Foundations of Business Analysis (BA30)

Learning Objectives:

 Obtain a thorough understanding of the core responsibilities of the business analyst
 Understand the main professional associations and standards supporting business analysts in the industry
 Discuss and explore the components of each of the domains/knowledge areas that comprise the work of business analysis
 Recognize the importance of properly defining the business need prior to engaging in requirements activities
 Formulate a strong understanding of the concepts that comprise strategy analysis
 Obtain knowledge of and experience with the important work of stakeholder analysis
 Decipher between project and product scope and successfully use models to communicate scope
 Thoroughly understand and identify the various requirements categories and be able to recognize requirements of various types
 Develop interviewing skills and explore ways to plan and structure interviews
 Examine different forms of requirements documentation
 Explore elements of communication, conflict, and issue management
 Obtain a solid understanding of the concepts and activities involved in solution evaluation
 Obtain hands-on experience with a number of business analysis techniques for eliciting, analyzing, and modeling requirements

Workshop Objectives:
 Throughout the course, students work together in small groups on a pre-determined project. Each exercise allows students to apply their learnings throughout the course.

Prerequisites
No prerequisites - This course is suitable for both beginner and intermediate business analysts who would like to increase their skills in order to better elicit, analyze, write and effectively manage requirements for their projects.

Outline

DAY 1

Section 1: Introduction to Business Analysis
 What is Business Analysis?
 Benefiting from business analysis
 Business analysis and project success
 Challenges of business analysis
 Discussions:
 Who performs business analysis functions in your organization?
 Exploring solutions options
 Your biggest challenges on past projects

Section 2: A Closer Look at the Business Analyst Role
 Definition of business analyst
 Responsibilities of a business analyst
 The BA/PM roles
 IIBA/PMI and the goals of a professional association
 Purpose for having a BA standard
 IIBA’s BABOK® Guide and PMI’s Practice Guide in Business Analysis
 Business analysis core concepts
 Business analysis perspectives
 IIBA and PMI certifications for business analysts
 Workshop: Introduction to Case Study

Section 3: Strategy Analysis and Change
 Define Strategy Analysis
 When to perform Strategy Analysis
 Business models
 Defining the business need
 Root cause analysis
 5 Whys
 Fishbone diagram
 Defining business requirements
 Discussions:
 Who is involved in strategy analysis in your organization?
 Workshops:
 Create a Business Model
 Define the Business Need
 Create a Fishbone Diagram
 Write Business Requirements

Section 4: Defining a Change Strategy
 Define change strategy
 Gap analysis
 Determining solution options
 Enterprise readiness
 Cultural fit
 Operational and functional analysis
 Impact analysis
 Transitioning to the future state

Section 5: Stakeholder Analysis
 What is a stakeholder?
 The importance of stakeholder analysis
 Stakeholder identification
 Stakeholder types
 Tips/techniques for identifying analyzing stakeholders
 Keeping track of stakeholders
 Workshop: Identify Stakeholders

DAY 2

Section 6: Understanding and Defining Solution Scope
 Defining solution scope
 Techniques to use
 Project scope versus product scope
 Finding solution boundaries
 What is a feature?
 Identifying key features
 Discussion: Identifying Solution Scope
 Workshops:
 Draw a Context Diagram
 Defining Scope with Features

Section 7: Understanding Requirements

What is a requirement (IEEE and IIBA definitions)
 Project roles involved in requirements activities
 Requirements types
 Assumptions and constraints
 Business rules
 Decision tables and inference rules
 Requirements vs. business rules
 Requirements vs. specifications
 Discussions:
 Requirements
 Business rules
 Workshops:
 Define a Business Rule
 Write Requirements

Section 8: Business Process Modeling
 Why do we model processes?
 What is Business Process Management?
 Using a modeling notation
 “As Is” vs. “To Be” modeling
 Why use BPMN?
 Basic BPM notation
 Developing a business process model
 Using a facilitated session
 Business Process Modeling – A case study
 Developing a Business Process Model
 Workshop: Create a Business Process Model

Section 9: Preparing for Requirements Elicitation
 Types of elicitation techniques
 Interviewing – what and why?
 Preparing for an effective interview
 Selecting the right interviewees
 Types of questions to ask
 Sequencing of questions
 Discussion: Elicitation Techniques You Have Used
 Workshop: Planning for an Interview

DAY 3

Section 10: Elicitation using Interviews and Workshops
 Conduct the Interview
 Establishing rapport with stakeholders
 Active listening and listening styles
 Workshops and getting the right people
 The role of the facilitator
 The brainstorming technique
 Decision rules and reaching consensus
 Avoiding Groupthink
 Encouraging participation
 Managing meetings and conflict
 Workshop: Conduct an Interview

Section 11: Confirming Elicitation Results
 Defining requirements analysis
 Prioritizing requirements (MoSCoW, Timeboxing, Voting, etc.)
 Documenting requirements
 Other uses for specifications and models
 Unified Modeling Language (UML®)
 Explaining user stories
 The traceability matrix
 Communicating requirements
 Workshop:
 Analyzing Requirements
 Identifying User Stories
 Tracing Requirements
 Obtaining Approval

Section 12: Analyzing Requirements with Use Cases
 What is an actor?
 Types of actors
 Defining actors
 Locating use cases
 Use case diagrams
 Use case tips
 Defining and identifying scenarios
 Parts of a use case
 Defining primary, secondary actors and pre and post conditions
 Best practices for writing use cases
 Template: Use Case Specification
Workshop:
 Drawing a Use Case Diagram
 Write the Main Success Scenario

DAY 4

Section 12 (cont’d): Documenting Requirements
 Scenarios and flows
 Alternate and exception flows
 Alternate scenario post conditions
 Guidelines for Alternate flows
 Examples of alternate and exception flows
 Workshop: Writing Alternate and Exception Flows

Section 13: Documenting Requirements
 How requirements relate to use cases
 Writing Non-Functional requirements
 User Interface Requirements
 Reporting requirements
 Data requirements
 Data accessibility requirements
 Business requirements document (BRD)
 BRD vs the Functional Requirements
 Verifying Requirements
 Quality attributes
 Purpose of the requirements package
 BA Deliverables across knowledge areas/domains
 Planning BA deliverables
 Workshops:
 Develop a User Interface
 Verifying Requirements

Section 14: Managing and Communicating Business Analysis Information
 Business analysis communication
 The business analyst’s role in communication
 Forms of communication
 7Cs of communication
 Symptoms of information overload
 Information mapping
 Presentation and common elements
 Requirements walkthroughs
 Conflict and issue management
 Conflict resolution techniques

Section 15: Evaluating the Solution
 Understanding solution evaluation
 Verification vs. validation
 Timing of solution evaluation
 Planning solution evaluation
 Performing solution evaluation
 Using existing metrics
 Evaluating long term performance
 Qualitative vs. Quantitative measures
 Tools and techniques used in solution evaluation
 Comparing expected vs. actuals
 When variances occur
 Proposing recommendations to address variances
 Communicating evaluation results

Section 16: Additional Information
Helpful links for obtaining additional business analysis information