Introduction to Business Analysis

Classification: Restricted
Business Analysis
Training
Introduction to Business Analysis

Agenda
Introduction to Business Analysis
• What is a Project?
• Business Process – What and Why?
• Who is a Project Manager?
• Who is a Business Analyst?
• What is Business Analysis and why is it important?
• Roles, Responsibilities and necessary Skills for a Business Analyst
Introduction to SDLC
• Requirement Analysis
• Design Phase
• Development Phase
• Testing Phase
• Release & Maintenance
Current Trends in BA

What is a Business Process?
• It is a set of related tasks, performed to accomplish a specific organizational
goal. It can also be defined as a series of logically structured activities that
produce a specific service or product for customers.

Why do we need a Business Process?
• To become and remain
successful and
competitive, businesses
must continuously improve
their processes.
• Failure to do so is likely to
result in higher costs,
lower revenues, less
motivated employees and
fewer satisfied customers.

Need for Automating the Business Processes?
• Automation is moving the needle of business efficiency and simplifying
human lives in general.
• Businesses that have automated their processes cut price, save time, and
employ their manual workforce to solve more intelligent problems.
• They let machines do the rote tasks, while eliminating the chances of
human errors.

Benefits of Automation
Streamline Communication
Enforce Accountability

Benefits of Automation
Minimize Costs and Manual Errors
Keep a Tab on your Business Processes

How do you Automate Business Processes?

Industry Based on Function
• Product Based Company – Building their own product and selling it in
market
• Service Based Company – Building product, application or part of them, for
other companies and their clients

What is a “Project”?
What is a “Project” ?

Project
• A Project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create unique product,
service, or result.
• The temporary nature of project indicates a definite beginning and end.
Project Types:
• Fixed Bid Projects
• Billing Projects

IT Project Structure
Business Stakeholders
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
Technology Head
Technical Architect Project Manager QA Manager Production
Support
Junior Technical
Architects/
Assistants
Technical Lead
Developer
QA Leads
QA Analysis

Pre-Project Activity
• Client realizes his need for a software
application.
• He will do an initial analysis on the required
features of the Software Application and will
prepare Requirements Document.
Request for Proposal (RFP)
RFP is a document in
which Business need
appear.
Request for Information
(RFI) is a form that is
attached to RFP
Request for Quotation (RFQ)
A request for quotation
(RFQ) is a standard
business process whose
purpose is to invite
suppliers into a bidding
process to bid on specific
products or services
Statement of Work (SOW)
A document that defines
project-specific activities,
deliverables, and
timelines for a vendor
providing services to the
client.

Reason for Project Initiation
• Projects plays essential role in Growth and Survival of Organization in
today’s rapidly changing competitive business environment and also in
managing the change and achieving the strategies of the enterprise.
• All projects are aimed to help the project sponsor in one way or the other
to reduce cost, increase revenue or increase efficiency or ensure
transparency etc.
• Projects may be initiated in response to a business strategy in order to,
• Cater market demand
• Tackle competition
• Increase market share
• Comply with regulation
• Create a competitive edge
• Exploit emerging opportunity and many other

What is Business Analysis?
• Business Analysis is the set of tasks, knowledge, and techniques required to
identify business needs and determine solutions to business problems.
Solutions often includes :
• Systems development component
• Process improvement
• Organizational change

Why is Business Analysis important?
• Business analysis helps stakeholders achieve a shared understanding of
the organization’s needs.
• This shared understanding puts the team in a position to make legitimate
recommendations for those needs, and ultimately puts the organization in
a position to move forward with the set of recommendations that best
meets those needs.

Who is a Business Analyst?
Business Stakeholders
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
Technology Head
Project Manager QA Manager Production
Support
Junior Technical
Architects/
Assistants
Technical Lead
Developer
QA Leads
QA Analysis
Business Analyst
Technical Architect

Role of a Business Analyst
• A Business Analyst works as a liaison among stakeholders in order to elicit,
analyze, communicate and validate requirements for changes to business
processes, policies and information systems.
• The Business Analyst understands business problems and opportunities in
the context of the requirements and recommends solutions that enable the
organization to achieve its goals.
• A Business Analyst is responsible for ensuring the project’s outputs meet
the requirements of the business and that they are fit for purpose.

What are the Responsibilities of a Business Analyst?

