NEW! What to Expect for the Needs Assessment, Planning, Analysis, Traceability and Monitoring, and Evaluation Domains

Transcription

1 NEW! What to Expect for the Needs Assessment, Planning, Analysis, Traceability and Monitoring, and Evaluation Domains An Article from RMC Learning Solutions

2 This article is a compilation of a series of published blog posts, found on Converging 360, written by Barbara Carkenord throughout the writing of the publication PMI-PBA Exam Prep Guide. RMC Learning TM Solutions Bren Road East, Minnetonka, Minnesota 55343, USA Main Fax info@rmcls.com Copyright 2016 RMC Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher. 2

3 Table of Contents Meet the Author...4 Domain 1: Needs Assessment...5 Domain 2: Planning...6 Domain 3: Analysis Domain 4: Traceability & Monitoring... 8 Domain 5: Evaluation About RMC Learning Solutions

4 Meet The Author Barbara A. Carkenord, CBAP, PMI-PBA, PMP, PMI-ACP Practice Director and Trainer Business Analysis Barbara A. Carkenord, Director of Business Analysis at RMC Learning Solutions has over 25 years experience in business analysis, and is one of the original founders of the Business Analysis training industry. Barbara possesses an MBA from the University of Michigan. In 2010 Barbara was named Small Business Woman of the Year by the Georgia Women in Technology. Industry certifications include: IIBA s Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP ) PMI s Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA ) PMI s Project Management Professional (PMP ) PMI s Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP ) Publications include: Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis, 2008 Contributor to IIBA s A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge V2 (BABOK Guide), 2009 Contributor to IIBA s Managing Business Analysis, 2011 CBAP /CCBA Exam Prep, 2012 Expert reviewer of IIBA s BABOK Guide Version, 2015 Barbara A. Carkenord, CBAP, PMI-PBA, PMP, PMI-ACP Connect with Barb twitter.com/bcarkenord linkedin.com/in/bcarkenord 4

5 Domain 1: Needs Assessment The first Domain is Needs Assessment. Needs Assessment is often the domain that s most difficult for exam takers because it s the one where people have the least amount of experience. Expect to see approximately 36 exam questions from this domain. Needs Assessment describes the work necessary to define a business need, decide on an approach to address that need, and determine whether the organization should invest in the proposed change. It includes work that should be done before a project is initiated to make sure the project will bring sufficient business value to the organization. This is the domain that most concerns people preparing to take the PMI-PBA exam. This is the domain that most concerns people preparing to take the PMI-PBA exam. Let s start by considering the words need and assessment. Need describes a lack of something useful there is something your organization does not have or cannot do that would be worthwhile. Some organizations call their needs missing capabilities. Now think about the word assessment. You perform assessments all the time, both at work and in your personal life. To assess is to estimate the importance of something. So when you put these two words together, you are looking at something the organization is lacking and figuring out its relative value. How much does the organization need it? Is it a more critical need than other needs? Not all needs have equal weight. A business need can exist for one of three major reasons: First, there is a problem within the organization that needs to be fixed. This could be an inefficient or costly process, for example, a customer service problem. The second type of need comes about because there is a potential opportunity the organization could take advantage of. Maybe someone in the company has a new product idea that would improve its competitive advantage. Or maybe there s a new technology or new market that could be exploited. The third type of need is an externally imposed change. This could be a new or updated regulation. This constraint usually has a fixed compliance date that dictates its priority. Businesses often have to consider multiple needs based on these different reasons to determine which ones they ll address. When that happens, these three different types of needs must be compared to each other to determine their relative priority. Comparing these very different types of needs is difficult and requires sophisticated business analysis. We compare them by identifying potential solutions, estimating the cost of each solution, and estimating the business value each solution would bring. This cost-benefit analysis allows us to prioritize and sequence a long list of requests in a rational, logical manner. 5

