The Bridge - Summer 2004

the

CONNECTING BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS TO TECHNOLOGY

Summer 2004

Emerging Role of the Business Analyst New Course Advanced Business Analysis Workshop

Ask the Experts Requirements Management Tools

Book Review Software Requirements: Styles and Techniques

Business Analyst Certification

letter from the editors elcome to our first issue of the bridge. We have decided that it is time for Business Analysts and those doing requirements gathering to have a publication that focuses on analyzing, documenting and recommending solutions for our organizations. Our goal for this publication is to enhance your job by providing you with the latest information, tools, and techniques used by Business Analysts around the country. The importance and visibility of Business Analysts has become heightened, while the scope of their work in the software application development process is expanding. Whether your title is Project Manager, Operations Manager, Systems Analyst, Quality Assurance Analyst, or Marketing Associate, you may be performing the role of a Business Analyst.

In this issue, you will find an article describing how B2T Training and other industry experts have seen the Business Analyst role change over the years and our predictions for the future of this role. We discuss the important issue of Requirements Management in our Ask the Experts section. Managing requirements continues to be a challenge as we try to streamline our processes and expand our businesses globally. We have highlighted two Requirements Management tools, DOORS and iServer, that are helping many organizations maintain control of this important corporate asset. Our column, called Did you Know?, provides tips for utilizing Visio to enhance your Requirements Packages.

In late 2002, we began offering our Business Analyst Certification Program. This program is unique in the industry in that it certifies Business Analysts in two areas: their knowledge of business analysis techniques and their ability to perform the essential or critical skills to be a Certified Business Analyst. This has been a very successful program and we are pleased that so many are enrolled and completing the program. As an opportunity to continue the development of experienced Business Analysts, we have developed a new course: Advanced Business Analysis Workshop. See our detailed outline on page 7.

We hope you find this publication informative and helpful with your analysis work. We encourage you to write to us with your questions for our Ask the Experts column and offer suggestions for future articles that would be of interest to you.

W

▼

TINA JOSEPH

BARBARA CARKENORD

ANNOUNCING

We are excited to announce a new professional association called the International Institute of Business Analysis. The group held its first annual meeting in Toronto, in March 2004. The purpose of the association is “To be the leading world-wide professional association developing and maintaining standards for the practice of Business Analysis and for the certification of practitioners.” Their first order of business is to develop a Business Analysis Body of Knowledge.

B2T Training has joined this association because our vision of the role of the Business Analyst is consistent with the proposed goals of the IIBA. We feel that it is critical for Business Analysts to have a professional organization to support their career efforts. One of the committees that we will be working with will be defining the industry accreditation and we will work towards making the B2T Training Certification transferable to the IIBA Certification.

To learn more about IIBA, visit the website at www.iiba.com. We encourage you to join and participate through active involvement in the committees and various groups.

the Summer 2004

volume 1 l issue 1

table of contents 3 5

Emerging Role of the Business Analyst

6 7 7

New Course: Advanced Business Analysis Workshop

8

Did You Know?

Ask the Experts Requirements Management Tools

Business Analyst Certification Program Book Review Software Requirements: Styles and Techniques

by Soren Lauesen Page 3

MS Visio Professional

Core Courses ▼ ▼ ▼

9

Essential Skills for the Business Analyst Detailing Business Data Requirements Detailing Process and Business Rule Requirements

Additional Course Offerings ▼ ▼

10

Requirements Testing for the Business Analyst Overview of Business Analysis

B2T Training • 11795 Northfall Lane, Suite 601 • Alpharetta, GA 30004 • 865-675-2125 B2T Training is a woman-owned small business based in Atlanta, GA. Our training focuses on proven skills and techniques to define and scope the business problem, gather requirements, document the requirements, model the requirements, and follow through with the development of business requirements test plans to ensure the project has met its defined objectives.

Our training is offered nationally and on a limited international basis. Most of our classes are taught onsite and are tailored to the unique environments of each organization. Public classes are also available in various cities around the US. Vice President, Sales and Marketing Tina Joseph

Vice President, Training Barbara A. Carkenord

Director of Business Development Angie Perris

©2004 B2T Training. All rights reserved.

the bridge l Summer 2004 2

Emerging Role of the Business Analyst What has happened over the last few years and what to look for in the future.

