Business Analysis Intro

Esther A.

Training Goal
Everyone will gain in-depth understanding of Business Analysis, the process, tools and
general know-how via theory and hands-on to help you interview confidently and
start a successful career.
Let’s Begin!  Before we start, any questions?
  A family of 4 wants to buy a house from JayJay Homes., a 10-time
builder of the year in Canada.
Illustration of  JayJay Homes CEO wants to capitalize on the growing number of
the Day immigrants in Canada
 Family of 4 wants the best value for their money that satisfies
basic needs such as 3 bedrooms, big kitchen and a basement.
 Systems Analysis: Improving existing business processes in the context of
developing or enhancing software systems.

Evolution of Requirements Engineering: Expanded upon systems analysis by emphasizing

eliciting, documenting, and managing requirements for software
Business development projects.
Analysis
Evolution into Business Analysis: Wider scope beyond software
development. Emphasizes starting strategic, and focusing on aligning
business goals with technology solutions in line with company objectives.
  International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA): "Business analysis is the
practice of enabling change in an organizational context, by defining needs
and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.“

Definition of  Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) Guide: "Business analysis is

the practice of identifying business needs and finding technological
Business solutions to business problems. Business analysis involves defining business
Analysis requirements and finding technology solutions to business problems.“

 TechTarget: "Business analysis is the process of studying a business or other

organization to identify business opportunities, and define and validate
solutions to business problems.“
 1. Enabling [positive] change
 The need for change (or potential change) is always what kickstarts
analysis.

BA Definition 2. Studying, identifying and defining business needs (via requirements

elicitation and analysis)
Keywords 3. Finding, defining, validating and recommending technological solutions
to business problems and opportunities
4. Deliver value; effectively moving the organization from as-is to future
state – optimized.
  Anyone that does the following:
 Identifies business needs, business processes and solutions as-is.
 Analyzes a company’s processes and systems with the intention to
provide viable, feasible, desirable and ethical solutions.
 Gathers, translates and analyzes accurate requirements.
Who’s a  Recommends effective and efficient to-be solutions that align with
organizational goals and will (potentially) be implemented to improve
Business business functions.
Analyst?  BA as a job title (noun) and BA as a responsibility / description of duty
(adverb)
 That means, Product Manager, System Analyst, Application analyst, Project
Manager, Product Owner, and any other job title.
 You DO NOT need technology depth, but aim for domain and technical
knowledge as much as possible.
Bridging the
Divide

 To get from point A (As-is) to end (To-be), there is a solution and a process.
  A set of changes to the current state of an organization that are made in
order to enable that organization to meet a business need, solve a problem,
or take advantage of an Opportunity (BABOK guide v2 p.4)

 A Solution meets a business need by resolving a problem or allowing an

organization to take advantage of an opportunity. (BABOK guide v2 p232)
Solution
 Solutions are created to meet the needs (capability or condition) needed by
the Business / Organization

 Can be technical or non-technical, but for this scope, we are talking about
technical solutions.
  A solution is a specific way of satisfying a need in a context.
 Business analysts deal with requirements and designs to arrive at optimal
solution.
 Projects, Programs or Products are kicked-off (watch the lingo) to
implement a solution within an agreed scope, time and with limited
Solution resources.
 Examples: New business process, New business rules / logic, new software
applications – in-built or off-the shelf, upgrading an old application,
outsourcing a process and more!
 Give an example of a non-technical solution that a Business Analyst
might recommend to improve a business process.

Quiz 1 A) Implementing a new software system

B) Redesigning the office layout for better collaboration
C) Conducting server maintenance
D) Upgrading hardware components
 Why is it essential for a solution to align with an organization's goals
and objectives?

A) It ensures compliance with legal regulations

Quiz 2 B) It guarantees the solution is technically robust
C) It ensures the solution adds value and supports the organization's
mission
D) It reduces operational costs
 Define what a "solution" means in the context of business analysis.

A) It refers to a specific, verifiable, and documented statement

Quiz 3 B) It is the outcome that addresses a business need or problem
C) It is the process of writing code
D) It represents a project timeline
 How do Business Analysts contribute to problem-solving within an
organization?

A) By managing finances
Quiz 4 B) By identifying, analyzing, and recommending solutions
C) By conducting market research
D) By supervising production processes
 Name two key responsibilities of a Business Analyst.

A) Writing code and debugging

Quiz 5 B) Requirement gathering and analysis
C) Designing marketing campaigns
D) Managing employee schedules
 What is the primary objective of business analysis?

A) Implementing software solutions

Quiz 6 B) Identifying and solving business needs
C) Managing financial transactions
D) Conducting market research
Break (15  Whew!!! Let’s take few minutes to recharge 
minutes)
BA’s work is Let’s break these down!

always on
1. Project
Projects or 2. People (Tomorrow)
Products, 3. Products (Under Agile frameworks, second half of this course)
alongside
other People
  Is temporary - Has a firm start and end.
 It ends - either on success or failure of the project, but it ends.
 Naturally, anything ongoing – Product, Operations, are not projects, although,
they would consist of projects.
 Aims to maximize resources
 Ingredients - people, time, money and tools
What is a  Operate under the concept of progressive elaboration
Project?  You get clarity over time
 Are structured, sized and delivered differently, even for similar projects
 Has multiple responsibilities and players involved
 Are typically carried out in phases (PLC)
 Different from SDLC
How does a  Business Need
 Customers
project come  Internal
to be?  External
 Follow-up from another project (phased, rather than expand
scope)
Let’s check  Government
these out in  Any source that delivers a business requirement
the Org. Chart
 The Business

Whenever you join a company – part of your 30 day plan is to identify who on the org chart you should be speaking with
  The overall goals and objectives that a business must meet in order to be
successful.
 They are the basis for Business Requirements
 Main areas of business needs:
1. Data and information
2. Systems
3. Applications
4. Infrastructure
Business Needs 5.
6.
Processes
Customer experience
7. Products, services and operations

 These needs may include building internal systems to handle business

growth, increasing revenue, improving customer satisfaction, reducing
costs, consolidating or integrating systems, and any need that helps them
generally stay competitive in the market.
 A company’s SWOT analysis review always introduce business needs.

