Business Analysis 
Geet Sehgal  

○ Allow the Org. to grow by  

○ Product owner, CEo , developer, product manager, project manager 
etc. 
○ All activities necessary to identify Business Problems and find their 
solutions : Not simple 
- Three major levels of detail usage :  
- Enterprise level :  
- Identifying problems 
- Developing case 
- How to express the outcomes 
- Agile :  
- Project charters and scope documents 
- Without solid analysis there is no basis of this 
- Identify stakeholders , express stakeholder etc. is 
dependent on the SDM 
- Waterfall SDM : 
- Operational Business Analysis : SFR & SQR (non functional 
requirements) 
- Traditional SDM  
1. Applications are packaged these days. Organisations needs change so 
adjust workflows etc to take full advantage 
2. It’s a hot topic globally 
3. BA still approves the business probability of success 

1.  REQUIREMENTS : 

 
1 
 

 
 

- Understanding what they are : 

- Feature that a future solution has to enable 
- A function that a future solution has to execute 
- Xyz 
- Xyz 
- Depends on SDM and Lifecycle : 
- 4 fundamental types of requirements : 
- Business​ Requirements : Very high level and a typical project will 
express very few 
- Stakeholders​ Requirements : Segmented about the stakeholders 
involved 
- Solution requirements : Segmented further to enable the solution 
about the technology involved. There can be very large number of 
solution requirements 
- Transition requirements : Detailed and bridges the gap between the 
current solution available today and the future solution. 

Details on each type : 

Business Requirements : Executive level 

- Primarily to prioritize and resource project : Charts and Diagrams 

- In Agile : epics, features and user stories 
- Defaults recommended structure : need/ want/will/should do something ex : 
Increase sales by x number this quarter 

Stakeholders requirements : Self authored by various ​stakeholders 

- JRP’s  
- Workshops 
- Interviews 
- Limit premature technology requirements 

 
2 
 

 
 

- Can be expressed as simple statements, use cases, workflows etc using 

models and structures 
- Agile : User stories (can be utilised anywhere) 
- I,We,can,cannot, do, without etc. (statement structures) 

Solution requirements : 

- Come in two flavours : Solution functional requirements, non functional 

requirements 
- Analysis of IT systems, stakeholders and business requirements, Associated 
stakeholders i​ nterviews (IT Group) 
- List of functions : solution use cases, prototypes, mockups, process models, 
data models, user stories,   
- Calculation 
- Deviation rules 
- Authority rules 
- Event responses 

Quality solutions requirements : 

- Legal requirements 
- SLA 
- Corporate standards 
- Reliability/Availability/Maintainability/flexibility/useability 

Transition requirements 

- “As is” to “to be” 

- Interfaces 
- Database conversions 
- Training programs and  
- Job aids 

 
3 
 

 
 

Examples: ​Sales personnel​ must attend xyz before using xyz solution 

Transition requirements feeds into the new business requirements : 

If you ignore one that becomes a gap. The volume of the requirements have to be 
right at the right size. 

Agile SDM :  

As late as possible 

Waterfall or other :  

In the initial phase 

Requirement is definitely non trivial 

Technique and tools :  

BA is the process of studying the Process and suggesting solutions to any 

roadblocks. 

3 levels :  

Strategic : Visions, goals, strategy 

Tactical : initiative level, t​ echniques​, interviewing, baselining, benchmarking etc. 

functional ​decomposition 

Operational : Initiative, themes, business epics, arch. Epics, user epics, user stories. 
Work on specific business analysis. 

Process mapping, lessons learnt analysis, etc.  

Very few use this bifurcation. Not necessarily a BA does what a BA should and vice 
versa 

 
4 
 

 
 

Requirements​ solutions groups : 

Tools -  

1. BPMN, activity diagrams and DFD’s 

2. BA, ERD’s, Entities, types, user views 
3. Business rules : 
4. Backlog maintenance matrices 
5. Story workshops, requirements discovery workshops 
6. Story points, function points 
7. Write business use cases : Interaction between the technology solution and 
the people using it. 

IIBA - 2008 survey insights 

1. Brainstorming 
2. Change requests 
3. Interviewing skills 
4. Acceptance testing 
5. Visual diagrams : process model, data models 
6. Issue tracking 
7. Workshops 

Prototyping, impact analysis, document analysis, test case 

BOTTOM LINE:  

Not trivial and substantial  

  

SDM - Software Development Management 

 
5 
 

 
 

4 types of SDM and influence: 

1. SDLC is a workflow of delivering and maintaining  

- Requirements doc, databse design etc 

-  Major player in defining the solution 

Levels of intensity : Timings, form in which things are documented, ad-hoc aka 
chaotic approach. 

