Resources for Business Analysts

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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 [...]

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 [...]

Author: Geri Schneider Winters
Some of you may be working on systems with many complex relationships between the parts. These complex systems may be described as a system of systems, or may be described as a product line, or perhaps both at once.
In these cases, you will often find that the requirements of a large, overall [...]

Author: Geri Schneider Winters
Another great question came from Adesh Sharma about whether or not he could write alternatives to alternatives in use cases.
There is no actual standard for the formatting of a use case, just guidelines and best practices. Your primary goal in writing use cases is communication. No matter how you structure a use [...]

Author: Geri Schneider Winters
I get my best ideas for these tips from you, my readers. This tip is a response to a question from Pete McNally on how to document requirements for reports and whether or not those requirements should be use cases.
Use cases are really meant for describing a process or task. If [...]

Author: Geri Schneider Winters
When you find an alternative to a use case basic flow, you have two different ways to handle it. One way is to put the alternative in the steps of the basic flow. That way of handling alternatives was described in a previous tip.
Another way to handle alternatives is to make a [...]

Author: Geri Schneider Winters
Consider all the different kinds of requirements you write – Use Cases, Business Rules, Security, Database, Performance, Usability, Reliability, Regulatory, “shall” requirements. Good requirements are well-defined. How can you determine if your requirements are well defined?
We often hear that good requirements are testable. This means you have some precise, unambiguous way of [...]