level of detail. Organizations should
be careful when setting business analysis standards. Requiring a particular requirement deliverable for
every project seems like a good way to introduce consistency into requirements, but may result in wasted
work for projects for which the technique is not appropriate. New BAs need guidance when choosing
techniques. Ideally, this guidance is provided by a mentor rather than a set of standards. The approach to
the change effort, stakeholders, environment, and many other factors often weigh on the decisions made
about how requirements are captured.
There is a benefit in trying to use the same set of presentation formats on most projects, though, be-
cause stakeholders will become accustomed to them and become efficient at reviews. Some organiza-
tions might introduce requirements templates rather than standards. These templates give the structure
or starting point for organizing requirements but do not detail exactly how the requirements are captured,
let alone the elicitation and collaboration activities to achieve the details. Like all business analysis work,
the approach, technique, or documentation style that is best is the one that works.
In developing a mobile solution for an organization, there were numerous communication requirements
of the project team to work with an offshore development team. Many of the organization’s stakeholders
were accustomed to waterfall-based approaches due to their low risk-tolerance levels. The offshore
team worked in a very agile environment and was quite comfortable with doing small increments of de-
velopment for constant feedback. In working to capture the requirements from the project stakeholders
and deliver them in a format that the development team could use, I found myself spending considerable
time between meetings trying to take the business requirements and shape them into the details that
the developers could use to write their user stories. In addition, every time project stakeholders met
with the development team directly, there were more questions than answers, which seemed to stall the
project. I began to add diagrams to the requirements packages that would be created during working
sessions with the project stakeholders while the developers listened in. I then inserted these diagrams
continued
Your Sixth Step—Know Your Requirements Analysis Techniques 205
into the requirements package template that the organization used for all project work. Now I had the
powerful combination of images along with the text requirements in each section of the business require-
ment documentation template. The resulting business requirements were then easily used by the opera-
tional support teams to develop their support documentation (which was the purpose of the requirement
template). Lessons learned were shared on the usage of the template and it was communicated to other
BAs that the template was the format in which to capture requirements, but there was freedom as to
what information the BAs would enter in each section that best helped move the change effort forward
and support the resulting solution.
already been implemented. An analyst would not be needed in such situations. Rarely are good-quality
solutions that obvious or simple. There is a whole complex set of parameters that impact the problem and
situation, and all must be considered before a solution is proposed.
Do you need to document every detail of the current state when you know that it is going to change?
This is a judgment call that the BA and team must make. The current state needs to be understood and
considered carefully, but it does not always benefit the team to create detailed, presentation-quality docu-
ments that describe the current situation (see the discussion in Chapter 4 on learning the current system).
If there is confusion as to what is changing, then you would be more likely to capture the current state so
that it is easier to articulate the change elements. If the effort is to add a new capability that does not exist
today, then there may be no current state to capture because the business does not perform the process to-
day. Like all business analysis work, value your time spent on these efforts so that you are only performing
activities of value to the organization that move change forward.
Every change effort, project, and situation within the effort must be evaluated individually. Depending
on the reason for a project, the BA will determine the type of documentation that is appropriate. Returning
to the AR example, why are you learning about the as-is procedure? Is the goal to document the current
procedure because new employees will be hired and must learn this job? Has the BA been asked to look for
possible process improvements or to streamline the efficiency of this task with measurable results of the
change? Is a new AR software package being installed that will change this procedure? Is the organization
considering building an interface from AR to CRM? From CRM to AR? This reinforces the importance of
understanding why a project was initiated (see the section on project initiation in Chapter 3).
If a process improvement project was initiated, understanding the current system is very important
when making recommendations for changes. If you will be proposing a change, you will probably be
asked to present your reasons for the recommendation. Showing the current process next to the proposed
process is a great way to articulate the improvements that you anticipate. In addition, when planning for
the change itself, it is important to know where you are starting from in order to build a detailed change
plan. In other words, if moving from A to B, you need to know where A is before you can make the move.
This also allows for the impact of the change to be measured. BAs need to present solid business cases,
thus, any change effort should have a forecasted value to justify the expenditure and time commitment to
the organization. Comparing the current state to the future state allows for a measurement of the effort.
If a project was initiated with a solution already selected (e.g., a new AR package), recommendations
will be limited to how to best utilize the new functionality. In this case, it may not be necessary to formally
present the current state because the organization has already decided that it is inefficient or not appropri-
ate. In this situation, the BA needs to understand the current state to ensure important tasks are covered
by the new system. The BA needs to be able to write conversion requirements, but may decide not to create
any documentation about the old procedures or processes.
PACKAGING REQUIREMENTS
How Formally Should Requirements Be Documented?
One of the skills of an experienced business analysis professional is the ability to decide how to formally
document each requirement. The main reason why many organizations do not spend as much time as
Your Sixth Step—Know Your Requirements Analysis Techniques 207
necessary on requirements is because there have been many past projects where analysts have created
large volumes of documentation where most of it was never read. The agile development approaches rep-
resent a contrast against this formal documentation approach because the focus is on delivering value as
fast as possible. Consider this in your business analysis planning activities when you are deciding on your
approach to requirements and documentation. As you determine what you are going to document for the
requirements, consider the value of what you are producing. Are you documenting requirements that are
only needed during the development or implementation of the change but that might not be applicable
after iterations with the customer? If so, these requirements should be as short and fast as necessary to
move the project forward (very agile approach). Or, are you capturing designs that show how the solution
works that will be needed and used by support staff after the change is implemented? These requirements
should be detailed, verified, and validated so that your resulting documentation becomes a living artifact
used by the organization. Remember that the definition of requirement is a usable representation—so
always keep in mind who will be using your requirements; how, when, where, and why; and then utilize
that analysis to determine your approach to requirements documentation.
You also need to think about how you plan to get the requirements. Some of the traditional approaches
to requirements focus on the BA eliciting and analyzing requirements from not only stakeholders, but
also from operational artifacts, documentation, and research. The BA is expected to pull the informa-
tion together and deliver the requirements. This approach may require more formal documentation.
Especially in customer-centric solutions, there is often the need to be much more collaborative with the
stakeholders, including end users, to develop and analyze requirements with the stakeholders rather
than for the stakeholders. Throwaway prototypes of design ideas, whiteboard sketches, and brainstorm-
ing activities might be the approach required to elicit the requirements that are then constantly iterated
for additional feedback. This approach may require less formal requirements documentation, especially
up front. Consider whether your initial requirements documentation will evolve into a user guide,
training tool, or other solution support, or whether it is a more permanent artifact. This changes the
requirements from being a completed document to a value-adding component of the solution. Planning
your business analysis work early will save you from spending a lot of time documenting information
that is never valued.
requirements management tools may not be used. Some requirements management tools support one
format (mostly text) for requirements but have a difficult time storing, retrieving, and organizing different
types of deliverables.
