Business Analysis Planning

Business Analysis
Planning Template
 Business Analysis Plan
 A Planning Checklist for Business Messages
 Two leading authors in the field of business communication, have created a checklist for planning
business messages.
 The following twelve-item checklist, adapted here, serves as a useful reminder of the importance of
preparation in the writing process. Throughout this Unit we will examine these various steps in
greater detail.

1. Determine your general purpose: are you trying to inform, persuade, entertain, facilitate
interaction, or motivate a reader?
2. Determine your specific purpose (the desired outcome).
3. Make sure your purpose is realistic.
4. Make sure your timing is appropriate.
5. Make sure your sources are credible.
6. Make sure the message reflects positively on your business.
7. Determine audience size.
8. Determine audience composition.
9. Determine audience knowledge and awareness of topic.
10. Anticipate probable responses.
11. Select the correct channel.
12. Make sure the information provided is accurate, ethical, and pertinent.

Business Analysis Planning BA Planning Template

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 Business Analysis Plan

Document Revision Log

Version Date Author Summary of Changes

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 Business Analysis Plan

Section A: Business and Project Context

Planning Inputs
The following is a list of possible documents, if in existence, that may provide context and input into the
planning effort.

Reviewed
Inputs Comments / Observations / Notes
Y/N

Business Information
Business Need
Return on Investment (ROI)
Impact on other projects
Corporate culture
Organizational standards
Organizational processes &
templates for BA work
Performance metrics
Project Information
Project approach
Project scope
Past project documentation
Existing project documents:
Business Case
Project charter
Scope statement
Preliminary Project Plan
Preliminary Stakeholder List
Additional Documents
Existing Training Materials
Existing Models
Existing User Documentation
Problem / Enhancement Logs
Others??

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 Business Analysis Plan
Business Analysis Approach
The following is a list of general approaches that can impact your planning. Determine the approach.

Project
Approach Impacts to BA planning and work effort
Approach (Y/N)

Waterfall
Incremental
Iterative
Agile
Hybrid

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 Business Analysis Plan

Section B: Stakeholder Engagement Plan

RACI Matrix
R = Responsibility (Who does the work?) C = Consults with (Who do we need to consult and get input from?)
A = Accountable (Who approves, makes the decision, signs off?) I = Inform (Who do we need to inform after the work is done?)

Authority R A C I
Activity Responsible Accountable/ Consult With Inform
Approve

Stakeholder Analysis (Influence-Acceptance) Matrix

High Acceptance

Low High
Influence Influence

Low Acceptance
Stakeholder Contact List
List the key stakeholders that will provide requirements for this project.

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 Business Analysis Plan
Group Category Category
Name Email Phone
Representing 1 2

Stakeholder Categorization Elements

Stakeholder categorization allows the BA to organize the stakeholders into meaningful categories in order to
plan and manage requirements. Determine which categorizes you will need for planning purposes; you may
change the categories as needed. You may also want to add your selected categories to your stakeholder
contact list as seen in the above table.

Categories Y/N Categories Y/N

Geographical locations Group represented
Primary / secondary source of requirements Departments / Entities
Number of users represented Internal / External
Number of processes represented Language
Number of systems impacted Time Zones
Technology skill level Novice / Experienced User
Level of influence
Level of acceptance
Authority levels

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 Business Analysis Plan

BA Collaboration Plan
Capture the key collaboration events for your stakeholders. Include their preferences for collaboration, events,
frequency, location, tools and mediums. A collaboration event may be conducted for an individual or a group of
stakeholders.
Tools (wikis, Medium
Stakeholder Stakeholder(s)
Event Frequency Location blogs, online (in-person
Name or Group Preferences
communities) or virtual)

BA Communication Plan
Capture the key communication events for your stakeholders. Include meetings, requirements sessions,
requirements reviews, prioritization sessions, requirement activity status, etc.

Communication Event Audience Objective Media / Frequency

format

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 Business Analysis Plan

Section C: BA Governance Plan

Determine how decisions will be made, work and requirements prioritized, change process, & approval process.

Process Exists?
Activity (Y/N/Needs Action Plan
Modification)

Decision making process

(include participants,
review and approve)

Escalation plan for

decision making

Requirements review
and approval process

Issues management
process

Prioritization process
(with criteria and
technique(s) used)

Change management
process (include who
will authorize changes)

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 Business Analysis Plan

Section D: BA Information Management Plan

Checklist
Determine how you are going to manage the business analysis information. The formality of this management
plan will depend on the project approach selected (predictive vs adaptive or somewhere in between).

Activity Due Date Action Plan

General BA Information Management

Determine organization of
BA information.

