First, we will need to plan our analysis.

The specific tasks we need to be aware of from the IIBA are;

1. Plan Business Analysis Approach
2. Plan Stakeholder engagement
3. Plan Business Analysis Governance
4. Plan Business Analysis Information Management
5. Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements

For us and this project, that means;

• Work out what kind of analysis Amanda needs and how we can be helpful, what we need to create, and what questions we need to ask.
• Work out how we will work with Amanda and Bob and if there is anyone else we should be speaking with.
• Work out who has the final say (probably Amanda) and how we can support her in making the best decisions.
• Work out how we will store the things we make so that Bob and Amanda can access them after the analysis is complete.
• We also need to consider how our plan might change over time. How we will notice it needs to change and what kinds of changes we expect to make so that Amanda always gets the best from us and her bike.

Core Concepts

Plan Business Analysis Approach

We can pull from previously used methodologies and perspectives when planning our overall approach. There is a Spectrum between plan-driven and change-driven or predictive and adaptive, as the IIBA calls it. A waterfall methodology is primarily plan-driven; agile, on the other hand, is change-driven. In this case, we will use a plan, or predictive, based approach as our situation and needs shouldn’t change much, and we will only be building one bike, which we won’t be iterating.

When planning, our approach will also need to consider the required formality and level of detail. Often plan-driven methods call for a large amount of highly formal documentation. In this case, the opposite is true. Amanda and Bob will not have the time or capacity to go through a filing cabinet of documentation to find out which handlebars to use. So a low level of formality is needed.

We also need to consider our approach’s timing and how BA efforts will increase or decrease with time. We will do most of the work right at the start.

Finally, we need to think about the complexity and the risk associated. As complexity and risk increase, the nature and scope of the BA work also increase. For instance, completely overhauling an enterprise company’s payment system is a massive risk. They will probably spend a lot on excellent BA work to ensure it goes smoothly. On the flip side, building a bike may be considered so low in complexity that it does not warrant BA work. Because of this, we will keep our approach pretty light.

Once we understand the approach we want to use, we can run Amanda through it and get her approval.

Plan Stakeholder engagement

Stakeholder engagement is about working out who we need to talk to, why we need to talk to them, what they need from us and how we will communicate with them.

When trying to work this out, we need to consider what role these stakeholders have, their attitudes to the project and how much influence they have.

For instance, our stakeholders on this project are certainly Amanda and Bob, but what about Amanda’s mum? She is incredibly safety conscious and will nag Amanda if she does not think the bike is safe enough. Should we be speaking with Amanda’s mum as well? What information does Amanda’s mum need to feel confident that our bike is safe?

We might also want to talk about Amanda’s work. They may have some specific bike parking that must meet a policy. Do we need to speak to Amanda’s work, or will Amanda herself have this information? These are the types of questions that go into stakeholder engagement planning.

Plan Business Analysis Governance

How a team makes decisions is essential for the success of a project. It is therefore vital to think about and plan how we will make decisions.

For instance, Amanda may be the one to approve the requirements analysis we do, saying something like, “yep, that is what I need my bike to have”. She is unlikely to make the initial decision on the specific parts that will go into building a bike that meets those requirements. Bob, our subject matter expert, on the other hand, is more suited to selecting parts given a set of requirements but cannot give a final sign-off to say that the project is complete. Equally, it may make sense that Amanda decides the safety tolerance of the bike, but we know from our stakeholder analysis that Amanda’s mum will also need to be involved in that decision.

Some things to think about when planning governance;

• Who is in charge of prioritisation?
• Who is in charge of documenting which decisions?
• When a decision is made, who needs to be told?
• Who is approving which decisions?

Plan Businesses analysis Information Management

When doing BA work, you will likely produce a lot of documentation. The information that you create will need to be stored in some capacity and then accessed later.

For instance, the documents we create for Amanda will need to be stored and accessed by Amanda, Bob, and maybe Amanda’s mum. We could write down our analysis and requirements on a napkin, verbally communicate with Amanda for approval and then leave the napkin with Bob, hoping he understands our handwriting. Alternatively, we could use a massive piece of expensive project management software with multilevel Kanban work boards, which Bob has never seen and Amanda doesn’t understand. Both approaches have drawbacks, and something in the middle is likely the way forward.

Specifically, when we think about information management, we need to think about organisation, abstraction, traceability, access, meta information and reuse to ensure we get to an excellent solution for everyone involved.

Identify Business Analysis performance improvements

performance improvements in BA means planning and working out how we can do a better job for Amanda. Is our work accurate, complete, effective, strategic and timely? If not, why not?

Here we will plan how to notice where there are elements we can improve and how we will change our approach to incorporate them.