Domain 4 Business Analysis Framework

Distinguish between stakeholder roles (e.g., process owner, process manager, product manager, product owner, etc.).

A process owner is the person solely responsible for owning a process. A process manager is the person responsible for the end-to-end execution of the process.

Outline the need for roles and responsibilities (Why do you need to identify stakeholders in the first place?).

To analyze stakeholder expectations, assess their impact, and develop strategies to effectively engage stakeholders. This helps identify the appropriate focus for stakeholder engagement.

Differentiate between internal and external roles.

Internal - sponsors, resource managers, management offices, steering committees, program managers, and team members.

External - customers, end users, suppliers, shareholders, regulatory bodies, and competitors.

Recommend the most appropriate communication channel/tool (e.g.,reporting, presentation, etc.).

Email/Newsletter, presentations, summary reports, video calls, group meetings.

Demonstrate why communication is important for a business analyst between various teams (features, requirements, etc.).

4 types of communication; verbal, nonverbal, written, and listening. BA's are the bridge of communication from all the stakeholders to development teams and back around again. The outcome is either to communicate or receive accurate information with a limited misinterpretation.

Match tools to scenarios (e.g., user stories, use cases, etc.).

User Stories - describe stakeholder role, who benefits from a feature (role), what stakeholders need to accomplish (goal), and the benefit to them (motivation)

Use Case - Focus on functionality of a feature or process. Use cases usually assume the following structure: Actor (the user, a group of users), System (the product or product feature the actor interacts with) Goal (what the actor is trying to achieve through the system)

Identify the requirements gathering approach for a situation (e.g., conduct stakeholder interviews, surveys, workshops, lessons learned, etc.).

Brainstorming - generates multiple ideas related to product requirements

Interviews - formal/informal conversation asking prepared questions and recording responses. Candidates include project participants, sponsors, executives, and subject matter experts.

Focus Groups - A moderator-led group gathering subject experts and stakeholders to learn about expectations and attitudes about a project.

Questionnaires and Surveys - written set of questions designed to quickly accumulate information from a large number of respondents.

Benchmarking - comparing actual or planned products to those of comparable organizations to identify best practices.

Explain a requirements traceability matrix/product backlog.

Matrix - a grid that links requirements from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them.

Product backlog - the overall scope of an adaptive project is decomposed into a set of requirements and work to be performed.

Explain the application of a product roadmap.

A product roadmap balances the schedule without reducing the scope. Product vision drives the roadmap, while the roadmap drives the release plans for the product, which creates project iterations.

Determine which components go to which releases.

Release plans establish iterations, which leads to an iteration plan that schedules feature development.

Determine the role of a business analyst in adaptive and/or predictive,plan-based approaches.

The traditional role of the business analyst does not need to change much to successfully execute activities on predictive projects. The linear Waterfall Model is appropriate. The project manager and business analyst guide the agile project, ensuring that it is both efficiently and effectively run and that it adds significant long-term benefits for the company with each iteration.

Define acceptance criteria (the action of defining changes based on the situation).

A set of conditions that is required to be met before deliverables are accepted.