As organizations move to a more iterative and incremental style of development, the use of a complete
requirements package is giving way to smaller, more incremental presentations of requirements. Specific
requirements deliverables are presented to SMEs to review and revise in each iteration. Packages may still
be created for ease of presentation and delivery, but a package may include just a portion of the require-
ments and/or rough drafts of some deliverables. In agile teams, the requirements hardcopy package notion
completely disappears with the focus on the dynamic backlog of solution functionality. Requirements are
still managed and presented, but it is rather the presentation of prioritized work (user stories) from the
backlog identified per iteration or sprint. However, some teams may view the collection of epics and user
stories that results from the development as the requirements package.
This leads us into the idea of waiting until requirements are finished before they are packaged and
presented. This is an unrealistic and often detrimental approach. The sooner requirements are reviewed,
even in a rough draft form, the more likely it is that major flaws will be found and corrected. Require-
ments, whether formal or informal, will go through iterations regardless of the methodology. In tradi-
tional project approaches, the requirements are often verified when collected. Then the requirements
are validated that they help deliver the solution. Yet only after validation are acceptance criteria and test
cases created (as analysts do not want to waste time on requirements that are not required). And even
agile projects go through many iterations before a user story is defined, broken down, clarified, and then
prioritized to be worked on. This is why collaborating with stakeholders on developing the requirements
is not only important but streamlines the effort. A process of working to get feedback, analyzing, and
then returning for more feedback can take a significant amount of time. Doing requirements elicitation
and analysis live with stakeholders often gives you the fastest and most accurate results. The more you
can collaborate with stakeholders, the earlier on the design impacts and changes will be discussed and
confirmed—which will save time.
Regardless of the type of requirements deliverable you produce, it should be tailored to its intended
audience and reviewed carefully before being distributed. All diagrams should be clearly labeled. Long
textual requirements should be organized under major and minor headings. The package should be as
clear and easy to review as possible. It should use terminology consistently and, if need be, contain a glos-
sary. A customized cover page can be added to each package indicating the pages or sections on which an
individual stakeholder should focus. Make the deliverable as usable as possible since your role is to enable
faster, more efficient delivery of the planned change. You should never be adding more work to the effort,
but rather making the work easier and perhaps even helping make less work for the project or initiative
team. Generating large requirements packages that are difficult to review and use does not work.
A circumstance when a BA may find the need to write a more formal requirements package comes
when dealing with external vendors and organizations. An important use of packaging is in the creation
of a request for information (RFI), request for quotes (RFQs), RFPs, or other formal external requests.
These packages are formal documents because they are sent outside an organization and are used to make
decisions that lead to legal agreements with vendors. When the package is going outside of the company,
information is typically presented more formally, and confidential information is only included if abso-
lutely necessary (along with a confidentiality agreement). As the goal is to clearly articulate the needs of
the organization, significant time is often spent to ensure clarity on the requirements and designs, to not
Your Sixth Step—Know Your Requirements Analysis Techniques 209
only ensure that the solution is appropriate for the organization, but to also minimize the back-and-forth
time with vendors to clarify the details. These can turn into very large packages because in addition to the
written text-based requirements, diagrams, use cases and scenarios, and current and future states work
flows and data, other organizational requirements and artifacts are often included to give the vendor as
much context to the request as possible. Again, an RFP or other formal external requirements vehicle
should be developed with your stakeholders to ensure that they are not only clear on what the request is,
but to validate that only the required information is shared and no more until all contracts and agreements
have been finalized.
Remember that the business analysis work is to understand, collaborate, and communicate require-
ments to help enable solution teams. Find the communication approach that works best for your stake-
holders and the given approach to the change or project. Presenting requirements in sections, conducting
requirements walk-throughs, and offering to sit down and discuss the detailed deliverables are just a few
of the approaches to consider in order to guarantee effective requirements communication. Require-
ments are meant to be usable representations of what the organization needs to be successful and suc-
cessful BAs are always focused on those who will be using the requirements, including how to maximize
reuse and efficiency.
stakeholders? Does each requirement trace to the deliverables and objectives of the project or change
effort (necessary)? Are solutions able to be built from the requirements and design (feasible)? And finally,
has there been an analysis of the value of each of the requirements (prioritized)?
Getting Sign-Off
Getting official approval of your requirements work is always an important consideration for any analyst.
This should be considered in your business analysis planning effort as you consider the formality, level
of detail, and risk adversity of your stakeholders and change effort. On project-based work it is best to
discuss this concept with the PM when first starting out and are discussing the approach, deliverables, and
overall project details.
If the approach is to be formal, detailed, written down in text formats, or captured in software tools
with tracking, then there is often an official approval or sign-off of the requirements prior to develop-
ment. Like all business analysis work, considering the value of each effort is critical. If the change effort
is high risk, then formal requirements reviews are important for team understanding. Upon completion
of the plan, an official signature by the project sponsor is normally captured because that is the signal for
the development and implementation teams to begin their work. This approach is fine if you have both
a solid change management process in place for the requirements as well as stakeholder understanding
that there is no work developed until formal approval has been received. Having the stakeholders’ review
and sign-off on requirements in a single session is usually the most successful option. Often, if you e-mail
a lengthy document to a stakeholder and expect them to read through and approve the whole thing, you
find yourself spending more time sending follow-up e-mails trying to explain segments or trying to get
the stakeholder to approve something they have not read and do not fully understand. Getting sign-off
should be about validating the stakeholders’ understanding of how they will be achieving the desired value
and less about you checking off a box on your checklist.
Sign-off does not have to be a formal signature on the last page of a requirements package though. It
can be approval at a meeting or even a review with the implementation teams that they have the details
necessary to move forward with creating the solution. This is why planning up front on your approach to
the requirements is important. Know your stakeholders and the type of requirements you will be gather-
ing first and then decide the best approach. In an agile setting, the team reviews the requirements together
and comes to an agreement with key input from the product owner as to what requirements are going to
be developed next. The creation of iterations and sprints filled with requirements is the sign-off that the re-
quirements generate. If the requirements are not at a level of detail and clarity for the development team to
properly assess the work and develop it, then typically the requirement remains in the backlog for further
analysis. The approval from the product owner and team on the prioritized work is the sign-off approval
equivalent. Should something be missed, it will be included in the next review iteration. So like all good
business analysis work, the official sign-off on requirements deliverables should be tailored to the change
work and the environment in which the change is occurring.
requirement from its inception to its retirement. Consideration for how to categorize your requirements
is important. Are they categorized by system, type of project, business area, or functionality? How would
someone be able to find the requirement again? It is easiest, as part of your business analysis planning, to
learn how the organization manages requirements before starting. Mature organizations utilize require-
ments management tools that provide the categorization, traceability, and easy search features that allow
analysts to quickly find, add, and reuse requirements. These are especially valuable for whenever changes
to existing solutions are being considered so analysts can quickly understand what functionality exists
today and consider the scope of the impact. The software available today also helps track changes easily
and often includes the approval that workflows in highly regulated environments demand. As costly as
they are, the requirements management solutions often save analysts serious time and are a great business
case to consider. But even if the organization does not have an official requirements management solu-
tion, there is often a repository where requirements artifacts are saved. Identifying where this is located,
the business rules for use, accessibility, maintenance, and utilizing for reference before you start your own
requirements are all keys to successfully planning your requirements work. Knowing this before you start
allows you to pick the best approaches for capturing requirements information. You want to save yourself
time and avoid creating new templates or standards if they already exist. Do not recreate the wheel, but
rather leverage the prior requirements work already created by the organization.
