These notes cover the tasks which are used to organize and coordinate the efforts of the
business analyst. It dives into the BABOK tasks: Plan Business Analysis Approach, Plan
Stakeholders Engagement, Plan Business Analysis Governance, Plan Business Analysis
Information Management & Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements and
brings them to life with practical real world scenarios and examples.!
Purpose and context of this knowledge area!
•
Task: Plan Business Analysis Approach!
•
Task: Plan Stakeholder Engagement!
•
Task: Plan Business Analysis Governance!
•
Task: Plan Business Analysis Information Management!
•
Task: Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements. !
•
Real-world case study !
•
Test your knowledge !
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Understand Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring
Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring focuses on laying the foundation for
successfully defining, planning, and completing the business analysis work which are
used as key guidelines for the other tasks throughout the project life cycle as it is
performed by the Business Analyst. !
The Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring knowledge area includes the following
tasks:!
1. Plan Business Analysis Approach!
2. Plan Stakeholder Engagement!
3. Plan Business Analysis Governance!
4. Plan Business Analysis Information Management and…!
5. Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements!
These tasks focus on planning how the business analysis team approaches a specific
effort.!
TASK: Plan the Business Analysis Approach
According to the BABOK® v3 Guide, the purpose of the task: Plan the Business Analysis
Approach is: ”to define an appropriate method to conduct Business Analysis activities.”
This task is about assessing the initiative from a stakeholder, scope, organizational
environment and expected outcomes perspective. This business analyst may not know
everything about the new environment or initiative during the early planning and approach
formulation, and therefore it is important to remember that the Business Analyst can
change and update their approach and planning as they learn more during the initiative.
However, at the earlier stages of the initiative it is important to consider which techniques
may be most appropriate to apply based on the knowledge available to the Business
Analyst. !
It is also important for the Business Analyst to understand any existing methodologies
which are followed by the organization or any previously defined and repeatable standard
business analysis practices that might be expected by stakeholders. It does not mean to
say that if there is such standardized process that the Business Analyst shouldn’t tailor
these to suit the needs of a particular initiative.!
The key considerations for the Business Analysis approach is as follows:!
•
It should be in alignment with objectives of the change or initiative;!
•
It should also be aligned and be coordinated to work in harmony with the overall
changes and deliverables planned for the initiative;!
•
It should consider how the approach will cater to tasks to support any risks that
may emerge during the initiative and an important aspect of this effort is for the
Business Analyst to repeat processes, techniques, and tools which has proven to
work well for the organization. !
ELEMENT 1: Planning Approach
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There are many ways to approach business analysis work and various planning methods
used across perspectives, industries, and enterprises. Many of the planning methods are
a variant to an interpretation of either a predictive or an adaptive approach. !
Predictive Approach
A predictive approach (in some places referred to, as a Plan Driven Approach) is an
approach that plans upfront with maximum control of what the expected implementation
would be. The Waterfall project methodology supports a predictive approach in planning.!
A real-world example of when a predictive approach might be the most suitable planning
approach would be in a project or initiative where a lot of certainty exists such as an
infrastructure project or a system upgrade initiative. Both these examples include a high
degree of certainty in terms of what exactly is involved to make the change (do the
upgrade) and it is clear what the expected outcome would be. This can, therefore, be
planned upfront with a high degree of certainty of what is to come and what it would take
to complete.!
Another good example of when a predictive approach is a relevant approach is when an
“off-the-shelf” solution (such as a new timesheet solution) is being implemented with
minimal or no option of customization. This example also has a very clearly defined set of
steps that must be executed in order for the solution to be implemented successfully and
therefore a predictive approach can work very effectively in this case. It is important to
understand with this example that the scope doesn’t allow for any special changes or
customization of the software, or if it does, this will be minimal. If this was not the case
and the stakeholders had the freedom to introduce a lot of change, then an adaptive
approach may be more suitable.
