Agile
Business Analysis
Business
analysis is performed to define and validate a solution that meets business
needs, goals or objectives.
This
definition is breakdown as follows;
Ø identify
the business problem.
Ø Understand
the problems of day to day business operations of an organisation.
Ø Define
the problems
Business
analysis is all about understanding how various organisations function to
achieve a particular goal, which enables them to describe the capacities firms
need to provide adequate products to the external shareholders.
Therefore,
as a business analyst, you have to understand how a firm business process works
on a general basis;
Ø Who
is involved in business activities or projects?
Ø What
does each person do?
Ø What
are the necessary resources required?
Ø What
are the goals and objectives of the business?
Ø How
does a company’s software application works?
Once
a business analyst understands an overview of the present state of
organisations; he or she would be able to contribute and help in the ongoing
business operations; make details strategy to achieve business goals and
objectives, define how stakeholders and distinct business components
communicate; which could base on the project demand such as; support from
stakeholders, modification, improvement and upgrading in existing applications.
3
things to understand as a Business Analyst
Identify the major
challenges of an organisation.
Define goals and
objectives
Analyse the
requirement for the business changes
It is also important
to understand the impact analysis- way of collecting data and supposition in
support of any change in business.
System
Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
This
is a structured project management model that describes the stages required to
build an IT system from inception to final result
Planning-
this involves the identification and definition of project scope to determine the
comprehensive action plan for the project and pinpointing the problem to solve.
It also describes what happens throughout the entire life cycle and determines
the success of the project
Requirement
analysis- at this phrase project team has finish
planning, now they need to perform an analysis of the system functional
requirement analysis to ensure it will meet the target objectives, which will
be finalised and documented
Designing-
this phrase outline how to approach the design of the system architecture, user
interfaces, network, database and security to satisfy the requirement and
future update
Implementation-
strategy execution phrase (install new system)
Testing-
This phase involves testing and integration of the
system and all related procedures to assess if it performs as expected and
fully delivers on the requirements.
Evaluation-
keep system healthy and improve (i.e. Maintenance)
Deliverables
from Analysis
These
are different types of documentation a business analyst needs to do to deliver
a project in the organisation;
Business
Requirement Document (BRD) is a document where BA is the
primary contributor to the document; this list all high-level requirements of
the project, which states what the project all about, challenges and company’s
objectives.
Functional
Requirement Document (FRD) this document contains the
features and capabilities of the application. This document explains what is
expected to be done by the various team in an ongoing project.
Technical
Requirement Document (TRD) this is a combination of BRD
and FRD put together to find a better solution to translate this information
into a technical requirement. It is also a designing pacification document. So,
in planning and designing there is need for technical requirement document
where technical team combines high level from BRD and FRD into the technical
components, themes or modes.
Requirement
Traceability Matric (RTM) This is a document that
links requirements throughout the validation process. The
Requirements Traceability Matrix aims to ensure that
all requirements defined for a system are tested in the test
protocols. This is also a stage where specific requirements are translated into
a developmental task. As a business analyst, you require to test and validate
all documents gathered for a specific project, to ensure that users stories
such as; scope, requirements and deliverable define its tasks and remain as is,
when compared to the baseline.
Business Process Flow- this represents the
visual presentation of business process plans of ongoing company’s project; which
is commonly prepared using Microsoft Visio
Test Plan- is almost like
high-level summary which involves system integration and system testing of all
requirements; which states testing plans and how different component can be
tested.
Review & Sign
Offs- Note; all these
documents none of them is valid until is review & sign-offs. For instance, once a business analyst
finishes BRD or FRD, there is a need to review it by business manager or
sponsors; if it is acceptable, they will sign off. However, the documents could
be shared through email or send using Microsoft share point to the business for
review and sign-offs.
Review Roles and
Responsibilities
Understand the
existing model: as a business analyst, you require knowing different
business analysis model. For example, some organisation adopts traditional
waterfall, agile and most companies try to use a hybrid model which comprise of
both methodologies.
Understand the
current structure of organisations
Define and implicit
what the organisation problem is.
Identify what the
organisational goals are.
Here are my
thoughts about Agile Business Analysis in existing organisations
Comments