Resources for
Business Analysts

Author: Geri Schneider Winters

When working on a project, you want to consider what kind of information you have, and what form is the best for documenting that information. These are two different things. A use case is a form of documentation that can be used for a variety of purposes. Sometimes a use case represents requirements, and sometimes it does not. So do not confuse the kind of information with the structure or form of the information.

Sometimes the easiest thing to do at first is to think of everything as information. As you collect and categorize information, you can decide which things represent requirements of the solution, and which things are other kinds of information. Often when I start a project, I am not sure what I have at first. I’ll collect a lot of information, then I will start to see patterns and categories to that information. As I structure the information into these patterns and categories, the process helps me to determine which things are requirements and which are other kinds of information. After that, I decide what form of documentation to use to communicate that information. I start with the information first, then I decide how to structure that information, what forms to put it in.

A number of companies I have worked for were very focused on use cases. Everything was a use case, the only requirements they had were use cases. But this was causing problems, because all the requirements were not use cases, and they were using use cases for purposes other than requirements. Needless to say, people at these companies were very confused. So instead of focusing on how the requirements were structured (use cases), I focused everyone on the kind of information they were collecting. This information represents context or scope, but that information looks like future state. Once I had determined what kind of information they had, then I guided them to appropriate forms of documentation. I did have use cases for both context and requirements, and I had other kinds of requirements documents as well. This approach cleared up a lot of confusion at those companies.

I have used state machines for analysis and for detailed design. I have used use cases and activity diagrams for context as well as for requirements. A component diagram can represent a logical or a physical model. If you know what kind of information you have, you can make a separate decision about the form you use to communicate that information. Typically the form you use will depend on the audience (or consumers) of the information.

Here are some ideas of what I think of as kinds of information vs forms of information. You may not completely agree with the two lists, but I hope they lead you to thinking about the kinds of information as being separate from the forms of information.

Kinds of information

• Context
• Scope
• Problems
• Solutions
• Requirements
• Future State
• Needs
• Wants
• Dreams
• Wishes
• Constraints
• Limitations
• Risks
• Technology
• Bug Reports
• Feature Requests

Forms of information

• Use Cases
• Shall Statements
• Test Cases
• User Stories
• Scenarios
• User Interface Designs
• Wireframes
• FURPS
• Prototypes
• Flow charts
• Activity diagrams
• State machines
• Truth tables
• Report Specifications
• Data Dictionaries
• Data Models
• Domain Models
• Object Models
• Business Requirements
• Business Rules

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Now it is your turn.

Do you see that kind of information and form you put it in are two different things? What kinds of information do you work with? What forms of information do you work with?

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You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…

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* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Resources for Business Analysts site at http://www.writingusecases.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as a Business Analyst in IT.

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Author: Geri Schneider Winters

As Business Analysts, our job goes far beyond being a note-taker, in other words listening to people talk, writing down what they say and calling it requirements. Notice that the term Business Analyst implies that we analyze. We need to analyze requirements and information and that is some of the skill we bring to the table. Andrew Midkiff and I were having lunch the other day and discussing what analysis means to us as working Business Analysts. And we came up with at least a couple of different things that a Business Analyst should do that are called analysis.

Andrew thinks of analysis as Requirements Analysis. So I asked him what he meant by that. A lot of people use that term, but what do they mean? He said Requirements Analysis is looking at the information that you are provided and analyzing it. It is a process where you probe and question to tease out the actual business needs that require a solution. You should be asking these kinds of questions:

• Where is there a lack of information?
• Where do you have not enough detail?
• Do the requirements as they are given to you make sense, i.e. are these truly things that are required of the solution?
• Does the information you were provided describe actual “requirements” in a business sense or something else, such as solution?
• As you compare all the requirements and use cases you have collected to each other do they make sense as a whole? Is this a cohesive, accurate description of the project?
• Has the stakeholder given you true requirements of the system, or rather a description of how things work today?

