Business analysis

Business Analysis; its needs and benefits to Organizations

Business Analysis, presented by Joseph Abboud on 25th August, 2016

Agenda

Business Analysis needs & Benefits to Organizations – ( statistics) What is Business Analysis Value of Business Analysis to organizations Who perform Business analysis and where a business analyst can be involved What does a BA do? 3 examples Stakeholders the BA deals with

Managing their conflicts Lifecycles the BA deals with Requirements: What is a requirement Types of requirements the BA handles (Forming, Transforming, and Finalizing) of requirements

Elicitation, Analysis, modeling, etc… Managing Requirements Assets

��Business Analysis needs & Benefits to OrganizationsInaccurate requirements gathering consistently ranks in the top three causes of project failure; yet only half of organizations have the resources in place to perform this function properly, according to PMI Pulse of the Profession® research. In 2014, PMI reported the following:

•  Inaccurate requirements gathering” was reported by 37% of organizations as a primary cause of project failure.

•  Poor Requirements management practices are the second leading cause of project failure, second only to changing organization priorities.

This research clearly shows that Organizations that have mature business analysis practices in place today are dramatically improving the probability of project success.

BUSINESS ANALYSIS FOR PRACTITIONERS: A PRACTICE GUIDE ©2015 Project Management Institute

Business analysis (BA) is the practice of enabling change in an organizational context, by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.

http://marketplace.pmi.org/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?GMProduct=00101489201

Business analysis involves identifying needs, recommending solutions, and eliciting, documenting and managing requirements. BAs help to shape the output of projects to deliver the expected benefits.

http://www.pmi.org/learning/featured-topics/business-analysis

Business Analysis is the set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among the stakeholders in order to understand the structure , policies and operations of an organization, and to recommend solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals.

What is it?

Business analysis (BA) is the practice of enabling change in an organizational context, by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.

Enabling Change

Business analysis is the practice of enabling change in an organizational context, by

defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.

Defining Needs

Recommending Solutions

Business analysis is the practice of enabling change in an organizational context, by defining needs and

recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.

Deliver Value to Stakeholders

Business analysis is the practice of enabling change in an organizational context,

by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.

��Value of Business AnalysisIn order to appreciate and better understand the value of business analysis, we need to reflect again on the definition of Business Analysis, and eliminate its key phrase. 1- What happens when an organization does not enable change? 2- What happen when an organization does not understand its needs? 3- What happen if it does not come up with a solution to its needs? 4- What if the solution does not meet the needs of the stakeholders?

Who perform Business Analysis?Anyone who perform business analysis activities is a business analyst. System analyst Process analyst Product manager Enterprise analyst Business architect Etc… So where a business analyst can be involved? A- Strategic planning B- Operational Analysis C- Process analysis D- IT/ Business System Analysis

Role of Business Analyst

Business Analyst works on requirements every day!

What does a Business Analyst do?��Scenario One A fictional AYZ company is losing customers due to poor service. Business Analyst approaches to understanding the problem will be: Getting feedback from former customers Interviewing Customer Service team to get more feedback on the complaints. Possible Solutions: AYZ may need to invest in training the Customer Service Team. AYZ may need to get customer service portal

Scenario Two AYZ company has a slow growth due to lack of online presence. Business Analyst approaches to understanding the problem will be: Interview internal and external stakeholders What feature are needed? How will these features work? What brand impression do we want to portray? Possible solutions: Development of web portal to meet the need of all stakeholders

What does a Business Analyst do?��

Scenario Three Governments have as much problems as companies. Let’s say that a government department needs to reduce budget while maintaining the services to public. A Business Analyst approaches to understanding the problem will be:

Interview Stakeholders Analyze public service offering

Possible solutions might be to:

Automate tasks Simplify the processes

What does a Business Analyst do?��

Stakeholders

Stakeholders ��Who are they?

From the PMBOK® Guide: Stakeholder: An individual, group or organization who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity or outcome of the project. So a stakeholder is anyone impacted positively or negatively by a set of requirements..

