Business Analysis and the Value of Requirements PMI – IIBA Joint Meeting Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 By David Nagy, PMP President of the Albany Capital District Chapter of the IIBA

Agenda Business Analysis and those who practice it International Institute of Business Analysis Albany Capital District Chapter Parent organization Knowledge Areas Business Analysis Body of Knowledge Certified Business Analysis Professional Requirements

Business Analysis Definition: “Business analysis is the set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to understand the structure, policies, and operations of an organization, and to recommend solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals.” International Institute of Business Analysis – Body of Knowledge (BABOK) v2

Business Analysis Includes work between all stakeholders Helps the organization to understand and express its needs, goals, and objectives Defines and evaluates alternatives that meet those needs, goals, and objectives Recommends solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals

Business Analyst Is responsible for eliciting the actual needs of stakeholders, not simply their expressed desires. Works to facilitate communication between organizational units. Works to align the needs of business units with the capabilities that can be delivered. The person performing this work may or may not have the title of Business Analyst.

Albany Capital District Chapter Founded November 13th, 2008 Monthly meetings: First Tuesday of the month 43 chapter members (Requires IIBA membership) 29 people attending monthly meetings 4 CBAP – 1 other in area Contact Information: http://albanyny.theiiba.org/ Chapter.Secretary@albanyny.theiiba.org

Recognizing the need for professional help Start of the International Institute for Business Analysis Formed in October 29th, 2003 with 28 people March 2004: 37 Members in the US and Canada Today: 10,000+ Members in the 68 countries 88 active chapters worldwide, 59 chapters in US http://www.theiiba.org/

Mission The mission of IIBA® is to develop and maintain standards for the practice of business analysis and for the certification of its practitioners. Our vision is to be the leading worldwide professional association for Business Analysts.

Goals Creating and developing awareness and recognition of the value and contribution of Business Analysis Providing a forum for knowledge sharing and contribution to the business analysis profession Defining the business analysis knowledge areas and documenting them in the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK®) Recognizing and certifying qualified practitioners through an internationally acknowledged certification program

Business Analysis Body of Knowledge Provides a common framework to understand and define the practice of business analysis Documents the knowledge within the profession of Business Analysis and reflects generally accepted practices. Describes business analysis areas of knowledge, their associated tasks and techniques necessary to be effective in the execution. Provides the basis for IIBA’s certification: Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP).

Knowledge Areas There are 7 knowledge areas: Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring Establishing overall strategy for how analysis will be performed. Elicitation How to work with the stakeholders to determine the true, underlying needs. Requirements Management and Communication How requirements are documented and distributed. How conflicts will be resolved. How changes will be managed. Enterprise Analysis Problem definition and analysis, business case development, feasibility studies, and the definition of solution scope.

Knowledge Areas There are 7 knowledge areas: Requirements Analysis Prioritize and progressively elaborate requirements. Verification and validation of the resulting requirements. Solution Assessment and Validation Assess proposed solutions to determine which solution best fits the business need, identify gaps and shortcomings in solutions, and determine necessary workarounds or changes to the solution. Underlying Competencies Behaviors, knowledge, and other characteristics that support the effective performance of business analysis. Include analytical thinking and problem solving, domain knowledge, communication skills, ethics, tools

Knowledge Areas

Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) Certification designed for individuals with an advanced level of knowledge and expertise Recognized expert in identifying the business needs of an organization in order to determine business solutions CBAPs are acknowledged as individuals performing a role which is increasingly recognized as being vital to a project’s success

Certified Business Analysis Professional Certification Process Application Requirements At least 5 years (7,500 hours) of business analysis work in the last 10 years, with at least 900 hours in 4 of the 6 BABOK knowledge areas. Minimum high school diploma or equivalent 21 hours BA professional development in the last 4 years 2 professional references Once application is accepted; schedule and pass exam of 150 questions Worldwide 827 CBAPs, up 65% in the past year. Locally 5 CBAPs, up 100% in the past year.

Requirements 101

Requirement: World’s Definition noun that which is required; a thing demanded or obligatory: One of the requirements of the job is accuracy. an act or instance of requiring. a need or necessity: to meet the requirements of daily life. From www.dictionary.com

Requirement: IIBA’s Definition A Requirement is defined to be: A condition or capability needed by a stakeholder to solve a problem or achieve an objective; A condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a system or system component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification, or other formally imposed document. A documented representation of a condition or capability as in (1) or (2).

The Two Expressions of Scope Scope => Project Plan The PM works to express the scope as a set of tasks that describes the work needed to be performed, ultimately creating the project plan. Scope => Requirements The BA works to express the scope as a set of requirements that describe what the solution needs to do. When these align, the PM and BA work as a team When these are not aligned, the PM and BA work against one another

Requirement Approach Plan Elicit the knowledge Analyze, refine and trace Document the requirements Review and confirm Validate completeness Sign-off Build and test solution Implement

Plan Which stakeholders will be involved, and what will be their role? What types of requirements will be collected and what attributes will be captured? How will conflicts be resolved? Where will the requirements be stored? Use the plan to monitor and control

Elicit Prepare, Conduct, Document, Confirm Dig for information, not solutions Variety of techniques Existing documentation Job shadowing Facilitated sessions Brainstorming Interfaces with other systems Prototyping, Storyboarding, Mock-ups Surveys

Analyze Examine the information found Need to determine how it adds to understanding the problem or its solution Focus on the what, not the how

Refine Start with a high-level requirements and refine into supporting requirements Example of requirement types

Trace As requirements are refined, trace the more detailed requirements from the originating requirement Ensures that all original requirements have been developed Ensures that all new requirements are part of the project scope Allows impact of proposed changes to be quickly determined

Document One requirement to a sentence using the active voice State such that the requirement will be interpreted the same by all readers Avoid ambiguity Use consistent terminology Need to be consistent with each other Need to be testable Need to trace new requirements to existing ones Do not justify or explain why it is a requirement

Review and Confirm Validate Are the requirements correct? Do they raise any other questions? Validate When taken in whole, do the requirements provide a complete description of the solution?

Build and Test Solution Approval Once the requirements have been approved, they become the baseline. Build and Test Solution Work to the approved requirements Once built, test solution against the requirements

Implement Prepare for transition Solution placed into production Training Interfaces Solution placed into production

Exercise in Ambiguity For example: Because it will contribute to their experience here at the university, they should have a machine, and a good one at that. Who should have what, and how are some of those better than others? Starting with the fall 2010 semester, all incoming freshmen will be required to have a laptop includes at least 2GB memory, 160 GB hard drive, and is wireless networking capable. What about incoming graduate students?

Exercise The system should be user friendly. What features could be included to satisfy this requirement?

Responses The system should be user friendly. What features could be included to satisfy this requirement? Welcome page Real time updates Access to help Performance/Response time Training Input validation with meaningful error messages Controlling what access each user has Orderly lay out of the screens Minimizing scrolling Can we really say that any of these inappropriate?

Thank you