In this kind of analysis we really want to probe and question. I remember one company I worked for, an insurance company, there was a project to create a system to use to input applications for insurance. They were going to store information about the subscriber using a unique identifier, which was a good idea. So there was a requirement – “The system has to uniquely identify the subscriber”. But then they were going to store dependents of the subscriber by first name, because they assumed that would be unique. I probed and questioned, I asked them does this make sense. I gave some examples. Look at the example of George Foreman who named all of his children George Foreman. In a more common example, my sister was married and had a daughter she named Heather. She was divorced, and remarried a man who had a daughter named Heather. So now there were two Heathers in the same family. In both of these cases we have direct dependents of the subscriber who have the same name. This shows that the requirement to identify dependents by first name was a poor one. The requirement was rewritten as – “The dependents of a subscriber have to be uniquely identified within that policy.” As an Analyst it is my job to question that kind of thing, to really think about what I am being told. To question it and probe and make sure it really does make sense.

In a different perspective from Andrew’s, when I think of analysis I tend to think of information analysis. This is where I like to use something like a class diagram to show pieces of information and the relationships between the pieces of information. And I like to use a state diagram to show a particular piece of information and its states. What I am looking for is how the information changes over time and what causes those changes to happen. I’m not so interested in finding all the attributes of the class (or piece of information), but rather I want to know what about that information causes changes in my business process (or what in my business process causes changes in the information).

When I do that information analysis, I’m really looking at a perspective that cuts across the use cases. The use cases each describe individual processes. Then the information analysis goes across those processes to show how each of those processes contributes to some change in the information. This is also how I’m finding more business rules or triggers about what happens in the business over time as information progresses through the company.

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Now it is your turn.

Post a comment and let me know - when you think of analysis, what do you mean by it?

Are your thoughts more like mine, Andrew’s, or something different?

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You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…

START BYLINE

* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Resources for Business Analysts site at http://www.writingusecases.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as a Business Analyst in IT.

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Author: Geri Schneider Winters

Have you noticed the examples of requirements elicitation on my blog? In one case, I had a bit of a contest, using a game to elicit information. You can see this technique by looking in the category Online Game on the blog. Then I had a survey to elicit information. You can see that survey by looking in the category Survey on the blog. Today I am going to use the information from the survey to show you another technique you might use when developing requirements. That technique is writing Personas (or Personae for you Latin fans).

You write a Persona when you want to understand your customers better. This Persona is a story you will tell about a typical (but not real) customer. The Persona is a composite story about your typical customers, made very lifelike.

In looking over my survey, I find that 75% of you who responded are working Business Analysts. You are looking for a wide variety of information, but typically in shorter forms such as tips and examples, rather than classes. You are typically alone in front of your computer when looking for information, and could be anywhere at any time of the day or night. You are looking for an online, interactive, multimedia experience. So let’s take that information and develop some Personas.

I started off by imaging a relatively young person with some work experience who is really comfortable with the computer and internet, and who readily goes online to find information at any time a question arises. Now I imagine some real people and write their stories.

© Christophe Baudot . Image from BigStockPhoto.com

Karen Carmichael is 27 years old. She graduated from a U.S. college with a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Information Systems. She has worked as a Business Analyst for a large bank in Chicago, Illinois for the 5 years since graduation on a wide variety of software projects. Karen is single and loves sports. She is a member of her company’s softball team in the summer, and an avid football and basketball fan in the fall and winter.

Karen feels that she received a fine education in college, but working on real projects for a major corporation is quite different from her school projects. She has many peers at her bank that she can talk with, but often situations arise that are not easy to resolve.

Karen is quite comfortable with a computer and searching for information on the internet. She really likes to be able to open up a search engine and find the answer to any question right away. The problem with search engines is that she often gets a lot of unrelated information in response to her queries. Karen has a number of sites bookmarked on her computer for her favorite sports teams. She wants to create a similar set of bookmarks for sites that have information for Business Analysts. When she has a question, she can just open a web browser and select a couple of those sites to find the information she needs.

© Mateusz Zagorski. Image from BigStockPhoto.com

Raj Reddy is 32 years old. He graduated from a prestigious Engineering College in India with a B.S. in Computer Science, and worked as a programmer in India for 3 years. He then came to the US and completed an MBA with the goal of managing software projects. He has been working as a Project Manager for a major health insurance organization in San Francisco, California for the last 5 years, taking on roles of increasing responsibility. Raj is married and his wife is in India. He wants to return to India to join his wife and family, and to bring what he has learned about software development to some of the smaller companies in his home state.

