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Introduction to BABOK Guide IIBA Certification
Why Perspectives? Offers insight into specialized areasof business analysis where a business analyst can providevalue
Common Structure • Methodologies, Approaches and Techniques – specific to those that are unique to each perspective • Change Scope: what parts of the enterprise the change encompasses when viewed from this perspective and to what extent it impacts the objectives and operations of the enterprise . Also – type of problems solved, solutions considered, approach, and value • Business Analysis Scope – describes key stakeholders and the BA role within the initiative. Also defines likely outcomes of BA work • Underlying Competencies – those that are most prevalent to that perspective • Impact on Knowledge Areas– describes how knowledge areas are applied or modified. Also explains how specific activities within a perspective are mapped to tasks Methodologies, Approaches, & Techniques Change and Business AnalysisScope Perspectives Impact on Knowledge Areas Underlying Competencies
The PerspectiveLens They can stand alone or be combined depending on theinitiative
Agile StrategyAnalysis Elicitation & Collaboration SolutionEvaluation Requirements Analysis&DesignDefinition
AgileBusiness Analysis Individuals and interactions over processes andtools BA opportunity: Collaborate within a smaller team and with much fewer stakeholders on a continuous basis, early and often (discussion of incomplete thoughtsandconceptsareacceptable),usingsimpletoolsduringconversations Working software over comprehensivedocumentation BA opportunity: Understand that scope is smaller with less of a need for formal documentationbutstillbalancingthiswithgovernanceandotherbusinesspolicyor regulatoryauditneeds Customer collaboration over contractnegotiation BA Opportunity: Working toward a shared definition of “done”, understanding that youdon’tgetintothedetailuntilyouhaveto(just-in-timeanalysis),andfocusingon businessvalue Responding to change over following aplan BAOpportunity:Acknowledgethatchangeswilloccurandareacceptable,think customerfirst www.agilemanifesto.org • As a team member participating in all sprintactivities • As a product owner, possiblytemporarily, creating and grooming thebacklog • As an advisor to the team to the product owner supporting all business activities from vision to deployment AgileManifesto Don’tforgetthere isanAgileExtensionto theBABOK®Guideformoredetails.
Agile Perspective • Introduction • The Agile Perspective highlights the unique characteristics of business analysis when practiced in the context of agile environments • Change Scope • Constantly Evolving Scope • Backlog is used to refine, review and maintain requirements to keep it aligned with changing business need • Major scope change may lead to adjournment or re-assessment of project • Agile Approach and characteristics • Breadth of Change: Software or non-software projects, Specific to a department or entire enterprise • Depth of Change: Business process change or Business process re-engineering • Value and Solutions delivered: Early delivery of value, adaptive planning, Frequent customer collaboration • Delivery Approach: Flexible, ongoing delivery of changes and project • Major Assumptions: 12 Agile Principles It is important to note that though most agile approaches are iterative, not all iterative approaches are agile. There are also several agile approaches that are not iterative, such as the kanban method.
Agile Perspective • Business Analysis Scope • Change Sponsor: Must be familiar with Agile mindset, approach and be open to constant feedback. Allowing the product scope changes as the needs change • Change Targets and Agents: Change could impact a large number of stakeholders. The primary agents for a change in Agile projects -> Agile Team leader, Product Owner, Team Members, External Stakeholder. • Business Analyst Position: On agile teams, business analysis activities can be performed by one or a combination of: • • a business analyst working on the team, • • the customer representative or product owner, or • • distributing these activities throughout the team. • Business Analysis Outcomes: Open communication and collaboration is one of the principal outcomes of • successful business analysis in an agile project. • Approaches and Techniques • Approaches: Agile is an umbrella approach and refers to any approach following Agile manifesto and principles like Scrum, Extreme programming etc. • Techniques: Common techniques used with Agile approaches like BDD, Kano Analysis etc
Agile Perspective • Underlying Competencies • Communication and collaboration, Patience and Tolerance, Flexibility and adaptability, ability to handle change, ability to recognize business value, continuous improvement, • Impact on Knowledge Areas • This section explains how specific business analysis practices within agile are mapped to business analysis tasks and practices as defined by the BABOK® Guide. • Focus is on the Adaptive planning rather than predictive planning approach (BAPM) • Progressive elicitation and collaboration over iterations(Elicitation and Collaboration) • Requirements evolve and become more specific with each iteration (Requirements Lifecycle Management) • Agile team members use strategy analysis to help understand and define product vision, and develop and adjust the development roadmap, in addition to conducting ongoing assessments of related risks. (Strategy Analysis) • Progressive detailing of needs and solution design (Requirements Analysis and Design Definition) • Evaluation of the evolving solution with the stakeholders occurs at the end of every development cycle to ensure the deliverable meets their needs and satisfies their expectations.(Solution Evaluation)
Business Intelligence Perspective • Introduction • The Business Intelligence Perspective highlights the usage of business analysis practices in the context of transforming, integrating and enhancing data • Change Scope • Diverse Data Sources – internal and external providing an enterprise wide ‘single point of truth’ BI solution • Backlog is used to refine, review and maintain requirements to keep it aligned with changing business need • Major scope change may lead to adjournment or re-assessment of project
Business Intelligence Perspective • Depth of Change: Business intelligence initiatives focus on the information needed to support decision making at, or across, different levels within the organization • Value and Solutions delivered: Improvement in business performance in areas like market analysis, customer engagement, financial planning, credit assessment etc • Delivery Approach: Progressive and evolving • Major Assumptions: • Existing business processes and transactional systems can provide source data that is definable and predictable, • The cross-functional data infrastructure that is needed to support a business intelligence solution has not been precluded by the organization on technical, financial, political/cultural, or other grounds, and • The organization recognizes that process re-engineering and change management might be needed in order to effectively realize the value from a business intelligence solution.
