Aspects missed, Techniques missed, Understanding requirements Contexts, Requirements context, Implicit requirements, Discovering deep structures for requirements in natural language, Effects of natural language, Transformational effects in natural language, 5 transformational processes, Nominalization, Nouns without reference index, Nouns without reference index, Universal quantifiers, Incompletely specified conditions, Incompletely specified conditions

1. LN MISHRA, CBAP
What BABoK
Does Not Teach
About Business
Analysis PART 1

2. DISCLAIMER
BABoK is a great attempt
in standardizing BA
processes
I have learnt a lot and
applied many concepts in
BABoK to my day to day BA
activities

3. ASPECTS MISSED
Requirements context and
Sources of requirements
Need to make implicit
requirements explicit
Discovering deep
structure from surface
structure

4. TECHNIQUES MISSED
Functional requirements
Kano model
Brainstorming Paradox
Checklist
Conflict resolution

5. UNDERSTANDING
REQUIREMENTS CONTEXTS

6. REQUIREMENTS CONTEXT
Understanding of
requirements context is vital
for BAs
Requirements context are
aspects which affect
requirements
Plan to understand
requirements context
Better the understanding of
requirements context, lower
the likelihood of incorrect
interpretation of the BE WITH THE BEST! 6

7. IMPLICIT REQUIREMENTS
Requirements needed but
not expressed
Stakeholders are under
the impression that the BA
knows the requirement
Checklists and Better
domain knowledge can
help to discover implicit
requirements

8. DISCOVERING DEEP STRUCTURES
FOR REQUIREMENTS IN NATURAL
LANGUAGE

9. EFFECTS OF NATURAL LANGUAGE
Subjective perception
Inherently ambiguous and
interpreted in multiple ways
Defined and read by people
with different knowledge,
social backgrounds, and
experiences
Diversity among the people
leads to misunderstanding and
misinterpretation
BE WITH THE BEST! 9

10. TRANSFORMATIONAL EFFECTS IN
NATURAL LANGUAGE
BE WITH THE BEST! 10

11. 5 TRANSFORMATIONAL
PROCESSES
Based on certain rules, business analysts can elicit the
deep structure (i.e., what the author of a requirement
really meant) from its surface structure (i.e., the
requirements). BE WITH THE BEST! 11

12. NOMINALIZATION
Due to
nominalization, a
(sometimes long-
lasting) process is
converted into a
(singular) event.
For example, manage
schedule could
actually mean Create,
Retrieve, Update,
Delete, Import and
Export schedule. BE WITH THE BEST! 12

13. NOUNS WITHOUT REFERENCE
INDEX
Nouns with missing
reference
Examples of terms that
contain incompletely
specified nouns
The requirement “Users shall
update data using their
devices” leads to the
following questions: Which
user? What data? Which
devices? 13

14. UNIVERSAL QUANTIFIERS
Typical universal
quantifiers are: All, always,
every, never, no, none, or
nothing etc.
They group a set of objects
and make a statement
about the behavior of this
set.
Stakeholders tend to group
objects together, even
though some of these
objects might be special
cases or exceptions BE WITH THE BEST! 14

15. INCOMPLETELY SPECIFIED
CONDITIONS
Apart from specifying
the behavior that
must occur when
conditions are met,
requirements should
also specify what
behavior must occur
if the condition is not
met.
BE WITH THE BEST! 15

16. INCOMPLETELY SPECIFIED
PROCESS VERBS
Some process verbs require
more than one noun to be
considered completely
specified
For example, the verb
“Communicate” requires at
least three aspects for
completeness:
What is being communicated
From where it is being
communicated and
To where it is being
communicated BE WITH THE BEST! 16