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What is business analysis?

Change for the better

What is Business Analysis?

Business analysis concerns the identification and definition of those vital changes, large and small, that all organisations must constantly make in order to:

adapt
survive
prosper

The IIBA defines business analysis as the 'practice of enabling change in an enterprise'.

It’s concerned with defining changes to the way an organisation or enterprise does what it does.

Like ships at sea, where storms can explode into life with little or no warning, all organisations operate in an environment,

over which they have no control
and which is constantly changing

What is a business analyst?

'Business Analyst' is a role that performs business analysis. There are many job titles for this role.

Click here to read about the required skills for business analysts.

Sources of Change

The changes that organisations must react to are caused by a mix of:

Politics
Economics
Society - Cultures and trends - What's cool and what's not
Technologies
Laws of societies and of nature
Environment - the natural environment in which we all live

These are the 'drivers for change'.

PESTLE

The initial letters of the words of the sources for change form the word, 'PESTLE'.

PESTLE is a technique that organisations use to prompt them to consider where the next changes might come from.

Thinking in advance is important because organisations must:

quickly choose the most appropriate response to the change
make any necessary adjustments to their strategy

Failure to do this risks being pushed aside.

The ability to respond quickly and appropriately is summed in the concept of 'business agility'. The ability to respond effectively is dependent on the organisation's relative strengths and weaknesses.

Business analysts can help to guide organisations in becoming more agile. In fact, PESTLE is a good place to start to answer the question, "What is business analysis?" It follows that business analysts must understand the organisation's strategy.

Customers, Suppliers and Competition

Diagram of an organisation and its customers and suppliers operating in the external environment - Based on Rummler and Ramias

Organisations provide services for individuals or other organisations; these are their customers.

It is vital that organisations understand who their best customers are. Effective business analysts must also have this awareness.

Businesses in similar sectors compete for these customers.

To source the development of their product, organisations in all sectors must compete for the limited resources available from suppliers. These resources may be intellectual or physical, tangible or intangible.

The nature of the competition must be understood by organisations and their business analysts.

Rummler and Ramias elegantly demonstrate all of the above in their book, ‘White Space Revisited', a must read for business analysts.

Business Processes

To manage and coordinate their activities, organisations create business processes. These form a major element of business analysis and business architecture.

What is a business process?

Sharp and McDermott define a process as:

a set of related activities, ...
triggered by an event, ...
which achieves a specific result ...
for the customer and other stakeholders.

An example of a business event is an order received from a customer.

Results of the process that delivers the customer's order are:

The customer receives what they ordered
The organisation gets paid

People, Culture and Processes

Good business analysts also understand the people who operate the processes; these are the business analyst's own customers.

The operation of all organisations is affected by the prevailing culture; this too must be understood by business analysts.

The processes on which the life of an organisation really depends are those that are seen by the customers. They must provide value to those customers. In delivering the goods and services, the processes deliver the organisation’s value proposition, their promise of value to the customers.

The aim of optimising such processes is to improve the customer experience.

Business Data

Processes create and use data. This too forms a major element of business analysis and architure.

Business analysts must seek to understand

what data an organisation has
where it is created and used
where and how it is stored

Modern applications such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, machine learning, business intelligence and data warehousing are dependent on such knowledge.

Business analysts who have a deep understanding of data and analytics can support the data scientists employed on applications such as AI. They can also help to ensure that the data scientists deliver results of real business value.

If you are not familiar with data modelling, take a look at this short article and video.

Business Rules

Business rules

Business rules authority, Ronald Ross, said that rules are typically derived from business policies.

They support:

Business processes
Use of data
Compliance with regulations and acceptable norms of behaviour

They are the glue that binds things together.

Unfortunately, business rules are often out of sight, in databases, computer code, documents and people's minds.

Business analysts can take a leading role in:

bringing rules into the open
ensuring that they are written in the language of the organisation
and placing the control of them in the hands of people who operate the business

A Holistic Approach

Although business processes, data and business rules are at the heart of all organisations' operations, they cannot simply be viewed in isolation. They affect each other.

They are also affected by things such as the:

workplace and its layout
management organisation structure
use of tools and technology

To appreciate the implications of this requires an understanding of the structure of the organisation.

Business analysts must consider all of these things both independently and collectively. This is known as taking a holistic approach, a cornerstone of effective business analysis.

Enterprise Architecture

Business analysis provides a bridge between the business and its use of IT. That bridge can be constructed with an enterprise architecture.

The architecture links business strategy to IT strategy and the elements that make up the implementation of that strategy. It comprises, directly or indirectly, all of the things discussed in this article.

This allows the impact of changes in strategy to be assessed. It also paves the way for the support of change programmes and projects.

Change Programmes and Projects

When there appears to be a problem or opportunity a team comprising business people, business analysts, architects and other relevant groups can examine it.

This typically means creating a programme or project. The critical success factors for business analysis are similar to those for project management. There is a close relationship between these two functions and the roles of business analyst and project manager.

The team seeks to:

Understand the root cause of a problem
Assess the size of the opportunities created by the solution
Define the scope of the project or programme

They can also,

assess the obstacles to achieving success
make a case for change, the business case.

Requirements for a solution

A key responsibility of a business analyst is to determine the requirements for a solution that will,

solve the problem
deliver the opportunity

Identifying and defining the true requirements and successfully building solutions based on these requirements, as long been difficult to achieve.

Modern approaches to projects often involve an iterative, so called 'agile' approach, avoiding an immediate dive into detail.

In agile projects, a business analyst might take the role of product owner. This role can

help to communicate the goal of the product
manage the backlog of needed activities

An aim of such approaches is flexibility in response to changes arising during the project. This in turn can support the achievement of business agility.