Adaptive Approach
An adaptive approach (in some places referred to as a Change Driven Approach) is an
approach, which is more incremental or exploratory in nature and focuses on rapid
delivery of business value in short iterations. The Agile project methodology applied in
software development projects supports adaptive planning approaches.!
A real-world example of when an adaptive approach might be most suitable would be
where there is a lot of uncertainty of what exactly the scope and/or the end result would
be. This scenario applies to almost every software development project where the scope
and requirements are not known in any detail and the understanding is that stakeholders
will participate in the initiative to assist with formulating the requirements and specific
design artifacts. In today's world, new web development projects, eCommerce storefronts
and mobile applications are perfect candidates for an adaptive or change-driven planning
approach to be applied.
It is important to realize that both predictive and adaptive approaches can be applied
within the same initiative. When deciding which approach to apply during business
analysis planning, it is key to always consider which of the approaches will deliver the
most value within your context.!
Know the alternative terminology of Adaptive (Change driven approach) and Predictive
(Plan driven approaches) approaches.!
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ELEMENT 2: Should you plan for a lot of formality and detail or
not?
All business analysis deliverables or results should be defined in the business analysis
approach. Predictive planning approaches are typically quite formal and produce very
detailed document sets requiring formal approval whereas adaptive planning approaches
can be quite informal and often limiting the documentation to the minimum until more
detail is required. When the adaptive approach is used, business analysis work is typically
approved informally through team interaction and feedback.!
An example could be when a business analyst is working on a large enterprise wide
system implementation in the public sector using a waterfall methodology (hence a
predictive approach), it is typical that there would be a lot of detailed documentation
required to facilitate the progression of the project through its phases. Often in these
scenarios, detailed documentation is the vehicle used to obtain approvals from the
steering committee for budget release at pre-defined intervals or phases of the initiative. In
this scenario, a lot of the analysis and documentation efforts are done in the early part of
the initiative.
Another example where less formality and detail might be required would be in a change
driven or adaptive environment. This might be a web development project where
documentation is developed on an as-needed basis and only to the level detail that is
required to achieve a functioning piece of software. !
This scenario is often misunderstood as minimal documentation whenever an adaptive
approach is followed because people make a blanket assumption that there is very little
documentation required. This is incorrect. The difference between predictive and adaptive
documentation and detail needs is simply that predictive approaches will document every
aspect of the solution to the lowest agreed level of detail whereas, in an adaptive
environment, the specific story (or requirement) being developed will dictate the required
level of documentation. This can still be a low level of detailed documentation if the story
or the feature being developed warrants that. Every story in an adaptive approach still
needs enough detail to be successfully tested even if the development aspect doesn’t
need that must detail to be developed.!
ELEMENT 3: Plan your business analysis activities
The business analyst must decide on the process to follow for planning a project’s
business analysis activities. The business analysis work plan is often a sub-set of the
overall project plan and should, therefore, be done in coordination with the project
manager. To ensure the Business Analysis part of the work plan fits in well with the overall
project plan, make sure that you know what the estimation standards are and what the
level of task detail should be. Aim to always have open communication with the project
manager in terms of what business analysis activities are being planned for and agree on
what the overall planning approach will be.!
ELEMENT 4: Remember to consider the timing of the business
analysis work.
It is important to plan for when the business analysis work will be performed for a specific
initiative. If it is a predominantly predictive approach that is being taken on the initiative,
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you will know that most of the business analysis work will be performed in the earlier
phases of the project. However, the business analysis work will be evenly spread for the
duration of the initiative or project if a predominantly adaptive approach is followed. So
make sure that you align and plan for the correct number of resources to be available on
your project to ensure timely execution of the business analysis work plan.!
ELEMENT 5: Complexity affects the business analysis work
As you can probably imagine, when you are faced with a large project, which is
attempting a complex subject matter or high-risk context, you will need to give this
consideration when planning the business analysis approach as well as the specific
activities. !