• Delivery of any requirements’ artifacts should be planned, considering the organization’s approach
and reuse of requirements, what change processes are in place, and who needs to use the require-
ments—both today and in the future
• The best technique for any situation is the one that works—where requirements are elicited, un-
derstood, and validated by a vested group of stakeholders who are excited to help move the change
effort forward
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Agile Alliance. (2018). Glossary. https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/.
International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). (2015). Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK ®
Guide). IIBA: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
IIBA. (2017). Agile Extension to the BABOK ® Guide. IIBA: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Project Management Institute (PMI). (2017). Agile Practice Guide. PMI: Newtown Square, PA.
PMI. (2017). The PMI Guide to Business Analysis. PMI: Newton Square, PA.
PMI. (2018). “Success in Disruptive Times.” PMI’s Pulse of the Profession®. PMI: Newtown Square, PA.
www.pmi.org.
ScrumGuides.org. (2018). “Scrum Guides.” https://www.scrumguides.org.
Wiegers, Karl. (1999). Software Requirements. Microsoft Press: Redmond, WA.
One of the best things about business analysis is that you can increase your value to an organization by
learning new techniques and continuously improving your skills. A business analyst (BA) initially learns
the foundational skills of requirements analysis and communication techniques and then builds on that
foundation, maturing as they gain more experience. The skills used in business analysis work are highly
valued and offer BAs the opportunity to move both vertically and horizontally in an organization as well
as across industries. Analysis work is always valued regardless of the job title.
There are numerous ways to improve your skills: read books and articles, practice new techniques and
skills, and learn from other BAs. You also improve your skills when you teach other people. Join a busi-
ness analysis community, such as your local International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) chapter
or your company’s business analysis community of practice, and help the group schedule meetings and
find speakers, volunteer to mentor new BAs, and give presentations to share your knowledge. Join other
industry groups focused on information technology (IT), process improvement, change management, or
your specific industry. Sharing your experiences helps other BAs and improves the profession as a whole.
The skills and techniques presented in this chapter are not acquired in any particular order. They are
grouped into the following general sections:
• Build Your Foundation
• Value Your Time
• Build Your Relationships and Communication Skills
• Sharpen Your Analysis Skills
• Start Adding Value
change effort is and exactly what role you are going to play. Knowing your role and how you are planning
to add value is key to your success in an organization. Most projects do not add additional people just to
add them, but rather, they serve a purpose. Know your purpose. Know the approach that the organization
is wishing to take to achieve the desired outcomes. Or at least know if there is no approach decided upon.
If possible, identify the people with whom you will work. Know what rules or governance you will have
on your analysis activities. Will you require formal sign-off and change management of requirements or
will these be constantly reviewed and refined with your stakeholders? Where are you going to put all of
this information as you collect and analyze it? Do you already have a system for taking notes? Is there a
central requirements repository at your organization? BA planning focuses on being able to answer all of
these questions. A seasoned BA who has facilitated numerous change efforts in an organization will still
consider all these points. Junior BAs who are just starting out should work to capture all of these questions
and answers right from the start. Always do it on your first effort because then you can reuse your own
template for the next change effort. Capturing these questions and comparing them to what you actually
did or how you modified your approach as you worked with the organization then leads to the final BA
planning element—how will you improve yourself? It is one thing to say you will do better next time, but
it is an entirely other approach to identify gaps, plan steps to improve, and then apply and re-measure to
show the improvement.
When starting out, regardless of whether it is a formal or informal project; a traditional, adaptive, or
agile project; a solution assessment; or enterprise strategy planning; the following paragraphs contain
some guidance to consider before diving into the analysis work.
BA Approach
• Do I know what the goal of the effort is?
• Is the goal well-articulated?
• Does the organization have an approach in mind? That is, does it already plan to purchase a third-
party tool or is it simply research and analysis of opportunities to consider?
• How does the organization approach change work? Do they follow certain methodologies?
• What is the organization’s risk tolerance?
• How have they approached this kind of change in the past? Did it work well?
• Where do they most need business analysis support?
BA Stakeholders
• What is my role in the change effort?
• Who might I need to work with to perform the business analysis work?
• Are there other stakeholders who may perform the business analysis work?
• Are there pre-conceived ideas on what a BA does in this organization?
• Who might I reach out to for help on the BA work and deliverables?
• How will I need to work with the stakeholders? What techniques and approaches would suit the
stakeholders with whom I will be working?
• Are there specific approaches I want to try with these stakeholders?
Your Seventh Step—Increase Your Value 215
BA Governance
• How formal will the analysis work need to be?
• Is there a structure already in place on how business analysis is to be performed at the organization?
• What approvals are required?
• What change process is in place for when (not if!) requirements or deliverables change?
BA Information Management
• What information might I have to work with?
• What BA artifacts can I reuse?
• Where will I put the information that I gather?
• How much detail is required?
• Which deliverables will I need to create?
• How formal are the deliverables?
• Where will I put the deliverables I create?
• How will I go about sharing the information?
• How will I encourage collaboration on the information?
• Are there tools I have never used but want to try on this effort?
BA Performance Improvement
• What are my skill sets and capabilities walking into this effort?
• Where do I want my competencies to be at the end of this effort?
• How will I measure my success?
• How will I create a plan to meet or exceed my desired level of success? How will it be applied to the
next effort I work on?
• Are there any resources I need in order to be successful?
Notice these questions are directed at you as the BA and the analysis work to be performed. They have
nothing to do with the change effort or project work from the perspective of what tasks, schedules, and
budgets are required to deliver the solution. Too many BAs dive right into the work only to find them-
selves spending time organizing and rewriting all their notes and identifying additional stakeholders late
in the game who are frustrated at not being included in the beginning. Some BAs repeat the same mis-
takes on future projects—having never learned from their prior experience (or put in a plan to change
the behavior).
These questions are worth the time it takes to go through them. As you work, you may modify these
questions so that you have a reusable template in which to push yourself to grow in your analysis work.
