Chapter 3: Know Your Project Seven Steps to Mastering Business

Chapter 3:
Know Your Project
Seven Steps to Mastering Business
Analysis (Barbara Carkenord, 2008)
Business Case Development
• BAs need to build a case – justification for the
project or endeavor
• Include tangible / intangible costs & benefits
• Activities
– Feasibility Analysis
– Cost Benefit Anaysis (CBA)
– SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,
Threats) Analysis
Feasibility Analysis
• Determine the project’s viability
– Financial viability
– Environmental integrity
– Cultural acceptability / political practicality
• What-if analysis
• Sensitivity analysis
Funding a project
• Financial reasons – cut costs, increase revenue
• Strategic reasons - opportunity, aligning
business processes
– COTS (Customized off the shelf software) – request
for proposal sent to vendors asking for details
• Regulatory reasons – national, international
Strategic Reasons for Project
• BA needs to understand where the project
stands in the portfolio of projects
• Portfolio consists of many projects and
programs
• A program can encompass many projects
Components in Project
Initiation
• Project Name
• Approach / Methodology
• Statement of Purpose
• Objectives, Problems, Opportunities
• Stakeholders
• Business Risks
• Scope of business area
Understanding the Scope of
Project – Context Diagram
• BA uses a Context Diagram (Level zero DFD) to
understand the scope of the project
• Same as in systems analysis – except think of the central
area of study rather than the central system
• Include the activities or areas that impact the central
area (similar to entities that interact with the system in
systems analysis)
• Level 1 DFD and up – decomposition of level 0 diagrams
to study the scope in detail
Understanding the Scope of
Project – Use Cases
• Used to understand the scope of the project
• Use cases are major areas of study or activities
shown as bubbles
• Actors or external entities that impact the
activities are shown as stick people
• Work out examples in class (used in the in-class
exercise)