S

working in the IT organization. They underoftware application development stood the software development process and has only been around since the late often had programming experience. They 1970’s. Compared to other industries used textual requirements along with ANSI and professions the software industry is still flowcharts, dataflow diagrams, database diavery young. Ever since organizations began grams, and prototypes. The biggest comto use computers to support their business plaint about software development was the tasks, the people who create and maintain length of time required to those “systems” have What is a Business develop a system that didn’t become more and more Analyst? always meet the business sophisticated and specialneeds. Business people had ized. This specialization A business analyst is a become accustomed to is necessary because person who acts as a sophisticated software and as computer systems liaison between business wanted it better and faster. become more and more people who have a In response to the complex, no one person business problem and demand for speed, a class can know how to do technology people who of development tools everything. know how to create referred to as CASE One of the “specialautomated solutions.

(Computer Aided ties” to arise is the Software Engineering) were invented.

Business Analyst. Although some organizaThese tools were designed to capture tions have used this title in non-IT areas of requirements and use them to manage a the business, it is an appropriate description software development project from beginfor the role that functions as the bridge ning to end. They required a strict adherbetween people in business and IT. The ence to a methodology, involved a long use of the word “Business” is a constant learning curve, and often alienated the reminder that any application software business community from the development developed by an organization should further process due to the unfamiliar symbols used improve its business operations, either by in the diagrams. increasing revenue, reducing costs, or As IT teams struggled to learn to use increasing service level to the customers.

CASE tools, PCs (personal computers) began to appear in large numbers on deskHistory of the Business tops around the organization. Suddenly Analyst Role anyone could be a computer programmer, In the 1980’s when the software developdesigner and user. IT teams were still perment life cycle was well accepted as a necesfecting their management of a central sary step, people doing this work typically mainframe computer and then suddenly came from a technical background and were

3 Summer 2004 l the bridge

had hundreds of independent computers to manage. Client-server technologies emerged as an advanced alternative to the traditional “green screen,” keyboard-based software.

The impact on the software development process was devastating. Methodologies and classic approaches to development had to be revised to support the new distributed systems technology and the increased sophistication of the computer user prompted the number of software requests to skyrocket.

Many business areas got tired of waiting for a large, slow moving IT department to rollout yet another cumbersome application. They began learning to do things for themselves, or hiring consultants, often called Business Analysts, who would report directly to them, to help with automation needs. This caused even more problems for IT which was suddenly asked to support software that they had not written or approved. Small independent databases were created everywhere with inconsistent, and often, unprotected data. During this time, the internal Business Analyst role was minimized and as a result many systems did not solve the right business problem causing an increase in maintenance expenses and rework.

New methodologies and approaches were developed to respond to the changes, RAD (rapid application development), JAD (joint application development), and OO (object oriented) tools and methods were developed.

As we began the new millennium, the Internet emerged as the new technology and IT was again faced with a tremendous change. Once again, more sophisticated users, anxious to take advantage of new technology, often looked outside of their own organizations for the automation they craved. The business side of the organization started driving the technology as never before and in a large percentage of organizations began staffing the Business Analyst role from within the operational units instead of from IT. We now have Marketing Directors, Accountants, Attorneys, and Payroll Clerks performing the role of the Business Analyst.