These questions are great regardless of the change effort or type of project. They give you a great foun-
dation on which to begin your BA work. The more you put into thinking about these questions on your
first BA assignments, the more comfortable you can be with doing the analysis work regardless of how
junior you may feel on an effort. A plan gives you greater confidence to start to be a valuable member of
the team, even if you feel inexperienced.
216 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Proficiency
BA Task Explanation
Ranking
Conduct elicitation
Proficiency Ranking
1. Never performed this task
2. Awareness of activity, but never used it on a real project
3. Inconsistent use of activity
4. Consistently performed this activity successfully
5. Can teach others
Proficiency
BA Job Function Explanation
Ranking
Deliver Requirements
Proficiency Ranking
1. Does not perform function
2. Completes task with help from senior analyst
3. Completes task individually, but requires rework
4. Able to successfully complete task individually on first attempt
5. Able to teach others how to complete task
learn and improve. Take the same approach with yourself as you do with your teams when doing lessons
learned and retrospectives.
stakeholders involved or, even better, affected. The more you practice daily, the more natural it will be in
your work efforts.
Technique: Brainstorming
Brainstorming is used as a tool to generate creative ideas in a group session. The technique has become
popular because it helps participants think outside of their current procedures and generate new innova-
tive ideas. Brainstorming is often used when trying to streamline an existing process, resolve a complex
problem, or develop a new business opportunity.
Brainstorming encourages group members to contribute all of the ideas that
come into their minds without filtering them. Ground rules should be set for “There is no
the session: no idea is a bad idea, one person speaks at a time, do not evaluate analysis during
any ideas during brainstorming, and do not eliminate or organize ideas during brainstorming.”
the session. Remember, there is no analysis during brainstorming—the analysis
comes after you have completed the brainstorming effort. For shy groups, try
the round-robin approach of asking for an idea from one person at a time.
When a team is experiencing groupthink, brainstorming can help the BA break through. Groupthink
occurs when a group works well together and members have affection for each other. Sometimes the team
members value the team more than the development of a quality solution. They are hesitant to disagree
with each other or point out flaws in recommended solutions. To break groupthink, conduct a formal
brainstorming session to generate as many different ideas as possible. You may offer a small reward to the
person or team that comes up with the largest number of new ideas.
Brainstorming can also be used by a BA working alone on a project. Allow yourself to imagine pos-
sible solutions to a problem that initially seem outside the realm of possibility. You probably did some
brainstorming of ideas on your BA assessment. You thought about what is possible and what should be
220 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
considered. This is a valuable skill that should be exercised often to consider new approaches, market
opportunities, and ways to expand the capabilities of all areas of the business.
An easy example to consider in the context of systems thinking is upgrading the operating system
on your smart device. You are prompted to upgrade because there is an upgrade available—seems
simple enough, so you upgrade. Are there applications (apps) on your device that are not compatible
with the upgraded operating system? Do the apps need to be upgraded? What about your behavior?
A feature was moved, so you have to change your process concerning how you access that feature. A
function is now turned on by default, so do you change your usage of different applications? Did you
get new functionality with the upgrade that was not present before that might have made some of your
applications obsolete? Are you able to communicate with other devices, and therefore people, that
you could not before? Are you able to connect via video where before you could only use chat? Does
that change how you communicate with your friends? Your grandma? Considering all the aspects of
how the components interact, what external forces are present, and which people might be involved
is the perspective you need to consider regarding the entire system and what value it is providing the
enterprise and its customers.
Skill: Prioritization
Take a look at how typical BAs work each day. They start by reviewing all of the tasks that have been
assigned to them. Often, they are assigned to more than one project or change effort, so the tasks vary.
They must use the information provided by management and key stakeholders about priorities and
dependencies in order to decide which of these tasks should be attacked first. Many of these assigned tasks
are large; one task may actually represent 80 hours or 2 weeks of work to complete. There will also be tasks
that have been started but are on hold because more information is needed and has not been delivered.
Your Seventh Step—Increase Your Value 221
Having to prioritize work and make decisions about how to spend one’s time is very different from a
first-in, first-out task list that is common in other business areas. So where do you spend your time? The
simple answer would be to ask what action delivers the most value to the organization. Of course, being
on projects and large change efforts, the BA is but one person working together with others to deliver the
solution. The BA does not single-handedly deliver game-changing solutions each day. They actually help
the different teams move efforts forward. With this in mind, the BA needs to consider who is waiting on
artifacts that the BA can help deliver. What items need researching or analysis to help the team make a
decision and move forward? What information is the BA waiting on?
Just like prioritization that is done in backlog grooming work and strategic planning, prioritization of
your own BA work starts with defining the criteria to use. Prioritization is about understanding relative
value. And this is extremely important to remember. What your manager may value, and therefore prior-
itize, is probably different than what your project manager (PM) will prioritize, which is probably different
than what the different business areas’ managers will prioritize. Defining the criteria first helps you to keep
an objective view. The value to the organization or measures of risk or opportunity are those big picture
considerations that make great prioritization criteria. Even if you do not work on project work and are
more of an operational support role, you will find prioritization of your day-to-day tasks exists. The crite-
ria have often been pre-defined (e.g., an outage for all computer users is a major issue versus one user not
being able to remember his/her password is a minor issue). Resources are then prioritized to help support
troubleshooting the major computer issues rather than an issue that only affects a single user.
Imagine you have been assigned to two projects. One is to add a new field to an existing screen so
that marketing can track an additional characteristic of each customer. This is important for marketing
and sales of future products to specific customers. The second project is an enterprise-wide initiative
to restructure customer service and streamline order processing activities. This project requires that
you collaborate with stakeholders from several departments to understand the business functions and
needs, and then develop current and future workflows to design new processes.
To which project would you allocate most of your time during the day? Since the first project is small
and fairly straightforward, your tendency will be to just get it done. You already know how to update a
prototype, define a data element, and communicate a change to IT. The second project is less straight-
forward. It requires planning, scheduling, and collaborating with a large group of stakeholders. Simply
getting the needed people in a room to define the current processes without jumping to conclusions
on the future state seems like an arduous amount of work. You feel tired before you even begin and an
easier move would be to put off starting this major effort.
If you spend the majority of your day on the first project, the strategic project waits. In addition, the
next morning there will probably be another small, easy task on your desk that will get in the way of the
bigger project. The natural tendency is to put off the more complex tasks. However, BAs should focus
on the greatest value to the greatest population. While something may be easy for you, often you will
need to learn to prioritize those greater, more challenging tasks as they deliver the most value to your
organization. Keeping your eye on the delivery of value is key to being a successful BA.
222 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Defining value can mean defining importance. Getting good at identifying your measurable criteria will
not only help you in your own work, but will help you collaborate with stakeholders to define priorities
of work elements and change efforts. This criterion should be defined while being impartial toward any
stakeholder or area of expertise. Avoid vague criteria such as easy or hard. What may be easy to the finance
department may be hard to IT. Include measurements or other tangibles as much as possible. An example
for your own BA work might be time to complete. A junior and more experienced BA could both estimate
their work using this criterion, which their manager could use to prioritize activities.
