Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1 Getting Started with Business Analysis
Chapter 1 Business Analysis in a Nutshell
Defining Business Analysis
Knowing Your Role in the Basic Business Analysis Lifecycle
Looking at the Value of Business Analysis
Considering the Skills of a Successful BA
Outstanding communication
Detailed research, analysis, and recording
Time management and information organization
The ability to see the big picture
Customer-focused and value-driven perspective
A large BA toolkit
Flexibility
Business Analysis in an Agile Environment
What does agile mean?
An overview of business analysis from an agile perspective
How is your role different in agile?
Working at the strategic level
Working at the team level
Using agile frameworks to organize projects
Scrum
Lean Kanban
Getting to Know the IIBA BABOK
Pursuing Business Analysis Certification
Chapter 2 Breaking Down Different Levels of Business Analysis
Checking out an Overview of the Levels
Going to the Top: The Enterprise Level
Doing business analysis activities at the enterprise level
Overcoming challenges at the enterprise level
Moving to the Organizational Level
Fulfilling duties at the organizational level
Dealing with organizational-level obstacles
Drilling Down to the Operational Level
Knowing your tasks at the operational level
Taking on operational-level challenges
Getting a Handle on the Project Level
Tackling activities at the project level
Rising above project-level hurdles
Chapter 3 Identifying and Working with Stakeholders
Identifying the Participants
Objective characteristics
Reviewing a who’s who of potential project participants
Starting at the top with management
Seeking subject matter experts
Adding project support personnel
Turning to technical personnel
Identifying the Stakeholders in Your Project
Finding your stakeholders
Using the RACI matrix
Playing (and Communicating) Well with Others
Targeting your communication to the various stakeholders
Work with executive sponsors
Deal with domain SMEs
Confer with project support personnel
Talk to technical personnel
Using active listening to your advantage
Overcoming common barriers to effective communications
Dealing with communication in virtual or hybrid environments
Understanding and responding to verbal and nonverbal messages
Fostering Strong Relationships
Building trust and respect
Generating consensus/gaining buy-in
Dealing with conflict
Part 2 The BA Toolkit: Tools, Terms, and Techniques
Chapter 4 Talking about Tools of the Trade
Examining Communication Tools for Every Situation
Talking about your options
Choosing the right communication tool
Trying Collaboration Tools
Physical places
Electronic places
Investigating Innovation and Idea Capture Tools
Looking at the technology spectrum
Considering specific features
Listening tools
Tools that track and grow ideas
Application lifecycle management tools
Discovering Definition Tools
Textual definition tools
Modeling and diagramming tools
Prototyping and simulation tools
Reviewing Requirements Management Tools
Low- and mid-tech options
High-tech options
Picking the Right Tools for the Situation
Inventorying the situation you have now
Determining what situation you need later
Avoiding unnecessary tools and features
Money, money, money: Facing budget challenges
Preparing Team Members for Change
Change management in a traditional environment
Change management in an agile environment
Chapter 5 Understanding What Requirements Truly Entail
Defining Needs
Business needs
Stakeholder needs
Defining Requirements
Business requirements
Stakeholder requirements
Using stakeholder analysis to identify stakeholder requirements
When requirements collide: Addressing conflict between stakeholder requirements
Solution requirements
Using a vision statement to define the solution
Breaking your solution requirements into categories
Transition requirements
Technology requirements
Technology (technical) requirements for the solution
Technology requirements for the business
Making Your Requirements Excellent
Complete
Correct
Unambiguous
Verifiable
Necessary
Feasible
Prioritized
Focusing on the Four Core Components
Data
Entities
Attributes
Relationships
Process (use cases)
External agents and actors
Business rules
Facing the special challenges of discovering business rules
Considering cardinality for business rules
Chapter 6 Hunting for the Right Information, Part 1: The Process
Elicit, Don’t Gather: Developing the Right Questions
Identifying the type of question you want to ask
“What” questions
“Who” questions
“Why” questions
“Where” questions
“When” questions
“How” questions
Identifying appropriate sources of information
Choosing an Approach
Using Clear, Consistent Language
Choosing terms consistently
Using language that’s consistent with the company’s language
Framing questions that clearly reveal core needs
Planning Your Elicitation Sessions
Elicitation in an Agile Team
Chapter 7 Hunting for the Right Information, Part 2: The Techniques
Understanding Research-Based Techniques
Starting with document analysis
Understanding the benefits of document analysis
Perusing examples of documents you can review
Distributing surveys
Dressing for the occasion: Types of surveys
Maximizing the chances of getting a response
Compiling and using the data
Doing interface analysis
Reverse engineering
Choosing competitive analysis
Mining for data
Understanding Collaborative Techniques
Conducting interviews
Preparing for the interview
Interviewing the stakeholder
Documenting the interview
Brainstorming techniques
Crazy 8s
Mind mapping
Reverse brainstorming
Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats
Getting to know requirements workshops