For example, if you are planning the business analysis work activities for an airline flight
control system there will be a lot of very detailed and accurate analysis required upfront
and potentially on an ongoing basis too. Whereas, if you were planning business analysis
activities for a mobile application development project which is focused around customer
experience, you will probably be more interested in planning with an adaptive approach in
mind.
Other factors that can affect the complexity of the business analysis effort could include
the geography and cultural considerations, technology complexities, number of systems
involved and the sheer size of the change. A change affecting everyone in the
organization is likely to be more complex than when only a small isolated team in the
organization is affected.!
ELEMENT 6: Acceptance of the Business Analysis Approach
and Plan
It is important for the Business Analyst to socialize the Business Analysis Approach and
Plan with the stakeholders who will be affected by the work that will be performed. If
everyone understands the approach and feels comfortable that the plan is achievable,
then the Business Analyst has a strong position to start executing the business analysis
activities for the initiative from. Often when the stakeholders, project manager or board
doesn’t have a clear view of how the requirements will be managed on a project, it
creates a lot of resistance, confusion and unengaged stakeholders.!
Input & Output of this task
With the Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring Task: Plan Business Analysis
Approach, there are the following key inputs and outputs:!
Input: Needs!
Output: Business Analysis Approach!
When you understand the scope and purpose of a task, it is a great idea to imagine what
you would need as an input to perform a task as well as imagine what you deliver an
output. If you contextualize this, it is much easier to remember this for the exam. !
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Now that you have a good understanding of what elements are considered during the
Plan Business Analysis Approach task, we will discuss the task describing what you
should consider when you plan your stakeholder engagement activities during the next
section.!
TASK: Plan Stakeholder Engagement
According to the BABOK® v3 Guide, the purpose to Plan Stakeholder Engagement is...!
"to plan an approach for establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with
the stakeholders.”
Football Analogy - A good way to think about this task is to consider the stakeholders as
members of a football team. Every team member has a different role to play, directly or
indirectly, but ultimately everyone has the same goal. Some play positions which is only
required for part of the game and other team members stay for the duration of the game.
There are stakeholders who don’t actively play in the game but they contribute by bringing
water to the players or by putting the score on the board. The business analysis team
needs to understand who are all the different stakeholders and understand what type of
role they play within the initiative’s context.
Number of Stakeholders
Something that the business analyst should also keep in mind when planning the
stakeholder engagement is the number of stakeholders who would need to be engaged
with. This will enable the Business Analyst to consider the engagement complexities that
could arise when the number of stakeholders grows and therefore the format and
engagement models might need to change.!
Elements of Plan Stakeholder Engagement
These are the three key elements when you Plan Stakeholder Engagement:!
1. Perform Stakeholder Analysis !
2. Define Stakeholder Collaboration !
3. Stakeholder Communication Needs!
We will now cover the key Elements of Planning Stakeholder Engagement by considering
it description and understand each with an example.!
ELEMENT 1: Perform Stakeholder Analysis
The ultimate goal with ‘Planning the Stakeholder Engagement’ for your Business Analysis
activities is to make sure that you are engaging with all the relevant and impacted
stakeholders or groups. This will ensure that you have a comprehensive requirements or
needs definition for the future planned solution. !
This means that you should identify the stakeholders who are affected by the planned
solution in both a direct and indirect way. It is important to continuously develop your
stakeholder list as the project progresses and that you or the team doesn’t overlook
anyone who may have valid and valuable requirements to contribute.!
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How you build your initial stakeholder list will be different between different organizations,
projects, and methodologies. However, it is important to compile this list earlier rather
than later in the project.!
Roles matter
It is very useful for a Business Analyst to know which roles a particular stakeholder or
group of stakeholders play within the organization. This will help the Business Analyst to
determine their influence later on and will help in planning the engagement type required
for that stakeholder or group. !
