WEEK 3What is Business Analysis?

Homework:

1. Read Managerial Analytics and begin your book report (P2) by developing a summary deliverable on the key points, chapter by chapter.

2. Try to retrieve data from web as per text

Objectives• By the end of this unit, you will be able to..• Explain the meaning and purpose of BA• Explain why BA is important in projects and within industry• Describe best practices analysis approaches which have

evolved to address these challenges• Describe some challenges faced by BA’s• Identify the main steps involved in performing business

analysis• Describe how analysis activities fit into a project life cycle

(SDLC) and the role of a BA on a project team.• Open and create a flow chart using VISIO Software.• Develop a Database using MSAccess

What is Business Analysis? (BA)

BA involves the investigation of a business problem and the systematic analysis and documentation of the requirements needed to develop and document a solution to that problem that satisfies all stakeholders!

Why bother with BA?• Promotes business intelligence• Supports our stakeholders interests (customers, partners,

staff)• Creates solutions to difficult problems• Supports Project Management by minimizing cost

overruns due to rework and scope creep• Creates possible scenarios for monitoring, modeling and

forecasting of current and future events that may impact business success.

Skills of BA

And more…..

Implementation roles

Business Analysis and commonly used methodologies• Process improvement is an aspect of organizational development

(OD) in which a series of actions are taken by a process owner to identify, analyze and improve existing business processes within an organization to meet new goals and objectives, such as increasing profits and performance, reducing costs and accelerating schedules.

• BPR (business process re-engineering) Business process reengineering (BPR) is the analysis and radical redesign of workflows within and between enterprises in order to optimize end-to-end processes and automate non-value-added tasks.

• SDLC- systems development life cycle, a product development life cycle used by engineering to create and document product development.

• Agile- reiterative processing - an engineering process using smaller teams with assigned developmental objectives over a shorter period of time.

What are requirements?

Requirements come from stakeholders!

Commonly: A requirement is a condition or capability that must be met and is needed by a stakeholder to solve a problem or achieve an objective!

Requirement Types

What is a business process?

A business process is a collection of linked tasks which find their end in the delivery of a service or product to a client.

A business process has also been defined as a set of activities and tasks that, once completed, will accomplish an organizational goal.

Examples:

1. Make a Widget,

2. Reimburse a claim.

• Organizations have many business processes!

Visio software showing business process

FACTS about BA

• Well managed businesses strive to continuously improve the efficiency of their processes!

• Business Analysis is conducted within the general context of business process improvement

• Business Analysis is closely linked to systems development (ERP- build, upgrade, replace, merge information systems etc.)

• Typically a specific goal of business analysis is to define the system requirements.

• Business Analysis is growing in importance and structured approaches.

Why is BA important?• Systems Development and Software/Hardware

Development projects have a very high rate of failure• Cost and Time Overruns• Missed Deadlines• Missing requirements or functionality• Scope creep• Scope failure and outright cancellation

Short comings in analysis and planning are often the root cause!

Failing projects

Stakeholder requirement analysis and scope acceptance are key to success

Why do IT projects fail?• Lack of user input• Incomplete requirements and specifications • Incorrectly documented or unapproved scope• Changing requirements and specifications (Scope creep)• Lack of executive support• Technology incompetence• Lack of resources• Inexperienced project managers, and project members• Unrealistic expectations• Unclear objectives

Video Example - BSI: Teradata Case of the Misconnecting Passengers In class

Why is BA so challenging?

• www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXEL5F4_aKA

• Jot down some challenges!

More Tools and Techniques to considerHere are some industry recognized best practices:

1. Diagnostic mindset –asking where does it hurt? Describe in detail the process and related issues as a result. We are looking for the real problem!

2. Process orientation- looking at the process flow, bottlenecks and loops.

3. Iteration and ongoing user involvement- many takes are required over many meetings, it cannot all be done in one take. Issues come to light over time. Sketch, refine, refine, refine, finalize….

