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What’s in Your BA Toolkit?
Marie Halsey
November 2010
Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Learning Objectives
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! The different types of BA tools and when they are appropriate
! The key requirements to consider when selecting BA tools
!The process to follow when assembling your BA toolkit
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Background
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November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
One day …
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November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
BA Role: Liaison Among Stakeholders …
Business Sponsors Clients
Operational Support
Suppliers
Business Analyst
SolutionDelivery Team
ProjectManagers
EndUsers
Customer Reps
Regulators
- Solution Architect- Developer- DBA- Usability Specialist- Tester- Trainer- Change Manager
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
What Tools to Use?
It depends …!Methodology
"Waterfall, iterative, agile
!Project type"Custom software, COTS,
infrastructure/hardware-only
!Artifacts produced
!Maturity of BA organization
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November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Types of Communication Tools…
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!Low-tech and hardware-based tools
!Collaboration tools
!Software-based tools, to produce:"Documents
"Diagrams
"Other Artifacts
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Low-Tech & Hardware-based Tools
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November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Collaboration Tools
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November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Software-based Communication Tools
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November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Software-based Tools
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Let’s look at:
! the various types of software-based communication tools
!which artifacts are best suited to each type
Refer to “Marie Halsey - Software Tool Categories.xls”
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Issues with Office-type Tools?
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!No supporting database"No support for meta-data
!No associations, traceability is difficult
!Re-use is difficult
!No integration between diagrams & elements
!Requirements management is very difficult
!Reporting is WYSIWYG, no automated ‘packaging’
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
How to choose? Follow the process!
Define BA Toolkit
Req’ts
Identify BA Toolkit
Needs
Assess Current State
Toolkit Needs
Toolkit Gaps
Select Product(s)
Identify Toolkit Gaps
Processes, Problems
Conduct Product
Assessment
Implement BA Toolkit
Detailed Toolkit Req’ts
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November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Document Your Requirements
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November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Usability
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!Easy to use; intuitive, consistent interface
!Easy to learn; online help, tutorials
!Supports fast data capture & diagramming" ‘Drag and drop’ existing elements onto diagram
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Requirements Capture and Presentation
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!Tree view"Parent-child hierarchy
"Expand/collapse
!Table/spreadsheet view "List of attributes
"Parent-child structure maintained
!Traceability"Matrix view
"Tree view
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Traceability
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!Directional"Hierarchical (‘Traces To’ and ‘Traces From’)
"Parent-child
!Non-directional (peer-to-peer)
!Cross-project (project segmentation, re-use)
!Flag missing traceability
!Flag ‘suspect’ relationships
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Views and Reports
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!Searching, filtering and sorting
!Tailoring and user-defined templates
!Report on text, tables, diagrams, meta-data
!Multiple formats (e.g., Word, Excel, HTML, XML)
!Metrics (e.g., how many changed req’ts?)
! Impact analysis
!Packaged output appeals to all stakeholders
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Useful Features
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!Spell checking
!Glossaries (e.g., highlight ambiguous terms)
!Bulk data selection"Range (SHIFT-Click), non-contiguous (CTRL-click)
!Bulk processing"Parent-child, re-parent
"Update attribute values
"Traceability
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Use Cases
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!Full integration of use case with activity diagram"Automatically maintains activity diagram
"Changes to activity diagram automatically reflected in use case, and vice versa
!Use case has different attributes than use case steps.
!Automatic numbering of steps, alternate paths
!Supports ‘extends’ and ‘includes’ use cases
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – User Interface Prototyping
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!Sketches, mockups & wireframes (low fidelity)
!Simulations and prototypes (high fidelity)
!Templates and branding
! ‘Look and feel’ widgets, banners, controls
! Images and snapshots of current UI
!Site maps and screen transitions/flow
!User comments
!Associate data model elements
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Requirements Management
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!Change Management / Change control"Revision history
"Compare versions; shows revision marks!
"Notification of changes
!Configuration Management"Baselines and versioning
"Release management (multi-release support)
" ‘Living’ Master Requirements List
"Re-use
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements - Integration
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!Associate diagram elements with meta-data
!Associate requirements artifacts with reference material (e.g., documents, images and diagrams, URLs)
! Import from Word and Excel
!Package requirements, using all formats of artifacts
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Functional Requirements – Associations and Interoperability
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Integration is critical!
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Document Your Requirements
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November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Non-Functional Requirements
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!Work offline?
!Co-located or distributed team?"Client-side or web-based?
!Team size? "Concurrent or ‘named’ licenses?
"Multi-user support?
!Project size? How many requirements?
!Data security and user management?
!Scalable for future growth?
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Non-Functional Requirements – Tool Administration
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!User-defined requirement types
!Different attributes for each requirement type
!Attribute formats (text, $, date/time, URL, etc.)
!Attribute validation – single- and multi-valued lists, range of values
!Project templates
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Keep following the process!
Define BA Toolkit
Req’ts
Identify BA Toolkit
Needs
Assess Current State
Toolkit Needs
Toolkit Gaps
Select Product(s)
Identify Toolkit Gaps
Processes, Problems
Conduct Product
Assessment
Implement BA Toolkit
Detailed Toolkit Req’ts
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November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Prepare for Product Assessment
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!Weight / prioritize requirements
!Prepare list of candidate vendors"Check the internet, web reviews
"Talk to peers, professional associations
"Gartner reports, Forrester surveys
"Consider open source software
!Conduct survey based on high-level requirements, to short-list 3-5 vendors,
!Arrange for demos, training & support
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
And then … Caveat emptor !
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November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Known Toolkit Challenges
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!Baselining, versioning, release management
!Comparing versions
! Integration of requirements elements
!Packaging / reporting, esp. non-text and associated elements
!Ease of capturing and reporting traceability
!Support for re-use
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Conduct Product Assessment
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!Assess product compliance against detailed requirements"1 – Compliant, with ease
"2 – Compliant, with challenges
"3 – Partially compliant, with workaround
"4 – Partially compliant, no workaround
"5 – Non-compliant
"Write notes for items 2-5 (for later reference)
!Determine workarounds to tool gaps"Are they worth the cost & effort?
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Keep following the process!
Define BA Toolkit
Req’ts
Identify BA Toolkit
Needs
Assess Current State
Toolkit Needs
Toolkit Gaps
Select Product(s)
Identify Toolkit Gaps
Processes, Problems
Conduct Product
Assessment
Implement BA Toolkit
Detailed Toolkit Req’ts
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November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Select Product(s)
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Consider cost of ownership vs. functionality
!Migration and training
!Licensing, vendor support, maintenance
!BA support (e.g., tool administrator(s), in-house trainers, customized user documentation)
! Integration / interoperability of multi-vendor toolkit
!Hardware (e.g., server, database license)
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Implement BA Toolkit
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!Develop training, guidelines, best practices, pre-defined templates or reports
!Conduct pilot to test new toolkit, including testing of the training and documentation
!Consider phased deployment to reduce project impact, esp. with multi-vendor toolkit
!Provide toolkit support
! Implement feedback mechanism
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
One Final Thought …
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November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
What You Learned …
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! The different types of BA tools and when they are appropriate
! The key requirements to consider when selecting BA tools
!The process to follow when assembling your BA toolkit
November 2010 Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
Questions?
Thank you!
Marie Halsey
Marie Halsey Consulting Inc.
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