Quick Bite #5: BA health check questions
Reflect and check: have you done all you needed to do?
Problem statement
The challenge of measuring quality of business analysis work has always been there. It’s just hard to find metrics that would answer this question.
Today, we are going to focus on: “How might we assess if our business analysis serves us well?”
At some point, I’ve moved on from trying to define quantitative metrics and started to use a set of health check questions instead.
I’ve got a list of reflective questions that you may ask about different aspects of your project. If the answer is “yes” and there is supportive documentation for it, you are likely on track. If the answer is “no” you’d rather spend more time and examine why it is so and if it is expected or any correction is needed.
Strategy
- Do we know the current state of the business/client (what are the business operations, what does the business do and stand for)?
- Are the business requirements defined (do we know the rationale for the project, is there an expected outcome of the project)?
- Is the future state defined? (what are the objectives of the project, can they be measured, how does the business see themselves operating and performing after the project is over?)
Elicitation
- Is stakeholder registry or map created?
- Is client/domain/project specific terminology defined?
- Are business processes and customer journeys understood?
- Can the requirements be traced back to the stakeholders/supplied documents/elicitation activities?
- Do we have meeting minutes and action items from all the elicitation meetings?
Requirements management
- Are the requirements traced to tasks, test cases, defects?
- Are the requirements allocated to releases/sprints/components?
- Are the changes to the requirements tracked?
- Is the status of the requirements tracked?
- Are the requirements prioritized?
- Is the requirements body signed off/otherwise endorsed by stakeholders?
Requirements analysis
- Are the acceptance criteria defined for the requirements?
- Are the requirements following the requirements template or checklist?
- Have the requirements been proofread by QA?
- Have we captured non-functional requirements?
- Have we captured transition requirements?
- Do we use sufficient visual modelling aids to supplement the requirements?
- Do we use sufficient textual modelling techniques to capture the requirements?
- Do we capture assumptions, risks and constraints?
Solution evaluation
- Do we validate test cases before executing them?
- Do we have a process and rules for UAT and customer feedback collection and processing?
- Is the project/sprint report validated against the requirements?
- Do we track progress against business goals?
Want to learn more about business analysis directly from me or read my book? Explore the options ;)
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