Prioritizing work is a skill that requires practice and diligence. One habit to embrace daily is looking at
your to-do list (which is usually longer than you will accomplish) and identifying the most important
tasks. Some of these tasks will be quick and easy to complete, and these are often the most attractive. You
might think: “I can get that out of the way this morning and be done with it!” But do not leave the larger,
more difficult tasks until last or they will never get done. Often, those more difficult tasks are related to
long-term strategic projects that are important to the organization. Also, do not forget to break things
down into simpler parts (see Functional Decomposition in Chapter 6). Smaller
chunks of work can be easier to prioritize when you can clearly articulate the “Choosing the
work and level of effort it will take. Choosing the appropriate task on which to appropriate task on
work each day is critical. And when you consider what you could do to move which to work each
those larger efforts forward, those larger pieces of work are often much more day is critical.”
valuable to the organization. This value to the organization is the key prioritiza-
tion perspective that a BA should always keep in mind.
Brian Tracy. You cannot know and experience everything. What you can do is to be connected
with people who have the knowledge and experience you need for any challenge.
2. Access and openness: Your project is the number one priority for you, but it may not be for the
subject matter experts (SMEs) and other stakeholders from whom you need time. Having strong
relationships with those stakeholders prior to and during a project will help open the necessary
doors and encourage them to talk to you. As previously discussed, trust is a big part of a good
relationship. SMEs will be more open and honest with you during a project if they trust you.
group. Creating and reviewing this list exposes the analysis work that needs to be done. Sample questions
could include:
• Who performs the process?
• Who manages or approves the process?
• Who provides the input to the process? Who receives the output?
• What data, materials, forms, or systems are used?
• What constraints, policies, or procedures guide the process?
• What problems occur with the process?
• Where is the process performed?
• When is the process performed? On a regular basis? After a triggering event?
• Why is the process performed?
• How is the process performed?
Once you have a list of questions, look at each question and think about:
• How could you best elicit this information?
• How will you best record it when you receive it?
• How critical will the answer be?
• What type of requirement component will be found in the answer?
• Who would have the answer?
• Who is going to use this information?
As you are formulating questions, you should think about who would be able to best answer them. Most
change efforts and projects involve many stakeholders, each one able to provide unique information or
pieces to the puzzle that you are putting together. It is important to think about which questions you will
ask each stakeholder before your scheduled interviews. Stakeholders from different departments and at
different levels of an organization will be able to provide different information. It is important to ask the
right questions to the right people.
Typically, the why questions are best asked to high-level stakeholders. Executives and managers often
see the bigger picture and know the reasons for the organization’s decisions. Middle-level managers and
supervisors can answer questions about who does what, where activities are performed, and what the
goals of each activity are. Business workers will be able to answer specific, detailed questions about how
work is accomplished and what specific activities are related to others.
Planning your questions is part of your overall BA planning. Always start with the goal—what do you
hope to accomplish or learn by asking the question? For what purpose will the information be provided?
Be clear about your goal(s), as this will not only keep you focused but this information is often also de-
sired by your stakeholders so they know why you need their help and more important, their valuable time.
Then take a moment and think of all the questions that would help you get this information. With these
questions in mind, you can then consider which stakeholders will best provide the desired information.
Following these steps means you have just developed a simple communication plan. Do this exercise even
if you do not know all of the information. This will reveal any gaps as to what you do not know and should
clarify before moving forward, regardless of what technique you might be using.
226 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
Real World Example: Asking Good Questions for the Clarification of Requirements
Imagine you have been assigned to create a new financial report for your chief financial officer (CFO).
He wants to see consolidated profit and loss numbers for all of the company’s product lines. Even
though you have only been given a two-sentence description of this project, you should be able to
generate a long list of questions (both obvious and more complex). For example:
• What is the name of the CFO? What is his phone number and e-mail address?
• What type of communication does he prefer? What are the best times to contact him? What
is his availability?
• Where is the CFO located? In what time zone?
• When is the report needed/expected?
• What do existing profit and loss reports look like?
• How are these reports created?
• What are the product lines? How many are there?
• What should the format of this new report be? Should it be the same as existing ones?
• Are the product line financials all managed by the same software?
• If not, how do accounts map from one product to another?
No matter how little you know about your assignment, you can always develop questions.
on unclear points. If you are disinterested, sarcastic, condescending, demeaning, or negative in any way,
the stakeholder may shut down and not be willing to provide important requirements.
A great way to be truly present and thoroughly engaged in the conversation is to get someone to help
you out by being the scribe. Introduce the scribe and let your stakeholder know that the scribe’s role in the
conversation is to simply capture the information that is being shared. The scribe does not speak during the
conversation, but rather focuses on the note taking. This allows you to be able to look directly at your stake-
holder and focus on all their thoughts, actions, and emotions. After the session, you can then go through the
notes with the scribe, adding what emphasis you saw during the session. If you can, find someone to help
you who is not familiar with the content. Do this because the scribe will have no bias toward the topic (which
can occur when you take notes) and will only be interested in getting the information down in writing—
capturing almost everything. They are not sure what is important and what is not, so they try to get all of the
statements. This gives you a wealth of information and word choices that you might not have caught during
the conversation. Using a scribe is also a great way to mentor junior BAs. They get to be present and see a
more experienced BA in action. Of course, you could always record the session either in an audio or video
format. However, be mindful that many people are uncomfortable with sharing thoughts in these recorded
formats, especially if they are talking about challenges or problems in the organization. Remember that
regardless of how you ask the questions, letting your stakeholders know exactly what you do with the infor-
mation that you gather will help to build and maintain trust. When the stakeholders see that the information
they share is taken objectively and is used to better the organization, they will build more trust with you and
become much more willing to continue to share and support your change efforts. A simple e-mail after the
session including a summary of your notes can buy you a great amount of trust and support moving forward.
Barriers to Listening
There are many barriers to listening. These barriers prevent the listener from accurately interpreting the
intended message. Identify your barriers and work to eliminate them. One barrier is filters. An individual’s
brain processes each new piece of information through filters that have developed since childhood. You
may not be aware of the filters that influence your ability to hear an intended
message. Filters are based on prejudices, beliefs, values, attitudes, past experi-
“The BA focuses
ences, interests, and fears. Become aware of your filters. Try to determine how
on the best
they were developed and how they influence your thinking. Improve your com- solution for all
munication skills by recognizing your filters and their effect on your ability to lis- stakeholders.”
ten. A BA should always be as unbiased as possible and focus on the best solution
for all stakeholders involved. In addition, be aware that other people also have
filters. Listen for these and be aware of their impact on your intended messages.