End Note

We have seen that business analysis is a wide ranging topic. The business analysis techniques involved in identifying detailed requirements are deceptively straight forward. In the words of Alexander and Beus-Dukic, it's "Simple but not easy".

To see more about what is involved in becoming a business analyst, and the skills and training required, click this link.

Business analysis online training.

Self study for BA qualifications.

What is a non functional requirement?

Non-functional – “Something that doesn’t work”

To answer the question, ' What is a non functional requirement ', I looked in a dictionary. The definition was, 'Something that doesn't work'.

I checked another well known dictionary; that didn't even list the word.

Presumably, somebody, at some time, thought that if the term, 'functional requirement' described the functions that users needed, then the word ‘non-functional’ was the obvious term to cover everything else.

How wrong can you be?

Simple answers to, “What is a non-functional requirement”?

I’m sure you’ve seen one-liner attempts to describe the word.

“System qualities””
“Constraints”
“How well the system does what it does”

and so on.

But there are significant problems with these attempts.

The problem with ‘simple’ definitions

The term, ‘Non-functional requirement ’ covers a lot of things, often very different things.

It’s a made up word, which is why you see different forms, for example:

‘Nonfunctional’, as often used in English articles
‘Non-functional’, as typically used in American (US) articles, and in this article
Non functional

There’s not always a clear line between functional and non-functional, which perhaps makes it impossible to apply simple definitions.

Let’s put it in the context of buying a car.

You as a car buyer

Your functional requirements

These are very straightforward, for example:

Go forward and backward
Turn left and right, not at the same time
Change speed, faster and slower

What car can’t do these things?

If you’re buying a new car from an approved dealer your first demands would probably not be:

“Let me see if it starts”.
“Okay, now let me see if it can accelerate, brake, etc.

That’s because we expect all cars to be able to do these things, even cars with no human driver.

So, what are the things that really affect our purchasing decision?

Performance?
Reliability?
Safety?
Security?
Looks?
Build ‘quality’?
Comfort – Luxury?
‘Feel’ of the drive?

And of course for most of us there’s the little question of what we can afford.

Quality requirements

The trouble with referring to ‘quality requirements’ is that, although we probably all have an intuitive feeling for what is meant by quality. it’s another word that’s difficult to describe.

For ‘quality’ in the context of cars, we might immediately think of brands such as:

Mercedes
Range Rover
Rolls-Royce
Aston Martin
Ferrari

and so on.

Each one of these brands probably causes different ideas of quality to spring to mind. For example, the Ferrari suggests speed and power, whilst the Rolls Royce suggests luxury. All of them suggest wealth. There’s something elusive about the word, quality. Can we come up with a better definition?

Quality reconsidered

All modern cars are built to very high quality specifications. It’s the norm and so we take it for granted.

In everyday language, we probably reserve the word, 'quality', for cars that do something over and above the norm, for example, those that are built to perform at very high speeds or to provide the ultimate in luxurious interiors or to be outstandingly safe and secure. These are the things that push up the price. Quality in this sense costs money.

A more useful, and accepted, definition of quality is, 'fit for purpose'.

Problem solving

Probably the most fundamental thing to understand about specifying a requirement is that it must relate to a problem to be solved or an objective to be achieved.

Given that any car will get you from A to B, what are your personal objectives? What problem are you trying to solve?

What are your objectives in buying this car?

Perhaps your main objective is one of the following:

Get across town as cheaply as possible once or twice a week
Get across the country as reliably as possible every day
Take the children to school as safely as possible
Have room for a large family and a dog
Have a bit of fun and excitement
Go shopping
Inner city driving
Drive off road
A holiday motor home
Fuel economy

The price differences between such alternatives can be extreme.

Why do these things create such price differences?

The obvious first answer is that these different situations require different levels of components and construction.

Because high-performance sports cars can reach such high speeds they require something special in the design and build of the braking systems, the frame, suspension andwheels.

And whereas a small, low-power ‘run around’, can be a perfectly fine car for the purposes for which it was designed and built, you couldn’t make it go faster by fitting an engine from a Ferrari.

You couldn’t make it better at climbing mountains by installing the wheels and suspension from a Land Rover.

And would you really want to put the upholstery from a Rolls-Royce into your everyday running around?

And that’s the trouble with these things. You can’t make just one change. You’re talking about an entirely different type of vehicle. It’s the whole design and architecture that has to change. You’re talking about every single aspect of the vehicle, individual aspects and combinations of aspects.

Multiple objectives

To make the problem worse, you may have multiple objectives and if you can only afford or only desire one vehicle, then you’re likely to have conflict.

The architectures required to achieve each of the above objectives are all very different.

To resolve such conflicts, you’re probably going to have to compromise and choose an architecture that balances your objectives and gives you just enough of what you’re after in each case.

Architectural requirements

The so called non-functional requirements tend to affect many if not all aspects of the construction. They affect its architecture.

Before going any further with this one, let’s return to the world of IT and computer systems.

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Specifying requirements for a computer system

Functional requirements

There are often lively conversations generated around the question of whether to write functional requirements as

Traditional requirement statements
Use cases
User stories
‘Formal’ requirements statements
…..

But is this really the big issue?

A traditional requirement might be stated as:
- A receptionist shall be able to check-in a guest
A user story might look something like:
- As a receptionist, I need to be able to check-in a guest in order to….
A use case identifies
- A role, such as a receptionist
- A function, such as ‘Check-in guest’

In essence, and perhaps superficially, they all look rather similar.

I assume that in all cases the business analyst knows that it is essential to define acceptance criteria and a business rationale.

