02 Fundamentals of Business Analysis.ppt

Bite sized training sessions: Fundamentals of Business Analysis

ObjectivesAnalyse the reasons why the fundamental components of all Business Analysis tools and methods must be the same

Examine fundamental components of Business Analysis

There is a chain of reasoning that leads from the statement of a problem to the implementation of solutions

Chain Of Reasoning:

Change Requirements must be assumed to be wrong until they are proved to be rightStakeholders

Scope of analysis of change requirementsChange requirements can be for (amongst others)ProcessesOrganisation unitsLocationsChannelData ApplicationsTechnologiesNon-functionalsoh and the valid intersections!!!

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

Fundamental Components of Business Analysis

All the Links in the Chain Of ReasoningThe problems / opportunities that the business faceThe measures and targets that will enable us to declare the change project has been successfulDriverProjectObjectiveChangeRequirementBusiness RuleAddressed asmeasured byDelivered byEnforcesDefinitions of what changes are required that will affect the measures of success (objectives) sufficiently for the project to be declared successful What rules must be implemented by the changes specified in the requirementsDescription

How to forge links in the Chain Of ReasoningProblem / opportunity analysisSMART objectivesDriverProjectObjectiveChangeRequirementBusiness RuleAddressed asmeasured byDelivered byEnforcesSpecific there is a precise definition of the objectiveMeasurable there are units that the objective will be measured inAchievable the measures can be achieved in the real worldRelevant this project will actually affect this objectiveTo-die-for the project has failed if it does not achieve the objectiveAnalysis products

All methods and all approaches HAVE to cover all links in the Chain Of ReasoningDriverProjectObjectiveChangeRequirementBusiness RuleAddressed asmeasured byDelivered byEnforces

ProblemsOpportunitiesThreatsConstraints

Agile product backlog7 types of ISEB requirements6 types if IIBA requirements

VisionBenefitTarget

Agile product backlogMore process and data modellingthan you can shake a stick atAKA

EXAMPLE way of documentingProblem / opportunity analysisDriver

Problem / opportunity analysisSMART objectivesEXAMPLE way of documentingDriverProjectObjectiveAddressed asmeasured by

EXAMPLE way of documentingProblem / opportunity analysisSMART objectivesDriverProjectObjectiveChangeRequirementAddressed asmeasured byDelivered by

EXAMPLE way of documentingProblem / opportunity analysisSMART objectivesDriverProjectObjectiveChangeRequirementBusiness RuleAddressed asmeasured byDelivered byEnforces

EXAMPLE PROCESS RULESConductTrainingTime to startTraining courseProvideBA supportMonitorAnalysis qualityBA requestssupportAnalysis Phase Of ProjectconcludesProcess dependency rules

CourseDelegateAnalysisDeliverableAttendsSuppliesEXAMPLE DATA RULESSupport TypeData relationship rulesreceives

ConclusionsThere is a chain of reasoning that leads from the statement of a problem to implemented solutions

It doesnt matter how you get from problem to solution what method or approach but you will HAVE to

Define the problem being fixed (drivers)

Define how you will know they have been fixed (objectives)

Define what has to change to achieve objectives (high level requirements)

Define how big the changes have to be to achieve objectives (scope)

Define what process changes are required (process requirements)

Define what data changes are required (data requirements)

BA Q&A (I) - TOR

what factors caused this project to come in to being?Driver analysishow will you know the project has been successful?smart Objectiveshow big is the solution?scopewhat applications and technologies will the solution impactscopewhat data will be migrated?scopewhere will it be able to do it?scopewhere will the solution impact?scopewho is impacted by the solution?scopeWhat changes will the project make that will deliver the objectives? high level functional requirementswhat processes does the solution cover?scope & high level functional requirementswhat will the solution be able to do?high level functional requirements

BA Q&A (II) Process & Data Models

what is the process sequence of the solution?process modelswho is involved with each processprocess models & process non-functionalwhat are the rules that each process executes?process logicwhat data does each process need to be able to execute?process logichow fast will each process be?process non-functionalhow many transactions must each be able to perform?process non-functionalwhere will each process be used?process non-functionalwho is allowed to use each process?process non-functionalhow are all the different sets of data related to each other?data modelwhat needs to be known about each set of data?data attributeshow long will data be kept?data non-functionalhow much data will be kept?data non-functionalwho can access what data?data non-functional

Questions?

**Remember this? We are interested in looking at what this chain of reasoning is that the business analyst followsThere is a chain of reasoning that leads from the sufficient definition of the problem to the sufficient definition of the requirements for the solution.Break any one link in the chain and the rest of the chain is unsupported: unprovable.

