Kupe Kupersmith

Aside from fulfilling a business analyst (BA) role at a company, you may have the opportunity apply your various business analysis skills to other roles. You can parse out individual business analysis skills to make yourself more marketable, take advantage of opportunities, and meet a company’s specific needs for growth and improvement.

Reverse engineering refers to looking at the solution to figure out how it works. Basically, you you’re your business analysis backward from the solution to understand the data, processes, and business rules. Reverse engineering is more common than you think. Have you ever looked into a Microsoft Excel formula to figure out where it’s coming up with the calculation?

“Why” is such a powerful question that it’s the basis for a root cause analysis technique called the 5 whys. The thought is that by the time you ask a stakeholder “Why?” 5 times, you generally have arrived at the root cause. Consider this example: Q: “Why did you submit a purchase requisition for $750?” A: “Because we need to purchase 150 staplers!

Test cases are step-by-step instructions, including specific inputs and conditions, that testers follow to validate the system’s functionality as part of the business analysis and implementation. They also include the expected result. You and the project team can create hundreds — if not thousands — of test cases when supporting the testing effort.

The details section of a business case provides all the supporting documentation and diagrams for the recommendation that results from your business analysis. You usually include only the details of the recommendation, but you may want to add details of some alternatives if they were close in comparison or the audience may be interested in seeing them.

The verification and validation test plan portion of a business analysis describes how a software product will be tested. Make sure to include the following sections in your verification and validation plan. Introduction Start off by explaining the test and describing the objective of the project. Remember to keep it short.

When verifying and validating solutions, you perform a requirements review, a structured audit in which you give participants the opportunity to ask questions and make suggestions in order to improve the quality of the product being reviewed. Keeping the requirements review session moving forward is the facilitator’s job; because you may be wearing that hat during the meeting, here are some tips for conducting the requirements review session: Put on a thick skin when documents you authored are being reviewed.

On new development or mission-critical projects, several people may perform business analysis work. If so, business analysis planning may be divided among different business analysts. In these cases, the lead or senior BA should work with the sponsor, who has acquired funds to do the project and ensures project alignment with strategic goals.

Although many teams nowadays have one person function as both the project manager (PM) and business analyst (BA), a lot of teams still have different people performing those roles. One of the challenges on a project with a separate BA and PM is clarifying the responsibilities between the individuals. Because you and the PM interact with the same stakeholders, you both need to be very clear on what roles each of you’ll play during a project.