Taken from Seventh Morning online course

Stakeholders Needs & Interests ��A- Project Mangers

The job of a Business Analyst is to understand the needs of an organization. The latter runs on people. Thus understanding the personal needs of stakeholders is critical to the project success. Project Managers: PMs are judged by the success of their projects. In general, the project is considered successful if it is on time+ on budget + on scope. How can a BA help them? Keep them aware of risks and issues. PMs worst nightmare? It is when a project goes out of control. So you can help them by making the analysis effectively and on time.

Stakeholders Needs & Interests ��B- Implementation Team

Implementation team: They need to do their work as per the agreed requirements without any interruption. How can a BA help them? By providing a clear and complete requirements, on time, and on scope. It is also helpful to schedule a meeting with them at the beginning or end of the day only. “Staying in the zone” without interruption make them feel great. Their worst nightmare is the death march. (unrealistic schedule or other work activities to make them overwork)

Stakeholders Needs & Interests ��C- Quality Assurance / Testing Team

Quality Assurance / Testing Team: Their interest lies mostly in: a) High level of quality on the product/service they configure/test b) Being able to plan their work properly and effectively. How can a Business Analyst help them? •  Engage them early in the project. •  Get them high-quality requirements on time. Their worst nightmare is when the product or system is released or handed over with poor or horrible quality.

Everyone wants his/her boss to be happy. Yet if you want him/her to be happy with you, you as a Business Analyst need to address their needs. Bosses job: Managing up and Managing down. Bosses need to keep track records, and metrics. How can a Business Analyst help them? Just do your job effectively by making them aware of questions, issues, risks, and also successes! This will help them make their managers aware of good as well as bad news. In doing so, BA helps the whole organization moves forward. Worst nightmares? When a project goes awry and the PM cannot do anything to handle it.

Stakeholders Needs & Interests ��D- Bosses / Management

Sponsors interest in mainly when a product meets the goals of the organization. How can a Business Analyst help them? a)  By effectively managing the business analysis of the project. b)  By ensuring that the collected requirements really achieve the goals of the

organization. Sponsors worst nightmare? When a project and product both fail.

Stakeholders Needs & Interests ��E- Sponsor

Stakeholders Needs & Interests ��F- Internal Users and Customers

These are the people who will be using the system to do internal and external processes or transactions. They are great sources of input for a Business Analyst, because they are usually the most impacted by the quality of the final product, and therefore a BA should consider them key stakeholders.

��Managing Stakeholders ConflictsOftentimes, a Business Analyst finds himself /herself in a situation where he/she needs to solve conflicts between stakeholders. Categories of conflicts: External – External Internal – Internal External – Internal

��External – External Conflict

Stakeholders Needs Analysis is a tool that a Business Analyst use to solve conflicts between stakeholders. Posing the following questions, he/she will be able to solve this type of conflict. A- What does each party say they want? B- Why they want them C- In their mind, what priority of their needs is? Do they have priority? D- are the assumptions they made valid?

Taking place within the project team, this type of conflict is a little easier to solve than others. The approach of a BA is the same; Perform a Stakeholders Needs Analysis. One thing to bear in mind in this type of conflict is that all parties want to improve the quality of the product or service. Meeting and negotiating the issue at hand might be necessary.

��Internal – Internal Conflict

This is the toughest to solve type of conflict. Here a BA should be the voice of the customer. Relying on facts and numbers rather than opinions, a BA may be able to persuade the internal stakeholder of the customer’s needs. Again, performing Stakeholders Needs Analysis is the tool. Note: Negotiation is a topic unto itself. BA should be able to communicate extremely well to all stakeholders.

External – Internal Conflict

Lifecycles

Lifecycles

Birth Life Death

Project Lifecycle

According to PMI: A project is “A temporary group activity, designed to produce a unique product, service or result.”

Projects do not go on forever; they do have a beginning and an end. Hence they do have life cycles.

A product has a life cycle; such as this lecture!

Intro: Products’ idea originate where initial analysis, concept development, prototyping, market research etc are all done.

Development is where the actual product comes to live. Growth is when you sell the product to new customers. Maturity phase will be reached (upon improvement or feedback from customers) Decline is the end of the product.