Getting yourself understood

Even if we hate traditional requirement statements or use cases and absolutely love user stories, we can probably get ourselves understood by users, developers and testers, with any of these approaches by observing the following guidelines:

Use the ‘business’ language of the organisation
Use pictures, models, diagrams, tables, examples and simulations, where helpful
Keep things as simple as possible

Functional requirements, such as: ‘The ‘user role’ shall be able to create an account’, can be developed and implemented with an approach along the lines of:

Discuss with users to get the appropriate level of detail to ensure understanding and agreement, on what is meant by an account
Discuss with developers to get to the appropriate level of detail to develop an application with which the relevant user role can create an account
Discuss with testers and users to establish acceptance criteria
Build the application
Test the application

Testing the application for compliance with the functional requirement will have one of two basic results:

An account is created – The application works
An account is not created – The application doesn’t work

It’s black-and-white. You can’t half create an account or create half an account. At the end of the test, the account is either there or it isn’t.

If we realise we’ve missed a functional requirement, which we probably usually do, it’s normally straightforward to add it. Or perhaps defer it until later, which takes us to priorities.

Priority

With functional requirements, we can use a priority system such as MoSCoW

Must
Should
Could
Want

which can affect the order for the iteration in which functions are developed and implemented.

Non-functional requirements

Non functional requirements are nothing like that.

Categories of non-functional requirement include:

Performance
Security
Usability
Capacity

to name just a few.

You can’t launch a product that doesn’t have these characteristics, even they are implemented at a ‘minimum level’. You can’t defer any of them to a later iteration.

Let's examine a few types of non-functional requirement

Performance

Once the application has been written, an experienced programmer might be able to optimise it for speed of operation, but there’s a limit to what they can achieve like that.

There are other things that need to be considered:

Hardware, its capacity and its capability
Operating system: you may need one that’s designed for specific operating conditions
The network, a mix of hardware and software
The database and the database management system, design strategies and the skill of the database designer

These are not things that most application programmers and testers deal with and they affect more than the basic application.

And what exactly do we mean by performance anyway?

Response time to an enquiry?
Transactions per second?
Throughput?
Capacity?
Accuracy?

However we qualify it, we can see that it affects the architecture of the entire system, hardware and software.

Security

Security is an odd one.

In some systems of categorisation it’s referred to as a functional requirement.

It strikes me as a hybrid. Car manufacturers for example may describe certain security features on their vehicles:

Alarms
Locking devices
Tracking devices

all of which make the car more difficult to steal.

These things probably involve both hardware and software and as features they presumably qualify as 'functional'.

But then we can get various grades, or quality levels, of these pieces of equipment, which is typically what is referred to as a non-functional requirement.

For computer systems, the design, build and monitoring of the security aspects is of course a highly specialised operation.

The average application programmer and functional tester is not trained to do this.

Safety

Safety has similar characteristics to security.

Again the car manufacturers can add certain features

Airbags
Devices in the wing mirrors that make them light up when an overtaking vehicles get close
Devices in the headlights to show up people at the sides of the road

and so on.

Once again, all of these may be described as functions and once again these functions will certain qualities in the material used and the construction and testing processes.

Usability

User interface design together with accessibility is a specialism that requires an understanding of human perception and the characteristics of the users themselves.

In the design of a car, can all the controls in the car be reached easily and ‘safely’, keeping your eyes on the road?

Does the average application tester know what it means to create a test for usability?

How to gather non functional requirements

It’s an iterative process.

Write down what the users tell you they require in termsof:
- Performance
- Security
- Usability
- ….
More specifically, ask about their objectives, the problem they are trying to solve.
Ask for a rationale for their choices. If there’s no rationale, it’s not a requirement
Hand this information to the specialists responsible for implementation and to the sponsor responsible for budgeting.
Go back to the users with the cost and development estimates for what they’ve asked for and with the sponsor’s comments, perhaps toned down a bit
If they still want it and can afford it, you’re done
Else adjust the figures and repeat as necessary
No sweat

Specifying and implementing non-functional requirements

In specifying requirements, we have to think about who will be receiving them.

To facilitate this, rather than thinking of non-functional requirements as a group, think about each type, e.g.

Performance
Security
Usability
….

For each type, we need to determine:

What sort of specialist is needed to implement it?
What information does that specialist to get the context and detail they need to determine what they have to do?
What skills are required to test the finished product?

For specialists, we have:

Database designers
Security experts
Performance specialists
Software experts
Hardware experts
User experience experts
....

In practice of course, the technical specialists probably tell the business analysts what they need to know.

Frequently it’s about the numbers:

How many transactions per minute?
How long does this information need to be retained for?
How much data?
What is the cost of downtime?
….

The business analysts may have forms designed to capture the relevant information.

The main job is then to get the forms to the right people.

Specifying ranges of acceptable values

We mentioned that functional requirements are black and white. Things either work or they don’t.

Architectural requirements can be associated with a range of values:

Unacceptable
Ideal
‘Over the top’ – (too expensive) for the situation

These numbers might be associated with averages:

Mean
Mode

For example, we need a response time at the user's monitor no greater than 2 seconds for 80% of the transactions/time.

Designers need these ranges so that they can ensure that the overall system will work within acceptable tolerances.

The different categories of architectural requirement must be balanced.

Perhaps increases in security levels cause reduced performance.

Like putting a wheel on a car, the nuts are gradually tightened so that the wheel is not skewed by over tightening any one of them.

It’s an iterative process.

So perhaps none of the elements are performing at their ideal level, but collectively the system is performing with agreed limits; it's a compromise.

Testing architectural requirements

Testing architectural requirements demands special skills and special tools.

It might involve simulating large numbers of users or background activity to obtain a realistic view of the production environment.

Not all testers have these skills or know how to use these tools.