4. Formal Process Approvals at multiple steps throughout the project

5. Modeling- drawing formal pictures of the way a business operates, visual acknowledgement.

6. Measurability -misunderstandings come from non specific analysis, attach numbers to everything you can. Make the goals measureable!

7. Traceability –means creating and retaining links all along the business requirements hierarchy (scope, business objectives, and business strategy). Define clear traceability all the way up to the top levels of the organization.

8. Standardization- Accreditation and professional recognized standards and practices.

9. Repeatable methodology- key analysis steps that can and should be applied. See next slide.

SDLCEvery project follows an agreed upon process. The SDLC process is as follows:

• Analysis• Design• Implement• Testing• Deployment

A Repeatable BA Methodology• Here are the key analysis steps to be applied to any analysis problem:

Analyze:

1. Analyze business requirements and

frame the business problem

2. Determine the root cause

3. Define solution, vision and scope

4. Design and Model the future state

of operations

5. Define system requirements need to

get there

Most business analysis occurs during the Analysis phase, although there are important support duties during subsequent phases.

• 6. …Enter development phases (DESIGN, IMPLEMENT, TEST, and DEPLOY)

AS IS Analysis

TO BE Analysis

Analysis is different from DesignANALYSIS DESIGN

Answers WHAT Answers HOW

Develops REQUIREMENTS Develops SPECIFICATIONS

Examines Flows, processes, and system behaviours

Develops physical architecture, code, and blueprints

Determines what information is to be managed and how

Designs the database structure

Technology neutral, although requires extensive knowledge of systems

Specific platforms and vendor specific

EXAMPLE:An integrated admin system to track student enrollment

EXAMPLE: A 3 tier web solution using ASP over an Oracle back end

BA

BA responsibilities in other project phases

Examples may include:• Checking the accuracy and completeness of requirements• Meeting with project teams to ensure specifications are in

line with organizational goals, objectives and strategy• Managing change requests to requirements with

stakeholders• Supporting product testing, development of test scripts,

and test cases.• Participation in usability and acceptance testing prior to

customer or end user testing.

KEY business deliverables• Deliverables are documentation produced to support

development.• Key business deliverables for BA are:

1. Feasibility Study (Is the project relevant?)• Vision and SCOPE Statements• Summary of problem and proposed solution

2. Business Case (how do we get there?)• Business Requirements Document- can contain the business

modelling and requirements determination.• SRS/SOW (System Requirements Statement/Statement of Work) -

outlines the requirements and mini project plan proposed.• Test plans- including scripting requirements and proposed cases.

3. Project Charter- PM Lead

Time and Cost Guidelines

20% of time & cost

50% of time and cost

25% of time and cost

Plus 5% overhead

Key Activities• ASK• LISTEN• PROBE• ANALYZE• TRANSLATE• FACILIATE• MODEL• DEFINE• ORGANIZE• DOCUMENT

SOW

Business Intelligence• Definition: an umbrella term that combines architectures, tools,

databases, analytical tools, applications, and methodologies. The process of BI is based on the transformation of data to information, then to decisions, and finally to actions.

• Business expects constant change and increased competition as a result of doing business

• Reacting quickly is the key to success; being able to make quick strategic, tactical and operational decisions based on intelligent information

• Intelligent information requires considerable amounts of relevant data, information and knowledge.

• Processing this data requires a computerized support system.• Business Analytics is one of these support system

methodologies.

Business Pressures–Responses–Support Model

Business Analytics Example• Sensing Associates is a suite of cold chain monitoring and

analysis equipment and technologies for the health care industry.

• Rely on rich analytics that leverage the data gathered from the monitoring devices to improve efficiency of cold chain processes and predict cold storage problems before they occur.

• They use 3 types of analytical techniques:• Descriptive algorithms -can determine set point of the thermostat

and alert users if the system is incorrectly set. • Predictive algorithms- provides data on human error, incomplete

seals, temperature trends etc.• Prescriptive algorithms- tells them the optimal temperature

settings to ensure reduced future spoilage as a result of being out of balance.

