Chapter 5 Requirement Life Cycle Management

Requirement Life Cycle Management

The Requirements Life Cycle Management knowledge area describes the tasks that business analysts perform in order to manage and maintain requirements and design information from inception to retirement. These tasks describe establishing meaningful relationships between related requirements and designs, assessing changes to requirements and designs when changes are proposed, and analyzing and gaining consensus on changes.

The requirements life cycle: 

• begins with the representation of a business need as a requirement, 

• continues through the development of a solution, and 

• ends when a solution and the requirements that represent it are retired.

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The Requirements Life Cycle Management knowledge area includes the following tasks: 

• Trace Requirements: analyzes and maintains the relationships between requirements, designs, solution components, and other work products for impact analysis, coverage, and allocation. 

• Maintain Requirements: ensures that requirements and designs are accurate and current throughout the life cycle and facilitates reuse where appropriate. 

• Prioritize Requirements: assesses the value, urgency, and risks associated with particular requirements and designs to ensure that analysis and/or delivery work is done on the most important ones at any given time. 

• Assess Requirements Changes: evaluates new and changing stakeholder requirements to determine if they need to be acted on within the scope of a change. • Approve Requirements: works with stakeholders involved in the governance process to reach approval and agreement on requirements and designs.

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Elements :-

1. Level of Formality

2. Relationships 

3. Traceability Repository 

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Techniques :-

• Business Rules Analysis: used to trace business rules to requirements that they support, or rules that support requirements. 

• Functional Decomposition: used to break down solution scope into smaller components for allocation, as well as to trace high-level concepts to low-level concepts. 

• Process Modelling: used to visually show the future state process, as well as tracing requirements to the future state process. 

• Scope Modelling: used to visually depict scope, as well as trace requirements to the area of scope the requirement supports.

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When considering changes or additions to existing requirements, business analysts assess the impact of the proposed change by considering: 

• Benefit: the benefit that will be gained by accepting the change. 

• Cost: the total cost to implement the change including the cost to make the change, the cost of associated rework, and the opportunity costs such as the number of other features that may need to be sacrificed or deferred if the change is approved. 

• Impact: the number of customers or business processes affected if the change is accepted. 

• Schedule: the impact to the existing delivery commitments if the change is approved. 

• Urgency: the level of importance including the factors which drive necessity such as regulator or safety issues.

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Approve Requirements 

Purpose 

The purpose of Approve Requirements is to obtain agreement on and approval of requirements and designs for business analysis work to continue and/or solution construction to proceed. 

Description 

Business analysts are responsible for ensuring clear communication of requirements, designs, and other business analysis information to the key stakeholders responsible for approving that information.

Chapter - 3 Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring

Chapter - 3 (Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring)

Created by: Ramandeep Kaur


1. Plan Business Analysis Approach:

The plan of business analysis approach which indicates the planned work for a specific task from a methodology. It may align the goals, coordinate the business analysis task, including those tasks that can manage any risks and choose the techniques and tools.


2. Plan Stakeholder Engagement:

 In this plan, there is an understanding of cooperation between business analysts and stakeholders. The Stakeholder Engagement can perform different things like stakeholder analyst such as their roles in work, influence others, their power level and last but not least the ability to take the decision. In addition to this, they can describe their cooperation and need for communication. Apart from it, they can easily built and maintain their relationships with stakeholders

3. Plan Business Analysis Governance:

The business analysis governance plan describes the components of business analysts that are in the support of role of governance. In the business analysis governance, there is a work that prioritizes by a business person who knows their responsibility regarding discussions, should take decisions to make changes in the process and they also have the responsibility to change requests. The person who proposes the process of change has the authority to change any documentation.

4. Plan Business Analysis Information Management:

The plan of business analysis information management indicates the stored information developed by a business analyst. There should be proper, organized and detailed information. Additionally, they should develop requirements and designs and maintained characteristics.

5. Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements:

The performance improvements in business analysis refer to work maintenance and monitoring. There are various elements including the performance of analysis, measure the assessments, examine the results and the actions are required for the improvement. The business analysis performance improvements that define the main tasks which must be done within time. Instead of all this, there may require updates on the project.

