Project Management

Understanding
Business Analysis
 What is Business Analysis?
Business analysis is the application of knowledge, skills, tools,
and techniques to:
• Determine problems and identify business needs;
• Identify and recommend viable solutions for meeting those
needs;
• Elicit, document, and manage stakeholder requirements in
order to meet business and project objectives;
• Facilitate the successful implementation of the product,
service, or end result of the program or project.
In short, business analysis is the set of activities performed to
identify business needs and recommend relevant solutions;
and to elicit, document, and manage requirements.
 Requirement… “a condition or capability that must be present in a
product, service, or result to satisfy a business need.”

Requirement statements may be expressed in artifacts such as use cases, user stories,
backlog items, or visual models. When a specific requirement is under discussion, the
term requirement is generally preceded by a qualifier, such as a business, stakeholder,
solution, or transition.
 Requirements
Business requirements. Describe the higher-level needs of the organization, such as
business issues or opportunities, reasons why a project has been undertaken, and
measurable goals the business is seeking to achieve. Business requirements provide
context for other requirements and the solution to ensure that the result addresses the
business need.
Stakeholder requirements. Describe the needs of a stakeholder or stakeholder group,
where the term stakeholder is used broadly to reflect the role of anyone with an interest
in the outcome of an initiative and could include customers, suppliers, and partners, as
well as internal business roles. Stakeholder requirements must be met to achieve the
business requirements.
Solution requirements. Describe the features, functions, and characteristics of the
product, service, or result that will meet the business and stakeholder requirements.
Solution requirements are grouped into functional and nonfunctional requirements:
– Functional requirements. Describe the behaviors of the product and include actions,
processes, and interactions that the product should perform.
– Nonfunctional requirements. Describe the environmental conditions or qualities required
for the product to be effective. A few examples include reliability, security, performance,
data retention, availability, and scalability.
Transition requirements. Describe temporary capabilities, such as data conversion
and training requirements, and operational changes needed to transition from the
current (as-is) state to the future (to-be) state. Once the transition to the future state is
complete, the transition requirements are no longer needed.
Business Analysis Precedes Project
Management
Business analysis
focuses on products,
whereas project
management focuses
on delivering projects
to create or evolve
products.
 Business Analysis and Development
Approach
Predictive Approach – BA identifies all relevant
stakeholders early (if possible), and they
become intimately involved with requirements.
Adaptive Approach – usually, there is a high-
level understanding of requirements at the
start of the project, and BA might identify a
few stakeholders, but as iterations evolve,
new stakeholders are identified and engaged
to determine requirements.
 Business Analysis Benefits
When business analysis is properly accounted for and executed
on programs and projects, the following benefits are achieved:
• High-quality requirements are produced resulting in the
development of products and services that meet customer
expectations;
• Stakeholders are more engaged in the process and buy-in is
more readily achieved;
• Projects are more likely to be delivered on time, within scope,
and within budget;
• Implemented solutions deliver business value and meet
stakeholder needs; and
• Organizations develop competencies in business analysis that
are reusable for future projects.
Business Analysis Domains
5 Domains of Business Analysis
Domain 1– Needs assessment

Domain 2– Business analysis planning

Domain 3– Requirements elicitation and analysis

Domain 4– Traceability and monitoring

Domain 5– Solution evaluation

 Domain 1: Needs Assessment
A needs assessment consists of the business
analysis work that is conducted in order to:
• analyze a current business problem or
opportunity
• assess the current internal and external
environments
• determine the viable solution options that,
when pursued, would help the organization
meet the desired future state.
 Why Perform Needs Assessment?
Needs assessment work is undertaken before program or project
work begins, therefore it is said to involve the pre-project activities.