Analytics Overview

Data mining• Definition: the practice of examining large databases in

order to generate new information

• It is another technique that can be used to extract BI on large amounts of data.

• Data mining falls under the category of Predictive Analytics.

Decision Making Process

1. Define the problem (difficulty or opportunity)

2. Construct a model that describes the real-world problem

3. Identify possible solutions to the modeled problem and evaluate the solutions one at time.

4. Compare, choose, and recommend a potential solution to the problem.

EASY! Right? …..WRONG!

Dashboard GUI as a IS Support Tool for decision making.• GUI- Graphical User Interface –

what you see on the screen.• Computer applications have moved

from transaction processing and monitoring activities to problem analysis and solution applications where much of the activity is done as web based analysis by computers – OLAP

• OLAP is an acronym for Online Analytical Processing.

• OLAP performs multidimensional analysis of business data and provides the capability for complex calculations, trend analysis, and sophisticated data modeling.

The output of all the analysis is presented on executive decision making software (GUI’s ) called dashboards.

Decision StructuresGorry and Scott-Morton Classical Framework shows the degree of structuredness.

Routine processes

Fuzzy, complex

DSS – Decision Support Systems• Decision support systems couple the intellectual

resources of individuals with the capabilities of computers to improve the quality of decisions.

• It is a computer-based support system for management decision makers who deal with semi-structured and structured problems.

• Dashboards are a form of DSS (decision support) and ESS (executive support)

• Unstructured problems can NOT always be delineated and require further analysis to process.

Data Collection Processes• CRM• Ticketing Systems• Tracking Systems• Order entry Systems• Web registration / Shopping Basket Tools etc,

Data INTO:• Data Warehouses (Big Data Models)• Enterprise Reporting Systems like SAP

Who needs the information?• Senior Executives • Middle Managers• Operators• Customers

BI Environment

The Architecture of BI

• A BI system has four major components• a data warehouse, with its source data• business analytics, a collection of tools for manipulating, mining, and analyzing the data in the data warehouse

• business performance management (BPM) for monitoring and analyzing performance

• a user interface (e.g., dashboard)

A High-Level Architecture of BI

Data Warehouse

Technical staff

Data Warehouse Environment

DataSources

Business Analytics Environment

Performance and Strategy

Business users Managers / executivesBuilt the data warehouse Access

ManipulationResults

BPM strategyü Organizingü Summarizingü Standardizing

Future component intelligent systems

User Interface - browser - portal - dashboard

IN SUMMARY• BA means investigating a business problem and defining

solutions requirements based on stakeholder needs.• Specifically it defines the System Requirements (SRS)

(Statement) and documents them in a SOW needed to support the broader objectives and business process improvements.

• The goals is to define requirements as clearly as possible without constraining solution design.

• BA is important because many s/w projects fail due to inadequate analysis

• Good BA can minimize the risk of cost overruns due to rework, and scope creep, and help ensure satisfied clients by setting clear expectations upfront.

Summary continued• Requirements must fit within the overall business

hierarchy of needs within an organization.• Industry has created a set of best practices which can

guide how analysis is performed• BA has typical steps and deliverables which apply at

specific points within a software life cycle.• Good analysis may take significant time, but can pay for

itself many times over• BA bridges the worlds of the client, and technologist, and

requires both soft/hard skills and knowledge of systems• The BA works at the center of a software project team,

interacting with every major role.

Group Project (P3) 10%• Select your

project team (3 people) and exchange contact information.

• Submit a project sheet (proposal) for next class.

Homework Exercise 1:Visio Tutorials should now be complete• Using Visio, flow chart your tooth brushing process and

submit next week for 1 participation mark.

Homework Exercise 2 - Begin Database Tutorial (6 hours of work - 2 weeks to complete)

• Each student must complete the Solomon Database project.This is a tutorial case study, that has you develop a database from scratch.

• Module F- introduces you to the structure of the database and the table content.

• Module G- has you build the database and tables in a step by step process as your read and work along.

NOTE: You must complete F before G. • Submission: The complete electronic database and a

print out of the Final SCM Report.