Scope of the BA diagram narrative (from Scope of The BA Role module). Owners are those people who can enable a project to proceed or cancel it. They will include budget holders but almost certainly there will be other owners who may or may not be officially recognised as such but who can if they desire stop the project. For example, an IT Director might be one owner of a Business project involving a new system if there are IT standards which must be adhered to before a system can go live. These owners need to agree what the change project will accomplish and analysis is needed to define these objectives in terms of what the measures of success will be and for each measure the target value that equates to success. Strategists will define an approach for achieving the objectives. Analysis is needed to ensure that the strategy is justifiable to the owners. Note that it is very common for an Owner to also be a Strategist! But not all Owners will be Strategists. Sponsors will back a programme of change. A programme is defined as a collection of projects. Taken together these projects will deliver the strategy that has been agreed will achieve the objectives. Note that it is very common for an Owner to also be a Sponsor! But not all Owners will be Sponsors. Analysis will be needed to define the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Programme: the Objectives, Scope and High Level Requirements as a bare minimum. Programme Managers will initiate the projects that make up the programme. The same note for Programmes apply to Projects: it is very common for an Owner to also be a Programme Manager! But not all Owners will be Programme Managers. Analysis will be needed to define the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Programme: the Objectives, Scope and High Level Requirements as a bare minimum. Project stakeholders will generate and sign-off requirements for the project. Analysis is required to define the process, data and non-functional requirements. Design analysts will take the products of analysis and propose the best solution to meet the requirements (best being defined as satisfies most requirements). Any compromises required will be mediated by the Business Analyst with all who need to accept the compromise. Note that Design Analysts can be IT analysts for IT components, HR analysts for people and organisation units, and others for other components. Solution Builders take the design specifications and construct solutions. Note that these solutions are not constrained to IT components but must all work together to provide the whole solution. Solution builders and Business test the solution. The requirements analysis should be used to construct the test plans especially the user acceptance testing. Note that the Business Analyst should q/a that the UAT does test that the requirements have been met. Project Manager will co-ordinate the whole project and implementing the solution, and the Business Analyst (being a subject matter expert on project Objectives, Scope, and Requirements) should be able to contribute significantly to the design of all implementation activity, all the while ensuring that requirements are being met. In an ideal world, post implementation how well the objectives have been met will be fed back to the Owners.

*StakeholdersThe first link in the chain is the stakeholders. Identifying the relevant stakeholders is possibly the hardest thing to do in analysis. But they are the foundation of the whole project. They define what success is for the project and they have it in their power to halt the project. They decide at critical points whether a project should proceed or not.So, identify the wrong group of stakeholders and we will have a project that is being controlled and assessed by the wrong people using the wrong measures.

DriversThe next link in the chain is project drivers.Drivers are one of 3 main types:1. Problems that need fixing for example a project driver might be to communicate with customer better.2. Opportunities that can be exploited for example a project driver might be to promote a new way of communicating with customers that has been developed with the company using mobile phone text messages for example.3. Constraints that must be adhered to for example a project driver might be to make the changes required to keep the company legal in respect of laws about what messages can be sent in text messages.Projects frequently have many drivers of mixed types. Your problem as a business analyst is to prove to the killer stakeholders and your satisfaction that the right set of drivers have been identified.Drivers are often linked and where they are they belong together in the same project. For example, the opportunity to communicate with customers using text messages must comply with any laws about what is allowable content within text messages.Sometimes, the drivers will not link together at all. You have to analyse then why they are in the same project. There must be a logical reason for having these drivers together otherwise you can end up developing and implementing essentially 2 different projects that have no connection with each other under 1 project heading and budget.So our challenge as business analysts is to make sure that the right set of drivers isidentified.

Objectives.The fact that the drivers have been addressed is proved by achieving the objectives.The objectives simply measure that one or more drivers have been addressed.What scale do the objectives have and what target value equates to success? We need that information if we are to prove that the drivers of the project have been successfully addressed.The problem we face is that it is easy to identify the wrong objectives and - if we do - then everything that follows is wrong.

RequirementsNow we know what the project is trying to achieve, the next set of questions to be answered is how will it achieve the objectives? What will need to be there in order for the objectives to be realised?There are many types and levels of requirements and these are the subject of several further modules.For now, you just need to realise that without the right objectives we will analyse the wrong requirements.And as there an infinite number of requirements that dont support achieving project objectives and only a small set that do, requirements must always be assumed to wrong - in the sense they dont help achieve objectives until they can be proved to be right.*So, you now have set of justified change requirementsjust how big is the change?

To answer this question we need to declare the units with which we will measure bigness. The problem is, what unit measure the size of change? The answer is there is isnt one. There isnt one unit, there are many.

It is not enough to ask how big the change is, we have to ask how big is the change in terms of the number of processes it will affect? and how big is the change in terms of the number of users it will impact? and how big is the change in terms of where it will be used?.

All these questions using this in terms of concept are declaring the unit of measure for bigness for that assessment.

There are many units of measure that can be used. The common ones are POLDAT:ProcessesOrganisation UnitsLocationsDataApplicationsTechnologymost of these will have some associated non-functional components as well.*A model of the different bits of information in the chain of reasoning and how they relate to one another.

Fundamental point: as a BA you will not proceed in an orderly fashion through these links: you will bounce up and down them as new information comes to light. What you have to do is constantly monitor the structural integrity of the chain: does a new piece of information change anything in other links up or down the chain? It has got be kept consistent.*These are products of analysis that document the links in the chain of reasoning.*The products that document the links in the chain (and the elements in the chain) have different names/jargon depending on method/approach being used.

As BAs we need to be able to identify the components not by name but by the job they do so that when working in any methodology under any approach we can identify what it really is and how we can analyse and document it.*The following set of slides show and example of how these products can be documented to show the type of information in each one.***Because analysis of change requirements means defining these components (in green) then it follows that any analysis method must encompass documenting these components, somewhere, somehow, under some name.These are some typical questions that get asked during a project specifically during work connected with the Terms of Reference although of course they can crop up any time. Just about every project will need to get answers to these questions as a minimum.

The important things areRecognise that the question is being askedDocument an answer of sufficient quality in the relevant place

Again, these are the most common questions that any change project will need to get answers to, and the places to document the answers.