Business Analysis Approach For :
Inventory-Phase 1
Portfolio Sample
Purpose:
Illustrates sections and key points found in an approach document implemented with a client.
Note:
Text in brackets and Italics are industry suggested standards (STD) of what should be in an approach document.
At the end of this sample a list contains the Industry Recommendations and Formats for most Approach documents.
Problem:
The client needed to know how to move forward in understanding some underlying problems surounding inventory.
Note: As with all other artifacts and documents a detail section links this document to others.
Illustration
Explains how common sections were used to communicate the approach to the client.
Scope:
This project will focus on investigating and assessing the problem with inventory. The intention is to capture the issues that are causing the biggest drain on the customer experience which is related to inventory. Processes and workflows within each department and team will be investigated. This project will address and uncover problems, and potential solutions, to determine what needs to change.
Deliverables:
Business Analysis Approach
Work Proposal
Supporting artifacts: documentation, requirements.
Weekly meeting result document
Project schedule
Executive Summary:
XYZ Company has been experiencing problems related to inventory. Interviews have determined inaccurate levels on a regular basis, and this is a result of mis management, borrowing to fill critical orders, RMA’s, incorrect shipments of product, and a number of other issues. Much of the problem seems to be related to process, and this influences the poor electronic recording of inventory. XYZ Company needs a way to make improvements so that Inventory is less of a liability in the company.
This is an improvement project which will work towards correcting some of the big problems related to inventory.
Objective:
Increase accuracy of inventory for satisfying jobs, and increasing the “Customer Experience”.
Approach:
It’s important to find the elements which will deliver success and provide transition from inaccurate and troublesome inventory levels and management to a more accurate and less worry-some system. The approach must manage the success of the transition and uncover the components and processes which allow for the project to give the business what it needs to move forward.
The goal of this project is to provide better tools, processes and practices related to inventory.
An agile approach will be used to address issues quickly and deliver value. The company needs to focus on quick wins to show progress. The analysis will work to keep stakeholders focused on goals and only address issues directly related to the specific project and objectives.
Stakeholders have a habit of inflating the value of needs and often attempt to squeeze in more work that may not have high value for the objectives. Objectives need to be made clear and the need to be short and achievable.
1) Review existing notes from previous meetings and focus in on a single most important and high value problem, which has a strong potential for increasing the “Customer Experience”.
2) Interview warehouse people to uncover related problems and solutions. Since the initial interview, some things may have changed, or come about which hold more or les value or impact.
3) Investigate what is required for the business to succeed when accomplishing the objective.
4) Define measurables for calculating requirements/decisions/value. When investigating processes, workflows, and activities, find a way to capture numerics so there are ways to evaluate cost and benefit.
5) Determine desired outcome through meetings with management and all interconnected stakeholders.
6) Determine best communication practice for the project. How would stakeholders like to communicate, what works best for them? This includes information and file storage, capturing information, and performing tests.
7) Determine who the primary and valuable stakeholders are and the influence they have on driving the change towards the objective. Enlist these MVP’s as champions who can help steer the goal.
8) Break information into small components which can be easily understood and acted upon.
9) Monitor the requirements through baselining. The requirements need to have definitive numbers that can be tracked and monitored to show performance.
Requirements:
Capturing requirements will be done through a series of interviews with leads and department subject experts, in addition to the original interview results recorded in the Backlog. The requirements will be formed into high-level needs with sub-components/tasks which contribute to delivering a working solution. A work schedule will be created and will be the primary source for work tasks.
User Stories:
Existing templates will be used to form the layout and sections of stories. Requirements and stories will contain: diagrams, workflow diagrams, prototyping, success criteria, monitoring metrics.
Requirements will be managed and stored as independent documents specific to the need.
Information Management:
Documents and artifacts will be stored on the XYZ Company SharePoint folders for use by XYZ Company. The folder structure will support the logical representation of the project.
Resources:
The resources are those people who will be involved in assisting this project in its success. Resources will be needed for business analysis, development, project management, testing, subject matter expertise.
