Book description
Recent research has shown that organizations continue to experience project issues associated with the poor performance of requirements-related activities—a core task for the practice of business analysis. In fact, poor requirements practices are often cited as a leading cause of project failure in PMI’s Pulse of the Profession™ surveys.
Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide provides practical resources to tackle the project-related issues associated with requirements and business analysis—and addresses a critical need in the industry for more guidance in this area.
The practice guide begins by describing the work of business analysis. It identifies the tasks that are performed, in addition to the essential knowledge and skills needed to effectively perform business analysis on programs and projects.
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Notice
- Table of Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Preface
- 1. Introduction
-
2. Needs Assessment
- 2.1. Overview of this Section
- 2.2. Why Perform Needs Assessments
- 2.3. Identify Problem or Opportunity
-
2.4. Assess Current State of the Organization
- 2.4.1. Assess Organizational Goals and Objectives
- 2.4.2. SWOT Analysis
- 2.4.3. Relevant Criteria
- 2.4.4. Perform Root Cause Analysis on the Situation
- 2.4.5. Determine Required Capabilities Needed to Address the Situation
- 2.4.6. Assess Current Capabilities of the Organization
- 2.4.7. Identify Gaps in Organizational Capabilities
-
2.5. Recommend Action to Address Business Needs
- 2.5.1. Include a High-Level Approach for Adding Capabilities
- 2.5.2. Provide Alternative Options for Satisfying the Business Need
- 2.5.3. Identify Constraints, Assumptions, and Risks for Each Option
- 2.5.4. Assess Feasibility and Organizational Impacts of Each Option
- 2.5.5. Recommend the Most Viable Option
- 2.5.6. Conduct Cost-Benefit Analysis for Recommended Option
- 2.6. Assemble the Business Case
-
3. Business Analysis Planning
- 3.1. Overview of this Section
- 3.2. The Importance of Business Analysis Planning
- 3.3. Conduct or Refine the Stakeholder Analysis
-
3.4. Create the Business Analysis Plan
- 3.4.1. Business Analysis Plan vs. Requirements Management Plan
- 3.4.2. What to Include in the Business Analysis Plan
- 3.4.3. Understand the Project Context
- 3.4.4. Understand how the Project Life Cycle Influences Planning Decisions
- 3.4.5. Ensure the Team is Trained on the Project Life Cycle
- 3.4.6. Leverage Past Experiences when Planning
- 3.4.7. Plan for Elicitation
- 3.4.8. Plan for Analysis
- 3.4.9. Define the Requirements Prioritization Process
- 3.4.10. Define the Traceability Approach
- 3.4.11. Define the Communication Approach
- 3.4.12. Define the Decision-Making Process
- 3.4.13. Define the Requirements Verification and Validation Processes
- 3.4.14. Define the Requirements Change Process
- 3.4.15. Define the Solution Evaluation Process
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3.5. Plan the Business Analysis Work
- 3.5.1. Determine who Plans the Business Analysis Effort
- 3.5.2. Build the Business Analysis Work Plan
- 3.5.3. Assemble the Business Analysis Work Plan
- 3.5.4. Document the Rationale for the Business Analysis Approach
- 3.5.5. Review the Business Analysis Plan with Key Stakeholders
- 3.5.6. Obtain Approval of the Business Analysis Plan
-
4. Requirements Elicitation and Analysis
- 4.1. Purpose of this Section
- 4.2. What it Means to Elicit Information
- 4.3. Plan for Elicitation
- 4.4. Prepare for Elicitation
- 4.5. Conduct Elicitation Activities
- 4.6. Document Outputs from Elicitation Activities
- 4.7. Complete Elicitation
- 4.8. Elicitation Issues and Challenges
- 4.9. Analyze Requirements
- 4.10. Model and Refine Requirements
-
4.11. Document the Solution Requirements
- 4.11.1. Why Documentation is Important
- 4.11.2. Business Requirements Document
- 4.11.3. The Solution Documentation
- 4.11.4. Requirements Specification
- 4.11.5. Guidelines for Writing Requirements
- 4.11.6. Prioritizing Requirements
- 4.11.7. Technical Requirements Specification
- 4.11.8. Documenting with use Cases
- 4.11.9. Documenting with user Stories
- 4.11.10. Backlog Items
- 4.12. Validate Requirements
- 4.13. Verify Requirements
- 4.14. Approval Sessions
- 4.15. Resolve Requirements-Related Conflicts
-
5. Traceability and Monitoring
- 5.1. Overview of this Section
- 5.2. Traceability
- 5.3. Relationships and Dependencies
- 5.4. Approving Requirements
- 5.5. Baselining Approved Requirements
- 5.6. Monitoring Requirements using a Traceability Matrix
- 5.7. The Requirements Life Cycle
- 5.8. Managing Changes to Requirements
-
6. Solution Evaluation
- 6.1. Overview of this Section
- 6.2. Purpose of Solution Evaluation
- 6.3. Recommended Mindset for Evaluation
- 6.4. Plan for Evaluation of the Solution
- 6.5. Determine what to Evaluate
-
6.6. When and how to Validate Solution Results
- 6.6.1. Surveys and Focus Groups
- 6.6.2. Results from Exploratory Testing and user Acceptance Testing
- 6.6.3. Results from Day-In-The-Life (DITL) Testing
- 6.6.4. Results from Integration Testing
- 6.6.5. Expected vs. Actual Results for Functionality
- 6.6.6. Expected vs. Actual Results for Nonfunctional Requirements
- 6.6.7. Outcome Measurements and Financial Calculation of Benefits
- 6.7. Evaluate Acceptance Criteria and Address Defects
- 6.8. Facilitate the Go/No-Go Decision
- 6.9. Obtain Signoff of the Solution
- 6.10. Evaluate the Long-Term Performance of the Solution
- 6.11. Solution Replacement/Phase Out
- Appendix X1
- Appendix X2
- Glossary
Product information
- Title: Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide
- Author(s):
- Release date: January 2015
- Publisher(s): Project Management Institute
- ISBN: 9781628250794
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