Raj plans to be a consultant and carry a computer with a wireless card everywhere he works. He wants to be able to quickly find information on the internet to help him in his job. This will include information about Business Analysis, because he often finds that the roles of Project Manager and Business Analyst overlap, so he needs to know how to do both jobs.

When he is not as busy with work, Raj likes to continually learn new things. It is hard for him to sign up for classes, because he may not be available for every class meeting. So having the classes online in a self-study format is a great solution. He wants to be able to study the material whenever he has time, and does not want to have a deadline for when he has to complete the class. Raj is a friendly guy, and fears he will miss the daily interactions with people at work. He is looking for an online community that he can access any time he is online to chat with other Business Analysts.

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Now it is your turn.

Post a comment and let me know - does either profile seem like you? Which one and why?

Try writing one or more personas about your customers so that the people and their needs are more real to you.

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You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…

START BYLINE

* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Resources for Business Analysts site at http://www.writingusecases.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as a Business Analyst in IT.

END BYLINE

Author: Geri Schneider Winters

With all the focus on Use Cases, it can be easy to forget that they are not the only kind of requirements. Use Cases are very good for some kinds of requirements, but really bad for other kinds of requirements. One of our challenges as Business Analysts is to determine the right way to document the requirements for a particular project.

When starting on a new project, one of the first things I want to find out is “Who or what is driving the requirements for this project?”. I was really reminded of this when I read Richard Denney’s book “Succeeding With Use Cases: Working Smart to Deliver Quality”, a book I highly recommend.

If the project is being driven by changes in processes, then Use Cases probably make a lot of sense, since they are good at describing processes. But you could also use User Stories, Scenarios, Flow Charts, or Test Cases to describe processes. Which you choose will depend on corporate culture and the software development process that is used on your project.

In this case, find out what is driving the process change. If the process change is coming from the way that people work, then you can find requirements by talking to the people or watching them work. If the process change is coming from a technology change, then you may need to start working on the requirements by learning about the new technology. I worked on one project which was to design software to run on hardware that tested IC chips. The source of my requirements was the tests that had to be run on the IC chips. I documented those tests as Use Cases because that is what the customer wanted me to use for requirements.

If the project is purely a change in underlying technology, then a lot of your requirements will be the non-functional requirements (often called FURPS). You might have to write these requirements as formal “Shall” statements. Look over a template for a Supplementary Specification for ideas of the kinds of requirements you might need.

For example, if I am installing COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) software, then I do not need Use Cases for how the software works. I might need Use Cases for how we will use the software in our company, if that information is not obvious. But I really need to know other kinds of information, such as how many users will use it at a time, what response is required, how many transactions per second it will have to handle, how many records will it have to store and process, and what kind of security is required to use it. I will have to talk with the folks in Enterprise Architecture to find any restrictions on where or how it can be installed. There may be a need for a new server, so I have to find out the contraints such as what platforms are allowed, or how much money we can spend on it.

In embedded systems, you may find that truth tables or state machines do the best job of describing the requirements. In this case, there is probably no human interaction, and the processes are all closely related to the hardware and how it works. A truth table or state machine is a good way to describe the different states of the system and how it is allowed to change.

Here are some ideas for kinds of things I have seen used (successfully) as requirements for different kinds of projects. Consider these to see if they are appropriate for your projects:

• Use Cases
• Shall requirements
• Test Cases
• User Stories
• Scenarios
• User interface designs
• FURPS requirements
• Prototypes
• Flow charts
• Activity Diagrams
• State Machines
• Truth Tables

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Now it is your turn.

How do you decide what kinds of things to use for requirements on your projects?

What other kinds of things have you used for requirements for your projects?

================================================

You are invited to re-publish articles from this blog, in your publication or website, as long as the article is intact and you include the following Byline paragraph (with live links) after each article you use…

START BYLINE

* Article used with permission from Wyyzzk, Inc.’s Resources for Business Analysts site at http://www.writingusecases.com This website of reports and tips contains information to help you succeed as a Business Analyst in IT.