1. Mission Changes: Change in company direction

 Amazon used to sell only books and was called Cadabra, Inc.

2. Strategic Changes: Change in how a company tackles a problem

 Kodak didn’t go Digital. (Risk of not changing direction)
 All companies now going “AI”
Business 3. Operational Changes: Change in the structure of the company.
Needs Triggers  Usually caused by mission and strategy changes.
 E.g., layoffs, reorganizations, furloughs, merging teams, migrations, etc.

4. Technological Changes
 Tech is now everywhere and it usually drives changes in strategy and operations

BAs must assess dependencies and risks while collecting requirements and
define change strategy accompanying the solution or recommendations.
  Building anything goes through a structured cycle.
 The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a structured and systematic
approach to software development that guides the design, creation,
Software testing, deployment, and maintenance of software systems
Development  The primary goal of SDLC is to ensure that software projects are completed
on time, within budget, and with a focus on quality and meeting user
Life Cycle: SDLC requirements.
 Generally used by and impacts software developers and the project team
as appropriate (RACI)
 • Distinct and Sequential Phases: Requirement Elicitation | Documentation |
Analysis; System | User Interfaces Design; Implementation; Testing;
Deployment; and Maintenance.
• Flexibility and Adaptability: SDLC models can be adapted based on project
requirements.
• Documented Process: SDLC mandates documentation of requirements,
SDLC design, and development processes to ensure smooth project management,
training of staff and even knowledge transfer.
Overview • Quality Assurance: Emphasizes rigorous testing and validation procedures to
ensure that the software meets specified requirements and functions as
intended.
• Applicability: SDLC is mostly applicable to Software projects and as long as
the requirements live across the SDLC phases, BAs are always involved
throughout.
PLC vis-à-vis
SDLC
  This is where BAs have more focus and spotlight
 Goal is to gradually over-time gather requirements from stakeholders
that meet Business needs
 In a nutshell, here is where BAs have full responsibility.
Business  Elicit
Requirements  Analyze
Analysis  Model
 Document scope, needs, impact, users, stakeholders, solution trees, and
more!
  The requirements are used to design the solution to be built.
 UI
 UX
 System
Design  Goal: All requirements get accurately translated (no loss to quality)
to specifications. (Short form specs)
 Specs will cover system architecture, physical look and feel as well
as user experience.
  Phase where the software developers actually write codes.
 Goal: Build the system according to the scope and functionalities laid
out in the requirements documentation by the BA.
Development  BAs are consistently working with developers to clarify the
requirements as needed. It may sometimes mean going back to a
stakeholder for clarification. (Edge cases)
 Verify that the Definition of Done or Acceptance Criteria are met
  Does the code written actually meet the Business needs as stated in
the requirements documentation?
 Did we miss some use cases? Do they work as expected?
 Testing (also called QA) is where we check that quality is intact.
 Developers and the team perform many types of testing such as unit
Testing tests, integration testing, regression testing, user acceptance testing,
and much more.
 Goal: Are we ready to deliver this to the sponsor / stakeholders? Does
it actually meet their needs and will they happily pay for what we have
built?
  If there’s green light after testing, and a Go/No-Go has been reached, the
solution is deployed to the customer or user.
 Deployments can be phased or big-bang depending on the risk,
constraints, complexity, cost and resources needed to maintain.
 Compliance, Training and Development team gets involved here as well.
Deployment Sometimes, Marketing and Corporate Communications team too.
 BAs support here by clarifying requirements to T&D folks, working with
PMs on user onboarding and working with users to ensure successful
deployment and use
 As users continue using the system, change requests may come up, and
BAs need to kickstart the change processes necessary.
  No system is perfect (yes, take that to the bank ), otherwise, there’ll be
no need for Customer Service.
 Issues pop up. Things get missed (e.g., a small portion of something done
Maintenance once in 18 months), and so on.
 BAs support as needed to clarify scope of the solution (in case its being
used for out of scope tasks), limitations, detailed trainings for super users,
and initiating change requests where needed.
 Name three typical phases in a project life cycle.
A) Inception, Design, Deployment
Exercise  B) Planning, Execution, Closure
C) Idea Generation, Prototype, Production
 Explain the purpose of the "Initiation" phase in a project's life cycle.
A) To identify stakeholders
2 B) To define project objectives and feasibility
C) To implement the project plan
 During which phase of a project life cycle are project requirements
typically defined and documented?
A) Execution
3 B) Planning
C) Initiation
 Which phase of the SDLC focuses on transforming the requirements into
a detailed design, including system architecture, database structure, and
program specifications?
A) Implementation
4 B) Testing
C) Design
D) Deployment
 During which phase of the SDLC do stakeholders collaborate with
business analysts to define the project's scope, objectives, and
feasibility?
A) Design
5 B) Planning
C) Requirements Analysis
D) Testing