The document outlines the role and importance of business analysts in organizations, detailing their responsibilities in defining solutions that align with business goals. It discusses the principles and standards of the business analysis profession, as well as levels of certification such as CBAP and CCBA from the IIBA. Techniques for eliciting requirements and ensuring successful communication among stakeholders are also emphasized, illustrating how business analysts contribute to project success.

1. Business Analysis –
Defining the Optimal Solution
Presented by
Jennifer Colburn,
CBAP, PMP
July 21, 2010
http://www.stellman-greene.com/2007/08/03/qa-how-

2. Jennifer C. Colburn, CBAP, PMP
 Senior Business Analyst at Kindred Healthcare
 CBAP (Certified Business Analysis Professional) by
the IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis)
 PMP (Project Management Professional) by PMI
(Project Management Institute)
 VP of Education for Louisville Chapter of the IIBA
 Member of the IIBA’s Business Analysis Competency
Model Committee
 Just returned from European vacation- London,
Brussels, Germany, and Croatia.

3. Business Analysis –
Defining the Optimal Solution
 Overview of Business Analysis Profession
 Key Terms- Solutions and Requirements
 BABOK Knowledge Areas
 Elicitation Techniques
Presentation material from the BABOK 2.0 (unless otherwise stated)

4. 4
International Institute of Business Analysis
TM
Develop and maintain standards for the
practice of business analysis and for the
certification of its practitioners
The IIBA
TM
is an international not-for-profit professional
association for business analysis professionals.
Founded in 2003
www.theiiba.org
Vision
The world's leading association for
Business Analysis professionals
Mission
KBa

5.  Analogous to the PMI and the PMBOK, the IIBA has
authored the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge
(BABOK) reflecting generally accepted practices in
the Business Analysis community.
 Released in 2005
 Version 2.0 released March 31, 2009
Business Analysis Body of KnowledgeTM

6. 6
BABOK Knowledge Areas

7. CBAP Certification
 Certified Business Analysis Professional
 7,500 hours business analysis work experience in last
ten years
 Experience and expertise in four of six knowledge areas
 150 question multiple choice exam
 Almost 1000 CBAPs internationally
 At the end of 2010, the IIBA will also offer Certification of
Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA), an
intermediate level designation.

8. Value of a Business Analyst
 Anyone who has ever worked on a complex and
lengthy software development project knows that the
involvement of a business analyst can mean the
difference between success and failure.
 ~ Thomas Wailgum, CIO http://www.cio.com/article/343013/
 “Everyone agrees on the importance of the business
analyst role, but few know exactly what it is that
business analysts do.”
 ~ Carey Schwaber & Rob Carel, Forrester Research
April 2008

9. What is A Business Analyst?
 Works as a liaison among stakeholders in order to
understand the structure, policies, and operations of an
organization, and to recommend solutions that enable the
organization to achieve its goals.
 Understands how organizations function to accomplish
their purposes.
 Definition of organizational goals
 How those goals connect to specific objectives
 Determining courses of action that a business has to
undertake to achieve those goals and objectives
 Defining how various organizational units and stakeholders
within and outside the organization interact.
(from the Business Analysis Body Of Knowledge v. 2.0, p. 3)

10. Why a Project Needs a Business Analyst
http://developer.motorola.com/fromfasttrack/February_09/agile_versus_waterfall.gif/

11. Business Analysis
 Understanding:
 How an organization works
 Why the organization exists
 What are the organization’s goals and objectives
 How does an organization accomplish those goals
and objectives
 How does an organization need to change to better
accomplish those objectives and/or overcome
challenges
 Defining the scope of the solution
(from the IIBA “A Primer to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge” presentation)

12. Solution Definition
 A solution meets a business need by solving
problems and/or enabling the organization to take
advantage of an opportunity.
 System of interacting solution components such as:
software applications, web services, business
processes, business rules that govern that process,
an IT application, revised org structure, outsourcing,
insourcing, redefining job roles or any other method
of creating a capability needed by an organization.

13. Business Analysis and Solution Scope
 Business Analysis helps organizations define the
optimal solution for their needs, given a set of
constraints (time, budget, regulations, etc) under
which that organization operates.
 Solution Scope- the set of capabilities a solution
must support to meet the business needs.
 Project Scope- the work necessary to construct and
implement a particular solution

14. Complimentary Roles
 Project Manager – Project Scope: resources,
budget, schedule, plan, risks, quality.
 Business Analyst – Solution Scope: business
risks/issues, requirements related tasks in WBS,
solution quality, represent business.

15. Why a Project Needs a Project Manager and a
Business Analyst
 PM responsible for ensuring product delivered to
customer on time and within budget.
 BA responsible for ensuring product built according to
requirements and built correctly.
 Difference in focus is reason that both roles on team
are critical.
~ Barbara Carkenord, President B2T Training

16. Requirements Definition
 A condition or capability needed by a stakeholder to
solve a problem or achieve an objective.
 A condition or capability that must be met or possessed
by a solution or solution component to satisfy a
contract, standard specification or other formally
imposed documents.
 A documented representation of a condition or
capability as in 1) or 2).