In addition, the quality movement that our organizations, it becomes necessary to had started in the 70’s with TQM, came accurately and completely define the into focus again as companies looked for requirements in more detail than ever ways to lower their before. A consistent cost of missed requirestructured approach, Who Makes a Great Business Analyst? ments as they expandwhile nice to have in the ed globally. The ISO past, is required to be • Must be an outstanding (International successful in the new communicator Standards environment. Most • Must understand the SDLC Organization) set organizations will main• Must enjoy very detailed quality standards that tain the Business research and recording must be adhered to Analyst role as an “in• Must be skilled at when doing internahouse” function. As a organizing and managing tional business. result, more IT staff large amounts of Carnegie Mellon are being trained as information in various created a software Business Analysts. forms development quality • Must be customer-focused standard CMM The Business Analyst • Must be flexible (Capability Maturity role will continue to Model). Additionally, shift its focus from • Must come prepared with Six Sigma provided a “Software” to a toolkit of techniques to elicit excellent requirements disciplined, data-driv“Business System.” en quality approach to Most Business Analysts process improvement aimed at the neartoday are focused on software development elimination of defects from every product, and maintenance, but the skills of the process, and transaction. Each of these Business Analyst can be utilized on a larger quality efforts required more facts and rigor scale. An excellent Business Analyst can during requirements gathering and analysis study a business area and make recommenwhich highlighted the need for more skilled dations about procedural changes, personBusiness Analysts familiar with the business, nel changes, and policy changes in addition IT, and quality best practices. to recommending software. The Business Analyst can help improve the business system not just the business software.

Future of the Business

Analyst Role Today we see Business Analysts coming from both the IT and business areas. In the best situations, the Business Analyst today has a combination of IT and business skills.

Each organization has unique titles for these individuals and the structure of Business Analyst groups are as varied as the companies themselves. However, there is a core set of tasks that most Business Analysts are doing regardless of their background or their industry.

The Business Analyst role becomes more critical as project teams become more geographically dispersed.

Outsourcing and globalization of large corporations have been the driving factors for much of this change recently. When the IT development role no longer resides inside

The Business Analyst role will continue to evolve as business dictates.

Future productivity increases will be achieved through re-usability of requirements. Requirements Management will become another key skill in the expanding role of the Business Analyst as organizations mature in their understanding of this critical expertise.

The Business Analyst is often described as an “Agent of Change.” Having a detailed understanding of the organization’s key initiatives, a Business Analyst can lead the way to influence people to adapt to major changes that benefit the organization and its business goals. The role of a Business Analyst is an exciting and secure career choice as U.S. companies continue to drive the global economy. ■ the bridge l Summer 2004 4

ask the experts What is a Requirements Management Tool? Why would I buy one? equirements Management refers to the creation, storing, and maintaining of application software requirements.

Requirements consist of all the information in a Requirements Package including corresponding notes, diagrams, or prototypes. Software vendors offer tools that store and manage these requirements, called Requirements Management tools.

R

Why buy a tool? Documenting requirements is a time consuming and detailed process. Keeping requirements up to date is even more challenging. Anyone who has ever created a Requirements Package has asked herself or himself “What will happen to all this work that I have done when the project is over?”

Requirements Management is necessary because business needs often change. They change while the project is still in process and they change after the software has been installed. In addition, when multiple analysts are working on the same project, it is difficult for more than one person to update a traditional word processing document.

A Requirements Management tool addresses these problems. The tool stores requirements and allows them to be revised, changed, and tracked so that analysts can keep them up to date at all

times. These requirements are available and re-useable on future projects.

The organizations that can quickly adapt their software to changing business needs accomplish this feat by maintaining and re-using requirements. A Requirements Management tool is essential in offering this flexibility. Below are two Requirements Management tools currently available.

Tool: DOORS The Requirements Management tool called DOORS is sold by Telelogic, Inc. Telelogic has been offering application development tools for over 20 years. They hold a strong market position, especially in Europe. DOORS: Dynamic Object Oriented Requirements, includes a repository for storing requirements and a set of tools to maintain the requirements.

DOORS was originally designed to support textual requirements. It looks and works like a MS office product. This makes entering requirements very easy for anyone who is familiar with MS Word. Each requirement is assigned a unique number.

DOORS keeps track of this unique number and uses it to link one requirement

DOORS

to another or to a test case (created in their tool called TAU). In addition, graphic requirements from tools like VISIO can be linked into DOORS. www.telelogic.com

Tool: iServer One of the newest Requirements Management tools to come into the marketplace is iServer by Orbus. Orbus was started by several Requirements Management experts who saw the need for an open requirements repository that would be able to manage and link requirements that were created in various tools. The iServer interface uses MS VISIO to enter requirements and manage them. The database stores requirements from MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and VISIO. Links between requirements can be built.