Business Intelligence Perspective • Business Analysis Scope • Change Sponsor: ideally the highest level role from the organizational unit affected by the change • Change Targets and Agents: The targets of a business intelligence initiative are the business decisions made by people or processes at multiple levels in the organization that can be improved by better reporting, monitoring, or predictive modelling of performance-related data. • Business Analyst Position: Usual role and additionally can also participate in enterprise data modelling, decision modelling etc • Business Analysis Outcomes: Business process coverage, Decision models, Source logical data model and data dictionary, source data quality assessment, Target logical data model, transformation rules, business analytics requirements etc • Approaches and Techniques • Methodologies: No formal methodology • Approaches: • Descriptive, Predictive, prescriptive analytics approaches • Supply or demand driven • Structured or unstructured data
Business Intelligence Perspective • Underlying Competencies • Business data and functional usage, including terminology and rules, the analysis of complex data structures and their translation into, standardized format, business processes affected including KPIs and metrics, decision modelling, data analysis techniques including basic statistics, data warehouse and business intelligence concepts and architecture, logical and physical data models, ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) best practices and reporting tools etc • Impact on Knowledge Areas • This section explains how specific business analysis practices within agile are mapped to business analysis tasks and practices as defined by the BABOK® Guide. • Aligned to business intelligence projects and understanding of data infrastructure (BAPM) • Focus should be to leverage the business intelligence capabilities to find additional value for the customer. (Solution Evaluation)
Information Technology Perspective • Introduction • When working in the information technology (IT) discipline, business analysts deal with a wide range of complexity and scope of activities – small change, bug fixing or a project • Change Scope • Change happens for – New organizational capability, Achieving a business goal, operational efficiency etc • Breadth of Change: Bespoke or Product, single department or entire enterprise, may include infrastructural solutions • Depth of Change: Understanding the context to evaluate the impact of changes or implementing new system • Value and Solutions delivered: Value can be drawn because of – reduced cost, increased strategic alignment, increased reliability and stability, fixing problems etc • Delivery Approach: Big bang or phased delivery approaches • Major Assumptions: 12 Agile Principles
Information Technology Perspective • Major Assumptions: • business capabilities and processes that use an IT system are delivering value to the organization, • business analysts working from other perspectives can integrate their work with the work of the IT business analysts, and • IT systems changes are usually driven by a business need, although some initiatives may originate from within technology developments.
Information Technology Perspective • Business Analysis Scope • Change Sponsor: Technical team, technical executive, application owner, process owner, business owner etc • Change Targets and Agents: Target could be departments, processes, applications, and functions • Business Analyst Position: IT business analyst role • Business Analysis Outcomes: defined, complete, testable, prioritized, and verified requirements | Business Rules | Gap Analysis | Functional requirements document | Data Model | Use case model | prototypes • Approaches and Techniques • Approaches: Predictive (Waterfall), Adaptive (Agile) • Methodologies: • Rational unified process • Structured system analysis and design (SSAD) • Waterfall
Information Technology Perspective • Underlying Competencies • Requirements analysis and modelling, software testing experience, Solution evaluation, Influencing and facilitation skills, problem solving and analytical thinking etc. • Impact on Knowledge Areas • This section explains how specific business analysis practices within agile are mapped to business analysis tasks and practices as defined by the BABOK® Guide. • COTS (Commercial off the shelf products like SAP) solutions involve major system integration effort as does the EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) like projects. This requires stakeholders understanding of the extent of change in terms of planning, process modelling, implementation and creating a supporting environment in the organization
Business Architecture Perspective • Introduction • The Business Architecture Perspective highlights the unique characteristics of business analysis when practiced in the context of business architecture • Business architecture models the enterprise in order to show how strategic concerns of key stakeholders are met and to support ongoing business transformation efforts. • Change Scope • Breadth of Change: Entire organization, across a single Line of business, across a single function • Depth of Change: Operates at Management or executive level but does not at operational design or process level • Value and Solutions delivered: Architecture models enable organizations to see the big picture of the domain that is under analysis. The insights provided by business architecture help keep systems and operations functioning in a coherent and useful manner, and add clarity to business decisions. • Delivery Approach: The architectural blueprints provided by business architecture provide an insight and understanding of how well the organization aligns to its strategy. Each blueprint includes – current state, future state, one or more transition states
Business Architecture Perspective • Business Analysis Scope • Change Sponsor: a senior executive or business owner within the organization • Change Targets : Business capabilities, business value streams, initiative plans, investment decisions, portfolio decisions • Change Agents: management at all levels of the organization, product or service owners, operational units, Solution architects, project managers etc • Business Analyst Position: • understand the entire enterprise context and provide balanced insight into all the elements and their relationship across the enterprise, and • provide a holistic, understandable view of all the specialties within the organization. • Business Analysis Outcomes: The general outcomes of business architecture include: • the alignment of the organization to its strategy, • the planning of change in the execution of strategy, and • ensuring that as change is implemented, it continues to align to the strategy.