Another barrier to listening is lack of interest. When a BA is not curious or interested in learning about an
SME’s business area, their body language and behavior will reveal that lack of interest and this can be inter-
preted by the speaker as a lack of interest in him or her as a person. Determine why you are not interested. Are
you feeling tired? Are you distracted by unrelated problems? Do you think that you already know what the
speaker is telling you? Once you determine why you are not interested, you can correct the problem. Listening
is committing—decide prior to starting that you want to get value out of the conversation.
Preconceived ideas can also be a barrier to listening. Preconceived ideas and thoughts are almost always
present when dealing with a familiar topic or person. The tendency is to selectively listen for what you expect
or want to hear. You may screen out information that does not meet your expectations. If you have worked in
228 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
the business area being analyzed, you risk missing important information because of your preconceived ideas.
Although having some previous knowledge of the business is helpful, it can also be a hindrance. You may not
reconfirm specific information because you think that you already understand it. You may also fail to probe
for differences between what you already know and what the SME is telling you. Keeping an open mind rather
than relying on preconceived notions is critical to eliciting requirements that are clear and complete.
Be careful not to formulate responses or follow-up questions while an SME is still talking. When you
allow your mind to jump ahead to your next comment or question, you may be missing valuable informa-
tion. Try to stay open and actively listen until you hear the entire thought. Paraphrase the message back
to the SME to be sure you heard it all. Actively take notes on the information being provided. Once the
SME has finished, take a few moments to compose your response and follow-up questions. The SME will
appreciate the fact that you were focused on listening while they were talking.
Another barrier to listening is finishing other people’s sentences. This will diminish an SME’s desire
to continue to communicate with you. Finishing other people’s sentences is a habit that can be broken. If
you become aware that you are exhibiting this habit, work to break it by listening for periods and ques-
tion marks from the SME. The SME will pause when they finish a thought, and this is the opportunity
for you to respond. If you have a hard time keeping silent, drink water while the SME is talking. Try to
count to three once the SME has paused to ensure that they have finished and allow yourself to gather
your thoughts before responding. Use body language like nodding and eye contact to help the SME finish
his or her thought. Dispersed teams may amplify these communication barriers. Refer to Chapter 2 for
suggestions on working with dispersed teams.
To improve your ability to facilitate, first concentrate on your active listening skills. Second, improve
your verbal presentation skills. Speak precisely and concisely and be direct and honest. One of the diffi-
cult aspects of facilitation is enforcing session rules and remaining fact-based and unbiased. Use a non-
judgmental tone and stay focused on the goal, not the people. You will know when your skill is improving
because co-workers will begin to ask you to help them resolve issues between other people.
A facilitator often helps a group build consensus or agreement so the participants will all support the
decisions or ideas generated by the session. During a facilitated session, many ideas are recorded or dis-
cussed. It is the group’s responsibility to narrow those ideas down and come to an agreement that meets
the objective of the session (see the section on facilitated sessions in Chapter 4). While doing this, the
group may want to review the list and eliminate some of them. Once the list is narrowed down to real
possible solutions, the facilitator helps the group make a decision.
Consensus is a collective opinion arrived at by a group of individuals working together under condi-
tions that permit open and supportive communication, such that everyone in the group feels they have
had a fair chance to influence the decision. Participants in consensus agree to decisions even though they
may not personally prefer them. A facilitator’s goal is to help the group achieve consensus, if possible. The
facilitator creates the environment to foster these conditions. Be aware of the potential results of a group
decision when consensus cannot be reached. Table 7.2 lists types of group decisions and considerations.
time and money. A good exercise for any BA is to calculate the cost of meetings. Think not only about the
hourly amount each individual’s wages may be, but also consider that the meeting is taking these individ-
uals away from completing other work. Make sure the outcome of the meeting is worth the cost and effort.
And then prepare to ensure that the intended outcome is achieved.
When you have decided that a meeting is the appropriate forum to accomplish your objective, take
some time to plan the meeting. Select the appropriate attendees, develop an agenda, conduct the meeting
efficiently, and follow up after the meeting is over.
Meeting Agenda
The meeting agenda should be prepared in advance and distributed to participants. This allows everyone
to adequately prepare for the objective of the meeting. One of the worst feelings is when someone asks why
they are invited. Be clear about this up front. New topics added during the meeting should be noted and
scheduled for future discussions unless the group agrees to adjust the agenda. An agenda should include
the following items:
• Objective of the meeting (including the expected outcome)
• Date of the meeting along with a start and end time
• Location
• Meeting participants
• Topics, with estimated time for each topic
• Person assigned to lead or present each topic
When the BA spends a few minutes thinking through the meeting agenda, a meeting is more likely to be
well run and effective. Although not all meetings will proceed as planned, having a plan sets everyone’s
expectations and clearly shows when the discussion is getting off topic (Brassard and Ritter 1994).
Your Seventh Step—Increase Your Value 233
Follow Up
Meeting minutes can serve a valuable purpose in business analysis work. They provide a written record of
decisions and confirm consistent understanding of the agreements made during a meeting. Meeting min-
utes are not meant to capture every word said. Consider them a summary of decisions and outstanding
actions that push the team forward—toward completing their change effort. Discussions can be ambigu-
ous and easily misinterpreted, especially with a large number of people. By writing out the meeting results,
the BA helps to articulate a single version of the meeting’s outcomes that the team can confirm or correct.
Consider capturing the outcomes live during the meeting. Do not be afraid to share your screen with the
attendees so they see what decisions you are capturing and to whom you are assigning action items. If
the BA was misunderstood, a correction can be identified immediately. Then, as soon as your meeting
ends, send the resulting meeting minutes to all who were invited and to those who should be aware of the
outcome. Try to avoid long time periods between the meeting and sending your key takeaways so that
everyone can quickly move forward.
234 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
On a project, part of defining the information management requirements was identifying templates for
preserving the minutes of the meeting. It was known there would be a number of meetings conducted
by both the PM and the BA. The template was pre-filled with a list of primary stakeholders that were
identified as critical to the discussion about the solution. There was also a section for secondary
stakeholders that listed all of the people who should be informed, but did not need to be consulted for
decision making. This made it easy to schedule meetings because you knew who was involved and
who you could simply cc on e-mails. This template also had space for a desired outcome, agenda,
decision log, and action log.
In prepping for meetings, I only had to fill out the top portion through to the agenda. I would include
this with the meeting invites. During the meeting, I would pull up this template and as I walked through
it, I would add decisions to the decision log. Any actions identified were then added to the action
log. I shared my screen on the projector in the conference room (as many meetings were in person at
the request of the sponsor). As I would type, the attendees would correct me, clarifying terminology
and acronyms and agreeing on who the assignee of action items should be. This facilitated greater
engagement and buy-in from the attendees. At the end of the meeting, I would save and post the
template—which was now filled out with only decisions and actions—and notify both the attendees
and team members to be informed. This was done during the meeting so I did not have to go back
and spend hours trying to “clean up” meeting notes. Following the template also created a standard
that the participants stated was easy for them to go back and reference for information because they
knew exactly where to look.