VISIO users will be able to quickly learn the iServer menu options. www.orbussoftware.com ■ Send your questions to Ask the Experts at sales@b2ttraining.com.

A few of the major features of Requirements Management tools are outlined below: Feature

Benefit

Repository or database

When a requirement is named and stored in a database, it becomes a business asset that can be tracked like any other asset. The repository keeps track of the date it was created, who created it, when it was revised, who it was revised by, etc. Multiple analysts can work on each requirement.

In addition, centralized storage allows for easy backup and recovery.

Traceability

Each requirement can be linked to related requirements and to other design components such as test cases. This traceability is referred to when a requirement is changed to make sure that all related components are also changed.

Revision tracking

Each revision to a requirement is saved and documented. This allows the project team to look back at how the requirement evolved on its way to completion.

Change control

When a business change requires a change to an automated procedure, existing requirements from previous projects are available for re-use.

Security

A user id or logon id is assigned to each user so that the name of the user who made each change is recorded.

5 Summer 2004 l the bridge

new course

3 Days

Advanced Business Analysis Workshop Business Analysts are constantly striving to improve their skills and increase the quality of their project requirements. This course enhances the effectiveness of Business Analysts by giving them additional techniques and strategies for gathering, documenting, and reviewing requirements. Techniques such as advanced data definition, traceability, and gap analysis help BAs to document more accurate and complete requirements.

The course also presents the concept of Requirements Management and requirement reuse.

Implementing a requirements management process into your organization can significantly reduce the time required to make software changes and develop software interfaces.

Intended Audience This course is intended for experienced Business Analysts who want to enhance their skills.

Prerequisites BAs registering for this course must have attended the three core courses or have at least 2 years experience in requirements gathering and documentation using structured techniques.

Course Outline Introduction • What are the challenges faced by Business Analysts?

• Review requirements gathering and documentation process • Define requirements management and re-usability

Advanced Business Rule Requirements • Review of business rule types • Learn about language structures • Group workshop - Refine the business rules in the requirements package

Conducting a Requirements Review Workshop • Review rules for conducting a review and the roles involved • Group workshop - Maintenance project requirements • Conduct a formal, structured review of the case study requirements package • Formulate follow up questions and a revision plan • Present findings to the class

Advanced Functional Requirements • Review the design area scope • Review documenting system functionality using Use Case Descriptions • Learn about screen usability principals in designing prototypes • Group workshop - Refine the functional requirements in the requirements package

Advanced Project Initiation Requirements • Learn to assess a project request and select the appropriate requirements components • Review objectives for measurable and clear descriptions • Review context level dataflow diagram. How do external agents differ from user classes and actors?

• Learn a technique to help subject matter experts scope a project with unclear boundaries • Group workshop - Revise the requirements package project initiation section

Assuring a Complete Requirements Package • Learn about traceability matrices • Group workshop - Create traceability matrices

Advanced Data Requirements • Review of the core data components • Discuss data ownership issues • Discuss the use of data in process requirements • Learn about involuted and ternary relationships • Learn techniques for data generalization • Discuss the reusability of data components • Group workshop - Refine the data requirements section

Requirements Management • What is requirements management? Why is requirements management important?

• How are requirements managed?

• Group workshop - Initiating a maintenance project Requirements Gap Analysis • Learn about gap analysis and where it can be useful • Show gaps in data, process, and business rule requirements • Use gap analysis to document requirements for COTS (Custom Over The counter Software) • Group workshop - Perform gap analysis on case study project

▼

Advanced Process Requirements • Discuss typical problems with process descriptions • Review event partitioning • Group workshop - Refine the process requirements

Project Cost Benefit Analysis • Learn the purpose of cost benefit analysis • Use the requirements package to estimate project costs and benefits • Group workshop - Write a simple cost benefit analysis

For more information on this course visit www.b2ttraining.com, call 865-675-2125 or email sales@b2ttraining.com the bridge l Summer 2004 6

certification Business Analyst Certification Program 2T Training offers a program for Business Analysts certifying that the individual has the skills necessary to perform analysis and complete a Business Requirements Document for application development. The program consists of completing three proficiency area tests and a comprehensive case study final exam. In addition, the candidate must have completed

B

two years work experience and receive two recommendations from peers or co-workers validating their experience and knowledge.