Business Architecture Perspective • Approaches and Techniques • Reference Models: Reference models are predefined architectural templates that provide one or more viewpoints for a particular industry or function that is commonly found across multiple sectors (for example, IT or finance). • Control objectives for IT (COBIT) - IT governance and management • eTOM and FRAMEWORX - Communications sector • Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) - IT service management • Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) - Supply chain management • Techniques: Capability Map, Organizational map, Project portfolio analysis, Service Oriented Analysis, The Open architecture framework (TOGAF)
Business Architecture Perspective • Underlying Competencies • A high tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty, the ability to put things into a broader context, the ability to transform requirements and context into a concept or design of a solution., the ability to suppress unnecessary detail to provide higher level views • Impact on Knowledge Areas • This section explains how specific business analysis practices within agile are mapped to business analysis tasks and practices as defined by the BABOK® Guide. • It involves understanding organization’s strategy and direction, operational model and value proposition, stakeholders and the points of engagement, culture and environment (normally not required for usual IT business analysis activities) • It is essential that business analysts working in the discipline of business architecture have executive support and agreement of the work to be undertaken. • Business architecture can play a significant role in strategy analysis. It provides architectural views into the current state of the organization and helps to define both the future state and the transition states required to achieve the future state.
BPM Perspective • Introduction • The Business Process Management Perspective highlights the unique characteristics of business analysis when practiced in the context of developing or improving business processes. • Business Process Management (BPM) is a management discipline and a set of enabling technologies that: • focuses on how the organization performs work to deliver value across multiple functional areas to customers and stakeholders, • aims for a view of value delivery that spans the entire organization, and • views the organization through a process-centric lens.
BPM Perspective • Change Scope • Business analysts working within the BPM discipline may address a single process with limited scope or they may address all of the processes in the organization. • Breadth of Change: A comprehensive BPM initiative can span the entire enterprise. Single BPM initiative can make an organization become more process-centric by providing insights into its processes. • Depth of Change: BPM frameworks are sets or descriptions of processes for a generic organization, specific industry, professional • area, or type of value stream. BPM frameworks define particular levels of processes throughout the organization's process architecture. • Value and Solutions delivered: The goal of BPM is to improve operational performance (effectiveness, efficiency, adaptability, and quality) and to reduce costs and risks. • Delivery Approach: Business process re-engineering, Evolutionary forms of change, Substantial discovery, Process benchmarking, Specialized BPMS applications
BPM Perspective • Major Assumptions • The following is a list of major assumptions from the BPM discipline: • Processes are generally supported by information technology systems, but the development of those systems is not covered by most BPM methods. Business analysts may suggest additional business requirements based on existing IT systems. • BPM initiatives have senior management support. The business analyst may be involved in suggesting additional business requirements based on organizational strategies. • BPM systems require a tight integration with organizational strategy but most methods do not tackle the development of strategy which is outside the scope of this perspective. • BPM initiatives are cross-functional and end-to-end in the organization.
BPM Perspective • Business Analysis Scope • Change Sponsor: a senior executive or business owner within the organization • Change Targets : Customer, Regulator, Process Owner, Project Manager, Implementation team etc • Business Analyst Position
BPM Perspective • Business Analysis Scope • Business Analysis Outcomes: Outcomes for business analysts working within the discipline of business process management include: • • business process models, • • business rules, • • process performance measures, • • business decisions, and • • process performance assessment.
BPM Perspective • Frameworks, Approaches and Techniques • Frameworks: ACCORD, Process clarification framework (PCF) • Methodologies: Business process re-engineering, Continuous improvement, Lean, Six Sigma etc • Techniques: Cost Analysis, Critical Quality (CTQ), Cycle-time analysis
BPM Perspective • Underlying Competencies • Negotiation skills, Root cause analysis, process modelling, neutral and independent facilitator • Impact on Knowledge Areas • This section explains how specific business analysis practices within agile are mapped to business analysis tasks and practices as defined by the BABOK® Guide. • Progressive elaboration is common in the planning of BPM initiatives due to the fact that the amount of information available for full planning may be limited in the initial stages. • Process changes can have significant impacts across the organization, so managing stakeholders and their expectations is particularly critical. Without effective stakeholder management, process changes may not be successfully implemented or the changes may not meet the organization's goals and objectives. • In a BPM context, strategy analysis involves understanding the role the process plays in an enterprise value chain. At a minimum, any process that interacts with the processes affected by the initiative must be considered.