For example: In a project where the solution will mean a different process for customers
when using the Automatic Teller Machines to get cash out, it is important to not only
identify the customers as key stakeholders to engage with but also the customer support
personnel who would need to support those customers during the change and transition
period. If the project doesn’t identify the customer support team as a key stakeholder
group due to the role that they play in the overall proposed changes, the risk of failure
increases dramatically for the project.
Attitudes of stakeholders
A critical aspect of stakeholder analysis is to gage the stakeholder’s attitude in terms of
the proposed change or solution. If you have a positive stakeholder or group who
understands the purpose of the project and can see the benefits to them as well as the
overall company, then you should ensure they remain positive with the appropriate
engagement and attention from the project.!
A negative stakeholder can often be quite destructive towards the project or initiative and
should be engaged within a way that helps them see the value of what is being delivered.
Very often stakeholders are only negative towards an initiative because they feel like the
project team has not engaged them appropriately. Often in these cases, if you engage
those seemingly negative stakeholders carefully and with great attention, they will often
become positive and even champions for your initiative. !
Decision Making Authority
It is essential for the Business Analyst to understand how much influence and authority a
particular stakeholder has over the Business Analysis output and results for the project.
This puts the Business Analyst in a better position when seeking approval from
stakeholders with influence for their deliverables. !
Understanding who your stakeholders are in terms of their overall influence to support the
proposed changes will provide a way to gage whether the project has enough influential
stakeholder support to ensure a successful outcome.!
ELEMENT 2: Define Stakeholder Collaboration
In some contexts, the stakeholder collaboration activities will be formally planned and
executed whereas in other environments the collaboration activities may be much less
structured and quite spontaneous. Regardless of the nature of the collaboration, it is
important for the Business Analyst to consider the following aspects when planning a
formal or informal collaboration with stakeholders:!
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•
Timing and frequency of collaboration!
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Location!
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Available tools to be used for collaborations!
•
Will collaboration be virtual or in-person?!
•
What type of collaboration do the stakeholders themselves prefer?!
You can also document the collaboration plan for your project in the format of a
Stakeholder Collaboration Plan.!
ELEMENT 3: Stakeholder Communication Needs
The last element of this task is about considering the communication plan for this
engagement. Specifically considering aspects such as what messages need to be
communicated, what will the delivery methods be – will it be email, verbal meetings or
presentations for example. You also determine who to communicate to, when to
communicate and how frequently to communicate. The geographic location, level of
detail and level of formality are all considerations when putting together a communication
plan.!
It is vital to realize that every stakeholder on your list will not require the same
communications and therefore you should categorize your stakeholders and determine in
your stakeholder communication plan who will receive which communications when.!
Inputs & Outputs of this Task
With the Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring Task: Plan Stakeholder Engagement,
there is the following key input and output:!
Inputs: Needs and Business Analysis Approach!
Output: Stakeholder Engagement Approach!
The next task we will discuss which forms an integral part to the Knowledge Area,
Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring, is Plan Business Analysis Governance.!
TASK: Plan Business Analysis Governance
According to the BABOK® v3 Guide, the purpose to Plan Business Analysis Governance
is...!
"to define how decisions are made about requirements and designs, including reviews,
change control, approvals and prioritization.”
Planning what the processes are, who the decision makers will be and what information is
required for effective decision making around requirement and design changes are very
important to ensure the governance business analysis activities run smoothly during the
project. Often in the real world, the planning of the governance activities falls by the way
side and causes significant confusion and delay when it is time to approve requirements
and designs. Change procedures are essential to facilitate the ever-changing nature of
business needs, requirements and ultimately designs.!
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When planning the governance approach the Business Analyst must give the following
aspects consideration and make sure to include it into the plans:!
•
What is the business analysis approach and how will work be prioritized?!
•
What is the change procedure? This entails consideration around who can ask for
changes, who is involved in discussions and analysis of these changes and
ultimately who is responsible to approve changes?!
•
What type of documentation will be required for changes?!
So as you can see, most of the governance planning activities revolves around managing
changes to business analysis information as it happens during the project. !