Make sure to follow up on any issues that were not resolved during the meeting. If a participant volunteers
to get back to you with answers, make sure that they do. This is a great way to build better relationships as
you reach out to people to ensure that actions are being completed by offering any assistance necessary.
Let the entire group know, though, if issues are resolved outside of the meeting. Following up on loose
ends demonstrates thoroughness and a concern for quality.
Many studies show that projects often fail because of missing or poorly defined requirements (PMI
2014). Having requirements reviewed before using them to develop a solution is the single best way to mit-
igate this risk. One missed requirement discovered during a review could save the project team hundreds
of hours of work later during testing or after implementation. In addition, having your work reviewed
helps you learn and produce improved requirements for the next project.
Analysts must encourage others to review their work as frequently as possible and must be open to
suggestions. This requires an analyst who welcomes constructive criticism. Remember that requirements
and other BA artifacts are often in support of the business stakeholders. They are not your requirements,
but rather the product owner’s or other decision makers on the team; thus, you must always think about
those who need to use the requirements. When you get feedback, remember it is not about you, but about
the work. Keep the attitude that you are there to help find the best solution, regardless of who originally
created the ideas or who will deliver the end product.
• Test plans and test cases are also good candidates for reviews. Reviews can compare the tests against
the requirements to make sure that all requirements are covered by the testing plans.
These reviews help your stakeholders understand the testing involved. They also help validate the solution
by confirming expected behavior.
Also, your planning must include a decision as to what will be the product of the meeting. Gathering
lots of input as notes that you take back to your desk to organize and update the reviewed item can be in-
efficient if your update only generates more questions. A great approach is to bring in an editable version
of your artifact and update it live as you get input. Remember, people pay more attention in meetings when
they can watch you create the item and literally see what is going on. They also will quickly correct you to
ensure that the information is accurate.
that decision? It is okay to allow those attending the review session to agree as a group, but you need to
make this determination ahead of time.
Another great resource for requirements reviews is quality assurance. A quality assurance analyst will
look at each requirement and think about how it could be tested. If a requirement or design element is too
vague or ambiguous to be tested, it needs to be further defined or described.
A helpful reviewer, if you can get them, is another BA. A BA peer can look for holes or inconsistencies
even if he or she is not involved with the particular project or is not knowledgeable about the business
area being analyzed. In fact, this is sometimes better because this forces you and the work products to be
as clear as possible.
Steps 3 and 4—Distribute Review Materials and Have Participants Review Materials
Prior to the Session
Have participants review any materials prior to the meeting so that they come prepared to engage and col-
laborate. If all of the participants reviewed the materials prior to the meeting—at their own pace, making
notes about their questions—the review typically goes much faster and more effectively. It gives people
time to absorb concepts. Point out areas that are critical for each participant to review (when everyone
does not need to review the entire document). The BA should deliver the materials to the participants far
enough in advance of the session to give them adequate time for a quality review. Participants are respon-
sible for committing to this work and telling the BA when they need more time.
However, be prepared for attendees to come not having read the materials. Many reviews take the
approach of a structured walk-through so that the team can literally review each item together. While it
is more helpful if attendees understand the general context of what is going on, consider whether or not
they need to read everything before coming. When you review materials live together, you bring the team
together to collaborate on topics. This can actually keep your attendees focused and on topic by only ad-
dressing the materials you are discussing. And there is often greater collaboration across the team as they
talk through concepts.
As you move through the session, do not be afraid to do a time check. This is simply pausing for a
moment, acknowledging how much time has elapsed or is left of the meeting and articulating how much
of the goal has been achieved. It can be as simple as stating, “It’s 9:30 a.m. We are halfway through our
allotted time for this review and we are only 30% through the documentation. Let’s stay focused on com-
pleting the validation of these requirements that are presented today so we can complete the review by
our scheduled time of 10:30 a.m.” Being aware of this time frame will help you complete your review as
scheduled. You want to scope enough work to fill the time, but no more.
Steps 6 and 7—Record Review Notes, Update Material, and Share with Stakeholders
The formality of your notes should be determined by the project and organizational context in which
the deliverable is being reviewed. If you have a highly regulated or risk averse project with a strict change
control process on your requirements, then any decisions that are made should be clearly captured during
the session. However, if you are working in a less formal setting, making the changes live to the docu-
mentation is all that is required. Regardless, try to do as much of the recording and updating during the
session as possible. Enlist the help of another analyst if necessary so that you can focus on facilitating. Try
to do as little work as possible “back at your desk” after the session. You want to send the outcomes of
the review session as close to the end of the actual session as possible when ideas are still fresh. Minimize
trying to add more material to share with attendees. Simply send the product of your review, as per your
original goal, with a statement of appreciation for their time to move the overall change effort forward.
And the notes can be as simple as stating that you achieved the goal and the updated contents are in the
collaboration workspace.
stakeholders to attend but also from you as the BA to prep for, conduct, and follow up on. Value your time
and the time of others to move the change forward as quickly as possible.
To get the most value out of that time, reviews must be supported by operations and project manage-
ment. Time for reviews should be built into every project plan. Reviews must be held consistently for qual-
ity requirements deliverables. In addition, it is critical that reviews are not sacrificed when a project has
fallen behind schedule. In the frenzy of a looming deadline, it is easy to start cutting corners and skipping
tasks, but skipping quality reviews will almost guarantee project failure. Mistakes in requirements cost
anywhere from 10 to 1,000 times more to fix when they are found after development (National Institute
of Standards and Technology 2002). Review, review, review—this is a guaranteed method for improving
the quality of your requirements.
Informal Reviews
While formal, structured, walk-through reviews are extremely effective at ensuring that all of the details
of BA deliverables are verified and validated, do not discount the value of informal reviews. Informal
reviews are the ones that may not be planned, scheduled, or even expected. These types of reviews are
great for ensuring that the entire scope has been considered, bringing up ideas that have not been dis-
cussed, and helping make material presentable to multiple audiences.
A manager of mine liked to do walking touchpoints. These were essentially 30-minute, one-on-one
meetings where we left the building and went for a walk—meaning we did not take our laptops or
other work materials with us. However, I had (almost) the undivided attention of leadership for those
30 minutes. While we had general goals of the meeting to update status and discuss any issues we
were currently having, agendas were not preset and we allowed ourselves the freedom to explore
topics. These meetings were a great way for me to bounce ideas off my manager on my BA work.
