What Every Business Analyst Should Know About Analyzing Complex Projects

What Every Business Analyst Should Know About Analyzing Complex Projects

The relentless pace of technological progress drives businesses to work on increasingly more complex projects. With this increased complexity comes new challenges and roadblocks that business analysts must learn to overcome.

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Requirements Elicitation & Management: 5 Habits Of Effective Business Analysts

Requirements Elicitation & Management: 5 Habits Of Effective Business Analysts

Business Analysts play a pertinent role in determining what functionality a system should or should not have. If you can ask these questions of every requirement, the implemented solution will have a higher possibility of acceptance:

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Defining The Scope Of Business Analysis With A Context Diagram

Defining The Scope Of Business Analysis With A Context Diagram

One of the main goals of business analysis is to uncover unknown risks and requirements during the requirements discovery phase. But as many business analysts will surely attest to, sooner or later, the problem of scope creep inevitably arises, unless concrete steps are taken to prevent it.

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Benefits Of Holding Facilitated Sessions Among Stakeholders

Benefits Of Holding Facilitated Sessions Among Stakeholders

We make hundreds if not thousands of decisions every day. Some more important, others less so. With each decision we make, we shape our future and possibly, come closer to the attainment of our goals. One of the most effective ways to increase productivity and make better choices  during requirements elicitation is by organizing facilitated sessions among stakeholders.

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Importance Of Documentation On Software Projects

Importance Of Documentation On Software Projects

Documentation of software requirements should not be seen as optional, but a necessity. While the level of detail may vary depending on the approach adopted, be it Agile or Waterfall, it’s important to keep in mind why documentation is needed in the first place, before one goes too far in the wrong direction.

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The Link Between Business Analysis & Needs Analysis

The Link Between Business Analysis & Needs Analysis

Needs Analysis is similar to business analysis especially in the sense that it is used to determine the needs of the business, and is centred on understanding the issues and opportunities faced by the business with the objective of finding resolutions, defining approaches to resolving issues and exploiting opportunities. In summary, it’s about:

 

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    A Beginner's Guide To Requirements Elicitation: What To Do After The Event

    A Beginner's Guide To Requirements Elicitation: What To Do After The Event

    From analysing data and preparing deliverables to supporting stakeholders through other stages of the solution development lifecycle, the role of the BA is certainly key to successful projects. The end of the elicitation event does not signify the end of business analysis activities, but the beginning of the BA’s involvement in other aspects of the project.

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    Why Do Business Analysts Miss Software Requirements?

    Why Do Business Analysts Miss Software Requirements?

    A project that ends with a deluge of change requests once operations have started can only signify one thingmissed requirements or unmet expectations. Requirements may be missed for many reasons on business projects. This article explores the reasons why requirements can end up as missed and some best practices to keep in mind for successful software implementation. 

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    Facilitation in Business Analysis: 5 Tips For Effective Facilitation

    Facilitation in Business Analysis: 5 Tips For Effective Facilitation

    Facilitation takes special effort, skill and experience to master. It is not exclusive to business analysts, however, but it is particularly important to them since they are required to manage requirement elicitation meetings and workshops. Effective facilitation can help stakeholders define and discover their requirements.

    This piece discusses 5 key tips for effective facilitation.

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    An Awesome Guide To Requirements Elicitation: What To Do Before The Event

    An Awesome Guide To Requirements Elicitation: What To Do Before The Event

    To avoid project failure, it is extremely important to plan for elicitation events effectively so that any anticipated difficulties can be nipped in the bud. For quick tips on how to increase the chances of your requirements elicitation event (Brainstorming sessions, workshop sessions, etc) through effective planning and visualisation, get a copy of BAL's ebook.

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    The Thin Line Between Business Rules & Requirements

    The Thin Line Between Business Rules & Requirements

    Requirements elicitation sessions typically start with the question, “How do things work?”. By gaining an understanding of what works and what the business rules are, analysts are better positioned to identify the business rules from which requirements may be drawn.

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    Eliciting Requirements For ERP: 10 Quick Tips To Apply

    Eliciting Requirements For ERP: 10 Quick Tips To Apply

    ERP projects are notorious for failure. Research has placed ERP failure rates as high as 60% (See Article by John Cummings). BAs are expected to reduce the risk of failure by eliciting requirements that are accurate, within scope, technically feasible...the list goes on. Poor requirements elicitation can easily lead to a failed effort – a very expensive and public one.

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    8 Requirements Elicitation Tips You Should Know

    8 Requirements Elicitation Tips You Should Know

    Business analysts often have to deal with the volatile nature of requirements, scope creep and the difficulties inherent in ensuring that stakeholder groups have a common understanding of requirements. Requirements elicitation at its core is difficult to accomplish, due to the nature of requirements. This post is a compilation of 8 tips you can apply to improve the outcome of your requirements elicitation effort. Guest Post By Melisa Marzett.

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    Effective Interview Sessions: Before, During and After

    Effective Interview Sessions: Before, During and After

    Interviews are a popular technique with analysts. Unfortunately, they’re not that simple. Great interviews do not just happen. They have to be carefully planned with every minor detail ironed out before the day. Without further ado, this post outlines the basic but crucial factors that analysts should be aware of before, during and after an interview session.

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    4 Steps to Getting a Head Start on Requirements Elicitation

    4 Steps to Getting a Head Start on Requirements Elicitation

    Consider this scenario: You’ve been charged with introducing a new Information System to support the work of inexperienced stakeholders. Some are inexperienced on the job while others know very little about the technology, opportunities and constraints related to the new information system. In this scenario, techniques such as interviews and workshops (events-based elicitation techniques) may not yield sufficient results. What is the way forward?

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