Elements of Plan Business Analysis Governance
These are the four key elements to understand and include when you Plan the Business
Analysis Governance. These elements are:!
1. Decision Making!
2. Change Control Process!
3. Plan prioritization Approach!
4. Plan for Approvals!
We will cover each of the key elements of the task, Plan Business Analysis Governance,
by considering its description and understand each with an example.!
ELEMENT 1: Decision Making
Without effective decision-making practices on the project, there will be a lot of
uncertainty created which in turn causes stress and introduce unwelcome risks. Therefore
it is important to take the time to explicitly decide what the decision-making process is for
the team including understanding the escalation paths when a stakeholder collaboration
cannot resolve or make a decision. It is also crucial that the roles and responsibilities of
stakeholders are well understood in the context of decision-making processes. !
Example ways to facilitate effective decision-making could include: !
A weekly decision-making project meeting where outstanding decisions are discussed and
finalized. It is suggested to also document these decisions in a central decision register.
Alternatively, a daily stand up meeting could provide a time-slot or opportunity to clarify
any new decisions, which were made or high light decisions, which need to be made prior
to being able to proceed. This provides the team the opportunity to frequently mention the
need for decision making as well as to confirm any decisions that have been made.
Element 2: Change Control Process
Earlier we mentioned that Planning Business Analysis Governance is predominantly to
ensure effective management of change to Business Analysis Information during the
project.!
There are 7 main things you must include when designing your change request
processes. This include:!
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1. Determine what steps must be followed by stakeholders to request a change.!
2. What are the elements of the change request you want to analyze, for example, the
change cost and time estimates, the benefits of implementing the change, the risks
of not implementing the change, the priority and what should be the next steps in
relation to the specific change.!
3. Determine how the changes you receive will be prioritized!
4. How will you document each change request?!
5. Determine the communication method for updating stakeholders on new changes
received, changes currently being considered, finalized and included or excluded.!
6. Determine who in the team will be performing the impact analysis for each change
request. !
7. Finally, the Business Analyst should define who could authorize any decisions
made relating to the change requests received.!
An example of a real-world change request process could be:!
As a Business Analyst, you will provide or help a stakeholder who wants to change the
attributes used to capture a customer record to define what exactly the change is that
they need. This could be done using a change request template. Once you understand
what their change request is and you have it fully documented you will involve other
stakeholders to assist with impact analysis, cost and time estimates for implementation of
the change, risk analysis in terms of what it means if those attributes are not included etc..
All of these change considerations will be included in a change control board meeting
held on a weekly or fortnightly basis to discuss changes like this one. The change control
board will typically then agree to prioritize the change request based on factors such as
the benefits, risks, and effort to implement. The change request will then be approved and
scheduled or it will be declined. As a Business Analyst, you will provide the necessary
updates to the Stakeholders who have raised the request in terms of the decisions that
were made. You will typically communicate information including but not limited to the
impact analysis, identified risks, cost and time to make the change and any other specific
determinations you may have learned of during the Change Request analysis.
This example change request process described here may not necessarily be complete
and appropriate for all project types however, something similar should always be in place
in a project.!
You will now also see that without having a Change Control Process it will become very
difficult to manage the project’s scope, requirements and ultimately you will not have
much control over which requirements have been implemented, changed or discarded
without a proper change control process.!
Element 3: Plan Prioritization Approach
In the ideal world, as Business Analysts we would like to implement all the requirements
so that we can delight all our stakeholders. However, this is not feasible and doesn’t
always make sense financially or operationally. It is therefore important to plan what will
be the approach around prioritizing requirements on the project. !
Common aspects to consider when planning a prioritization approach are: cost, risk, and
value to the business. As part of the activity of planning the prioritization approach, you
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should also consider the stakeholders who will be part of prioritization as well as decide
on which techniques you will use during the prioritization activities.!
