BITE SIZED TRAINING SESSIONS:

FUNDAMENTALS OF
BUSINESS ANALYSIS
OBJECTIVES

 Analyse the reasons why the fundamental components of all Business

Analysis tools and methods must be the same

 Examine fundamental components of Business Analysis

 Setting the scene: scope of the Business Analyst role
There is a chain of reasoning that leads from the statement of a problem to the implementation of solutions…

…involving up to 10 groups of people…

Owners
defines measures of success and $targets
…Business Analysts confirm & document $Money!

Strategists
determine the strategy to hit the targets
…Business Analysts help do market research, create strategy, challenge &
Sponsors document
establish a Programme that delivers the strategy
…Business Analysts document Programme TOR
and help build the Business Case
Programme Managers
Institute Projects that implement the programme
…Business Analysts document the Project TOR

Project Stakeholders
…Business Analysts specify requirements for Design Analysts
Projects (in the Business Model) design solution that satisfies the requirements
…Business Analysts write functional specifications, protect
Solution Builders requirements & document compromises
build solution
…Business Analysts protect requirements & document compromises Solution Builders & Business
test solution
Project managers …Business Analysts ensure tested against requirements
Implement solution
…Business Analysts help with Users
-Process and data migration Accept solution
-Cutover planning …Business Analysts help with
-Rollout -$MEASURING $BENEFITS $REALISATION

POST-IMPLEMENTATION
Business Analysts feed back to the Owner how well their
measure of success has been achieved
CHAIN OF REASONING: Stakeholders
Stakeholders

Drivers Drivers Drivers Drivers

Objectives Objectives Objectives Objectives Objectives

Change Change Change Change Change

Requirements Requirements Requirements Requirements Requirements

Change Requirements must be assumed to be wrong until they are proved to be right
SCOPE OF ANALYSIS OF CHANGE
REQUIREMENTS
 Change requirements can be for (amongst others)
 Processes
 Organisation units
 Locations
 Channel
 Data
 Applications
 Technologies
 Non-functionals
…oh – and the valid intersections!!!
CHANGE REQUIREMENTS SCOPE -
EXAMPLE
 We need to change how we take orders (process)…
 …by the tele-orders team (organisation unit)…
 …at our Leeds contact centre (location)…
 …by phone or email (channel)
 …to capture alternate delivery addresses (data)…
 …on the Chordiant system (application)…
 …running on the intranet (technology)…
 …and make it available 24/7/365 (non-functional).
FUNDAMENTAL COMPONENTS OF
BUSINESS ANALYSIS
ALL THE LINKS IN THE CHAIN OF REASONING
Description

The problems / opportunities that

the business face
Driver

Addressed as
measured by

The measures and targets that will Project

enable us to declare the change
project has been successful Objective
Delivered by

Definitions of what changes are required

that will affect the measures of success Change
(objectives) sufficiently for the project to Requirement
be declared successful
Enforces

What rules must be implemented

by the changes specified in the Business Rule
requirements
HOW TO FORGE LINKS IN THE CHAIN OF REASONING
Analysis products

Problem / opportunity analysis Driver

Addressed as
measured by
Specific – there is a precise definition of the objective
Project Measurable – there are units that the objective will be measured in
SMART objectives Achievable – the measures can be achieved ‘in the real world’
Objective Relevant –this project will actually affect this objective
To-die-for – the project has failed if it does not achieve the
objective
Delivered by

Business… …high level

Functional…
Change
…mid level
Non-functional… Requirement

Enforces
Process model
Process specification
Non-functional specifications Business Rule …low level
Data model
Attribute specification
ALL METHODS AND ALL APPROACHES HAVE TO COVER ALL LINKS IN THE CHAIN OF REASONING

AKA…
Problems
Driver Opportunities
Threats
Addressed as Constraints
measured by

Vision Project
Benefit Objective
Target
Delivered by

Agile “product backlog”

Change 7 types of ISEB requirements
Requirement 6 types if IIBA requirements

Enforces

Agile “product backlog”

More process and data modelling Business Rule
than you can shake a stick at
EXAMPLE WAY OF DOCUMENTING…

