| Business Analyst skills are important to have on the | | | | Management business applications out there for |
| project team, and not a bad thing for a Project | | | | requirements. It is important to understand the |
| Manager to have! In either case, the business analysis | | | | degree of complexity, the expected level of change |
| function is one that needs to be managed with care | | | | or evolution over the course of the project, and the |
| and the wisdom of experience. This entails putting | | | | risks involved related to requirements change |
| the business analysis function into perspective. | | | | developments. |
| Consider the roles that business analysts typically | | | | 4. Eliciting Requirements - Drawing requirements out |
| play: requirements management, systems analysis, | | | | of various stakeholders is as much an art as a |
| business analysis, requirements analysis, or consulting. | | | | science. The science part provides a framework, |
| One key concept within the framework of a project | | | | usually in the form of ways the structure questions, |
| is that the business analysis process does not just | | | | common pitfalls, and how to document. However, it |
| happen once. It is not just executing on a task in the | | | | is an art to develop rapport with varying |
| Work Breakdown Schedule. It is a task that takes | | | | stakeholders and probe deeply to uncover the core |
| continuous monitoring, and it starts at a high level | | | | needs. |
| near the beginning of the project. | | | | 5. Requirements Analysis and Models - The |
| Here are some key timeframes within the project | | | | documentation of requirements is important to |
| lifecycle where business analysis comes to the | | | | assuring that everyone is "on the same page". Often |
| forefront: | | | | this requires developing sophisticated architectures, |
| 1. Enterprise Analysis and Making a Business Case - | | | | drawings, mathematical models, and prototypes that |
| Each project must fit into the plans of the | | | | consolidate requirements input and reflect back to |
| organization as a whole. In depth familiarity with that | | | | stakeholders the proposed solution. This provides |
| plan, and understanding where the subject project | | | | further subject matter for conversations around the |
| fits into that is a key step in building the business | | | | continuously unfolding requirements. |
| case. The business case must align with the strategic | | | | 6. Communicating and Implementing Requirements - |
| objectives of the organization. | | | | With a given set of requirements, the business |
| 2. Requirements Planning - Developing requirements is | | | | analysis function must assure stakeholder buy-in, but |
| a challenge in part because of the time dimension. | | | | also must ensure that those who will implement the |
| Requirements planning needs to describe a phased | | | | requirements are equally "plugged in". One challenge is |
| approach that forecasts and schedules how the | | | | to ensure that the stakeholders are in clear and in |
| requirements will unfold. It thus should have, as an | | | | agreement with what will be implemented, and the |
| output, a schedule for various time-based | | | | implementers are clear on what they need to do. |
| requirements gathering and documenting tasks. | | | | Due to the detailed and often technical nature of the |
| 3. Requirements Management - Managing | | | | work, work packages at the implementation level are |
| requirements as they evolve is an important task. In | | | | well removed from the stakeholder, so the business |
| some organizations there is a formal Configuration | | | | analyst servers to bridge that gap and "broker" that |
| Management function. There are many Configuration | | | | relationship. |