Cal pal tal method : 

System development lifecycle change to SDM 

BA is typically a member of the change review board. 

Iterative methodology :  

Inception, elaboration, construction, transition 

Focus of the requirements is release specific. 

Agile approach 12st century : 

Manage change by m
​ aintaining communications​ between the developer and 
business community. 

One of them is SCRUM approach :  

Includes a full time BA is its a complex thing.  

BA you will not be able to pick the ideal methodology but you can significantly 
improve the methodology at place 

WATERFALL​ METHODOLOGY : 

 
6 
 

 
 

1. Manufacturing approach - Might be involved in creating a case, P

​ resentation 
to sr. management.  
2. SMEs and developer defines transition requirements.  
3. Acceptance change are fed to change management process. The BA will be a 
major player in the analysis.  
4. Testing is not a recognised responsibility still BA performs sometimes. Verify 
and Validate 
5. Iterative methodologies : IBM Rational Unified Method 

Role : 

The BA : 

> Each phase is similar to your role in Waterfall process : Mission statement and 
high level ​business objectives 

> Each goes through various iterations to get to final product. 

> Typical Requirements elicitation etc. : Separating activities  

OOSD : UML - Daigraming symbols : 

Use cases are a great documentation method from a user POV 

UML allows for extension : then leads to SME’s Use cases 

Transition phase :  

Creating test plans, test cases 

Help the development team to transition from the ​development phase. 

AGILE  

1. Highest priority : Early Valuable software, Changing requirements, Work 

together daily 

 
7 
 

 
 

2. Face to face conversations for most effective and efficient way to transferring 
knowledge 
3. The BA as product owner, the BA as developer and the BA (overall) 
4. With any ​communication​ about the product, some degree of information 
about the following required 
- The Vision 
- The Strategy 
- High level stakeholders requirements 

5. Sufficient solution as per the need of XP, Crystal, DSDM, Kanban, FDD, SCRUM 
Approach or scrum/XP hybrid 

6. Each small chunk is a known as sprint : goes through the following iterative steps 

- Analysis 
- Design 
- Coding  
- Testing 
- IN XP (User story is developed) : Estimate and c​ oordinate​ individual work  

The project starts with vision : Or any other form of representation 

- Define: business problems it’s going to solve 

- Features 
- Benefits 
- Characteristics 
- Performance 
- Reliability 
- Platforms  
- Standards 
- Applications 

Essentialities of AGILE: 

 
8 
 

 
 

Most common is a “Product Backlog” 

- Kanban board 
- Feature set or something similar 
- Product owner maintains the backlog and BA is tasked with it 
- Contain Business epics, requirement, user story formats used to elicit 
- Backlog lives : Agile team prioritizes the log : Mostly informal 

Notes can be on a napkin are also as an acceptable form. 

Scrum and scrum XP hybrids : THe role of anyone in an agile team is fluid and can 
change at any moment as per the requirement of the project based on the user 
story. 

Hence require : High flexibility and many skills  

The BA needs a versatile set of tools to satisfy the agile premise. Decomposing or 
flushing out : 

True balancing act to find the requirements are good. The BA facilitates the 
requirements for the sprint. The team may have to intervene.  

Intent of the requirements are much needed too.  

The responsibility : 

Also, Testing reports for the developers 

Research : Agile succeed more than structured or spiral approach. ​Organizations 

are pushing the size envelope. Complexity and rate of change is increasing 
continuously. 

2. Future : 

Likely scenarios : 

 
9 
 

 
 

Actual Duties vary from one to next organization. Sometimes it’s very senior 
positions. Recognize the importance of these. 

Mostly these are super users of applications and find suitable solutions to 
problems from users perspective. 

Mostly some people wear these three major hats : 

- Natural analysis skills which need fixing 

- Professional trainings are sometime much needed 
- Courage to ask anyone tough questions and challenge the status quo 
- Ability to analyse the facts and identify the need of improvement areas 
- None of these computer expertise 
- These are valuable in anyone in any organization 

These are core skills for anyone to survive in 21st century. 

Candidates who can do BA have high level problem solving capability.  

Another dimension of learning : 1. Reading 

2. ​Writing  

3. Arithmetic 

4. Speaking  

LEAN Business analysis : 

Connect with G
​ eet Sehgal​ below: 

Click here  Click here  Click here 

Click here  Click here  Click here 

 
10 
 

 
 

 
11