Essential Skills of a Business Analyst

Knowledge areas of BA

Project Life Cycle Methodology
Technical Architect
1 Project
Initiation
1.Define Scope
2.HireTeam
3.Develop Business
Case
2 Project
Planning
1.Defineand record
requirements,constraints,
and assumptions
2.Identify project team
and define rolesand
responsibilities
3.CreatetheWork
Breakdown Schedule (WBS)
4.Develop change
management plan
5.Identify risksand
define risk strategies
6.Obtain plan approval
3 Project
Execution
1. Execute tasksdefinesin
the project plan
2. Implement the
procurement of project
resources
3. Manage resource
allocation
4. Implement approved
changes
5. Measure project
performance
6.Verify and manage
change to the project
7. Ensure project deliverable
conform to quality standards
8. Monitor all risks
4 Project
Closure
1.Obtain final acceptance
for theproject
2.Obtain financial,legal,
and administrative closure
3.Releaseproject resources
4.Document and
communicatelessons
learned
5.Createand distribute
final project report
6.Archiveand retain
project records
7.Measurecustomer
satisfaction
Montoring andControl

Role of a BA & PM
PM:
A Project Manager is ultimately responsible for ensuring the objectives of a
project are met and that the outputs are delivered on time, to cost and to
quality.
BA:
A Business Analyst is responsible for ensuring the project’s outputs meet the
requirements of the business and that they are fit for purpose.

Knowledge Areas
BA PM
• Enterprise Analysis Integration
• Planning & Management Scope Management
• Requirements Elicitation Time Management
• Requirements Analysis &
Documentation
Cost Management
• Requirements Communication Human Resource Management
• Requirements Implementation Communication Management
Quality Management
Risk Management
Procurement

Skillset Comparison

How do a PM and BA work together?
Initiation
Requirements
Design &
Implementation
Planning
Construction QA Implementation Closure
The Execution of a Project
PM
• Scope
• Budget
• Team
• PIR• Planning • Execution & Control
• Document
Requirements
• System
Checkout
• Scope • Design
• Testing &
Training
Strategies
• Test Case
Creation
• Test
• UAT
• Train
• PIR
BA

SDLC
Software Development
Life Cycle

Software Development Life Cycle
• SDLC is a framework defining tasks performed at each step in the software
development process.
• SDLC is a structure followed by a development team within the software
organization.
• A Life Cycle Model defines phases , milestone, deliverables and evaluation
criteria for software development process.
• Various SDLC methodologies have been developed to guide the process
involved.

Software Development Life Cycle

Requirement Analysis
From deliverables such as Feasibility Report, Cost Benefit Analysis, Risk
Assessment, Business Use Cases, Vision Document the Requirement Analysis
phase is carried out which includes :
Elicitation,
Validation,
Specification and
Verification
Deliverables of Requirement Analysis Phase:
• Functional Specification Document
• Software Specification Document
• User Requirement Document
• Use Case Specification
• Addendum

Role of BA in Requirement Analysis
• Requirements Gathering - Workshop Facilitation, Interviews, Observation,
Research.
• Requirements Documentation - Business Requirements document,
Requirements Traceability document, Functional & Non Functional
Requirements documents.
• This is where the BA will also use their modeling skills to document business
requirements.
• Requirements Validation & Prioritization activities.
• Stakeholder Engagement.

Design Phase
In this phase the detailed functional requirements created will be
transformed into complex detailed system design including screen layouts,
business rules, process diagrams and other documents.
Deliverables of Design Phase:
• Design Document
• Technical Design Specification

Role of BA in Design Phase
• Review the solution documents.
• Work closely with solution designer and architects to ensure requirements
are clear.
• Keep the stakeholder engaged to reassure them their requirements are
implemented as specified in the business requirement artifacts. In some
projects, such as Agile projects, this part of the iteration will have close
involvement of stakeholders right through the SDLC.
• Manage the changes to requirements both from the business and from your
solution designer’s point of view through a change control process. It is a
great time to actively start using the Requirements Traceability Matrix.

Development Phase
In this phase the Developers convert a complete design into an information
system.
Reproducible code.

Role of BA in Development Phase
• The Business Analyst’s role is lighter during this phase. In small teams it can
happen that the BA is asked to clarify requirements or in Agile projects the
BA will be asked to review prototypes.

Testing Phase
Demonstrates that the developed system confirm to requirements as
specified in the Functional Specification Document. Conducted by QA team
and BA support, if needed.
Deliverables of Testing Phase:
• Test Plan
• Test Strategy
• Test Scripts
• Test Cases

Role of BA in Testing Phase
• During the testing phase the Business Analyst can assist with reviewing test
scripts to ensure all functional requirements are being tested.
• A business analyst will also get involved with defect prioritization in some
projects.

Release and Maintenance
• Includes the preparation of the system into a production environment and
resolution of problems identified in the test phases and ready to be
released at client site.
• Training manuals.
• Maintenance includes post implementation problems and add on request
by the client.
Deliverables :
• The Software Application.
• Test Case and Reports.

Current Trends in Business Analysis
• Don’t expect to get all the requirements upfront.
• Focus more on Business Analysis
• Focus on adding the business value
• Adoption of professional BA approach
• More communication
• Building better business cases
• Its always plus to be bit technical

Thank you!

Introduction to Business Analysis

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