6 Domain 2: Planning The PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA) designation recognizes professionals who have experience and knowledge performing business analysis work. Analyzing the business is a job performed by people with many different titles and this is especially true in studying the Planning Domain. Project Managers recognize the critical importance of planning in project success. PMs have expertise in thinking ahead about how their projects will best be accomplished. They often consult with experts and known project team members to develop their plans and assess risks. This strategy is called distributed planning and is supported by the PMI-PBA Domain called Planning. It is referred to as Business Analysis Planning in PMI s Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice guide. Ideally, experienced business analysis professionals develop business analysis plans by considering: Another important component of planning is agreement about the stakeholder s acceptance criteria. 1) The characteristics of the business need or proposed solution, and, 2) The stakeholders, and, 3) The context or environment within which the solution will exist. These three aspects of planning build upon the knowledge gained in the Needs Assessment Domain. During planning we decide which elicitation techniques, analysis and modeling techniques, requirements management procedures, and validation procedures will be used during the project. Another important component of planning is agreement about the stakeholder s acceptance criteria. Some of the techniques which you will need to know for questions in this domain include stakeholder analysis, interviewing, document analysis along with the traditional PM planning tools like a work breakdown structure (WBS) and estimating. PMs and BAs work closely together while planning to make sure that the business analysis activities will support and enhance the other project work. When a PM does not have a business analysis professional on his or her team, he or she has to develop business analysis plans along with the other project management plans. Regardless of how you plan for business analysis activities, the PMI-PBA Planning Domain outlines the key considerations necessary to develop a solid plan. People studying for the PMI-PBA exam should pay close attention to the Planning Domain as it sets the stage for the work of the remaining three domains. 6

7 Domain 3: Analysis PMI calls the third domain Analysis, but it is more appropriately named Elicitation and Analysis because it includes both topics. Elicitation is the asking of questions and research needed to discover requirements. Analysis means to break down a whole into its components for study. So this domain includes the communications necessary to learn about the business and its requirements, along with the analysis work needed to break down the requirements and really understand the needed solution. All aspects of business analysis are important, but if you had to name the core of it all, this is it: Elicitation and Analysis. If you had to name the core of BA, this is it: Elicitation and Analysis. Approximately 70 of the PMI-PBA exam questions are focused on this domain and its techniques. It is the most important domain in which you need to be able to answer questions correctly. Many of the questions will ask you to choose the best elicitation or analysis technique to use for a given situation. This requires you to understand the value of each technique, not just memorize a list. In our PMI-PBA Exam Prep book we highlight the elicitation and analysis techniques you will likely see on your exam. These techniques are not mutually exclusive, which means you will often use two or more of them at the same time. How am I supposed to do two things at once? you might ask me. Well, eliciting involves communicating and analysis involves thinking. Don t you frequently think while you are communicating? Yes. We do it all of the time. As we interview a stakeholder (elicitation) we also think about the business they are describing (analysis). You will also see that the same technique can be used in multiple domains to accomplish different results. There are more than 30 techniques that may be used in this domain, so this chapter has taken me the most time to write! While you aren t expected to be an expert on all of these, PMI expects you to be aware of the large number of options you have to help with elicitation and analysis. To improve your skills, try new techniques and mentor others on them. Set a goal for yourself to learn about a new technique every quarter or on every new project. If you have a few minutes right now, search on a technique you ve never used and learn a little about how it might be useful. Have you ever used a decision table, an entity relationship diagram (ERD), or a story map? Examples of all of these techniques are covered in the PMI-PBA Exam Prep Book now available. Also check out our virtual training PMI-PBA Exam Prep course and our practice exam questions BA FASTrack for the PMI-PBA Exam available now, to get ready for your exam! 7

8 Domain 4: Traceability & Monitoring The Traceability and Monitoring domain includes much of the business analysis work that is traditionally called Requirements Management. Although this is a small domain relative to the others (only 15 percent of exam questions come from this domain), Traceability and Monitoring describes very important work. The Traceability and Monitoring domain describes the work of keeping track of the requirements, reporting on their completion, linking them to each other and other project components, and assessing the impact of changes. The word monitor means to warn or caution about a potential problem. Analysts monitor the solution scope and requirements throughout the project life cycle and alert or warn the project manager if there are any potential problems. Traceability is a great way to make sure requirements are not missed. When you study the work in this domain, it is best to think of requirements as individual components that are all in different stages of development. Some are new and have not yet been analyzed. Some are analyzed, but not yet approved. Eventually, each one of them will be completed, rejected, or deferred. Tracing requirements results in many benefits for your project. Traceability Provides a Double Check Traceability is a great way to make sure requirements are not missed. One of the most difficult things about developing requirements is knowing when you are done. How do you know you haven t missed anything? This fear sometimes causes an analyst to spend more time than necessary eliciting and analyzing. Tracing requirements and their relationships to other requirements is a great way to check your work and help you find missing pieces. Whenever a row or column in a traceability matrix is empty, you may be missing a requirement or a detail about a requirement. Traceability Allows Impact Analysis Impact analysis involves looking at the potential impact of a change. A traceability matrix is a valuable tool for impact analysis when the requirements are correctly linked. When a stakeholder requests a requirements change, the business analyst uses traceability links to find all of the related requirements and solution components to assess the size of the impact. Traceability Keeps the Team Focused Every requirement must tie back to a project objective. In addition, if a requirement has numerous links, it is important to make sure it is analyzed completely. Knowing which requirements have the most connections keeps the team focused on these requirements. By showing priorities and links in one place, we can easily see which requirements need most of our time and energy. 8

