The risk of changes to requirements can be minimized by having a robust requirements gathering process. For various reasons requirements could still change and it is important to have a process in place to manage these changes when they happen. Changes need to be prioritised, documented, communicated and implemented if approved. The main steps and questions to answer… Read More »
There are different roles within business analysis. Below lists some of the different job titles encountered and the differences in job description and skills required. Because of this the roles may sit in different teams. Some companies may separate out these roles whilst others may be more blended. Business Architect (other job titles may include Lead Business Analyst)… Read More »
This article is written from my personal experience. It’s been really great to hear about so many people with an interest in this area and wanting to go into this career as their profession. I hope that sharing my experience will be useful to others at the start of their journey. I chose to do a degree in… Read More »
When is the technique applicable If gathering requirements for an IT system then inevitably some of the requirements will mean storing data or doing something with data. A logical data model can be a technique for gathering these. It is very useful because it enables a diagram to be drawn up which can be discussed to improve the… Read More »
The term agile has become a popular term and approach for delivering solutions. It is an alternative to the traditional waterfall approach. Its key focus has been to deliver faster, greater collaboration between stakeholders and more adaptable at incorporating changes. It does this by breaking the work down, prioritising items of highest value and getting output in front… Read More »
The previous article How to elicit high level requirements by identifying use cases explained how to identify the scope of the solution and how to define use cases. This article explains what questions to ask and how to document solution requirements in more detail using UML (Unified Modelling Language). A great benefit of this technique is that it… Read More »
This article is to provide you with techniques for eliciting requirements by providing step by step instructions to produce a use case model for an IT system. A company intranet will be used throughout to provide examples. Use cases were first used by Ivar Jacobson to describe an amount of work to be done. Use cases break down… Read More »
The purpose of this article is to explain the role of the business analyst in an agile project. Business analysis starts way before implementing the agile methodology process. Before using it to design and develop a IT system there needs to be an understanding of the following business analysis tasks: The problems that need resolving The opportunities and… Read More »
This article sets out some of the attributes that make the agile methodology successful but also explains what lessons can be learnt and applied regardless of the methodology. When providing Agile examples, the approach called SCRUM will be used as it is one of the most popular agile approaches. Refer to the article How to identify the most… Read More »
There are different levels of requirements gathering which need to be conducted at different periods of time during the lifecycle of a project. This article sets out a brief description of each of the type of requirements, why, how this relates to traceability and some examples. Further articles on gathering goals / objectives – How to gather benefits… Read More »