Do we need to go through all this trouble?

When designing critical software for:

Vehiclesignalling systems, control systems, trading systems, and so on.
Air traffic control
Signaling systems.
Body scanners
Control systems
Trading systems

and so on, it's vital to obtain the right information that will lead to appropriate designs. Lives and the survivability of organisations can depend on this.

But does this really happen for the average office system?

For systems with special criteria, high loads, etc, somebody has to do this before the product gets built and tested.

If that somebody is to be the business analyst, they need the skills and knowledge to be able to do it.

Your definition?

Can you think of a simple definition to answer the question, 'What is a non functional requirement?' that covers everything discussed in this article?

If so, I'd like to hear it.

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Business analysis e-learning courses

Lessons from Confucious

Capiro offers online training courses for business analysts.

You've probably heard the quote from the ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius:

I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.

We've built our 'Guides to Success' e-learning courses for business analysts to allow you to hear, see and do.

BCS business analysis qualifications

Business analysis e-learning is excellent preparation for the BCS business analysis examinations, should you choose to take any of them.

Our approach to designing online courses for business analysts will also help you in:

Applying your learning to your work situation.
Succeeding in job interviews.
Becoming a valued member of a business analysis team.

Managing complexity in business analysis e-learning

Divide and rule

Our online business analysis training courses are divided into modules that cover the syllabus for the relevant BCS business analysis examination which makes them an excellent preparation for these qualifications.

Each module contains a number of lessons and lessons contain topics and quizzes. This means that you can break down your learning into bite size chunks. The following section describes the structure of a lesson and how it will help you to succeed.

Video

Video is becoming increasingly popular in online training. That's because they can hold the learner's attention, providing interesting demonstrations of the material.

We use video mainly to provide a summary of the main points of a lesson before you get into the detail. You therefore start the more detailed section with a good grasp already in your head.

Where useful, there are animations to illustrate and explain particular aspects of the lesson.

Capiro Andromeda Articles Anatomy of a course

Text with images

The text generally provides more than just a copy of the video narrative.

It can go into more detail where necessary and can cross-reference other lessons in order to show how topics are related.

The text is written in a style that supports scanning. This helps the reader to quickly read the text whilst having their eyes drawn to important words, phrases, and sentences.

The text might also include recommended additional reading and useful information that is not on the exam syllabus.

The video and text together make a great source for exam revision.

Online quizzes for business analysis e-learning

Quizzes check immediate understanding of the topics covered in the video and text. This helps the reader to memorise important topics that could appear as exam questions.

Every lesson has a quiz with a number of questions. You should repeat these questions until you get the correct answers instantly every time. If you think about it, there are only so many questions that the exam you take can draw from. This means that if you cover enough practice questions you will dramatically increase your chances not just of passing this exam but passing well.

In addition, there is a timed practice exam in the style of the actual exam.

Additional practice to succeed with business analysis e-learning

Some lessons include the following practice sessions.

Practical exercises

Practical exercises are based on a case study that contains a detailed scenario.

Case study questions will require you to create something, not just answer a multi choice question.

This will develop your understanding of particular topics and help you to apply what you have learned to work situations.

Although case study questions are not in the multi-choice style exam format, the extra knowledge you gain from doing them will help you to answer exam questions.

Interactive activities

An advantage of a business analysis e-learning course is that it can include interactive exercises. The benefit of this is that it draws in the learning, getting them more involved and increasing their ability to recall the material.

Interactive exercises involve you directly in taking actions to enhance your e-learning experience.

They employ a number of techniques that allow you to participate both physically and mentally in e-learning situations.

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Is e-learning the future until the pandemic is over?

Picture of woman taking an online training course in a classroom.

E-learning or classroom learning?

Is e-learning a temporary phenomenon?

There has recently been a huge increase in interest surrounding e-learning. This has got training providers rushing to convert their classroom material to e-learning formats.

The interest is obviously understandable whilst social distancing is or has been a feature of daily life. It also fits the bill when many organisations are supporting home working for their staff.

But once the pandemic is over, won’t everyone be returning to real training?

Can e-learning ever be as good as classroom based learning?

Plus points for live training

Immediate access to the trainer.
The trainer is an expert in their subject and is trained in the best techniques to get their expertise into the minds of the learner.
The classroom can be optimally designed and fully equipped with the latest presentation technology
Learners can meet other learners, establish contacts and get 'linked in'.
There is a fixed timetable so the trainer can ensure that all learning content is covered and all objectives are achieved.

Is what you just read always true?

Thinking back to training courses that you’ve attended, have you ever experienced any of the following?

A seemingly endless flow of ‘busy’ PowerPoint slides riddled with bullets?
Trainers reading from the slides or their notes?
Handouts consisting of nothing but a copy of the slides?
Too many attendees?
You got a seat in the back far corner and couldn't get a clear view of the trainer’s screen?
Lecture delivery too fast or too slow?
Twiddling your thumbs whilst everyone waits for the slowest person to catch up with an exercise?
The room was too hot or too cold or too stuffy?

Trainer skill and knowledge

Still thinking back to training courses that you’ve been on,

Was every trainer really as knowledgeable as you would have expected and as engaging as you would have liked?
Did you have all your questions answered?
By the time you’d worked out how to express your question, had the class moved on?

Obviously, there can be a big gap between the best and the ‘not so good’ in classroom training but how rare are the situations I’ve just described?

How much time do you actually get with the trainer?

The timetable for a 3 day course with an exam on the last afternoon will typically look something like this:

Day one
- Administration, self introductions, and an overview of the course
- Three quarters of a day for learning?
Day two:
- Full day of training?
Day three:
- Full morning of training?
- Time for a lecture just after lunch?
- Brief revision time?
- Exam starting at say 3.30?
- Course wrap up and course evaluation sheet
Overall
- About two and a half days of actual training?