Identifying the participants
Scheduling a workshop
Managing the session
Considering focus groups
Using personas for empathy
Walking through the customer journey
Employing collaborative games
Understanding Experimental Techniques
Looking out for observation
Knowing when to use observation
Choosing your observation method and completing the process
Prototyping
Throwaway prototypes
Evolutionary prototypes
Simulation prototypes
Chapter 8 Uncovering and Analyzing Needs
Investigating the Needs
Discovering a company’s specific business needs
Breaking down obstacles
Asking performance-related questions
Searching out stakeholder needs
Identifying what stakeholders need
Understanding how stakeholders work together
Uncovering the Root Cause
Evaluating the Problem
Choosing a good problem to solve
Figuring out whether the problem matters
Determining the impact of the problem
Establishing the costs and benefits
Creating the Problem Statement
Creating the Solution Position Statement
Knowing When You Have the Right Solution
Validating the value of the solution
Taking your audience into consideration
Setting Your Solution Up For Success: Getting Clear Objectives
Eliciting and articulating clear objectives
Getting clear with SMART objectives
Part 3 Selling the Plan and Keeping It on Track
Chapter 9 Making the (Business) Case
Before You Dive In: Breaking Down Business Case Basics
Looking at the benefits of writing a business case
Playing to the crowd: Knowing your audience
Following basic business case structure
Defining and Presenting the Opportunity
Executive summary
Mission statement
Setting SMART objectives
Using key performance indicators
Description of the approach used
Justifying the Recommendation
Identifying and prioritizing alternative solutions
Including a cost/benefit analysis
Understanding financial terminology and metrics
Estimating techniques
Quantifying ongoing/operating costs and benefits
Quantifying implementation costs
The Devil Is in the Details: Providing Supporting Materials
Addressing supporting documentation
Noting your assumptions
Documenting risk
Presenting the Business Case
Chapter 10 Creating and Maintaining Scope
Making Sure You’re Scoping the Right Solution
Recognizing Relevant Stakeholders
Uncovering stakeholders by asking project-specific questions
Discovering key stakeholders in different parts of the organization
Ensuring that the Scope Aligns with Key Business Drivers
Identifying Interfaces that Are Part of the Project
User interfaces
System interfaces
Hardware interfaces
Defining Scope with a Data Flow Diagram
Identifying parties and systems that will be impacted by the project
Identifying information (data) flows among the parties or systems
Gaining consensus on the scope for the project
Giving the project a descriptive name
Finalizing the scope diagram
Using Project Initiation Documentation to Clarify Scope
Stating the purpose of the project
Describing the project approach or methodology
Listing project objectives
Articulating problems and opportunities
Outlining risks
Risk responses
Risk factors
Consider all the risk information together
Specifying project assumptions and constraints
Documenting high-level processes
Identifying who’s responsible for each deliverable
Indicating What Isn’t Covered: Items Not in Scope
Getting Agreement on the Scope
Avoiding Scope Creep
Spotting scope creep
Formulating a change control process
Chapter 11 Creating Your Work Plan
Hashing Out Work Plan Basics
Considering the key components of a business analysis work plan
Using a framework to create your plan
Planning in a traditional versus agile environment
Perusing the Project Characteristics
Identifying project type
Software enhancement or maintenance projects
COTS projects
Outsourced or offshore development projects
Business data analytics projects
Data warehouse projects
Process improvement projects
Infrastructure projects
Web development projects
Identifying project size
Handling small projects
Tackling large projects
Other things
Taking It to the People: The Stakeholder Communication Plan
Identifying the people
Getting to know the stakeholders
Subjective characteristics
Getting stakeholders involved
Putting together the stakeholder communication plan
The Process: Figuring Out How Things Are Done
Waterfall approach
Agile development approach
Compiling Your Work Plan
Part 4 Achieving Goals with Business Analysis
Chapter 12 Defining Solutions, Part 1: Taking a Closer Look at Your Requirements
Categorizing Your Requirements
Getting the process started
Choosing the right category
Documenting Your Requirements
Documenting business and stakeholder requirements
Documenting solution requirements, functional and nonfunctional
Functional requirements
Nonfunctional requirements
Documenting transition requirements
Documenting technical requirements
Ensuring Your Requirements Have Traceability
Making Your Requirements Agile
Just enough – just in time
Storing requirements for an agile team
Chapter 13 Defining Solutions, Part 2: Choosing the Right Analysis Technique
Dealing with Data Flow Diagrams and External Interaction Textual Templates
Getting a handle on data flow diagrams
Examining the external interaction textual template
ERD Is the Word: Using Entity Relationship Diagrams
Getting familiar with the ERD
Presenting the data with entity relationship text templates
Rounding out the data: Entity text templates
Using Data Mapping for System Interfaces
Drilling Down a Process Decomposition Diagram
Step 1: Creating the process decomposition diagram
Step 2: Documenting the processes
Telling a Good Story with a Story Map
Understanding the levels of user stories
Building the story map based on iterations or releases
How far out do you map?