Element 4: Plan for Approvals
A good way to ensure efficient and effective requirements and design artifact approvals is
to plan for the approvals, the method, and format that will be used and the people who
will be required to approve. It is important to consider the type of project you are involved
in – for example, is the project very structured and governed by the organization or is the
project being run very flexibly and quite informally? This will help you to determine what
format and structure your approval processes should take. !
In a very controlled or complex environment, it will most likely make sense to have a
formal and well-defined approval process for the requirements and designs. However, in a
more informal environment, a structured walkthrough showing example prototypes might
be all you require in the form of approvals. It is however very important to confirm early in
the project whilst you are doing business analysis planning and monitoring activities what
the most appropriate approval processes should be in your specific situation.!
Inputs & Outputs of this Task
With the Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring Task: Plan Business Analysis
Governance, there are the following key inputs and outputs:!
Inputs: Business Analysis Approach and Stakeholder Engagement Approach!
Outputs: Governance Approach!
The next task we will discuss which forms an integral part to the Knowledge Area,
Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring, is Plan Business Analysis Information
Management.!
TASK: Plan Business Analysis Information Management
According to the BABOK® v3 Guide, the purpose of Plan Business Analysis Information
Management is…!
"to develop an approach for how business analysis information will be stored and
accessed.”
Business Analysis Information includes all the different business analysis artifacts that are
generated during the different business analysis activities in a project. Examples include
everything from scope statements, models, elicitation meeting notes to requirements
documentation and designed prototypes! If you start listing all these different types of
business analysis information types that could be generated by the team it is easy to
realize that a plan should be agreed early on in the project for managing, linking and
tracking all the different business analysis information types. !
Ideally, as a Business Analyst, you should plan for aspects such as the level of detail of
information, how the information should be organized, accessed and stored. The
Business Analyst should also plan for any relationships that might exist between
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information types and agree on any specific characteristics that you may want to maintain
throughout the project for the business analysis information. !
Elements of Plan Business Analysis Information Management
There are six key elements to understand and include when you perform the task of: Plan
Business Analysis Information Management. These elements are:!
1. Organization of Business Analysis Information!
2. Level of Abstraction!
3. Plan Traceability Approach!
4. Plan for Requirements Reuse!
5. Storage and Access!
6. Requirements Attributes!
We will now cover each of the key elements of the task, Plan Business Analysis
Information Management, by considering its description and understand each with an
example.!
ELEMENT 1: Organization of Business Analysis Information
Now that we had a look at some of the different types of Business Analysis Information
that exist, it would be easy to agree that the organization of all these types of Business
Analysis Information is important. The earlier in the project you are able to start planning
how you want to organize the information, the better simply because this means you will
limit the chances of misplacing information, everyone on the team will know where to find
information and you will avoid unnecessary duplication of information. !
It is however not always practical or realistic to know the best structure and process for
organizing the information from a very early stage in the project and therefore it is a great
idea to start with a simple but robust enough organizational system to enhance and
improve during those early stages of the project. You will then be in a good position to
have an efficient and effective way of managing all the business analysis information
when the project starts to mature and develop.!
An example of a common approach when organizing business analysis information could
be something like the one given below:!
Create a document management repository with a file storage area (or folder) for
documentation for each main phase (or iteration) of the project. Then have a sub-folder
area for each main type of document. For example: There might be an area for all the
Analysis Stage documents which is sub-organized into Elicitation Output, Requirements
and Project Meetings.!
ELEMENT 2: Level of Abstraction
This element is about considering the level of detail that is required when you describe
the requirements to stakeholders. In some types of projects, the requirements may be
well understood conceptually and the business analyst doesn’t need to delve into a low of
level of detail when describing the requirements. However, it may also be that the
stakeholder group really needs to review the requirements in a low level of detail to have
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comfort and confidence that the necessary complexities of the requirements have been
documented and understood. Therefore, when planning the level of abstraction the
business analyst should consider the stakeholders' needs and plan for that accordingly. !