What about the ‘best’ classroom learning?

In the best classroom teaching you will have :

An inspiring and knowledgeable trainer, capable of making the trickiest topics seem easy
Great handouts with ‘long term’ value
Low number of fellow learners
Well-equipped, air-conditioned rooms with comfortable furniture
Well designed exercises and well run exercise sessions

Of course, even with the best classroom training, the time constraints are inevitable. Gone are the days when employers were prepared to pay for (and lose their staff for) a training course spread over a week, or even two weeks.

Can e-learning do things any better?

Let’s first look at what we might understand by ‘e-learning’.

What is e-learning?

At its most basic, e-learning is training that’s delivered online, i.e. to a computer of some sort, desktop, tablet or smartphone. It’s learning delivered ‘in a box’.

E-learning may come in many forms. For example:

Learner accesses:
- Training provider’s website
- A training app on their smartphone, e.g. Google Primer
- Learning management system (LMS)
Virtual classroom
Webinar
Zoom sessions
….

Let’s consider two broad categories of e-learning.

Accessing a training provider’s web site
Accessing a learning management system (LMS)

Training accessible from a website

With this option, a ‘training provider’ sets up their courses on a computer server and makes them accessible via a web site.

The learner always sees the latest version of the course.

Apart from any apps or documents that the learner is able to download from the provider’s web site, they don’t need to store anything on their own device.

Training via a web site can be the most economical option although prices vary widely. Some prices may be aimed at the corporate rather than at the private market.

‘Training supermarkets’ such as Teachable, Udemy and Lynda provide a platform that make it easy for anyone to set up and sell a course.

Some of the content on YouTube and similar sites might be regarded as e-learning.

Just as with classroom training, there’s a big gap between the really good and the not so good.

Who uses this option?

This is typically the option for someone who is paying for their own training.

Corporate’s can also find this an attractive option, minimising the amount of money and effort that they have to put into providing the training.

Training accessible from an LMS (Learning Management System)

A learning management system (LMS) supports the management and delivery of computer-based training courses.

An LMS typically allows a learner’s progress and test results to be tracked.

Who uses this option?

An LMS will typically be used by an organisation to provide training for their employees.

The organisation might install their own LMS or use one provided by a 3rd party.

An LMS can be an economical solution for an organisation, particularly one with large numbers of employees to train.

It can be very attractive for areas such as ‘compliance training’.

Using specialist tools, training modules for the LMS can be developed by an organisation’s own staff or by third party e-learning consultants.

Isn’t e-learning just an online PowerPoint presentation?

The better e-learning courses are designed and produced by full-time professionals with specialist knowledge.

There’s a large amount of evidence based information available on how to design e-learning courses that teach in an effective and captivating, even entertaining, manner.

E-learning designers and producers can take advantage of many learning technologies. E-learning is increasingly becoming something of a ‘science’ or discipline as well as an art.

The training provider and e-learning designers will typically seek to fully engage the learner in the course. To that end the course content can be delivered in a variety of imaginative and attention grabbing ways to stimulate the learner. For example:

Video including interactive video
Interactive situations, e.g. selecting items and then dragging and dropping them onto the correct place
Images, including ‘labelled images’, where images appear on ‘mousing over’ a label
Audio
Games (‘Gamification’)
Simulations
Scenarios in which the learner is routed through the course according to decisions that they make
Quizzes in various forms, relatively passive as well as being fully interactive
….

The above can be backed up with:

Links to further online information
Downloadable PDFs for additional information, summaries and revision

Are e-learning courses fixed length?

Courses may or may not be fixed length but the important point is that with e-learning the learner can be in control.

Obviously, if the e-learning is being provided by a person’s employer there are still likely to be some time constraints.

In general, the learner can:

Select days of the week and times of day that suits them and their work and lifestyle
Repeat lessons as often as required
Do the exercises and check the answers at their own pace
Repeat the exercise as often as needed
Take an associated exam when ready; exams are expensive and so are resits

What about health and safety issues?

It is certainly true that prolonged sitting and use of a computer can have undesirable side effects. But this is also true of many classroom courses, for example, when learning a programming language or an office application.

There is now a lot of advice available online concerning health and safety for people working for extended periods on a computer in their own home. Important health and safety concerns and recommendations include:

Take frequent breaks and regular exercise such as walking
Use a desk of appropriate height
Use seating that can be adjusted, recline and provide lumbar support
Look away, ideally into the distance, at frequent intervals to avoid eyestrain
If an audio transcript is provided, listen to that rather than looking at a computer.

Ergonomically sophisticated furniture can be very expensive. On the other hand,

Did you find that all the above guidelines were followed in classrooms that you have experienced?
Did all training venues provide expensive seating?

Can the feeling of isolation be an issue for e-learners?

This is a potential issue, for some more than for others.

Many providers of e-learning employ a number of techniques to get over the problem of isolation.

Virtual classrooms
Forums, Slack groups, Zoom sessions, and private Facebook groups for course members
Providing a means for direct correspondence with a live trainer
Member only forums

Do people find motivation difficult to sustain in an e-learning course?

This can be challenge, particularly if the training extends over a number of days or weeks. There are plenty of guidelines available to get over this hurdle.

Have a preferred place for your study.
- Not many of us have a study equipped like the office of a senior executive in a large company, but consider that all you need to study is a computer, tablet or a smartphone and perhaps a (paper) notepad and pen
You can make any space your own
- If you have family members, get them to respect it
You can of course study when it suits you
- But for most people, it’s probably a good idea to have a fixed time when they do their serious study
- Try to get family members to respect your preferred time
Try other study places by way of a change, for example, listening to audio whilst walking or travelling, or whilst other members of your household are watching the television.