Developing Acceptance Criteria
Initial acceptance criteria
Detailed acceptance criteria
Deciding on Decision Tables
Working with Workflow Diagrams
Decoding diagram symbols
Creating a workflow diagram
Seeing a diagram in action: An example
Making a Use Case Model
The graphic: Use case diagram
The text: Use case description
Prototyping
Familiarizing yourself with mockup basics
Creating mockups
Mocking up reports and graphs for excellent data storytelling
Keeping It Brief with User Stories
Creating user stories
Confirming user stories
Chapter 14 Verifying and Validating Solutions
Getting a Handle on Testing Basics
Differentiating between verification and validation
Making testing an ongoing activity
Driving toward acceptance test driven development
Testing in an agile environment
Verification Testing: Confirming You Built the System Right
Smoke test
Unit test
Integration test
System test
Requirements validation test
Regression test
Dynamic test
Security test
Installation test
Configuration test
Usability test
Validation Testing: Making Sure You Built the Right System
Utilizing a usability test
Getting users involved with a user acceptance test
Receiving feedback with a post- implementation user assessment
Preparing for the Test
Creating test cases
Putting together the verification and validation plan
Introduction
Test items
Features to be tested
Features not to be tested
Test data necessary
Approach
Item pass/fail criteria
Suspension and resumption criteria
Testing tasks
Environmental needs
Responsibilities
Staffing and training needs
Schedule
Risks and contingencies
Approvals
Conducting a Requirements Review
Conducting a step-by-step review of the artifact
Recruiting participants
Informal reviews
Formal reviews
Chapter 15 Transition: Moving from Planning to Implementing
Preparing for the Transition
Understanding transition requirements: The basics
Reviewing the requirement components
Assessing organization readiness
Fostering stakeholders’ motivation and competence
Motivation
Competence
Transition planning on an agile team
Rolling Out Your Strategy with the Right Approach
Trying parallel processing
Picking piloting
Selecting single cutover
Examining the Components of Your Rollout Plan
Turning Your Solution Over to Operations
Part 5 The Part of Tens
Chapter 16 Ten Ways to Keep Your Business Analysis Skills Sharp
Participate in Social Media
Network with Peers
Get/Be a Mentor
Leverage Peer Reviews
Attend Formal Training
Present on Business Analysis Topics
Read Books (Like This One!)
Have Lunch with Business Partners
Rotate to Multiple Business Domains or Applications
Use Business Analysis Techniques at Home
Chapter 17 Ten Ways to Prepare Yourself for a New Project
Hit the Ground Running and Get Up to Speed
Clear Your Calendar and Your To-Do List
Take a Vacation!
Get Organized
Identify What’s Been Done So Far
Color in the Solution
Define Everyone’s Roles, Responsibilities, and Deadlines
Get to Know the Core Team
Extend a Hand to the Extended Team
Collaborate
Chapter 18 Ten Experts Chime In
The Three Pains Approach to Better Elicitation (Hans Eckman)
Context Diagram (Ali Cox)
Behavior-Driven Development – Build for Your Users! (Ali Cox)
Affinity Diagram (Jonathan Babcock)
Process One Pager (Robin Grace)
Data Modeling (David Morris)
Facilitated Session (Shelley Ruth)
Root Cause Analysis (Kathy Claycomb)
Requirements Traceability (Russ Pena)
Functional Decomposition Diagram (Greg Busby)
It’s All About the Communication! (Kupe Kupersmith)
Index
EULA