Once, I needed to present the business case for a major initiative that a specific business area was
pushing hard for. I asked him his thoughts on who should be involved in helping create and validate
the business case. I shared with him my ideas on presentation format. He gave very open and candid
feedback as we walked. He recommended certain individuals in finance and other business areas that
I had not yet considered to help review. He discussed the office politics involved in this project and
words I needed to use wisely. He essentially was reviewing my BA plan for this business case and
giving me the needed feedback for success. All of this was achieved while walking and admiring the
great outdoors with no agenda, meeting minutes, or even artifacts—other than the valuable feedback
that I promptly put to good use.
the BA, you need to keep an objective perspective and take all feedback into
“Do not take
feedback
consideration. The first rule on this feedback is to not take it personally. They
personally!” are critiquing the artifacts, not the person who created it. Yes, you should always
have room to grow, learning to apply the feedback from one session to the next;
however, when stakeholders argue or dislike the presented materials, aim to col-
laborate with them to help make it correct. A stakeholder telling you that you
are wrong on everything is more valuable than a stakeholder who says nothing. Anything that you feel
you can add to improve future reviews should go into your lessons learned and BA action plans. Do not let
negative feedback stop you. It should push you to move forward. Leave your ego outside the session and
be open to all suggestions.
While focusing on the materials, be aware the type of feedback you are getting. Corrections are com-
mon and expected. The stakeholder is validating that the item is required. They are simply giving you the
minor adjustments to make it completely accurate and clear. You are trying to get on the same page and
articulate the picture that your stakeholders are envisioning. If you need help pulling out the details your
stakeholders are trying to communicate, do not be afraid to bring in other techniques during your review
session. Prototypes are a great way to visualize solutions that you can constantly edit and rework until the
stakeholder is accepting of the design.
What you really want to look for are new ideas or topics that are discussed since these are often a sign
of missing components. This is where doing smaller, more frequent reviews can be really helpful. If you
chose a small portion of the work to review and then give your stakeholders time to go and think about
it, they often will come back with more ideas and questions. They will have considered what else may or
has happened in the past and add requirements to the solution. However, be careful that the scope does
not go too wide in your discussions, which is why it is important to have a goal of any review, formal or
informal. Re-stating why you need the feedback can focus the attendees on the necessary discussions to
achieve this goal. Even a BA can be guilty of scope creep as they continue to ask more probing questions
during review sessions. Avoid this by focusing on obtaining the goal of the session in as efficient a man-
ner as possible.
Feasibility
Desirability Viability
collaborative team-building activities found in design-thinking approaches (see Additional Reading and
References on design thinking at the end of this chapter).
Present facts without emotion. Oftentimes, an emotional plea will not be supported or accepted. Be
careful with your choice of words. Avoid saying things like, “I don’t feel that this is a good idea.” Don’t per-
sonalize the issue. Keep it objective and focused on the business impact and what each option means to the
organization. Provide factual statements to show that you have carefully considered the issues. Be prepared
to face emotion from the people with whom you are communicating. Members of management may be
vested in the idea or may be reluctant to reverse a decision. They may not want to address the issue with
their management. Making major changes to project priorities and direction can shake up an organization,
and most managers will be reluctant to do this unless they really see a compelling reason.
Remember, your goal is to enable others. It can be hard to remember that
you are not the decision maker. Sometimes, no matter how much data and per-
“Your goal is to
enable others.” suasion you use with stakeholders, they may still make a decision that you feel
is not the most valuable. As the BA, you need to focus on your ability to remain
objective. No matter how bad the decision seems to you, your role as the BA is
to deliver the decision in the most efficient and effective way possible. If you
feel the business is foolishly throwing money at a crazy idea, then your job is to help them efficiently and
effectively spend its money and help deliver the “crazy” idea. Your work does not end at implementation,
but rather continues to post-implementation assessment. Go and get the analysis and objective informa-
tion on how well the solution is performing once implemented. Avoid saying, “I told you so” and let your
analysis results speak for themselves.
organization. Planning the analysis work involves identifying the people with whom you will be working
and understanding their communication needs. It requires the BA to decide which requirements analysis
techniques to use and which requirements deliverables need to be created. It also involves estimating anal-
ysis time. Laying out your BA task list helps focus your attention on having an immediate positive impact.
understood. The better the understanding of change expectations, the faster you will be able to develop
an accurate plan.
Use your analysis techniques to learn as much about the change effort as possible before deciding what
business analysis activities you plan to do. You will want to determine the status of the change. Is this an
idea that is just now being discussed or has this been a long-standing problem in the department? If the
changes have already begun and are being looked at by others, you can save time on your analysis activities
by leveraging the work that has already been done. Once you know the current status of the effort, you
can begin to plan your business analysis work. Without clearly defined objectives and scope, successful
analysis will be difficult.
understanding the decision-making approach that the business takes and what information these same
decision makers will be looking for over the course of the change effort. All of these factors will often have
you not only tailoring your approach to your business analysis work, but will also require you to consider
what additional activities you will need to add to your BA task list. The more detailed and defined your
task list, the more accurate your estimates and communication, and ultimately, the more value you will add.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Brassard, M. and D. Ritter. (1994). The Memory Jogger II. First Edition. GOAL/QPC.
250 Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis
CMMI Institute. (2018). The Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)®. https://cmmiinstitute.com/
capability-maturity-model-integration.
International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). (2015). Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK ®
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IIBA. (2017). Agile Extension to the BABOK ® Guide. IIBA: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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frastructure for Software Testing.”
Project Management Institute (PMI). (2014). PMI’s Pulse of the Profession®: Requirements management—A
core competency for project and program success. PMI: Newtown Square, PA.
Note: Page numbers followed by “f ” indicate figures; and those followed by “t” indicate tables.
technology/technical environment, 137–163 unit testing, 160. See also software testing
areas/terminology, 140–141 usability, technology, 158
components, 153–162 usability professionals (UP), 51–52
need to understand, 138–140 usable requirements, 22–23
overview, 137–138 use cases, 195–197
post-implementation user assessment, 162 diagram, 195–196, 195f
testing, 158–161 noun-verb association, 196
usability, 158 template, 196t
working with, 162–163 weaknesses of, 196
testers, 58–60 user acceptance testing (UAT), 159, 161
testing, 158–161. See also software testing user-centered design (UCD), 158
text, for documenting requirements, 200–201 user experience (UX), 158
visuals and, 201–202 users, 43
time user stories, 179, 198–199. See also backlogs
80/20 rule, 223
prioritization, 220–223 value addition, 246–249. See also task list
time boxing, 222–223 vendors, 60–62, 61f
time boxing, 222–223 verbs used in business process, 131
traceability matrices, 182–183, 183t, 184t virtualization, 156
tracing requirements, 178 vision statement, 107
trainers, 60 visuals, for documenting requirements, 201
training requirements, 60 text and, 201–202
traits of business analysts (BAs), 4–5
transition requirements, 178 waterfall approach to software development,
tried-and-true techniques, 219 143–146, 143f
trust with stakeholders, 32–33 writing, 229, 229f. See also communication skills