An example of planning for a level of abstraction could be when you as the Business
Analyst are working on a high profile, high risk and complex area of the business and the
stakeholders are concerned that they must demonstrate an in-depth analysis and
understanding of the specific subject area prior to proceeding to the next stage of the
project. In this type of project or environment, the Business Analyst should plan to
manage the business analysis information in a way that allows for detailed analysis and
design activities to take place.!
ELEMENT 3: Plan Traceability Approach
The traceability of requirements is all about being able to trace requirements in different
ways and for different purposes. One of the most common reasons for tracing
requirements is to be able to keep track of the requirement’s status or progress during the
life cycle of the project. This is because it is important to be able to validate at the end of
a project that a particular requirement was implemented or not by referring back to the
requirement’s life cycle during the project. !
It can however in some environments or projects happen that the value of knowing the
exact life cycle of each and every detailed requirement is not high enough to justify the
time and effort spent to keep track of it. !
Let’s look at an example:!
Let’s say you are working on a project to implement a new Train Ticket Booking System for
a train that runs every hour between the beach and the main town. It is a council based
project, so the budget is tight and the project already knows which solution they will
choose to implement because they have confidence that the neighboring town’s trains are
using their chosen booking system with great success. It is therefore fair to say that
although you need to capture the requirements for the new train booking system you
probably don’t need to spend too much time tracing every detailed requirement through
to completion. You may only need to keep track of a few requirements that have been
identified as being unique for this town’s trains. However, if you are the Business Analyst
working on a project to implement a new Mortgage Calculation Solution for a bank, you
would not only choose to define requirements to a low level of detail, but due to the high
profile and high risk of missing a requirement during design and build phases you would
also be tracing every requirement through the project’s life cycle to prevent missing any
critical requirements and as a result you increase the chances of a successful
implementation.
So, you need to weigh up the risks, complexities and expectations of your stakeholders
when deciding what your traceability approach will be.!
ELEMENT 4: Plan for Requirements Re-use
Some types of requirements lend it to be re-used in future business analysis projects and
other requirements are too specific to the current project to be considered for re-use. The
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most common types of requirements that can in some cases be re-used include
requirements such as: !
•
Regulatory requirements!
•
Contractual requirements!
•
Quality standards!
•
Service level agreements!
•
Some types of business rules and business processes!
•
Requirements describing a cross-functional product or service that applies to many
different areas within the business.!
So it is good idea to try and plan ahead in terms of which of your requirements can be re-
used by other projects and by doing so ensure that the requirements are stored and
accessible by people needing it in the future.!
ELEMENT 5: Storage and Access
When the Business Analyst considers the element of Storage and Access, they should
consider the business analysis approach, the tools and storage facilities available within
the organization and any specific notations or artefacts planned which may have special
access requirements. Ideally the storage that is planned for should allow the users to edit
and change business analysis information and be accessed over a period of time.!
An example storage tool could be a SharePoint site or a similar document management
tool. This is a common storage place for business analysis information on projects in many
organizations. It is however recommended that the Business Analysis team have access
rights that will enable them to plan and organize how they would prefer to store and
access the information during the project.
ELEMENT 6: Requirements Attributes
Requirements attributes provide information about the requirements and help in the
ongoing management of the requirements throughout the change.!
The most commonly used requirements attributes are:!
•
Absolute Reference: This is the unique identifier. This identifier is completely unique
to this requirement and never changed or re-used even if the original requirement is
deleted.!
•
Author of the requirement is the person who formulated the requirement and also
the person who should be contacted regarding ambiguity, being unclear or if there
is a conflict relating to the requirement.!
•
Complexity indicates how difficult it will be to implement the requirement.!
•
Ownership refers to the stakeholder or stakeholder group who will be the business
owner of the requirement once the solution is implemented.!
•
Priority refers to the relative importance of the requirement. This can indicate value
or sequence of implementation.!
•
Risks identify uncertain events that may impact the requirement.!
•
Source indicates where the requirement comes from. This could be from a specific
stakeholder or group of stakeholders or it can be from an existing system.!