• A needs assessment involves the completion of a gap analysis

that is used to analyze and compare the actual performance of
the organization against the expected or desired performance.
• Much of the analysis completed during the needs assessment
is then used for the development of a business case.
• It is the needs assessment and business case that build the
foundation for determining the project objectives and serve as
inputs to a project charter.
 Needs Assessment - Steps
1. Identify problem or opportunity
2. Assess current state of the organization
3. Recommend action to address business
needs
4. Assemble the business case
 1. Identify problem or opportunity
1. Identify stakeholders (e.g.,
RACI matrix)
2. Investigate the
problem/opportunity 
3. Gather data to evaluate
4. Draft the situation
statement (e.g., problem,
effect, impact)
5. Obtain stakeholder
approval for the situation
statement
 Stakeholder Identification
Individuals, groups, or organizations that may
impact, or are impacted by, the proposed
solution.

Leads to the Stakeholder

development
of a… Register
 Stakeholder Analysis
Job analysis

Persona analysis

Stakeholder maps

RACI matrix
Stakeholder Engagement
Example of a Situation Statement
2. Assess current state of the organization
1. Assess org. goals and objectives (corp. strategy, “SMART” goals)
2. SWOT analysis
3. Relevant criteria (what is important)
4. Perform root cause analysis (cause-and-effect diagrams/fishbone, 5
Why’s, inter-relationship diagrams, process flows)
5. Determine required capabilities (capability table, affinity diagram,
benchmarking)
6. Assess current capabilities of the org.
7. Identify gaps in org capabilities
 3. Recommend action to address
business needs
1. Include a high-level approach for adding
capabilities
2. Provide alternative options
3. Identify constraints, assumptions, and risks for
each option
4. Assess feasibility (operational, technology, cost,
time) and organizational impacts of each option
5. Recommend the most viable option (e.g.
weighted ranking)
6. Conduct cost-benefit analysis for recommended
option (payback, ROI, IRR, NPV)
 4. Assemble the business case
• Problem/Opportunity
• Analysis of the situation
• Recommendation
• Evaluation
In most instances, the analysis performed in the business
case helps organizations select the best programs and
projects to meet the needs of the business. Business cases
help organizations scrutinize programs and projects in a
consistent manner. When this process is embraced,
organizations will consistently make better decisions.
Domain 2: Business Analysis Planning
Within business analysis, planning consists of the activities that are
performed in order to ensure that the optimal business analysis
approach is selected for the project and that:

• Stakeholders are thoroughly identified and analyzed;

• Business analysis activities and deliverables are defined and
agreed to;
• Processes that will be used for validating, verifying, and approving
requirements and solutions are acceptable to key stakeholders;
• The process for proposing changes to requirements is defined and
understood; and
• Key stakeholders are aware of and support the activities and time
commitments required to complete the requirements effort.
Business Analysis Planning - Steps

1. Conduct or refine the stakeholder

analysis
2. Create the business analysis plan
3. Plan the business analysis work
 1. Conduct or refine the stakeholder
analysis
1. Stakeholders (brainstorm, org chart, doc
reviews, etc.)
2. Determine stakeholder characteristics
(attitude, complexity, culture, experience,
influence, location/availability)
3. Grouping or analyzing stakeholders (job
analysis, persona analysis)
4. Assemble the stakeholder analysis results
 2. Create the business analysis plan
1. Business analysis plan vs. requirements management plan
2. What to include
3. Understand the project context
4. Understand the project life cycle (predictive, adaptive, hybrid)
5. Ensure team is trained
6. Leverage past experiences
7. Plan for elicitation
8. Plan for analysis
9. Define the requirements prioritization process
10. Define the traceability approach
11. Define the communication approach
12. Define the decision-making process
13. Define the requirements verification and validation processes
14. Define the requirements change process
15. Define the solution evaluation process
 3. Plan the business analysis work
1. Determine who plans the effort
2. Build the business analysis work plan
(deliverables, tasks, timing, roles,
resources, estimate the work)
3. Assemble the business analysis work plan
4. Document the rationale for the approach
5. Review the plan with key stakeholders
6. Obtain approval of the business analysis
plan
Domain 3: Requirements Elicitation and
Analysis
Requirements elicitation and analysis is the:
• iterative work to plan, prepare, and conduct the elicitation of
information from stakeholders, to
• analyze and document the results of that work,
• and to eventually define a set of requirements in sufficient
detail to enable the definition and selection of the preferred
solution.

