Business Analysis Based on BABOK® Guide Version 2 – A Pocket Guide (eBook)

To effectively perform business analysis you need to plan how the business analysis activities will be executed and understand how to assess the value of the outputs from those activities. The plan should be based on the context of:

■   What you are trying to accomplish and the reasons why it is worthwhile;

■   Your organizational environment;

■   What assets and tools you have available at your disposal.

There are six Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring tasks:

1.   Plan business analysis approach: determine how the overall business analysis work will be completed.

2.   Conduct stakeholder analysis: identify and classify people and groups who are affected by the project or initiative.

3.   Plan business analysis activities: define which specific business activities will be performed, the outputs that will be generated, and the amount of time and effort required to perform the activities.

4.   Plan business analysis communication: describe how business analysis activities and outputs will be communicated, to whom, and when.

5.   Plan requirements management process: determine how requirements and the scope of the solution will be managed as changes occur over time.

6.   Manage business analysis performance: identify how the performance of business analysis activities will be assessed and improved.

The resulting plans and associated documents produced during these tasks are used to guide and monitor all of the other activities that Business Analysts perform in the context of a particular project or initiative.

2.1   Plan Business Analysis Approach

An approach to performing business analysis activities is used to govern the development of specific business analysis plans. Organizations may define a formal, repeatable approach (called a method) to ensure consistency between various projects or initiatives.

The business analysis approach should address the following questions:

   When are business analysis activities being performed in the context of the other activities of the project or initiative?

   What format and structure will business analysis deliverables take?

   How will requirements be prioritized?

   How will changes to requirements be managed?

   How will the detailed business analysis plan be developed?

   What types of communication will be used with stakeholders?

   What tools will be used to manage and analyze requirements?

There are two general types of approaches taken to perform business analysis activities. Most approaches fall somewhere between these two extremes:

■   Plan-driven approaches often have very structured stages with formal controls placed on proceeding between each stage. Plan-driven approaches focus on identifying as many requirements as possible initially, and serve as the basis for determining subsequent stages of the initiative.

■   Change-driven approaches focus on iteratively producing tangible results that solve a portion of the business need. Requirements outside of the current iteration are often left at a high level and are not subject to strict change control processes.

If there is no prescribed approach for the effort being undertaken, or there are parts of the approach that must be customized for the particular effort, the Business Analyst takes into account the following considerations:

■   The business need being addressed and the nature of the initiative to address the business need;

■   The organizational process assets available, such as methodologies, defined business analysis processes, tools and templates;

■   Internal or external expertise available from Business Analysts or Business Analyst groups.

2.2   Conduct Stakeholder Analysis

Whenever an effort is undertaken, there is at least one individual or group who is affected by the end result. Business Analysts need to know who these people are and how they need to be engaged in order to successfully achieve the effort’s objectives.

Stakeholder analysis helps answer the following questions:

   Who is directly or indirectly affected by the initiative?

   What are the relevant characteristics of each stakeholder that pertain to the initiative?

   What are the commonalities amongst stakeholders and how can they be grouped?

   Which stakeholders need to be involved in specific business analysis activities and in what capacity?

Stakeholders may be categorized in several different ways:

■   Organization or organizational unit;

■   Job function;

■   Hierarchical level (e.g. executives, supervisors, front-line staff);

■   Domain knowledge/skillset;

■   Some other common characteristic (e.g. an end user of the information system).

Each stakeholder group should share common characteristics that are relevant to the initiative. Some of the potential characteristics captured for each stakeholder group include:

■   Their overall role in the initiative;

■   Key contacts within the group and their respective roles;

■   Relevant metrics about the group (e.g. number of people or organizations, revenue or cost information);

■   Their attitude, influence, and level of engagement in the effort;

■   Their authority for particular business analysis deliverables (e.g.approval, review, consult, end consumer);

■   Risks and opportunities that could affect the outcome of the initiative.

The resulting stakeholder matrix is used to determine what specific business analysis activities are required.

2.3   Plan Business Analysis Activities

The business analysis plan is the central component guiding other Business Analyst activities. See figure 2.1. The content and format of the plan can vary due to several factors:

■   Desired outcomes from the initiative;

■   Complexity of the initiative;

■   Approach taken to address the business need;

■   Organizational or environmental norms or standards that must be met.

When developing a business analysis plan, the Business Analyst is applying the approach they have defined in Section 2.1. While the approach describes how to go about getting the work done, the plan specifies exactly what activities will be performed, how much effort they will take and their relationships to each other and non-business analysis activities.

Figure 2.1 The business analysis plan is used by all other knowledge areas

Building the business analysis plan can involve working back from the end result to identify the necessary activities:

1.   Assess target outcomes: what needs to have occurred when the business analysis activities are completed?

2.   Identify deliverables: in order to meet your outcomes, what work products are needed?

3.   Determine activities: what actions need to occur in order to produce the required deliverables?

4.   Define activity relationships: which activities have dependencies with one another or external events or actions?

5.   Estimate effort and duration: how much time will it take to complete each activity, both in terms of hours spent on a task and total time elapsed from the beginning of the activity until it is finished?