what is in your business analysis toolkit?

What’s in the BA Toolkit?

Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.September 2010

September 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.

Background

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One day …

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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


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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Types of Communication Tools…

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Low-tech and hardware-based tools

Collaboration tools

Software-based tools, to produce:DocumentsDiagramsOther Artifacts


Low-Tech & Hardware-based Tools

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Collaboration Tools

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Software-based Communication

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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


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’


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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Document Your Requirements

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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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Document Your Requirements

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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?


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


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


Detailed Toolkit Req’ts

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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


And then … Caveat emptor !

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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


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?


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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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


One Final Thought …

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Questions?

Thank you!

Marie [email protected]

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