All of our exams and verification information are reviewed by a Certified Instructor/Business Analyst. Certified Business Analyst may use the B2T Training certification as proof of their proven capabilities. ■

Essential Skills for the Business Analyst 4 day class

Detailing Business Data Requirements* 3 day class

Detailing Process and Business Rule Requirements 4 day class

Pass class exam

Pass class exam

Pass class exam

Pass Final Certification Exam

Submit application for certication • 2 written recommendations • Verify work exp.

(2 years min.)

Receive BA Certification

*You may substitute Logical Data Modeling

New Certified Business Analysts We are pleased to highlight those individuals who have earned the title of Certified Business Analyst. The program began in late 2002, and we are excited that so many Business Analysts are enrolled and working toward certification. To date, we have more than 700 people in the program and over 100 of these are expected to complete all the requirements by the end of 2004.

Sue Andrews Terrie Brosmith Alphonso Brown Christina Chew Lynn Donnelly Karen Durney Cheryl Enslin Scott Garner Stephanie Griffiths Noreen Kelly David Kinser

Christine Miali Thomas Nevlud Paul Olesak Anjali Ravuri Barb Ryan Beth Shafer Becky Stich Angie Strid Roy Swinehart Marsha Wolfberg Rachelle Zani

book review Software Requirements: Styles and Techniques

by Soren Lauesen R E V I E W E D F O R B 2 T T R A I N I N G BY BA R BA R A A . C A R K E N O R D

was initially attracted to Lauesen’s book because he covers numerous requirements documentation techniques. Many authors only focus on one particular approach or methodology but in reality a Business Analyst needs to be familiar with various techniques and able to select the appropriate technique for each requirement’s need.

Lauesen has an excellent understanding of the difficulty of documenting requirements so that they are detailed enough for the IT team to use and yet understandable for the SME team to review and approve. This balance is addressed in every chapter of the book, with every technique covered. He discusses

I

7 Summer 2004 l the bridge

well established techniques such as dataflow diagrams and data modeling along with newer, less proven techniques such as UML class diagrams and collaboration diagrams. Lauesen’s examples are clear, understandable, and yet complex enough to show the challenges in documenting accurate requirements. To help with gathering requirements, This book is available Lauesen covers at b2ttraining.com. many elicitation

options along with suggestions for validating your requirements.

If you are looking for a step by step approach to documenting requirements, this is not it. But if you are looking for a realistic description of the advantages and disadvantages of various approaches, I would highly recommend this book as a reference. ■ Barbara A. Carkenord is the Vice President, Training at B2T Training. She has worked in the requirements gathering and documentation field for over 20 years and has conducted hundreds of seminars for Business Analysts. Comments are welcome at bcarkenord@b2ttraining.com.

did you know?

MS Visio Professional Supports UML Modeling and Diagramming

O

utlined below are the steps within Visio necessary to get started creating Use Case Diagrams.

1. In Visio when you create a New file, choose Software and then choose UML Model Diagram.

2. The new file will be created with one initial page. New pages can be added for different diagrams within the same project.

3. All of the stencils and shapes associated with UML diagramming are available on the left hand side of the tool. Below these stencils is the Model Explorer window. This will show all of the diagrams and shapes (objects) that have been created in your model.

▼

4. The stencil: UML Use Case contains the shapes that are available for Use Case Diagrams. Simply click on a shape and drag in onto your page.

5. Once a shape is on your page, double click on it to open its Properties window where you can name it and supply additional information about the object.

