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What’s in the BA Toolkit?
Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.September 2010
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Background
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
One day …
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
BA has many Stakeholders …
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OperationalSupport Supplier
Client
BA
DeliveryTeam
ProjectManager
Regulator
- Sponsor- End User- Customer
- Solution Architect- Developer- DBA- Usability Specialist- Tester- Trainer
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
What Tools to Use?
It depends …Methodology
Waterfall, iterative, agileProject type
Custom software, COTS, infrastructure/hardware-only
Artifacts produced Maturity of BA organization
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Types of Communication Tools…
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Low-tech and hardware-based tools
Collaboration tools
Software-based tools, to produce:DocumentsDiagramsOther Artifacts
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Low-Tech & Hardware-based Tools
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Collaboration Tools
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Software-based Communication
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Software-based Tools
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Software Tool Categories
Let’s look at:the various types of software-based communication toolswhich artifacts are best suited to each type
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Issues with Office-type Tools?
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No supporting databaseNo associations, traceability is difficultRe-use is difficultNo support for meta-dataNo integration between diagram & elementsRequirements management is very difficult Reporting is WYSIWYG, no automated ‘packaging’
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
How to choose? Follow the process!
Define BA Toolkit
Req’ts
Identify BA Toolkit
Needs
Assess Current State
HL Toolkit Needs
Toolkit Gaps
Select Product(s)
Identify Toolkit Gaps
Problems, processes
Conduct Product
Assessment
Implement BA Toolkit
Detailed Toolkit Req’ts
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Document Your Requirements
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Usability
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Easy to use; intuitive, consistent interfaceEasy to learn; online help, tutorialsSupports fast data capture & diagramming
‘Drag and drop’ existing elements onto diagram
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Requirements Capture and Presentation
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Tree viewParent-child hierarchyExpand/collapse
Table/spreadsheet view List of attributesParent-child structure maintained
TraceabilityMatrix viewTree view
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Traceability
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DirectionalHierarchical (‘Traces To’ and ‘Traces From’)Parent-child
Non-directional (peer-to-peer)Cross-project (project segmentation, re-use)Flag missing traceabilityFlag ‘suspect’ relationships
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Views and Reports
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Searching, filtering and sortingTailoring and user-defined templates Report on text, tables, diagrams, meta-dataMultiple formats (e.g., Word, Excel, HTML, XML)Metrics (e.g., how many changed req’ts?)Impact analysisPackaged output appeals to all stakeholders
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Useful Features
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Spell checkingGlossaries (e.g., highlight ambiguous terms)Bulk data selection
Range (SHIFT-Click), non-contiguous (CTRL-click)Bulk processing
Parent-child, re-parentUpdate attribute valuesTraceability
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Use Cases
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Full integration of use case with activity diagram
Automatically maintains activity diagramChanges to activity diagram automatically reflected in use case, and vice versa
Use case has different attributes than use case steps.Automatic numbering of steps, alternate pathsSupports ‘extends’ and ‘includes’ use cases
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – User Interface Prototyping
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Sketches, mockups & wireframes (low fidelity)Simulations and prototypes (high fidelity)Templates and branding‘Look and feel’ widgets, banners, controlsImages and snapshots of current UISite maps and screen transitions/flowUser commentsAssociate data model elements
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Requirements Management
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Change Management / Change controlRevision historyCompare versions; shows revision marks!Notification of changes
Configuration ManagementBaselines and versioningRelease management (multi-release support)‘Living’ Master Requirements ListRe-use
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Associations and Interoperability
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Requirements
Business Requirement
Solution Requirement(Functional &
Non-functional)
Stakeholder Requirement
Traces to
Traces to
Business Process
Use Case
Business Process Diagram
Use Case Diagram
Activity Diagram
Requirement Attributes
Logs(e.g., Decisions, Issues, Risks)
Business Rule
User Interface Mockup
Data Attribute
Data Entity
Data Dictionary
Data Model(ERD, Class Diagram)
Contains
ReferencesDocuments, Tables. Diagrams, URLs, Images, Other Artifacts
Peer-to-peerAssociation
Association
Lifecycle Management Tools(e.g., quality assurance,
development tools)
Integration/Interoperability
Discussions
Defects
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements - Integration
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Associate diagram elements with meta-dataAssociate requirements artifacts with reference material (e.g., documents, images and diagrams, URLs)Import from Word and ExcelPackage requirements, using all formats of artifacts
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Document Your Requirements
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Non-Functional Requirements
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Work offline?Co-located or distributed team?
Client-side or web-based?Team size?
Concurrent or ‘named’ licenses? Multi-user support?
Project size? How many requirements?Data security and user management?Scalable for future growth?
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Non-Functional Requirements – Tool Administration
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User-defined requirement typesDifferent attributes for each requirement typeAttribute formats (text, $, date/time, URL, etc.)Attribute validation – single- and multi-valued lists, range of valuesProject templates
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Keep following the process!
Define BA Toolkit
Req’ts
Identify BA Toolkit
Needs
Assess Current State
HL Toolkit Needs
Toolkit Gaps
Select Product(s)
Identify Toolkit Gaps
Problems, processes
Conduct Product
Assessment
Implement BA Toolkit
Detailed Toolkit Req’ts
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Prepare for Product Assessment
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Weight / prioritize requirementsPrepare list of candidate vendors
Check the internet, web reviewsTalk to peers, associationsGartner reports, Forrester surveysConsider open source software
Conduct survey based on high-level requirements, to short-list 3-5 vendors, Arrange for demos, training & support
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
And then … Caveat emptor !
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Known Toolkit Challenges
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Baselining, versioning, release managementComparing versionsIntegration of requirements elementsPackaging / reporting, esp. non-text and associated elementsEase of capturing and reporting traceabilitySupport for re-use
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Conduct Product Assessment
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Assess product compliance against detailed requirements
1 – Compliant, with ease2 – Compliant, with challenges3 – Partially compliant, with workaround4 – Partially compliant, no workaround5 – Non-compliantWrite notes for items 2-5 (for later reference)
Determine workarounds to tool gapsAre they worth the cost & effort?
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Select Product(s)
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Consider cost of ownership vs. functionalityMigration and trainingLicensing, vendor support, maintenanceBA support (e.g., tool administrator(s), in-house trainers, customized user documentation)Integration / interoperability of multi-vendor toolkitHardware (e.g., server, database license)
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Implement BA Toolkit
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Develop training, guidelines, best practices, pre-defined templates or reports Conduct pilot to test new toolkit, including testing of the training and documentationConsider phased deployment to reduce project impact, esp. with multi-vendor toolkitProvide toolkit supportImplement feedback mechanism
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September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
One Final Thought …
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