Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring

This chapter covers the tasks that are used to organize and coordinate the efforts of a business analyst. This chapter dives into BABOK® tasks: planning a business analysis approach, planning stakeholder engagement, planning business analysis governance, planning business analysis information management, and identifying business analysis performance improvements and bringing them to life with practical real-world scenarios.

The purpose and context of these knowledge areas are as follows:

• The Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring knowledge area
• The Plan Business Analysis Approach task
• The Plan Stakeholder Engagement task
• The Plan Business Analysis Governance task
• The Plan Business Analysis Information Management task
• The Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements task
• Real-world case studies
• Test your knowledge

The...

Understanding Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring

Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring focuses on laying the foundation for successfully defining, planning, and completing the business analysis work that is used as a key guideline for other tasks throughout the project life cycle as it is performed by the business analyst:

Figure 6:1: The Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring knowledge area and tasks

The Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring knowledge area includes the following tasks:

• Planning a business analysis approach
• Planning stakeholder engagement
• Planning business analysis governance
• Planning business analysis information management
• Identifying business analysis performance improvements

These tasks focus on planning how the business analysis team approaches a specific effort.

The Business Analysis Core Concept Model™

Here, we will how the Business Analysis Core Concept Model™ (BACCM™) applies to Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring as a knowledge area using an example.

The six core concepts, which are described as BACCM™, are as follows:

• Change
• Need
• Solution
• Stakeholder
• Value
• Context

Let's discuss each of these concepts in the following sections.

Change

This core concept really refers to how change is managed in response to when a need is identified. Specifically, in the knowledge area of Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring, the concept of "change" is applied in terms of how the changes that arise from business analysis results will be...

Task: Plan Business Analysis Approach

According to the BABOK® v3 Guide, the purpose of the task Plan Business Analysis Approach is "to define an appropriate method to conduct Business Analysis activities."

This task is about assessing the initiative from a stakeholder, scope, organizational environment, and expected outcomes perspective. The business analyst may not know everything about the new environment or initiative during the early planning and approach formulation and so it is important to remember that the business analyst can change and update their approach and planning as they learn more during the initiative. However, in the earlier stages of the initiative, it is important to consider which techniques it may be most appropriate to apply based on the knowledge available to the business analyst.

It is also important for the business analyst to understand...

Task: Plan Stakeholder Engagement

According to the BABOK® v3 Guide, the purpose of Plan Stakeholder Engagement is as follows:

"to plan an approach for establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with the stakeholders.”

Here is a football analogy: a good way to think about this task is to consider the stakeholders as members of a football team. Every team member has a different role to play, directly or indirectly, but ultimately, everyone has the same goal. Some play positions that are only required for part of the game and other team members stay for the whole duration of the game. There are stakeholders who don’t actively play in the game but they contribute by bringing water to the players or by putting the score on the board. The business analysis team needs to understand who all the different stakeholders are and understand what type...

Task: Plan Business Analysis Governance

According to the BABOK® v3 Guide, the purpose of Plan Business Analysis Governance is as follows:

"to define how decisions are made about requirements and designs, including reviews, change control, approvals and prioritization.”

Planning what the processes are, who the decision-makers will be, and what information is required for effective decision-making around the requirement and design changes are very important in ensuring the governance business analysis activities run smoothly during the project.

Often in the real world, the planning of governance activities falls by the wayside and causes significant confusion and delay when it is time to approve requirements and designs. Change procedures are essential to facilitate the ever-changing nature of business needs, requirements, and ultimately, designs.

When planning...

Task: Plan Business Analysis Information Management

According to the BABOK® v3 Guide, the purpose of Plan Business Analysis Information Management is as follows:

"to develop an approach for how business analysis information will be stored and accessed.”

Business analysis information includes all the different artifacts that are generated during the different business analysis activities in a project. Examples include everything from scope statements, models, and elicitation meeting notes to requirements documentation and designed prototypes! If you start listing all the different types of business analysis information types that could be generated by a team, it is easy to realize that a plan should be agreed early on in the project for managing, linking, and tracking all the different business analysis information types.

Ideally, as a business analyst, you should...

Task: Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements

According to the BABOK® v3 Guide, the purpose of Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements is as follows:

"to assess business analysis work and to plan to improve processes where required."

As we gain more experience in our roles as business analysts, we will naturally also learn how to perform better in the same situations we may have been unsure about in a previous role. However, by formally identifying ways to monitor and improve performance on a project, it is necessary to identify, more specifically, performance measures and perform analysis using those measures in order to be able to then report on the business analysis performance results. Ultimately, as a business analyst or a business analysis team, it should always be our goal to identify actions we can take to correct, prevent, or improve...

Summary

In this chapter, you learned about the Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring knowledge area.

The following are the key concepts and tasks we covered in this chapter:

• The Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring knowledge area
• The Plan Business Analysis Approach task
• The Plan Stakeholder Engagement task
• The Plan Business Analysis Governance task
• The Plan Business Analysis Information Management task
• The Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements task

Make sure you revise these key areas before completing the knowledge quiz at the end of this chapter.

The Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring knowledge area

You now have a holistic understanding of the importance and purpose of the Business Analysis...

Knowledge quiz

Consider the following real-world scenario and complete the micro mock exam based on this chapter.

Case study: The GO technology payment program

You have been assigned as the lead business analyst on a new program of work with the European Bank Corporation in London. It is very exciting to be part of this program because it is a very high profile and the senior stakeholders in the bank are closely involved. The objective of the program is to implement a mobile technology payment solution to enable customers to use their mobile devices to pay for goods and services in retail outlets. It is a brand new technology that has not been implemented anywhere in the world in quite the way that is planned with this program...