Communications:
Communication will be a combination of email and in-person interviews and conversations.
A RACI chart is provided to form the roles and responsibilities for the activities needed to be accomplished. People will be updated as per the RACI chart.
Requirements will be made available and communicated with the appropriate stakeholders.
A schedule of work tasks will be formed to provide timelines and critical path logistics. The schedule will help to keep people informed of deadlines and responsibilities to ensure the project does not experience over-runs.
Importance will be placed on full understanding between stakeholders. Transparency between stakeholders will hopefully facilitate trust and enhance collaboration.
Risks:
Resources become overworked and unavailable
Distraction of focus due to competing pain-points
Monitoring:
Requirements will be monitored by regular check-ins with stakeholders during development, testing (UAT), implementation and post project evaluation.
At each stage, requirements and the user stories will be evaluated to make sure they align with the primary goal and objectives. Requirements must constantly align with the primary objective(s).
Performance:
Numerics will contribute towards performance metrics to assess and validate if the change has made improvements. All changes must be able to be evaluated by referencing current numerics against future change estimated numerics. We need to prove that the investment to the change is valued and elevates and serves the business.
Decision Analysis:
Decisions will be driven by referencing the numerics and forming logical decisions, which help through allowing numbers to guide decisions. A decision matrix spreadsheet will be stored within the project folders on SharePoint. Stakeholders will collaborate to determine numeric value of attributes both positive and negative.
Decision Practices:
A decision matrix will be used which helps evaluate requirement value based on attributes. Attributes will be positive and negative and a net value will be calculated to determine requirements that have the highest value. This will assist management in focusing on work that has the best value and serves the company’s goals. the intention is to deliver value that grows the business to improve ROI.
Industry Recommendations and Formats
| Section | Objective | Common Standard |
| Scope | The scope needs to be able to put a fence around what is expected and will be done.The scope needs to be able to put a fence around what is expected and will be done. | STD (What is the scope or boundaries to the project and analysis work?) |
| Executive Summary | Provide an overview of what is being done and why. What’s the problem and the anticipated outcome. We can also suggest a method or approach which could contribute to the project effectiveness. Define exactly what this project is about. |
STD: (What is the scope or boundaries to the project and analysis work)
STD (What type of project is it? – closely related to understanding the problem, take a step back and understand what kind of project is being undertaken) |
| Objective |
Define the objective, what are we trying to accomplish. This is important as it clarifies the point of the project. Doing this we can keep stakeholders focused, and ensure that the efforts are constantly aligned with this objective.Define the objective, what are we trying to accomplish. This is important as it clarifies the point of the project. Doing this we can keep stakeholders focused, and ensure that the efforts are constantly aligned with this objective.To challenge new changes we can ask questions like:
|
STD (What is the expected outcome for your project? What value can be expected?) |
| Approach |
We need to describe the approach and how we will be approaching the situation and what is involved. List some of the tasks involved in attacking the project. The tasks and components that contribute to success can be discussed. This section provides a degree of forethought to communicate to a sponsor there’s some degree of control and experience being applied. Here we need to prove that we’re considering the aspects that will support success.We need to describe the approach and how we will be approaching the situation and what is involved. List some of the tasks involved in attacking the project. The tasks and components that contribute to success can be discussed. This section provides a degree of forethought to communicate to a sponsor there’s some degree of control and experience being applied. Here we need to prove that we’re considering the aspects that will support success. |
STD (The type of methodology, Waterfall or Agile, and why. How will the analysis be conducted within the methodology and approach?)
