Yayici - Business analysts mentor book: [with best practice business analysis techniques and sotfware requirements management tips]

Businessanalysis profession requires business domain knowledge and technicalskills combined with multidisciplinary competencies.

Havea Birds-Eye View

Thekey success factor in business analysis is the ability to prevent scope creep,which is the number one reason for project failures. Business analysts shouldhave the ability to see the big picture and have a holistic view of therequirements to best manage the scope.

DontEscalate Everything

Businessanalysis (also known as requirements management) has the characteristics of amanagerial role more than an operational one. Managerial roles require takinginitiative when needed. As a result, business analysts should not escalateevery problem to their upper management before trying hard to solve problemsthemselves. While feeling trapped in this situation, they should remember thefamous quotation from American scientist and author Dr. James Jay Horning:Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.

LearnSales 101

Althoughbusiness analysts dont sell any products or services, they still need salesand marketing skills to better express and promote their ideas duringnegotiations with other project stakeholders.

Theunderlying principle in Sales 101 is people dont like someone trying to sellsomething to them; however, they like the experience of buying something. Ifthis fact is true, then the most basic rule in sales should be to stimulate thebuying desire of people instead of pushing them to buy something. This happenswhen people realize the value of an offering, feel jealous of not having itwhen someone else already has, or are afraid of losing something because of nothaving it. For example, if people from business units resist the implementationof a new software, business analysts can persuade them by doing the following:proving the new software's value add compared to the legacy system (showingvalue), giving examples about good practices of its similar use and gainedbenefits at competitors (making them feel jealous), and proving the opportunitycost of not implementing the new software on time (making them afraid of nothaving it).

Learnto Speak with Professional Jargon

Comparedto developers and testers, business analysts usually have more difficulty indescribing and promoting the work they have done.

Forexample, if a manager requests information from a developer about his dailywork, the developer may respond as: Today I have completed the coding offifteen Java classes, worked on XML files to integrate middleware software, andoptimized the query structure in the database. The manager will probably reply,Thanks, good work!

Ifthe same manager asks the same question to a tester, she may respond as: TodayI have run twenty test cases covering 5 percent of requirements, found fifteenhigh-priority defects, and completed the keyword-driven regression test scriptson the test automation tool. Again, the manager will probably reply, Wow,good work!

Ifthe same question is asked to the business analyst, he will respond as: TodayI had a long meeting with the business unit. As usual, we had conflicts aboutmany issues. We conducted a second follow-up meeting with the participation ofother stakeholders to discuss these issues. Afterward I started to prepareanalysis documents for business units' approval. The manager usually repliesas: OK, please keep me informed about the status of conflicts; we are runningout of time!

Ifbusiness analysts speak with professional jargon, it will be easier for them toexpress their hard work in a more effective way. In the previous dialogue, thebusiness analyst could reply as: Today I have done a focus group meeting withthe business unit to define user requirements and business rules. In theafternoon we conducted a workshop session with the participation of otherrelevant business units to resolve integration issues. After that meeting wedefined functional and non-functional requirements in the use case documentformat and prepared activity diagrams for complex scenarios. Now I will updatethe traceability matrix and send the requirements documents for sign-off. Thistime the business analyst will have more chance to impress and convince themanager about his progress. Another benefit of using professional jargon is thatit promotes speaking the same language within the IT organization.