I want to start this article by providing a case study project to demystify how to kick off a Business Analysis effort.
Business Analysis is both an art and a science. As a science, there are steps that you can follow to kick off an effort successfully and as an art you can use soft skills to maneuver through the kickoffs.
Project Management Vs Business Analysis
Project Management is broad and covers a lot more versus Business Analysis covers understanding the Business Need and identifying the changes of the needs so as to deliver a valuable product.
.“Every problem is a gift—without problems we would not grow.”
Anthony Robbins
The case study that I will be using for this article is as follows:
The Case Study
Bob owns a brick and mortar Vegan Restaurant.
In 2020 COVID impacted his business. He quickly realized that he needs to move his business online.
Bob consults with his Operations Manager Steve, his Financial Manager Eric and his Staff about the goals and objectives for the next few months. They want to stop the bleeding, i.e. loss of customers that would typically walk through the doors.
By moving the store online they will not only stop the bleeding but they anticipate an increase in revenue by 20 % and reduction in costs by 15%.
As part of the move online, they want the ability to allow a customer to select from the menu, place their order and pay for the order online.
They want the customers to have the option for home delivery through doordash within a certain radius or pick up from the restaurant.
They hire Dave who is a Project Manager and has an offshore team of Business Analysts, developers, and testers.
You are one of the offshore Business Analysts and have been approached to gather the requirements as the Business Analyst for this project.
They want this developed and tested in 3 months.
The next step here is well what do you do with this information …..
There are 3 simple steps to follow to kick off the effort:
Phase 1: Discovery of the effort
Phase 2: Understand the Stakeholders (Stakeholder Matrix)
Phase 3: Build a Requirements Management Plan
At this point if you are a new Business Analyst the prospect of getting a project handed to you can be a dainting task. Fret no more this does not have to be daunting. Follow the 3 steps mentioned above. Let me break down the steps for you:
Phase 1: Discovery of the effort
In reading through the case study there are a couple of things that I would like you to do. The first step is for you to break down the information into smaller sizes.
I have provided a template on how to break down the information below so that you can clearly understand the Business Needs.
The business need is not always clearly provided to you like the above case sudy.
In some instances you would need to connect with the Project Manager or the Stakeholders directly to understand the business need.
Let’s break down the Case Study into smaller workable parts to get to the Business and to understand the objective.
Step 1 – Understand the “Why” – the case study outlines the why clearly. Due to COVID there is a Business Need to move the store online, otherwise he will lose his customer base.
Step 2 – Understand the “What” – This would get you to what is being changed. Over all the change revolves around moving from n Brick and Mortar to an online store. As part of the move online, they want the ability to allow a customer to select from the menu, place their order and pay for the order online. They want the customers to have the option for home delivery through doordash within a certain radius or pick up from the restaurant.
Step 3 – Understand the “When” – They want this product delivered in the next 2 months
Step 4 – Understand the “Where” – Online
Step 5 – Build the problem statement (not required but helpful for your understanding)
Build the Context Diagram
The next step in this phase is to build out your context diagram.
What is a Context Diagram?
Think of it as a high level mindmap which gives one an understanding of the system with the inputs, outputs. To read more about the mind map click here.
In the diagram above, I put down my initial thoughts on the system. When I user the word system I mean the whole online ordering system in this case.
Without getting too much into the weeds, this gives me an understanding of the touchpoints of this system (inputs and outputs). This is also provides me with an L0 scope and any important scope level questions that I need to follow up on.
Phase 2: Understand Stakeholders
Phase 1 and Phase 2 may not be sequential but they can be done side by side.
This is an important phase in my mind. This will give me a good understanding of who my stakeholders are and their criticality to the requirements.
If there is a project charter, I would first reference the charter. If not, the Business Analyst for this effort would connect with the Project Manager.
In the grid above you will notice a break down of the columns. The BA would understanding the roles of each stakeholder and their speicifc high level needs.
The business owner, Bob may have different requirements than an operations manager.
The grid also offers a view into the stakeholders influence versus the interest.
A stakeholder may be highly interested in the effort but may not have much of an influence. What that means is that you as a Business Analyst would focus your requirements gathering on who holds the most influence. You don’t want to ignore those that do not have the influence but at the end of the day as an Example if the operations manager is ultimately going to deal with the customers which would ultimately impact the bottom line, you would want to consider the operations managers requirements.
At the end of this exercise you will understand the stakeholder map and who would provide the sign off’s on the requirements.
This phase will also help you in the next phase of planning the requirements tasks.
As you move along in the project life cycle you may not to come back and update this list. This is a fluid document.
Phase 3: Build a Requirements Management Plan
By now you have a sense of the work involved.
“By Failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Benjamin Franklin
In life it is always good to have a plan in place. Whether you follow it to the T, doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have a baseline and a roadmap.
None of these phases are a requirement but they are a good practice for you to build a clarity muscle.
Building clarity for a Business Analyst is critical and having a plan helps with building the clarity.
In the template, break down the tasks and the sub tasks that you think you will need to take to achieve the goal.
This plan will give you a sense of who needs to be involved in each effort. One of the biggest pain points of stakeholders is that they do not have the time.
By planning ahead and letting them know that you would need approximately X hours of their time for the next X weeks, this helps mitigate the angst of not having stakeholders when you need them.
Work with the Project manager to understand the overall project timelines and build your plan accordingly.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this is a very structured approach of kick starting your journey as a Business Analyst when you get a brand new project.
There are 3 Phases in kicking off a Business Analysis effort:
Phase 1: Discovery of the effort
Phase 2: Understand the Stakeholders (Stakeholder Matrix)
Phase 3: Build a Requirements Management Plan
Here are a couple of books I would recommend that breaks down the process of Business Analysis.
3D Business Analyst: The Ultimate Hands-on Guide to Mastering Business Analysis