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| Requirements | How will requirements be captured? What documentation techniques will be considered or implemented. Often we can touch on the approach to managing requirements, or how requirements will be dissected and tackled. |
STD (Is the BA work going to be done in the beginning or performed iteratively all through the project?) STD (Formality / Level of Details – depending on the organizational context a formal approach maybe adopted. If there are requirements standards that need to be followed, this needs to be detailed here?) STD (Approach to Scope and Change Management – how will the changes to scope and requirements be handled, if a high level process or flow chart needs to be built, you could define it here?) STD (Approach to Sign-off – what modality and approach will be followed to get concurrence and sign-off for requirements?) |
| Information Management | Stakeholders want to know where information will be stored, how will they get to it and are they able to collaborate in the documentation. One of the most common questions is versioning. Often I have stakeholders ask: if multiple people have the ability to edit a document how will we know what was done and by who? This is a great question as it show attention and investment on the part of the stakeholders. Most tools like SharePoint, MS Teams, or VSTS come with version capabilities. | STD (If there are any requirements management tools or repositories used, this needs to be detailed out here.) |
| Resources | ||
| Communications | How is this project and the components within the process going to be communicated? Stakeholders want to know how’s involved, and their responsibility. This section tells stakeholders how they re going to be kept in the loop and up to speed regarding information, decision, or results. | STD (Approach to Communication – how will the communication occur, the medium and frequency used.) |
| Risks |
Has the Business Analyst thought about potential problems? Has the preliminary investigation uncovered some possible flies in the ointment, if so do we have a way of determining impact or probability? If sponsors are going to trust us to execute the analysis effort, they need to know we can see both positively and negatively, as this displays objectivity. A risk register exhibits conscious forethought and planning. By bringing risks to the surface, we have the ability to respond with some level of confidence and control. Has the Business Analyst thought about potential problems? Has the preliminary investigation uncovered some possible flies in the ointment, if so do we have a way of determining impact or probability? If sponsors are going to trust us to execute the analysis effort, they need to know we can see both positively and negatively, as this displays objectivity. A risk register exhibits conscious forethought and planning. By bringing risks to the surface, we have the ability to respond with some level of confidence and control. |
STD (Approach to potential risks, how and what is anticipated to be problems or hurdles, what could negatively hurt the project?) |
| Monitoring | How will a BA ensure things stay on track? Monitoring elements of a project such as quality of accurate requirements, contributes to higher success. It’s important to know when we slide of the rails and when to correct direction. Sometimes there’s conflict between stakeholders and this needs to be caught and rectified. There are times when execution teams (developers, operations, QA, and PM’s, become distracted or attempt to provide benefit that isn’t requested and potentially may cause a level of disruption, monitoring these aspects helps maintain a correct course. | STD (Verification and validation – Throughout the project it’s important to ensure consistency of the relationship and alignment between what’ being asked for is going to support the expected outcome) |
| Performance |
This is more solution performance, rather than Analysis performance. Stakeholders often question or doubt that the change made a difference for a variety of reasons. Proactively incorporating performance measures can support our objectives and display evidence that the effort invested in the change is contributing to ROI. Performance measures support fact based evidence over perceived opinion. Example, there have been cases where stakeholders have expressed doubt that the change is contributing in any way, numerical data can show unquestionable proof. In times where someone asserts an opinion challenging the results, we can come back with “I have hard numerical data that clearly shows that this part of the solution is delivering value, do you have the same to challenge my data?” |
STD (Performance assessment and verification – How are we going to prove the change is definately making a difference? What is involved in showing evidence , that the analysis and solution is delivering value?) |
| Decision Analysis |
I recall a project where a stakeholder brought up a real concern during the initial pin up of a project. Their concern was about the lack of decision methods, and problem this had on the perception of the sponsor and other important stakeholders. Because there wasn’t a way to logically assess priorities, everything became priority 1. This default was injecting chaos into the company and projects. This is a gentle form of introducing a form of governance to help govern how decisions will be made and the way it will be done. Convincing stakeholders that requirements or other artifacts will be address objectively and without prejudice helps lower conflict and resistance. A matrix can offer collaboration capabilities, giving the ability for an entire team to take part in selecting items collectively and as a group. |
STD (Decision approach – How will the decisions be managed and communicated? What methods will be used to prioritize decisions?) |
| Decision Practices | STD (Decision practices – How will requirements and other information be prioritized and what key stakeholders could be involved in the prioritization process?) |