What if the learner gets stuck?

Most people will probably get stuck at least once in a challenging course. It’s important that the e-learning provider offers ways to get over this. For example:
Include a member only contact form
Permit direct correspondence with a live trainer, e.g. by phone, Zoom, Slack or similar
Assign a trainer to a learner
Introduce live webinar style sessions

Can e-training be tailored to an individual learner?

E-learning can reflect multiple learning styles in a way that is generally not possible for standard classroom based teaching. This is demonstrated with the examples I have already given.

Freedom from many of the usual time constraints makes it easier to offer learners a variety of approaches.

Learners can start, pause, replay, take a break, and end their session whenever they like. They are in control. It's their place – their pace.

Why e-learning?

Aside from taking advantage of the fact that people are working at home anyway and the social distancing is largely being complied with, is there any compelling reason to choose e-learning over standard classroom training?

Is it horses for courses? Are there any downsides? Let’s examine this.

Advantages of e-learning

Some obvious advantages are:

Travel: Cost and time
Price: This is typically lower for e-learning courses than for classroom based training
Flexibility and convenience
Accessible from anywhere, more or less
Individual work and lifestyles can be catered for
Multiple styles of learning can be supported
Easily repeatable
Interactive training styles can keep the learning directly involved

What about the disadvantages?

I’ve already mentioned some possible challenges to effective learning, for example:

Risk of isolation
Difficulties with motivation
Finding a suitable place to do the training
…..

Some people just prefer to have a live trainer, be in a classroom and interact in person with fellow learners.

Some learning tasks are better suited to live training. I don’t think I’d want to be operated on by a surgeon who had qualified after a series of e-learning courses or fly with a pilot who had never actually flown with an instructor.

Perhaps a hybrid training plan is what is needed.

Mixing e-learning with live training

E-learning will be an increasingly viable and popular option in the foreseeable future. But live training, in a classroom or other appropriate environment, will surely continue to be in demand once the pandemic is over.

E-learning can be the ideal choice in many situations, for example:

Preparing for multi-choice exams
Compliance and standards training
Learning the theory of something – Even things like sales skills
Certain types of ‘Just in time’ training

Thanks to simulations and scenarios, e-learning can also be applicable to learning certain types of skills: for example, handling management situations, sales skills, counselling, and so on.

Classroom learning can be the ideal choice for many practical skills where immediate feedback on a physical activity is required. As well as surgery and flying, this will include skills such as giving presentations, interviewing.

A comprehensive training plan will typically need to include both e-learning and live training, playing to the strengths of each.

Capiro and e-learning

At Capiro we’ve been developing e-learning courses for about five years.

We specialise in business analysis.

We are currently offering and developing a series of online courses to support business analysts wishing to self study and take online exams for the British Computer Society, BCS, certificates in business analysis.

Course launches with early bird pricing

Keep me about informed course launches and special offers

What is a use case? – Free training for BAs

Picture showing sequence of activities in a business process. Shows the activities, the person performing them and the use case to support them. — Tasks, performers and use cases cooperating in a business process.

About the course

‘What is a use case?’ is a mini course in our new series, ‘Free training for business analysts’.

The course describes what use cases are in the context of business activities.

It then describes an agile style team approach to capturing requirements with use cases, and, still using the team approach, how to take use cases forward to software development and testing.

Access the course

What is a use case? – Click to view

Course objectives

After following this e-learning course, the reader will know how to develop an approach that helps them to discover user requirements with use cases.

Course content in detail

What is a use case is a free mini e-learning course from Capiro. It answers the question, “What is a use case?”

It also shows how to discover user requirements with use cases.

Use cases are a useful means of working with stakeholders to actively discover the user requirements that will solve their problem.

The course also describes an ‘agile style’ team approach to discovering use cases.

This approach shows how to involve the various roles that together will create and test the solution based on the use cases.

Course style

This interactive e-learning course uses text, video and quizzes.

The learner can follow the course at their own pace.

Boost business agility with Three + One

Business agility

Business agility is the ability to rapidly but safely change in response to or in anticipation of changes in the external environment.

Potential drivers for change are summarised in the acronym, ‘PESTLE’.

Political
Economic
Social
Technological
Legal
Environmental

Business agility is becoming increasingly important in a world where the rate of change and the competition for customers and resources is accelerating.

The agile business analyst is an agent of change. As such, they can help the business to respond to change in a timely and advantageous manner.

A framework for managing change

Framework for an enterprise architecture

An enterprise architecture is, among other things, a tool that can help to map business change to technical responses and technical advances to business opportunities.

Simplified view of Zachman architecture — Zachman architecture – Simplified view

The accompanying diagram, based on Zachman’s framework for an enterprise architecture, highlights six concerns or aspects (my words, not Zachman’s) of an organisation that can be described, modelled and specified at various levels of abstraction, from idea to reality.

The dividing line between the top and bottom three rows was not taken from the Zachman model, but reflects a possibly arbitrary and personal division between:

Rows that are populated with artifacts created mainly by business oriented roles such as business analyst and business architect.
Rows that are populated with artifacts created mainly by more technical roles such as solution architect, designer, systems integrator and developer. This is why, in the accompanying diagram, we refer to the lower three rows as ‘technical views’. We accept that not everyone would make such a classification.

The intent of the following paragraphs is not to describe the Zachman framework in detail; he does a great job of doing that himself. See Zachman framework and The rows – what are they?

The intent is to highlight aspects and views (perspectives) that are immediately relevant to the work of typical business analyst or business architect. And the intent is also to show how the analyst can use the Zachman model to help their organisation achieve greater business agility.

