module 3 the business analyst's perspective

7/30/2019 Module 3 the Business Analyst's Perspective

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Module 3:The BusinessAnalysts Perspective


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Overview

Gathering Functional Requirements

Using Personas and Scenarios


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Lesson 1: Gathering Functional Requirements

Starting with a Vision Statement

Knowing When to Capture Requirements

Capturing Effective Requirements

Discussion: Gathering Functional RequirementsGathering and Tracking QoS Requirements


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Starting with a Vision Statement

Every project should have a vision

Every stakeholder should be able to understand it

Should capture why a customer would want the solution

Should be clear and conciseA vision is essential because it helps the team focus ona common goal

Strategic Projects

Represent large investmentsAim to significantly improvepredecessors

Vision statement is the elevatorpitch

Adaptive Projects

Tackle incremental change toexisting systems

Vision described in terms ofbusiness process change


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Knowing When to Capture Requirements

Not all requirements can be captured upfront

Trying to do so can lead to analysis paralysis

Value-up thinking asserts that requirements areperishable

The business environment or problem space changes

Knowledge behind requirements becomes stale

There is a limit to the number the team can handle

The implementation of one iterations requirementsinfluences the next


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Capturing Effective Requirements

Ambiguity

Understan

dability

Understandable Requirements

Leffingwell and Widrig, Managing Software Requirements (Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2000), 273


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Gathering and Tracking QoS Requirements

Key QoS considerations:

Performance, Scalability, Security,Maintainability, Usability

VSTS tools enable you to capture and track QoS by

using work items


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Discussion: Gathering Functional Requirements

Whats the purpose of requirements?

What makes good requirements?

What are the most effective and lesteffective examples you can think of?

When are requirements knowable?

How do you capture requirements?

How and where do you record them?

Do you expect requirements to changeand if so how often?

How do you handle changes torequirements?


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Lesson 2: Using Personas and Scenarios

Identifying and Creating Personas

Techniques for Capturing Scenarios

Validating Scenarios

Evolving Scenarios Through the Lifecycle


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Identifying and Creating Personas

Personification of user groups

Represented as an individual

Good personas are memorableand three dimensional

Personas consider personality,

work environment and

characteristics

Persona should be useful

for decision making

Personas should have a

memorable name

Persona Benefits

They separate you from yourapplications customers

By making them real they areeasier to discuss

They are more specific thanRUP actors e.g. several

personas for differentdemographics

They help with role playactivities


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Techniques for Capturing Scenarios

Persona

Practices for Capturing Scenarios

Start with the goal

Break the goal into a list of steps

Start with Persona does step

Then Solution shows result

Use action verbs to enumerate steps

Write scenarios in the users language

Dont detail alternate and exception paths initially

Steps for persona to

accomplish goal

Scenario

Goal


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Validating Scenarios

Questions that help to validating scenarios:

Do I have enough scenarios? (Mapping scenarios to theend-to-end solution story)

Can customers provide meaningful feedback?

(Customer scenario validation)

Can the test team define positive and negative testsfrom your scenarios? (Test team validation)

Can architects and developers identify interaction /

interfaces and dependencies of the services necessaryto realize the scenarios? (Dev team validation)


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Evolving Scenarios Through the Lifecycle

In early iterations, the high value wow scenarios aredeveloped

Extend and modifying scenarios through iterations

Add new scenarios in later iterations

Add scenarios that eliminate dissatisfiers


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Module Review

Every project should have a vision statement

In MSF, you capture requirements by using scenariosand qualities of service

Write requirements that are specific and understandable

Develop scenarios and personas to help determinerequirements

Key quality of service requirements should be capturedand tracked

Performance, scalability, security,maintainability and usability

module 3 the business analyst's perspective

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