▼ Visit our website www.b2ttraining.com

6. Visio diagrams can be copied into MS Word documents allowing graphical requirements along with your text.

▼

Business Analyst Conference Boston, MA in Fall 2004 Announcements and Updates New Training Classes and Schedules White Papers on Business Analysis

the bridge l Summer 2004 8

certified core courses Essential Skills for the Business Analyst

4 Days

This course covers the critical skills for the Business Analyst. Students will learn to define what is, and what is not included in the project, how to ask the right questions, when and how to hold interviews and facilitated sessions, how to write excellent requirements, how to verify that requirements are testable, how to conduct a requirements review, and have an overview of various application development methodologies. Additionally, students will be introduced to various documentation techniques and plan an approach for documentation.

3 Days Detailing Business Data Requirements The Data portion of the business requirements is a critical component to defining complete requirements. Every process uses data and almost all business rules are enforced by data. Missing a critical piece of data or incorrectly defining a data element contributes to the majority of maintenance problems and results in systems that do not reflect the business needs. This course teaches students an in-depth approach to identify and define all necessary data components using both textual templates and an entity relationship diagram.

4 Days Detailing Process and Business Rule Requirements

â–ź

This course continues the development of the requirements package by defining the processes and business rules for the project. Students will learn to identify and define the processes from a business and functional perspective. Various techniques are taught including decomposition diagrams, templates, workflow models, and Use Case diagrams and descriptions. Additionally, this course teaches techniques to ensure that requirements have not been missed.

More detailed outlines are available on our website, www.b2ttraining.com

9 Summer 2004 l the bridge

additional course offerings Requirements Testing for the Business Analyst

3 Days

This course provides an excellent foundation for Business Analysts who are involved in software quality assurance (SQA). The course will improve the Business Analyst's development of requirements so that they can be used to build quality test cases. It will also enable the Business Analyst to create specific test cases from the requirements. The course includes a workshop case study that provides a cohesive learning experience.

This course provides Business Analysts the knowledge to: • Understand the basic SQA terms and definitions as defined by international standards • Understand the link between requirements and testing • Understand the testing life cycle • Correct/update requirements for use in development of tests • Define and create test documentation using IEEE/ISO formats • Understand common testing techniques • Review and assist with the development of project test plans • Design and create usability tests • Understand the difference between manual and automated testing

Overview of Business Analysis

4 Hour Seminar

This seminar presents the Business Analyst role to managers and others who lead and work with Business Analysts. In order for the Business Analysts to be successful, both the IT and business community must embrace the business analysis process. The seminar can be used as a working session to discuss how your organization will implement the business analysis process and approaches for documenting the requirements.

Both large and small organizations are realizing the benefits of using Business Analysts on all of their application development projects. A Business Analyst acts as a liaison between business people who have a business problem and technology people who know how to create automated solutions. Improving the communication between your business areas and your IT team significantly increases the quality of the systems developed.

▼

A Business Analyst's main responsibility is to gather, detail, and document requirements in a format that is useful to their business area experts and the technical developers. Analysis is a very important and time-consuming phase of every project. This seminar provides strategies for how management can support the business analysis process.

For more information on these courses visit www.b2ttraining.com

the bridge l Summer 2004 10

public class schedule Essential Skills for the Business Analyst - $1,980/per student • Jun 14 – Jun 17, 2004 New York, NY • Jul 26 – Jul 29, 2004 Atlanta, GA • Sep 13 – Sep 16, 2004 Louisville, KY • Dec 6 – Dec 9, 2004 Atlanta, GA Detailing Business Data Requirements - $1,485/per student • Aug 23 – Aug 25, 2004 Atlanta, GA • Sep 13 – Sep 15, 2004 New York, NY • Oct 13 – Oct 15, 2004 Louisville, KY Detailing Process and Business Rule Requirements - $1,980/per student • Aug 9 – Aug 12, 2004 San Francisco, CA • Oct 4 – Oct 7, 2004 Atlanta, GA • Nov 15 – Nov 18, 2004 Louisville, KY • Dec 6 – Dec 9, 2004 New York, NY

Register – www.b2ttraining.com/Training-Courses On-site classes are also available.

Call 865-675-2125 or email us at sales@B2Ttraining.com

B2T Training 11795 Northfall Lane, Suite 601 Alpharetta, GA 30004

Prsrt Std U.S. Postage PAID Permit #309 Knoxville, TN