Problem / opportunity analysis Driver

 EXAMPLE way of documenting…

Problem / opportunity analysis Driver

Addressed as
measured by

Project
SMART objectives
Objective
 EXAMPLE way of documenting…

Problem / opportunity analysis Driver

Addressed as
measured by

Project
SMART objectives
Objective
Delivered by

Business… …high level

Functional…
Change
…mid level
Non-functional… Requirement
 EXAMPLE way of documenting…

Problem / opportunity analysis Driver

Addressed as
measured by

Project
SMART objectives
Objective
Delivered by

Business… …high level

Functional…
Change
…mid level
Non-functional… Requirement

Enforces
Process model
Process specification
Non-functional specifications Business Rule …low level
Data model
Attribute specification
 EXAMPLE PROCESS RULES
A BA can request one of 4 types of support:
1. Phone or email based query about a specific point Process execution rules
2. Informal review of a project deliverable
3. Formal review of full set of project deliverables
4. Facilitated workshop of how to apply analysis to a specific project

1. In the case of phone or email query about a specific point

the BA poses the question and the training provider will provide guidance for how the technicalities of Business Analysis apply to
the problem
Informal reviews of project deliverables will be done by email and will only discuss the technicalities of Business Analysis in relation to
the document
Formal reviews will involve the BA sending the full set of Analysis deliverables to the training provider who will critique them from a
technical perspective and then deliver the feedback in a one-to-one structured feedback session on the client site
Facilitated workshops will be initiated by the BA - the training provider will supply workshop agenda and prerequisites which the BA
will use to organise the workshop. The training provider will then facilitate the workshop for the project.

1. Who is interacts with process

Time to start 2. Where they are
BA requests 3. Availability of process
Training course
support
4. Volumetrics
Conduct Provide
BA support 5. Performance of process
Training
6. Security & Authorisation levels

Analysis Phase Non-functional Rules

Of Project
concludes
Monitor
Analysis
quality

Process dependency rules

 EXAMPLE DATA RULES

Non-Functional Rules Data content rules

1. Who is allowed access to the data? Course.Start Date
2. How long must this data be kept? Definition: the date/time the course is scheduled to start
3. How many instances of it must be supported? Data type: Numeric
Size: 12
Domain: Datetime
Data rules:
• Format is DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM
• When created must be in the future
• Cannot be a Saturday or Sunday or Bank Holiday

Attributes
1. Name
Course 2. Start Date
3. Course duration
Attends

Attributes Attributes
1. Name receives
1. Name
2. Contact details Delegate Support Type 2. Description

Supplies

Attributes Data relationship rules

Analysis 1. Name
Deliverable 2. Content
3. Review feedback
 CONCLUSIONS
 There is a chain of reasoning that leads from the statement of a problem to implemented solutions

 It doesn’t matter how you get from problem to solution – what method or approach – but you will
HAVE to…

 Define the problem being fixed (drivers)

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

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

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

 Define what process changes are required (process requirements)

 Define what data changes are required (data requirements)

 BA Q&A (I) - TOR
what factors caused this project to come in to being? Driver analysis
how will you know the project has been successful? smart Objectives
how big is the solution? scope
what applications and technologies will the solution
impact scope
what data will be migrated? scope
where will it be able to do it? scope
where will the solution impact? scope
who is impacted by the solution? scope
What changes will the project make that will deliver the
objectives? high level functional requirements
scope & high level functional
what processes does the solution cover? requirements
what will the solution be able to do? high level functional requirements
BA Q&A (II) – PROCESS & DATA MODELS
what is the process sequence of the solution? process models
process models & process non-
who is involved with each process functional
what are the rules that each process executes? process logic
what data does each process need to be able to
execute? process logic
how fast will each process be? process non-functional
how many transactions must each be able to perform? process non-functional
where will each process be used? process non-functional
who is allowed to use each process? process non-functional
how are all the different sets of data related to each
other? data model
what needs to be known about each set of data? data attributes
how long will data be kept? data non-functional
how much data will be kept? data non-functional
who can access what data? data non-functional