SDLCIt is the process by which systems are created, Operated, then terminated. The development of software can be managed under two methodologies: 1- WATERFALL / Traditional 2- AGILE

WATERFALL

AGILE

Requirement lifecycle


Requirements

Definition of requirementsIn the PMBOK® Guide – Fifth Edition, requirement is defined as “a condition or capability that is required to be present in a product, service, or result to satisfy a contract or other formally imposed specification.” Example of a condition: A system needs to accept order from online requests so more revenue can be realized. Example of a capability: In order to get more revenue, the system must encrypt the process (for security reason) Requirements are formed, transformed, then finalized. Each phase encompasses several steps to be completed.

Requirements have requirements, called attributes. Part of the business analyst’s job is to help the stakeholders define the problem or opportunity and determine what should be done to address it. The elicitation process helps facilitate this work. Some stakeholders may not even know their needs. Requirements Should be : 1- Clear (Sometimes a stakeholder thinks that he understand the requirement but actually do NOT). Business analyst should communicate all requirements to all stakeholders, so if one is not clear, he and the project will end up in trouble. 2- Complete : This means that the requirements should contain all necessary info for others who depend on it, do their work.

3- Applicable: The requirement should be application to the solution a BA will be recommending, and that the solution is applicable to the organization’s problem. 4- Prioritized: the sponsor should tell the BA about the priority of requirements. 5- Implementable : The requirement can be realized in tangible code or process ; that is feasible. 6- Testable: If not testable, there is no need to implement it! The test team should be included.

Requirements

When forming a requirement, 3 points should come to the mind of a business analyst. 1- Description of the requirement 2- Owner / Source 3- Rationale

Forming Requirements

Description: The system should be able to run a report on all the beverages sold over a given timeframe

Owner: Product Manger / Joseph Abboud

Rationale: Need the report to report the metrics to his boss.

Forming RequirementsDescription: The system should be able to run a report on all the beverages sold over a given timeframe

What should the report look like?

How many columns should it include?

Does he need a list of every sale transaction

Does he need a list with summary details only

What “over a given time” mean?

Requirement Types

Business Requirements

User Requirements

Functional Requirements

Non-Functional Requirements

Business RequirementThey are related to the business: “Why are we doing this project?”

Increasing Revenue

Reducing Costs

Increasing Margins

Growing the brand

Request ID

Requirement description

Rationale Source

Management Expectation #1 The system will cost less than $100,000, enabling the product line to achieve ROI of 18%

BR-1 system will cost less than $100,000,

It will enabling the product line to achieve ROI of 18%

Joseph Abboud / Product Manager

User Requirements

It is coming from the users to the users! Business Analyst should always include the “End users” when collecting requirements. Example: Requirement ID

Description Rationale Source Parent

UR-1 The summary report will list each beverage products available for sale by the organization.

The list of products is critical to understanding the report

Martha BR-2

System will enable a user to create

summary reports of all beverages sold

monthly.

Functional Requirements This type of requirement describes the functional needs of a product. Business and User requirement describe WHAT the product will do, however a functional

requirement describes HOW the system will do it.

Requirement ID

Requirement Rationale Source Parent

FR-1 The report will list beverage names in title case

Makes it easier to read for management and more professional looking

Walid UR-1

Non-Functional Requirements

Non-functional requirements describe QUAITIES which are required by the system.


Documents sources1- Pre-existing requirements documentation 2- All stakeholders mentioned in previous slides Tips: If some materials are vague, bring in an expert.

Forming Requirements - ��Gathering requirements – 1 on 1 meeting

Elicitation skills are key to Business Analyst success. Challenges: Communication is oftentimes imprecise. Some people don’t understand what they need until they see it! Eliciting requirements can be accomplished in several ways: 1 on 1 : • Business Analyst starts with the sponsor and move on to the next stakeholder he thinks

will help him greatly in understanding the issue at hand. • Business Analyst defines his goals for the interview! • Recap the purpose of the meeting. • BA emails the notes to the stakeholder to ensure the mutual understanding.

Gathering Requirements ��Group Meeting

Group Meeting has its own challenges. BA should take a colleague with him to take notes. Note –takeer should record questions, answers, sources, and rationales.

