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Browsing All Posts filed under »Business Analysis«
Business Analysis Technique #2 – Benchmarking
Benchmarking is a valid, powerful and concrete way to compare a new system or process to the current, “as-is” state OR to compare multiple systems in a vendor selection process. To ensure each of those adjectives (valid, powerful and concrete) are met here’s some suggestions: Valid – ensure a level playing field in all systems […]
Pragnalysis team announce launch of free Requirements Management Software Tool – “ReqLine”
May 16, 2011 by Adrian Reed (UKAdrianReed)
On medium and large scale projects, requirements management can become a difficult overhead. Teams that rely on spreadsheet and word-processing software to create and manage requirements documents often find it difficult to maintain the traceability and inter-dependencies between requirements. We all know the value of tracing, tracking and maintaining our requirements documents, but until now […]
Business Analysis Technique #5 – Data Dictionary and Glossary
May 11, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
Equally at home with Use Case creation, or the earlier generation’s database analysis, Data Dictionaries and Glossaries provide a common place to store and retrieve definitions. They’re used by business and technical roles. The premise is to understand what is needed for a field of data or an entire table or record of data (aka […]
Business Analysis Technique #4 – Business Rules Analysis
April 29, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
Business Rules. Universal definitions or process descriptions that transcend a single use case or process flow. A little bit bigger than a glossary definition (such as income range, gender, ethnicity) but not quite a usage scenario in its own right. Business rules as they’re refined, adapted and updated are invaluable requirements assets – they really […]
Business Analysis Technique #20 – Problem Tracking
April 21, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
Problems, issues, bugs, defects, action items, punch list, clean up tables – so many synonymous terms for the same underlying concept – tracking known “stuff” and making sure it gets resolved before a product or service is released. While risk management concerns the known- unknown, management reserves address unknown -unknown, problem tracking is smack dab […]
Business Analysis Technique #11 – Focus Groups
March 31, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
Focus Groups – the 11th Technique listed in the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge employ a skilled facilitator(s) and a small group of prospective or current customers to seek out and understand what the customer or user wants and/or how they use a product or service. The information gathered from a focus group is powerful. […]
Business Analysis Technique #32 SWOT Analysis
March 22, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) is a venerable mainstay of management and MBA curriculum. While it’s typically applied at the organization level for strategic management, SWOT analysis can be a helpful technique for understanding the business perspective for a set of requirements or a project. It’s described in 9.32 of the BABOK™ A […]
Project Health Check : 5 serious project warning signs
March 19, 2011 by Adrian Reed (UKAdrianReed)
As experienced change practitioners, I’m sure we’ve all worked on projects that have been difficult. The unfortunate truth is that some projects gain so much momentum, they become “too big to fail”. These projects steamroll their way through organizations, and have a tendency to displace anyone that dares to challenge them. Sometimes when working closely […]
Business Analysis Technique #31 Surveys and Questionnaires.
March 11, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
Polls, surveys, questionnaires are synonymous terms for the same thing – asking people for their opinion on a topic. Chapter Nine of the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®), Second Edition includes Surveys and Questionnaires as the 31st technique. Surveys help teams understand what customers want. They will differ depending on whether they will […]
Business Analysis Technique #26 – Scenarios and Use Cases
March 2, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
Several years ago I shared a series of articles in the Rational Edge for IBM that showcased real life applications of use cases and incremental development. Two of those articles focused on replacing a legacy unemployment insurance system. The entire article provides a much more thorough introduction from that example – so take a quick […]
Business Analysis Technique #3 – Brainstorming
March 1, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
The whiteboard. The dry eraser. The multi-color pens. The overbearing meeting participant. Those four things often come together when thinking of brainstorming. It’s a technique among multiple management nexus disciplines and at the heart of agile, business analysis and project management. It can produce great results from a team. The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge […]
34 Business Analysis Techniques from The IIBA
February 25, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
Chapter Nine of the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®), Second Edition provides a concluding overview of thirty-four techinques used throughout business analysis and the six processes defined within the BABOK®). I’ll highlight the most frequently used ones in my career over the next several weeks. If one of the following techniques does not make […]
Lean Startup (for product and software development)
February 21, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
The tenth anniversary of Agile is upon us. We just concluded a 12 part review of the Agile Manifesto. Agile was a software development out to business, innovation. Or it could have been called “geeks to execs”. Now for a fast forward, to today. Emerging trends and practices include those that fuse business, design and […]
Agile Principle 12 – Team reflects, tunes and adjusts
February 15, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
The last principle of the Agile Manifesto provides for learning and adjustment by the team. This adjustment allows for continuous process improvement. Teams don’t allow themselves to become stagnant or stale – they change and become better. The manifesto doesn’t proscribe how often and allows some leeway. The definition of “at regular intervals” provides sufficient […]
Your project needs a maverick.
February 14, 2011 by Adrian Reed (UKAdrianReed)
Project teams are complex and it’s essential that the team works together productively to achieve the end goal. Every so often, there will be a ‘project maverick’ that upsets the balance. Perhaps they ignore the plan, or escalate an issue straight to the CEO. Mavericks are often seen as a Project Managers worst nightmare, as […]
Agile Principle 11 – Self Organizing teams produce best architectures, requirements and design
February 14, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
Agile manifesto – principles number 1 – 10 were ones I could embrace or at least accept. And yes I know it’s your 10th birthday this month. But really, number 11 is a difficult one for this control oriented, project management/ manager type to swallow. You’re saying that self-organizing teams can get it done? Yeah […]
Agile Principle 10 – Maximize work NOT done!
February 13, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
The tenth principle of the Agile manifesto may be my favorite one – simplicity, the art of maximizing the amount of work NOT done. Too often methodologies, frameworks and process improvements get mired down in heavy process and documentation. It’s a balancing act. It’s important to be neither too much, nor too little – just […]
Agile Principle 9 – Agility is a result of technical excellence and good design
February 12, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
The ninth principle of agile brings in important aspects of enterprise architecture and system design. Technical excellence is a board term. it can be applied to hardware, software, network infrastructure, process management, project management, programming, release management, etc. I also think of enterprise architecture I hear technical excellence. While Agile is change driven, that does […]
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May 27, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
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