Within requirements elicitation and analysis, business analysts

use a number of elicitation techniques and apply a number of
analysis models to support the elicitation and analysis activities.
 “Elicitation”?
The common approach to obtaining requirements
information is through “elicitation.” Requirements
elicitation is the activity of drawing out information
from stakeholders and other sources. In business
analysis, it involves eliciting information about the
causes of the business problem or the reasons for
addressing a current opportunity, as well as the
information that will eventually be used to derive a
sufficient level of requirements to enable solution
development and implementation.
 Requirements Elicitation and Analysis -
Steps
1. Plan for elicitation (what, where, how…)
2. Prepare for elicitation (objectives, participants, questions…)
3. Conduct elicitation (intro, body, close, follow-up…brainstorming, document analysis, facilitated
workshops, interviews, focus groups, observations prototyping – storyboarding, wireframes –
questionnaires, surveys)
4. Document outputs (notes, sketches, diagrams, models, etc.)
5. Complete elicitation (progressively elaborate requirements)
6. Issues and challenges (getting the right stakeholders, getting good data…)
7. Analyze requirements
8. Model and refine requirements (see --- scope models, ecosystem maps, context diagram, feature
model, use case diagram, process model, flow model, user story, rule models, decision trees, data flow
diagram, state diagrams, interface models, user interface, report table, wireframe diagrams )
9. Document solution requirements (a set of requirements defines the solution scope to the business
problem or opportunity)
10. Validate requirements
11. Verify requirements
12. Approve
13. Resolve conflicts

(p.s. please don’t try to memorize these long lists…PMs have access to all kinds of guides and resources,
e.g., PMI standards and practice guides
Domain 4: Traceability and Monitoring
Traceability and monitoring consist of the activities completed to
ensure that requirements are approved and managed throughout
the project life cycle. During traceability and monitoring, the
traceability matrix and associated attributes are created and
applied to help monitor and control the product scope. Approved
requirements are baselined and tracked. As new requirements
surface, these are documented, added to the traceability matrix,
assessed for their impacts to the project and product, and
presented to stakeholders for approval. Throughout traceability
and monitoring, the status of all requirements is communicated
using the communication methods defined and approved within
the business analysis plan.
 Traceability
Traceability provides the ability to track product requirements
from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them.
• Helps to ensure that each requirement adds business
value.
• Helps to meet customer expectations.
• Helps to manage scope.
 Traceability and Monitoring - Steps
1. Relationships and dependencies (traceability
matrix or product backlog)
2. Approving requirements (what is the
process?)
3. Baselining approved requirements Product backlog

4. Monitoring requirements using the traceability

matrix
5. The requirements life cycle
6. Managing changes to requirements
Requirements
(what is the change control process? Life Cycle

Configuration management, version control)

 Domain 5: Solution Evaluation
Evaluation consists of business analysis
activities performed to validate a full solution
—or a segment of a solution—that is about
to be or has already been implemented.
Evaluation determines how well a solution
meets the business needs expressed by
stakeholders, including delivering value to
the customer.
 Solution Evaluation

1. Recommended mindset (early and often)

2. Plan for evaluation of the solution
3. Determine what to evaluate
4. When and how to evaluate (Surveys and focus groups, results from exploratory testing
and user acceptance testing, results from day-in-the-life (DITL) testing, results from
integration testing, expected vs. actual results for functionality, expected vs. actual results
for nonfunctional requirements, and outcome measurements and financial calculation of
benefits)
5. Evaluate acceptance criteria and address defects
6. Facilitate the Go/No Go decision
7. Obtain sign-off of the solution
8. Evaluate the long term performance of the solution
9. Solution replacement/phase out
 List of Tools and Techniques (Descriptions Follow)

• Affinity diagram • Persona analysis

• Brainwriting
• Product tree
• Business rules
• Readiness assessment
• Buy-a-feature
• Real options
• Capability table
• Feasibility analysis • Requirements traceability
• Five whys
matrix
• Focus group • Stakeholder engagement
• Force field analysis assessment matrix
• Key performance indicators • Story mapping
(KPIs) • Survey
• MoSCoW • Survey data analysis
• Onion diagram • Wireframe