Business Analysis

A Discussion With
- Shreesha Rao
- Hemal Solanki

03 Mar 2019 | V1.0

Technology
TechnologySolutions
Solutionsfor for
the the
Digital Workplace
Digital Workplace
Discussion on -
 What is Business Analysis (Dimensions & Fundamental
Questions)

 Key Focus Area

 Key Stakeholders
 Key Skills
 How Business Analyst(s) Do-it
 During Inception
 During Analysis phase
 During Execution & Deployment
 During Support/ After-sales
 BA Career Scopes
Dimensions of Business
Analysis and Fundamental
Questions we need to answer
Dimensions of Business Analysis & Fundamental Questions to be answered
1. How can I improve EBITDA?
a. Cost Efficiency?
b. Process Efficiency? Financial
c. New Product / Service Development?
2. Do we expect a positive ROI if we go ahead with this
Analysis
project?

1. Do we have internal 1. What are the legacy systems in

capabilities in terms of skills
and infrastructure? Capability Business Systems
place and would it interact with
the new solution?
2. How should the solution be
2. What are the Analysis Analysis
organizational risks
associated with the project? Analysis implemented?

(Brand Value, Management

Structures, etc.)
3. How do we counter
change management risks? 1. How do I improve my processes?
How can I attract more customers to my
Product / existing business model?
Process 2. Who are the stakeholders who would
be interested? (Identification of
Analysis stakeholders is very important since
they would make or break any project.)
Key Focus Areas During
Business Analysis
Key Focus Areas During Business Analysis
• Key focus areas during business analysis (non-financial):
• PEOPLE
• PROCESSES
• TECHNOLOGY
• Analysis of these 3 areas before initiating a technology project helps us
to:-
• Capture key data flows.
• Prioritizing development tasks.
• Identify and Mitigate Risks.
• Garner support and buy-ins from stakeholders.
• Increase business value by a well thought of feature.
• Finally – Reducing the ultimate risk of project failure.
Key Stakeholders During Business
Analysis Efforts
Key Stakeholders During Business Analysis Efforts For An IT Project.

Project
Sponsor

SME and
End User Functional
Analysts

Key
Stakeholders

Development
Testing Team
Team
Key Skills of a BA
Key Skills of a BA
Initiation
• Identifying where the team is facing blockers and help them to “get things done”, “when they need to
be done”. In other words “Prioritizing”.
• A BA needs to lead and set a line of communication between stakeholders and run these meetings in
order to achieve the above mentioned objective (point above).
Stakeholder Management
• It’s important to identify who are the major influencers for your project.
• The BA must then analyze what is the best way to engage these stakeholders.
• Some of them are satisfied with high level while a few of them require more detailed updates.
• Sometimes you need a face to face meeting instead of the traditional email. (Do follow up with an
email in case you require an audit trail).
• You also need to understand if you can influence your stakeholder or do you need to influence
someone who can influence them.

Managing Ambiguity
• Many a times you receive requirements or communications which have no clarity. It is up to you how
to make business sense out of it and paint a larger picture.
Key Skills of a BA..
Design Thinking
• A key skill to manage ambiguity would by “Design Thinking”.
• A BA needs to work around less information and develop models around it and touch base with stakeholders until it is ripe for development.

Course Correction
• Prioritization is spoken about in the subsequent slides.
• You will face scenarios where a project seems to go haywire due to some seepage of high priority tasks (happens a lot in agile development).
• The BA must anchor the team back to the initial goal if it seems like the team is losing objectivity.

Communication
• More than “how well you talk” is about “how well you communicate your idea”.
• It’s important to not fall into the trap of technical jargons. Just communicate in plain simple (layman) English.
• Listening skills – It’s important to absorb information, the context and more importantly the motivation behind it. Many a times “voice tones” and “body
language” can help you understand the message behind words.
• Writing skills – As a BA you may need to work on a variety of documents ranging from BRDs to Project Proposals. You will need to ensure that documents
are written in clear and concise manner which is appropriate to the level of users.

Project Management
• A fair amount of quantitative skills is required to demonstrate the work done by your team in numbers. When you are dealing with executive level
members – numbers can be help you convince the parties involved.
• Prioritization - “Every task is important to stakeholders” . Sometimes as a BA we need to make decisions as to which one needs more attention than the
other. It becomes increasingly important to communicate these priorities to the correct stakeholders.
• To increase complexity you will be working on multiple things at the same time, some times you just need to breathe and let go of unwanted
distractions.
• Time Management – Although managing your time is important but you also need to manage your team members’ time if they are dependent you for
some information and vice-versa.
How Business
Analyst(s) Do-it
 During Inception

SWOT Paid Services (Questback and many

more)
Market Research
Analytics & Visualization (Google Project
Analytics, SAS, Cognos, Power BI, Etc)
Techniques Tools Kick-Off
Data Driven Decisions
Survey Forms
Surveying
During Requirement Gathering, Analysis & Elicitation

Techniques

• Interviewing
• JAD
• Reviewing Exiting Documentation
• Surveys
• BRD, FSD, SRS and similar
• Requirement modelling (UML, DFD, etc.)
• Wireframes & Prototypes
• RTM, Product or Sprint Backlogs

Tools
• Word, Spreadsheets and presentations
• JIRA and Microsoft Teams
• Lucid chart, Visio or similar
During Execution & Deployment

Techniques
• Reporting
• Demo or Sprint Review
• Coordination (Postman during
waterfall & less required in SCRUM)
• UAT

Tools
• JIRA, Mantis or similar
• TeamWork, MS Project or similar
• TestDrive-UAT
After Sales/Support

Techniques Tools
• Change Management Process • Any Change Management Tool
• User Training • Word, Spreadsheets and
• Consultation presentations
• Warranty • CMS
• AMC
BA Career Scopes and a few industry
leading certifications.
BA Career Scopes with a few leading industry certifications

Analytics and Audit and

Product Project
Business AI and ML Solutions
Management Management
Intelligence Architecture

CSPO
PMP PGP - BABI Python CISA

CSM
Tool Specific
Certifications
ACP R ITIL 4
PSPO in SAS,
Cognos, etc.
Thank You
Queries??

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