END BYLINE

I am working on my website here at http://www.writingusecases.com for 2008. Because your input is important to me, I have created a short survey for you. If you have not taken the survey yet, there is still time!

I am getting really interesting feedback. You can see the early results here:

Click Here to See the Results

Taking the survey is so easy! It is multiple choice and should only take you about a minute or so to complete. There are comment fields throughout where you can give me feedback in your own words.

Just Click This Link to add your feedback to the survey page:

Click Here to Take the Survey

The website will be designed to match your needs that you tell me. This survey will stop at 100 people or the end of the day Thursday January 10. So if you want your desires to count, click the link now and take a minute to tell me what you want from me in 2008.

Thanks so much!

Geri

I am working on my website at http://www.writingusecases.com
for 2008. Because your input is important to me, I have created
a short survey for you.

This is so easy! It is multiple choice and should only take you
about a minute or so to complete. There are comment fields
throughout where you can give me feedback in your own words.
Just click this link to go to the survey page:

Click Here to take survey

The website will be designed to match your needs that you tell
me. This survey will stop at 100 people or the end of the day
Thursday January 10. So if you want your desires to count, click
the link now and take a minute to tell me what you want from me
in 2008.

Thanks so much!

Geri

I came across this article today that talks about the outlook for IT jobs in 2008 (it appears to be just for the US, though the article does not say that specifically).  In general, the outlook is good. Even though employees are feeling a bit pessimistic, employers are expected to increase hiring in IT in 2008. You can find the whole article at Internet News

Look especially at the final paragraph, with this quote from Robert Half Technology Executive Director Katherine Spencer Lee:

“Managers also are emphasizing the importance of business and soft skills as they relate to technology. With IT now integrated into all other aspects of a company’s operations, the demand for IT professionals who are able to tie a firm’s technical capabilities to its business needs is strong,” Lee says. “Employers are willing to pay competitive rates to recruit and retain those who can communicate effectively with people outside the computer world, are familiar with the unique needs of various end-users — both within and outside the organization — and are able to use technology to solve business challenges.”

Does that sound like you? It sure sounds to me like a description of a good Business / System Analyst. So sharpen your skills for 2008 - there are great opportunities available for you.

Thanks to everyone who attended the teleseminar this evening. There were a lot of great questions!

• How would you start writing out a test plan?
• I want to know the IT skills for a business analyst who is starting as a fresher?
• What are the best practices to follow when you start on a new project? What are the most important factors one should address, are there any templates/checklist available to streamline your entry into the new environment?
• How do you transform business requirements to functional requirements, to the level that the developers can start coding from it?
• Where do you start creating a Requirements Plan?
• Do you have any tips for documenting requirements for a web application? Including creative comps.
• How do you propose handling request for an example of an SRS when interviewing for a BA position?
• To what degree is it appropriate for BA to get involved in screen design? I find it useful bringing Visio mock-ups to the meetings with focal points. Then I reuse those in screen specification document that goes to developers.

There were a few other questions asked as well. To hear all the answers, go to the teleseminar page using this link, and you will find the recording posted for the call. It is in MP3 format. You can download it, or you can listen to it online.
Ask Geri A Question

Enjoy!

Do you like this idea? Is it useful to you? Would you like me to schedule more of this type of teleseminar? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

Geri

I’m happy to see that people are posting questions for Monday’s teleseminar. You can click on the link below to post questions any time between now and Monday at 4pm, you do not have to wait until Monday.

EVENT: Ask Geri a Question
DATE & TIME: Monday, December 17th at 4:00pm Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…
http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=1398315

During the call, I’ll first answer the questions that come in during the week, then answer live questions.

Be sure to call in or access the webcast on Monday to hear the questions and the answers.

Geri

A lot of people ask me about Business Analysis or the role of the Business Analyst.

So for all of you with questions, I have set up a no-charge teleseminar for you to Ask Me a Question. This will be on Monday, December 17 at 4pm EST.

You can type your questions by clicking on the link here, and also get the call in number and webinar link.

EVENT: Ask Geri a Question
DATE & TIME: Monday, December 17th at 4:00pm Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…
http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=1398315

What questions do you have? Let me know, and plan to attend on Monday to get the answers.

Best!

Geri