17. Types of Requirements
 Business- high level goals, needs, objectives of
enterprise
 Stakeholder- needs of a given stakeholder and how
they interact with solution
 Solution –
 Functional
 Non-functional
 Transition - implementation requirements such as
data conversion

18. Knowledge Areas

19. Enterprise Analysis
 Understanding the “big picture”
 Define business goals the solution must meet
 Integrate requirements into larger business
architecture
 Support initiatives and long term planning
 Strategic planning, business case development,
Cost Benefit Analysis, feasibility studies
 “Why are we doing this?”

20. Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring
 Focus on planning for the BA processes and
activities.
 “What do I need to do?”
 Specify the how the business analysis tasks
will be performed
 Identify the deliverables produced
 Describe how changes will be controlled and
managed

21. Requirements Management and Communications
 Focus on presenting and communicating
documented requirements to all stakeholders,
including project team members, to bring the
group to consensus on project scope.
 Identify and manage change
 “Does everyone understand and agree?”

22. Elicitation
 Focus on gathering requirements from various
stakeholder groups
 Identify the tasks, knowledge and techniques
for capturing requirements
 “What do the Stakeholders need?”

23. Requirements Analysis
 Focuses on analyzing the data
 Defines the methods, tools, techniques to
structure raw data collected during elicitation
 Identifies gaps in requirements
 Defines the “solution” capabilities and can
serve as the foundation for selecting among
solution alternatives.
 “What must the solution do?”

24. Solutions Assessment & Validation
 Focus on ensuring the best approach is
chosen, that the solution will meet
stakeholder objectives, that the solution is
feasible, and guides solution “verification.”
 “Does the solution do what it is suppose to
do?”

25. BA Underlying Competencies
Analytical Thinking & Problem Solving-
 Creative Thinking
 Decision Making
 Learning
 Problem Solving
 Systems Thinking
 Behavioral Characteristics- ethics, personal
organization, trustworthiness
 Business Knowledge
 Communication Skills
 Interaction Skills- facilitation &negotiation, leadership &
influencing, teamwork
 Software Applications

26. Elicitation Techniques:
 Brainstorming
 Focus Groups
 Interviewing
 Observation
 Prototyping
 Requirements Workshop
 Survey/Questionnaire
 Document Analysis
 Interface Analysis

27. Brainstorming
 Brainstorming is an excellent way to foster creative
thinking about a problem.
 The aim is to produce numerous new ideas, and to
derive from them themes for further analysis.
 Best applied in a group - it draws on the experience and
creativity of all members of the group.
 Participants are encouraged to use new ways of looking
at things and free associate in any direction.

28. Focus Groups
 “A means to elicit ideas and attitudes about a
specific product, service or opportunity in an
interactive group environment. The participants
share their impressions, preferences and needs,
guided by a moderator.”
 Pre-qualified individuals
 Homogenous or Heterogeneous groups

29. Interviewing
 “Systematic approach designed to elicit information
from a person or group of people in an informal or
formal setting by talking to an interviewee, asking
relevant questions and documenting the responses.”
 One-on-one or Group
 Structured – pre-defined questions
 Unstructured – open-ended discussion

30. Observation
 “Means of eliciting requirements by conducting an
assessment of the stakeholder’s work
environment.”
 Also known as “Job Shadowing”
 Documenting details about current processes
 Enhance or change a current process
 Passive/Invisible
 Active/Visible

31. Prototyping
 Horizontal prototype
 Demonstrates outer layer of human interface only, such as menus
and screens; no logic behind the visualization
 Incremental prototype
 The final product is built as separate prototypes. At the end, the
separate prototypes are merged into an overall design
 Throw-away prototype
 Simple, quick approach - can be paper & pencil or screen mock-
ups
 Discarded when final system is developed
 Evolutionary (Breadboard) prototype
 A system that is continually refined and rebuilt until it is a fully
functioning system

32. Requirements Workshop
 “A structured way to capture requirements. A
workshop may be used to scope, discover, define,
prioritize and reach closure on requirements for the
target system.”
 Effective way to deliver high quality requirements
quickly
 Promote trust, understanding, and communication
among the stakeholders/team
 Produce deliverables that structure and guide future
analysis

33. Surveys/Questionnaire
 Collect information about customers, products, work practices
and attitudes from many people in a relatively short period of
time
 Can be Anonymous
 Closed - Respondent selects from predetermined choices
 Easier to analyze, limited responses
 Useful when ranges of response is understood, but strength of
response needs to be determined
 Open - Respondent is free to answer as they wish
 Wider range of responses, difficult to quantify
 Useful when issues known but range of responses is not

34. Document Analysis
 “A means to elicit requirements by studying
available documentation on existing and
comparable solutions and identifying relevant
information”
 Gathering detail of AS-IS
 SMEs not available
 Enhancements to existing system
 Existing system to be included in new system

35. Interface Analysis
Purpose - identify interfaces between solutions and/or solution
components and define requirements that describe how they
will act.

36. Summary
 BA has a variety of techniques available to elicit
requirements depending on situation
 Goal is to deliver a feasible quality solution that
meets the business needs- the optimal solution
 Help prevent scope creep and reduce project risks,
including rework
 Provide traceability to business goals
 Business Analysis is a formally defined profession
 Internationally acknowledged certification program