Chapter 9 - Underlying Competencies

Chapter 9 - Underlying Competencies

Author - Zac Dewit

1. Analytical Thinking and Problem Solving

• The main concept here is that problems arise almost constantly in the workplace. A business analyst needs to adapt to this and create a solution that is most likely to have a long term benefit. 
• The BA needs to be able to work efficiently to find a solution that addresses the needs of all stakeholders.
• The main skills involved in this are;
• Creativity
• Decision making
• Learning
• Systems/Conceptual/Visual, Thinking
• Problem Solving

2. Behavioral Characteristics

• Behavioral Characteristics are traits that are related to how someone acts within the workforce. This refers to how well a person can gain the respect and trust of those around them. This includes everything from ethics, to Accountability and Adaptability. 
• At the end of the day, this asks the question. Am I someone that will help or hinder this business?

3. Business Knowledge

• Business Knowledge is the idea that a BA needs to understand these ins and outs of a business to help it effectively. This means understanding the product or service they are selling, understanding how this is done, and knowing why it is done the way it is. This gives the BA a greater chance to implement change that will have actual benefits.

4. Communication Skills

• Communication is defined as the exchanging of information, opinions, or news. 
• In a business sense, this means talking and listening to other departments or people and understanding what they say. Once you know what is going on, you can either relay the message to other necessary parties or use the information for your personal use. 
• There are many types of communicating, some of which include verbal communication, non-verbal, and written. Each has its own place in a business, but it is key that whichever type you use, that the receiver of your communication has that same understanding that you have.

5. Interaction Skills

• Interaction is meeting of two parties. This means that anytime you as a BA talk to an employee, customer, sponsor, or upper management you are having an interaction. It is important for a BA to be good at this so as to create a positive bond with each other. 
• If a BA is good at this, they will likely show strong leadership, and be someone that a team can look up to and respect. They will also be able to solve internal and external conflicts by moderating and negotiating. 

6. Tools and Technology

• In terms of tools, a BA uses them constantly. Like any job, you use the tools in front of you to perform the best possible task. These tools that a BA uses are usually technology-based.
• Some of these tools help with previous points. For example, email is used to help with communication and interaction, and models or digital statistic software can be used to understand and solve problems. 
• There are three main classes of tools;
• increasing office productivity
• assisting business analysis
• improving communication
• All these tools will improve the workspace and help you the Business Analyst, as well as the business as a whole to succeed.

Chapter 2 - Business Analysis Key Concept

Chapter 2: Business Analysis Key 
Concept
Submitted By: Aishveen Kaur Gill

Ques: What is Business Analysis?

Ans: Business analysis is the practice of enabling change in an enterprise by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders. Business analysis is the discipline of recognizing business needs and findings solutions to various business problems. In simpler words, it is a set of tasks and techniques which work as a connection between stakeholders. These help them to understand organization's structure, policies, and operations, they can also recommend solutions to help the business reach its goals. 

Business analysis is about understanding how your organization functions to fulfill its purposes. It entails defining the abilities the firm needs to provide products to the external stakeholders.

Ques: What is BACCM?

Ans: Business Analysis Core Concept Model(BACCM) is a conceptual framework of six core concepts critical to the business analysis profession. Understanding how each core concept relates to the other five core concepts will help you to see the system as a whole, know what question to ask and understand stakeholder motivation.

The six core concepts are:

Change: Transforming from one state to another.  Your goal is to prevent harmful change and promote potentially beneficial change.

Need: Something of potential value to an organization. A need might not be actionable until it becomes a requirement. A requirement is a usual representation of a need.

Solution: A solution might exist but not be identified or implemented. A design is a usable representation of a solution.

Stakeholder: Someone who has a relationship with the change or any of the other core concepts. They can be involved at many different levels. A good practice is to think about stakeholders in relation to value. The triangle of Value, Change and stakeholder allow you to integrate loss and prospect theory to better understand stakeholder motivation.

Value: Value is a much deeper concept than most people think. It goes beyond money. Isolate and explore what you mean by "value" and what the money will be used for.

Context: The background and environment in which you’re functioning.  The context influences the other concept items.

Ques: What is Business Analysis requirements classification schema?

Ans:  

1) Business Requirements- High- level statements of the goals, objectives, or needs of an organization. They usually describes opportunities that an organization wants to realise or problems that they want to solve. Often stated in a business case. 

2) Stakeholder requirements- Mid-level statements of the needs of a particular stakeholder or group of stakeholders. They usually describe how someone wants to interact with the intended solution. Often acting as a mid-point between the high-level business requirements and more detailed solution requirements.

3) Solution requirements- 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 documents.

Functional requirements- Usually detailed statements of capabilities, behavior, and

information that the solution will need. Examples include formatting text, calculating a number, modulating a signal.

             Non-functional requirements - Usually detailed statements of the conditions under which the solution must remain effective, qualities that the solution must have or it must operate. Example: reliability, test-ability, maintainability, availability.  