Identify storage and access

needs to documentation
(repository, version control,
audit logs, etc.).

Define formality and level

of detail needed by
stakeholders.

Requirements Management

Define requirement
attributes and elements.

Develop a traceability
matrix.

Identify requirements reuse

opportunities.

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 Business Analysis Plan

Section E: BA Activities Plan

This is a list of common activities that a business analyst may conduct. Each organization and project may have
different activities needed. You can use this as a checklist to determine your BA work activities.

Requirements Activity by KA In/Out Comments (Include when, how and with No. of Est.
whom) Sessions Hours
BA PLANNING & Monitoring
 Determine BA approach
 Plan stakeholder engagement
 Plan BA governance
 Plan BA information mgmt.
 Plan BA activities
 Plan BA Risk assessment
 Plan BA performance
improvement
STRATEGY ANALYSIS
 Analyze current state
 Analyze future state
 Assess risks in moving to future
 Define change strategy (gap
analysis, provide
recommendations, etc.)
ELICITATION & Collaboration
 Interviews
 Requirements workshop
 Focus Group
 Survey
 Observation
 Document analysis
 Interface analysis
 Prototyping
 Research
 Mind mapping
REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS &
DESIGN DEFINITION
 Analyze & document req.
 Business & Scope models
– Organizational models
– Geographical models
– Impact Map
– Product Roadmap
– User Story Map
– Context diagram
– Functional decomposition
diagram

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 Business Analysis Plan
Requirements Activity by KA In/Out Comments (Include when, how and with No. of Est.
whom) Sessions Hours
 Data Models
– Entity relationship diagrams
(ERD)
– Class models
 Process models
– Value Stream Map / Value
Chain Map
– SIPOC charts
– Process maps
– Swimlanes
– Data flow diagrams (DFD)
 Use Case Models
– Use Case Model (diagram &
narrative)
– Activity Diagrams
– Sequence Diagrams
 Prototyping & Others
– Prototypes/mock-ups
– Storyboards
– CRUD matrix
– State transition diagrams
– User stories
 Verify & validate requirements
 Define req. architecture
 Define design options
 Analyze potential value &
recommend solution
REQ. LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT
 Communicate requirements
 Trace requirements
 Prioritize requirements
 Conduct reviews & obtain
approvals
 Analyze change requests
 Manage documentation
BA PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
 Measure & analyze BA
performance measures

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 Business Analysis Plan

Section F: Requirements Risk Categories

Category Examples
Planning &  Little or no requirements planning done  Requirements plan does not sync up
Monitoring  Stakeholders not identified with project plan
Scope  Unclear scope  Not clear on what is in and out of
 Scope not well documented scope
Elicitation  Inadequate user involvement  Time pressure – not enough time
 Requirements are not complete  BA lack of experience with
techniques
Documentation  Different interpretations  Includes design elements
 Ambiguous terminology  Missing requirements
 Not enough detail
Analysis  Customers disagree on prioritization  Conflicting requirements
 Level of difficulty implementing the req.  Degree of requirements stability
 New technology, software, etc.  Little or no modeling done
 No as-is models to leverage
Validation  Untestable requirements  Requirement not linked/traced to
 Requirements not signed off business problem, project objective
 Un-reviewed requirements or business objective
 Requirements are not verified (not
complete enough to allow design to
begin)
Management  Scope creep  Requirements are not traced
 Expanding product (requirements) scope throughout the project
 Change process not created or used  Requirements were not baselined
 Expanding project scope

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 Business Analysis Plan

Section F: BA Risk Register

# Risk Category Risk Event / Consequence Prob. Impact Risk Risk Risk Response Risk Response Strategy Risk
<scale> <scale> Score Rank Owner
(P * I)

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 Business Analysis Plan

Section G: BA Performance Evaluation Plan

Who will Recipient (s)
Acceptance Unacceptable Measurement
Metric Measure Source of data capture of metric
Criteria Criteria Frequency
the info information
Actual vs. Planned Time Sheets &
% deviation from plan 0-5% > 5% BA PM Weekly
Business Analysis Hours BA Plan

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 Business Analysis Plan

Section H: Issue Log

Capture any outstanding issues that need to be addressed before this plan is complete.
Assigned Date Date Action
Item / Issue To: Raised Resolved Taken

Section I: Planning Assumptions

Capture the assumptions that went into your plan & determine the impact on any decisions, requirements, or
plans that were made based on those assumptions.

Assumption Impact on decisions, requirements or plans

Business Analysis Planning BA Planning Template

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 Business Analysis Plan

Business Analysis Planning BA Planning Template

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