1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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:

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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).

11. 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.

12. 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

13. Knowledge Areas

14. 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

15. 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.

16. Requirements 101

17. 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

18. 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).

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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?

28. 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

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

30. 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?

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

32. 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?

33. Thank you