4)  Transition requirements- Usually, detailed statements of capabilities or behavior required only to enable the  transition from the current state of the enterprise to the desired future state, but that will thereafter no longer be required. Examples include recruitment, role changes, education, migration of data from one system to another.

Ques: What is Stakeholder analysis? And list of Stakeholders involved in Business Analysis.

Ans: Stakeholder Analysis is the process of identifying project stakeholders, how their needs may impact the project, and the contributions that the stakeholders will make to the requirements elicitation process.  Projects typically have a large number of stakeholders from many different areas of the organization.  Based on each stakeholder’s position and responsibilities, the level of their involvement and their importance to the project will vary.

List of Stakeholders:
1. Government
2. Employees
3. Customers
4. Suppliers
5. Creditors
6. Community
7. Trade Unions
8. Owners
9. Investors

Stakeholders	Stakeholder’s Concerns
Government	Taxation, VAT, employment, truthful reporting, legalities
Employees	Rates of pay, job security, respect, truthful communication, appreciation, recognition
Customers	Value, quality, customer care, ethical products.
Suppliers	Providers of product and services used in the end product for the customer
Creditors	Credit score, new contracts, liquidity.
Community	Jobs, involvement, environmental protection, shares, truthful communication.
Trade unions	Quality, worker protection, jobs.
Owners	Profitability, longevity, market share, market standing, succession planning, capital raising, growth
Investors	Return on investment, income

Ques: How do Business Analyst analyze Business Requirements?

Ans:   The Business Analysis Requirements Analysis & Design Definition knowledge describes the tasks that business analysts perform to structure and organize requirements discovered during elicitation activities, specify and model requirements and designs, validate and verify information, identify solution options that meet business needs, and estimate the potential value that could be realized for each solution options.
These two areas are often mixed because the focus shift is constant: Usually, a requirement (the need) leads to a design (the solution) which in turn may drive the discovery and analysis of more requirements.

Requirements	Designs
View six months sales data across multiple organizational units in a single view.	A sketch of dashboard.
Reduce amount of time required to pick and pack a customer’s order.	Process model.
Record and access a medial patient’s history.	Screen mock-up showing specific data field.
Develop business strategy, goals and objectives for a new business.	Screen mock-up showing specific data field.
Provide information in English and French.	Prototype with text displayed in English and French.

As shown in the figure below, the Requirements and Design cycle in Business Analysis can be complex and recursive. The Business Requirements gathering is followed by Stakeholder Requirements, Solution Requirements and Transition Requirement, and all these types of requirements may require some sort of Design (e.g. Process model, Screen mock-up, Prototype, etc.) to validate them or generate other requirements from them.
Business Analyst and Designers are not rivaling. Sometimes the same Design techniques are used to eliciting, modelling, and analyzing requirements. That is why a Business Analyst must know design techniques too e work closely with Designers, contributing to an initial design level, so both approaches can satisfy the customer’s need, serving as a secure foundation for software development.

Chapter 1 : Introduction

What is Business Analysis? 

The Business Analyst is a specialist of progress. Business Analysis is a trained methodology for acquainting and overseeing change with associations, regardless of whether they are revenue driven organizations, governments, or non-benefits.
Business analysis is used to identify how organizations work and what type of changes are needed.

"Business Analysis Helps Businesses Do Business Better"

Who is a Business Analyst?

A business analyst or expert is somebody who analyze an association or business area, very theoretically and reports its business or procedures or frameworks, assessing the business model or its integration with technology. Business Analyst helps in controlling organizations in improving procedures, items, administrations and programming through information analysis.

What are tasks that BA performs?

BA performs many different tasks, they are not limited to one or two processes. Business Analyst helps the business to solve their issues which they are facing or will face in future. BA makes a team which gather all the important information about business and try to solve issues as soon as they can without any failure.

Techniques

It provides extra information on ways that a task may be performed during business analyzing.

Techniques have the following structure: 

• Purpose
• Description
• Elements
• Usage Considerations

Purpose : The Purpose section tells about the purpose of technique is used for.

Description : The Description section tells about what the technique is and how it is used.

Elements: The Elements section tells about the key concepts.

Usage Considerations: The Usage Considerations section tells about the conditions under which the technique may be effective or not.

Tasks

A task may be performed formally or informally as part of business analysis. Business analysts perform tasks from all knowledge areas sequentially, or simultaneously.

These are the tasks which are performed by the Business Analysts:-

• Purpose 
• Description 
• Inputs 
• Elements 
• Guidelines/Tools 
• Techniques 
• Stakeholders 
• Outputs