9 Domain 5: Evaluation The last exam area is the Evaluation domain and includes the work necessary to make sure the solution is ready for the stakeholders, and that it delivers the value expected. Solution evaluation is where all of the work of the project comes together. Business analysis work in this domain assures that the solution is ready for use in the business area. To make sure it is ready, it must be thoroughly tested, the end users must be ready to use it, and the organization must be prepared for its impacts. Business analysts are important team members in this work. The person or people who elicited and analyzed the requirements know exactly how the solution is supposed to work, and know the stakeholders expectations for the value it will provide. With that knowledge, the business analyst helps the team identify and resolve defects found during testing. Solution evaluation is where all of the work of the project comes together. Evaluation is Easy if Requirements Were Well Defined This chapter is the shortest chapter in RMC s new PMI-PBA Exam Prep study guide and the fewest number of exam questions will come from this domain, only about 20. This is because when the team has planned, elicited, analyzed, and managed requirements well, the number of problems found during testing should be low. One of the biggest benefits of strong requirements management skills is that a better quality product, one that meets stakeholder expectations, is more likely to be built. Evaluation Ties Back to Needs Assessment Evaluating the solution requires us to look back at the original project objectives (defined in Needs Assessment), acceptance criteria, and detailed requirements. Test plans are designed to make sure the acceptance criteria has been satisfied and the functional and nonfunctional requirements have all been included in the solution. When a problem, or gap, is found, the team documents the gap, analyzes it, and determines how best to correct it. After it is corrected, the solution is retested. Some problems may not be resolved before implementation, due to time constraints. In these situations, if the sponsor agrees, the business analyst helps the end users develop a workaround or mitigating action that can be used until the problem is resolved. Getting approval to implement the solution may require consensus from a number of stakeholders. Post-Implementation Assessment One additional task in this domain is the post-implementation assessment of the solution. Only after a new product or solution has been used by end users in the production environment can the value be really assessed its value. Measuring the actual results of the new solution allows us to definitively report that the project objectives have been met. Business analysis is critical to project success and earning the PMI-PBA certification is one way to show your expertise in this important discipline. Check out the links below to learn more about RMC s test prep options. 9

10 About RMC Learning Solutions RMC Learning Solutions develops and trains project managers, business analysts and agile practitioners by helping them learn the skills necessary to succeed in their careers. We deliver a wide range of training in multiple learning formats across the globe. Founded in 1991 by Rita Mulcahy, the company continues to develop and provide innovative, real-world tools and instruction, delivered by professionals with extensive experience and a working knowledge of industry best practices. For more information visit Here are Some Great Resources to Prepare for the PMI-PBA Exam: INSTRUCTOR-LED VIRTUAL COURSE INSTRUCTOR-LED CLASSROOM PMI-PBA Exam Prep System PMI-PBA Exam Prep Instructor-Led Virtual PMI-PBA Exam Prep (3 Days) IIBA, the IIBA logo, BABOK Guide and Business Analysis Body of Knowledge are registered trademarks owned by International Institute of Business Analysis. PMI-PBA, PMI-ACP, PMBOK, PMI, PMP, and PMI Registered Education Provider (R.E.P) are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc. As a PMI Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.), RMC Project Management, an affiliate of RMC Publications, Inc., has agreed to abide by PMI-established quality assurance criteria. RMC Learning TM Solutions Bren Road East Minnetonka, Minnesota USA Main Fax info@rmcls.com 10