The columns of the Zachman model

The six ‘concerns’, referred to above, are shown as the column headings of the grid. Collectively, these concerns describe a ‘system’.

The business analyst needs to understand an enterprise in terms of these six concerns . The analyst should understand the concerns in the own right and in terms of their relationships with each of the other concerns.

We can consider the columns as areas where the business analyst needs to demonstrate their capability.

The rows of the Zachman model

For each of these concerns, we have six views or ‘perspectives’ these are the rows of the grid.

Going ‘down’ the rows takes us from idea, at the top, to reality, at the bottom. Going from row to row effects a series of ‘transformations’ of the original idea, progressively turning that idea into reality.

The top three rows show business oriented views:

Identification and naming of relevant aspects (Contextual view).
Descriptions and business (conceptual) models of the aspects; (Conceptual view).
Logical models of the aspects (Logical view).

The artifacts (or artefacts) that populate these top three rows are typically created by people with role titles such as business analyst or business architect. These artifacts are abstractions of the real world.

The abstractions, or representations, created by the business analysts and architects are turned into reality in a further series of three ‘transformations’ by people with roles such as solution architect and developer. These are the bottom three rows of the grid.

The bottom three rows are populated with technically oriented models and other artifacts. These describe the ‘technical systems’ and tools that support the business systems.

The final transformation (the ‘bottom’ row) creates (instantiates) the thing itself, i.e. the organisation or enterprise.

Zachman not a methodology or a decomposition

Zachman insists that his model is not a methodology. However, organisations can create methodologies that reflect an understanding of the model.

Zachman also insists that the rows do not show increasing levels of detail. However, the models and other artifacts associated with each row will probably demonstrate additional details as each successive row gets closer to the real thing. If using the Unified Modeling Language (UML), for example, the models in the lower rows will feature additional icons and ‘adornments’.

Deriving an architecture and methodology from Zachman

In building the enterprise architecture itself, and in creating methodologies that reflect the Zachman model, it can be useful to think in terms of additional levels of detail.

The layered approach supports understanding by hiding complexity from any stakeholder that doesn’t need to see it.

By understanding each column as an entity and as a contributor to a system, and by being aware of how each layer is supported by the layer below it, we will be better able to propose and manage changes to an organisation’s systems efficiently and effectively. We need to do this in order to continuously support strategic objectives and realise game changing opportunities in rapidly changing business environments.

In other words, we have a tool to boost our business agility.

Three plus One

We will focus on 3+1 areas of capability that are critical to successful business analysis and business agility:

1. Business processes – The HOW on Zachman

2. Business data – The WHAT on Zachman

3. Business rules – Impact all columns on Zachman

Plus

People (Inter-personal) skills – Relates to the WHO in Zachman

Business Processes (The ‘How’ on Zachman)

Organisations must continually improve their ability to align themselves and their processes with the changing external environment and to rapidly adapt their responses to business events. This is a major factor in the achievement of business agility.

Many, if not most, of an organisation’s processes provide routine support. But some, perhaps a critical minority, are strategically important and deliver the value created by the organisation. Crucially, the goals of these processes directly support the goals of the organisation.

Business Data (The ‘What’ on Zachman)

Process transparency is key to boosting business agility. Data is key to achieving that transparency.

The essential data of the organisation are the concepts on which the organisation is built. Such concepts include Customer, Supplier, Product or Service, and the various artefacts associated with business transactions such as orders, payments and receipts.

The ‘conceptual view’ (row 2) of the Zachman framework contains models of the (data) concepts.

As well as the concepts themselves, it is vital to understand the associations between the concepts; these are captured as business rules.

Business Rules (The ‘Why’ on Zachman)

Also key to boosting business agility is mastery of the business rules.

Business rules must be visible and be owned by the business. As with processes, rules must be continually aligned with the changing external environment. Rules are incorporated into the processes and the data.

People (Inter-personal) Skills

Business analysis is a people oriented job. Business analysts enjoy working with people, with all the attendant challenges.

Obviously, to do the job of business analyst, a person needs empathy. They need to be able to listen. Those ‘skills’ are perhaps a part of a person’s nature. But there are many skills that can be learned. We refer to such skills as ‘people skills’ or ‘interpersonal skills’.

Essentially, people skills are to do with communication. We may also refer to people skills as communication skills.

Specific people skills include:

Making presentations
Facilitation
Chairing meetings
Interviewing
Negotiation
Report writing
Team leading and leadership

The business analyst can also usefully learn some of the skills of the sales and marketing team, e.g.

Understanding the difference between features and benefits
Understanding people’s ‘pain points’
Achieving a win – win situation
Motivation

Video – ‘Basics of data modelling – Part 1’

Introduction.

This video introduces the basics of data modelling. Data modelling is a key skill of a business analyst and is fundamental to creating a business level data architecture.

Duration: 8 minutes. See also, ‘Summary of the video content’, below.

Summary of the video content.

The video is based on a scenario concerning insurance policies and the customers who buy them.

The business view is of course highly simplified; we are trying to explain data modelling, not the business of insurance.

Two classes are identified, Customer and Policy. These represent actual customers and policies.

A class is a sort of blue print that defines the company’s concepts such as their concept of a customer and a policy. The concept identifies the attributes, or data items, for each concept.

The concept of a customer includes attributes such as:

Customer name.
Status.
Post code.

The concept of a policy includes attributes such as:

Policy number.
Policy type.
Purchase date.
Price.

Data modelling at the business level is sometimes described as concept modelling. The model itself is described as a conceptual model.

There is an association between the two classes which is labelled, ‘owns’. I.E., ‘One customer owns or more policies’.