Some people will not be give their opinion in front of others. Business Analyst prepares his agenda, and email it to the group before the meeting takes

place. During the group meeting the BA pose questions to the group in order to better elicit

information from all of them. He asks open-ended questions.

Transforming Requirements

��Transforming Requirements

Transforming requirements are arguably the most important work for a Business Analyst.

It is here where he/she can show his true value. The topic is divided into 3 sections: 1- Analysis 2- Diagramming 3- Modeling

“Generally, all analysis gets beyond mere description and into examination and explanation.”

University of Richmond writing center Analysis is a careful study of something to learn about its parts, what they do and how they are related to each other. Decomposition Analysis is a great tool that BA uses to analyze requirements. It is about breaking a complex requirement into smaller parts to facilitate its study.

Transforming Requirements - Analysis

Example: “System will enable a user to create a summary report of all beverages sold monthly.”

Report

Data-related details

Columns

Rows

Headers

Timing and delivery detailed

Presentation of report

��Additive / Subtractive Analysis

It is used when a Business Analyst tries to understand the role of a requirement in its complex.

Request

ID Requirement description

Rationale Source

BR-1 Summary report will list each of the beverage products available for sale in the organization.

Joseph Abboud / Product Manager

Gap AnalysisGap analysis in short is the study of the current state, and foreseeing where the

product or process will be in the future. It is extremely tied up with ENABLING CHANGE.

It is about understanding the current state: Define the future state Chart a path from current to future state


Transforming Requirements – ��Diagramming / Notations

Business Process & Modeling Notation (BPMN): A diagramming technique used as a standardized diagramming notation for business process analysis and management.

Transforming Requirements –��Flowcharts


��Requirement transformation - Swim Lane

��Requirement transformation - Swim Lane + Flowchart


Use Case is one way of modeling requirements. Used mostly to illustrate concepts, simplify topics, validate requirements, etc…

��Requirement transformation – Modeling – ��Use Case

Finalizing Requirements – ��Presentation

After a Business Analyst elicit all requirements, and transforming them, it is time to share them in a professional manner with all stakeholders.

1- Presenting requirements Tip-1: Attitude is key. Business Analyst needs to determine his attitude before the

presentation. Tip-2: Audience / Stakeholders is the point, not the material. Tip-3: Know the stakeholders / Audience (think about them when planning for the

presentation. Tip-4: Monitor the audience. Are they keeping up with the materials or they getting

bored? Are they asking questions? Tip-5 : Match the pace with the audience. If they look confused, slow the pace; if

bored speed up. Tip -6: Strive for conversation not lectures. Tip- 7: Convey info into graphics or anecdotes.

Finalizing Requirements – ��Walk-ThroughBusiness Analyst walks through all documents over a meeting with stakeholders. (pick the key ones) Lay down the rules, and ask for feedback from them all. Give an overview on the subject (around 1 minute or less). Example: Two months back the AYZ company management determined that they need to launch a line of sports’ products. One of the challenges they faced was the lack of system to track the sales. So I started defining requirements, working with you to define what is needed to create the tracking system. Today I need to run through all the requirements with you to confirm that we are on the same page.

Managing Requirements Assets

��Managing RequirementsAfter the project is done, what are requirements sued for? They are used for:

Product / Process training Administrative purpose subsequent projects

��Managing Requirements – Change Control

Change Control manages changes to the baselined requirements.

��Required skills for a Business Analyst��

• Communication Skills: BA should have the skill to facilitate meetings, ask good questions, actively listen to answers, and absorb what is being said.

• Problem-Solving Skills: No project is without problems. The entire project is a solution to a problem. At the highest level, BAs facilitate a shared understanding of the problems.

• Documentation and Specification Skills : While documentation or writing could be considered a subset of written communication, it’s really its own skill set for a BA. Here I include the ability to create clear and concise documentation.

• Analysis Skills : Business analysts use a variety of techniques to analyze the problem and the solution.

• Visual Modeling : A close sister to many analysis techniques is the ability to create visual models, such as work-flow diagrams.

• Facilitation and Elicitation Skills: BAs facilitate specific kinds of meetings. The most common kinds of elicitation sessions a BA facilitates are interviews.

Thank You!

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