Hi
I am new to this and trying to learn the nature of a Business Analyst's day-to-day role with their current/past project as an example. If you can specify a project and walk me through your entire project for the entire period about a) the nature of your project b) your elicitation techniques pertaining to your project c ) softwares/modeling toold used d) the stakeholder's you dealt with and what were your queries for them.
Thank You
To try to document all the details of a project in a forum would be impossible. Most project teams have a heard time documenting the actual requirements for their project. However - maybe it would be a good idea to post project snapshots.
That is, if anybody wants to give an overview of their project and post it here, I'm sure that would help many of the forum readers.
Here are some information that could be included for each project:
This would be very useful for people like me who are new to this profession.
So please if some one can add a summarry of a Live project, some business req, and conducting requirement analysis and writing functional requirements, this can really clear up the picture.
Hi My first question to you is why do you need to learn the nature of the day to day role? Are you a new BA? Are you a student writing an assignment? Are you some other person on a project team trying to work with a BA? This will help us answer your question better. Presuming you are a new BA… Adrian is right, it's just too large a topic for a discussion thread to give thorough details of projects we have worked on. Additionally many of the projects are commercially sensitive and so we can't share much of the content in a public forum. I would go to the IIBA website and download the BABOK as a starting point. It is a large document with plenty of information. It is designed to help you work your way through the process. Beyond that I would look to requirements planning to help you understand what you need to do.
You specifically asked about some of the start-up tasks. I have provided links to my blog on topics where I have written about them and Tyner Blain where I have not covered the area. Don't stop there. You can search out more information. In particular look to your corporate intranet or templates library for documents you can use to guide you through the process.
a) The nature of your project - project scope management; what is the product or service you are trying to produce and what work is going to be done to get there. This is quite a wide ranging topic. Start your search here and also read on the topic of requirements management and scope management.
b) Your elicitation techniques pertaining to your project - Donald Firesmith writes an excellent article on the topic of elicitation of and documenting requirements. You can get to the article from here.
c ) Softwares/modelling tools used - Use Cases and Process Maps are popular tools for documenting requirements, and there are plenty of others. Firesmith's article probably tackles this sufficiently, but check the Modern Analyst thread on requirements also. Start a thread if your answers are not already there. Finally I have a soft spot for a workshop technique called Method H which is both simple and useful. It even comes with a cheap ($35) software tool. A note – the tools and methods you employ may depend on the type of project process you are following.
d) The stakeholder's you dealt with and what were your queries for them - Stakeholder management is a key to successful projects. The first step is identifying them, then talking to them and understanding their needs. You shouldn't just do what they all ask for, but instead balance their needs with those of the project sponsor. Fulfil their expectations by managing them.
Also
As a practical first step create a draft plan. the first activity should eb identifying aol the stakehodler snad booking in a first interview or workshop with each of them.
You are not required to be an expert on their business before you get there. When you meet have a set of simple high level open ended questions and fire away. Spend most of your time listing.
Good luck.
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