The associations capture business rules, such as the rule that to be a customer of this company, it is necessary to have purchased at least one policy.

Another business rule states that a policy must be owned by at least one customer but may be owned by many customers.

Notes on the model.

These notes refer to terms in the Zachman framework such as the distinction between the conceptual and the logical views.

As mentioned, the video describes a conceptual business level model, not a ‘normalised’ logical model. A logical level data model shows such adornments such as ‘foreign keys’.

This introductory video does not describe how to resolve the so called ‘many to many’ associations. This is often more relevant to the logical level view. Arguably the logical level is more relevant to the solution architect than the business analyst or architect, although of course the same person may take on all of these roles.

The notation used in the video is a simple form of UML.

Many analysts consider that UML is too technical and complex to be used for business modelling. This is not correct if UML is used appropriately.

In common with most modelling notations, UML comprises mainly rectangles and lines. It also has other, so called, ‘adornments‘.

UML refers to artefacts such as attributes and various graphic devices as ‘adornments’. It provides a range of adornments relevant to different stages of a projects, e.g. requirements discovery, design, implementation, etc.

Use only adornments that are relevant to a particular stage. And obviously, only use adornments that you and your stakeholders understand. Just because something is available in the UML, it doesn't have to be used.

Training in data modelling

We cover data modelling in our course, 'Business Analysis Foundation'.

Requirements – What’s the problem?

The definition of requirements in terms of solving problems and satisfying objectives, originally specified by the IEEE, is now widely used. It is referenced by both the IIBA and the BCS international Diploma in Business Analysis. It is the definition that we often refer to at Capiro. In this article for the IREB Requirements Engineering newsletter, the authors examine this definition and some of its implications. The IEEE definition of a requirement is probably not perfect – What is? But it does highlight that solutions cannot be defined in a vacuum – they need context. That context is the problem that needs to be solved or the objective that needs to be realised; problems stand in the way of the achievement of objectives. The article emphasises the importance of looking at the big picture. Problems and objectives (goals) tend to be related to other problems and objectives. Proposed solutions will each demonstrate varying degrees of support for the achievement of corporate (strategic) objectives. Stakeholders will have differing opinions as to what constitutes a problem, a goal or a solution. Any one solution will have implications in terms of risks, costs, benefits, stakeholder support, implementation challenges and operational characteristics. The authors invite comments on their article. Please note that the IREB newsletter is free and that you can sign up with IREB to receive it regularly.

Data capture at the speed of thought

Yesterday’s technologies.

One thing that hasn’t evolved that much for the average computer user is how to get what they’re thinking into the computer. Most business analysts probably still think primarily of the old technologies.

We’ve had keyboards forever. And many business analysts spend a significant proportion of their time as an (untrained) typist.

Unless we can ‘touch type’, business analysis activities such as writing up interview notes, reports and business cases tend to be relatively slow and error prone.

We perhaps concentrate on our actions at the expense of the quality of our content. We ought to be able to use our minds more efficiently and more creatively.

Today’s technologies.

Voice input can help, but is problematic in a noisy office.

Various forms of scanner are great for a limited range of jobs.

It would be useful to make business analysis activities more efficient. And as a business analyst, you might want to offer your users something really innovative. Nice idea, but how easy is this in practice?

There have been some great innovations for specific roles such as surgeons who obviously need to work ‘hands free’ of everything except the tools of their jobs. We are getting an insight into what is coming. Which takes us to tomorrow’s technologies.

Tomorrow’s technologies.

How about being able to tell the computer your innermost thoughts without touching anything? An article in Wired magazine takes a look.

Check out Wired magazine’s article on Ctrl-Labs.

Change for the better

What is Business Analysis?

What is a business analyst?

Sources of Change

PESTLE

Customers, Suppliers and Competition

Business Processes

What is a business process?

People, Culture and Processes

Business Data

Business Rules

Business rules

A Holistic Approach

Enterprise Architecture

Change Programmes and Projects

Requirements for a solution

End Note

Non-functional – “Something that doesn’t work”

Simple answers to, “What is a non-functional requirement”?

The problem with ‘simple’ definitions

You as a car buyer

Your functional requirements

More questions

Quality requirements

Quality reconsidered

Problem solving

What are your objectives in buying this car?

Why do these things create such price differences?

Multiple objectives

Architectural requirements

Specifying requirements for a computer system

Functional requirements

Getting yourself understood

Priority

Non-functional requirements

Performance

Security

Safety

Usability

How to gather non functional requirements

Specifying and implementing non-functional requirements

Specifying ranges of acceptable values

Testing architectural requirements

Do we need to go through all this trouble?

Your definition?

Lessons from Confucious

BCS business analysis qualifications

Managing complexity in business analysis e-learning

Divide and rule

Video

Text with images

Online quizzes for business analysis e-learning

Additional practice to succeed with business analysis e-learning

Practical exercises

Interactive activities

Early bird pricing for launches of business analyis e-learning courses

Is e-learning a temporary phenomenon?

Can e-learning ever be as good as classroom based learning?

Plus points for live training

Is what you just read always true?

Trainer skill and knowledge

How much time do you actually get with the trainer?

What about the ‘best’ classroom learning?

What is e-learning?

Training accessible from a website

Who uses this option?

Training accessible from an LMS (Learning Management System)

Who uses this option?

Isn’t e-learning just an online PowerPoint presentation?

Are e-learning courses fixed length?

What about health and safety issues?

Can the feeling of isolation be an issue for e-learners?

Do people find motivation difficult to sustain in an e-learning course?

What if the learner gets stuck?

Can e-training be tailored to an individual learner?

Why e-learning?

Advantages of e-learning

What about the disadvantages?

Mixing e-learning with live training

Capiro and e-learning