•
Stability shows how mature is the requirement. Or in other words, how likely is the
requirement to change.!
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•
Status shows whether the requirement is proposed, accepted, verified, postponed,
canceled or implemented.!
•
Urgency is the attribute that shows how soon the requirement is needed. !
Inputs and Outputs of this task
With the Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring Task: Plan Business Analysis
Information Management, there are the following key inputs and outputs:!
Inputs: Business Analysis Approach, Governance Approach and the Stakeholder
Engagement Approach!
Output: Information Management Approach!
TASK: Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements
According to the BABOK® v3 Guide, the purpose to Identify Business Analysis
Performance Improvements is...” to assess business analysis work and to plan to improve
processes where required.”
As we gain more experience in our roles as Business Analysts we will naturally also learn
to perform better in the same situations we may have been unsure about in a previous
role. However, by formally identifying ways to monitor and improve performance on a
project it is necessary to identify more specifically performance measures and do analysis
using those measures in order to then report on the Business Analysis performance
results. Ultimately, as a Business Analyst or a Business Analysis team it should always be
our goal to identify actions we can take to correct, prevent or improve upon our work.!
Elements of Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements
There are four key elements to understand and include when you perform the task of:
Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements. These elements are:!
1. Performance Analysis!
2. Assessment Measures!
3. Analyze Results!
4. Recommend Actions for Improvement!
Let’s now consider each element in more detail and understand it with a practical
example.!
ELEMENT 1: Performance Analysis
Every project or environment would have its own expectations of what constitutes good
quality Business Analysis work or performance. This could range from formal reviews and
reports generated to informal verbal feedback to individuals or the team. !
An example of Performance Analysis could be that every Business Analyst on the team
provides peer-level review feedback on Business Analysis artifacts. This simple procedure
will increase the overall performance of each individual and therefore the overall team
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simply because of introducing informal accountability measures in the form of peer
reviews.!
ELEMENT 2: Assessment Measures
Different types of assessment measures can be applied to determine the quality of the
performance of Business Analysis within a project or environment. Just like with any
measure, there are tangible and intangible ways that performance can be measured. It is
not always very easy to identify true quantitative measures in terms of Business Analysis
work outputs, but some ideas could include: adhering to project time frames or the
number of reviews required before being able to finalize specific artifacts. Some
qualitative measures could include stakeholder feedback and general task efficiency
levels on the project. Accuracy, completeness, knowledge as a Business Analyst and
effectiveness are some of the other intangible or qualitative measures that a team can
implement to measure Business Analysis performance.!
ELEMENT 3: Analyze Results
Once the assessment measures have been set and agreed for the Business Analysis
function or team, it is then analyzed by involving the different stakeholders that can
provide input to analyze each measure.!
An example could simply be that the Project Manager is providing feedback in terms of
assessing the business analysis team’s performance in terms of delivery of artifacts
against the agreed timelines set in the project plan. This is assuming that one of the
assessment measures were agreed to be timely delivery of Business Analysis artifacts.!
ELEMENT 4: Recommended Actions for Improvement
Once all the assessment measures have been analyzed and results have been gathered
and understood, it is time to recommend some actions for improvement in future. This
could take the format of recommendations for the overall team and / or for the individual
Business Analysts to which the feedback applies. !
It is important to remember that measuring and assessing the performance of Business
Analysis is generally very qualitative and should therefore be carefully considered whether
the results could possibly be subjective or biased in any way before providing the
feedback to a team or an individual.!
The recommended actions will typically be preventative, corrective or improvement
focused in nature.!
Inputs & Outputs of this task
With the Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring Task: Identify Business Analysis
Performance Improvements, there are the following key inputs and outputs:!
Inputs: Business Analysis Approach and Performance Objectives (external)!
Outputs: Business Analysis Performance Assessment.!
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We have now discussed each task in the Knowledge Area, Business Analysis Planning
and Monitoring. During the next section we cover a summary of the key learnings.
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