Mitecs Business Analysis Standard
MCBA Program is designed in depending on many international standards, and has a unique business analysis standard because it combines of two of the most internationally recognized business analysis standards:
- The International Institute of Business Analysis standard “the guide of Business Analysis Body Of Knowledge BABOK” and
- The Project Management Institute standard “Business Analysis for Practitioners, a Practice Guide”
What is Business Analysis?
Business analysis is the practice of enabling change in an enterprise by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders. “2017 IIBA, the Guide of BABOK”
Business Analysis is the set of activities performed to identify business needs and recommend relevant solutions; and to elicit, document and manage requirements. “2015 PMI, Business Analysis for Practitioners, a Practice Guide”
Who is a Business Analyst?
A business analyst is any person who performs business analysis tasks, no matter their job title or organizational role. Business analysts are responsible for discovering, synthesizing, and analyzing information from a variety of sources within an enterprise, including tools, processes, documentation, and stakeholders. The business analyst is responsible for eliciting the actual needs of stakeholders—which frequently involves investigating and clarifying their expressed desires—in order to determine underlying issues and causes.
“2017 IIBA, the Guide of BABOK”
Who Performs Business Analysis?
The business analysis may be performed by any individual who is responsible for performing the work regardless of the person’s title. In this practice guide, the person(s) who performs business analysis tasks in the context of programs and projects will be referred to as a business analyst. The term is being used in the broad sense and represents all the roles that are responsible for performing the business analysis tasks within their organization and specifically the business analysis tasks on programs and projects.
“2015 PMI, Business Analysis for Practitioners, a Practice Guide”
BA Knowledge Areas in IIBA Standard
Knowledge areas represent areas of specific business analysis expertise that encompass several tasks. The six knowledge areas are:
Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring
Describes the tasks that business analysts perform to organize and coordinate the efforts of business analysts and stakeholders. These tasks produce outputs that are used as key inputs and guidelines for the other tasks.
Elicitation and Collaboration
Describes the tasks that business analysts perform to prepare for and conduct elicitation activities and confirm the results obtained. It also describes the communication with stakeholders once the business analysis information is assembled and the ongoing collaboration with them throughout the business analysis activities.
Requirements Life Cycle Management
Describes the tasks that business analysts perform in order to manage and maintain requirements and design information from inception to retirement. These tasks describe establishing meaningful relationships between related requirements and designs and assessing, analyzing and gaining consensus on proposed changes to requirements and designs.
Strategy Analysis
Describes the business analysis work that must be performed to collaborate with stakeholders in order to identify a need of strategic or tactical importance (the business need), enable the enterprise to address that need, and align the resulting strategy for the change with higher- and lower-level strategies.
Requirements Analysis and Design Definition
Describes the tasks that business analysts perform to structure and organize requirements discovered during elicitation activities, specify and model requirements and designs, validate and verify information, identify solution options that meet business needs, and estimate the potential value that could be realized for each solution option. This knowledge area covers the incremental and iterative activities ranging from the initial concept and exploration of the need through the transformation of those needs into a particular recommended solution.
Solution Evaluation
Describes the tasks that business analysts perform to assess the performance of and value delivered by a solution in use by the enterprise, and to recommend removal of barriers or constraints that prevent the full realization of the value.
BA Domains in PMI Standard
The practice guide organizes the business analysis works into five domains, these domains were defined originally as part of the conceptual framework identified through a role delineation study completed for PMI in 2013 and these domains are:
Needs Assessment
Discusses the business analysis work that is conducted to analyze a current business problem or opportunity and to assess the current internal and external environments of the organization for the purpose of understanding what needs to occur in order to attain the desired future state. Some of this work may be undertaken by business analysts before a project is proposed.
Business Analysis Planning
Discusses the work that is conducted in order to define the business analysis approach and plan for the completion of the requirements-related activities necessary to meet the needs of the project.
Requirements Elicitation and Analysis
Discusses the iterative nature of the work performed to plan, prepare, and conduct requirements elicitation and to analyze and document the results of that work.
Traceability and Monitoring
Covers the comprehensive set of activities for approving requirements and managing changes to requirements throughout the project lifecycle. The benefits associated with capturing requirement attributes and building a traceability matrix for a project are discussed.
Solution Evaluation
Discusses the business analysis tasks that are performed to validate a solution that is either implemented or ready to be implemented. This section focuses on both qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods; discusses how evaluation criteria and acceptance levels are used to perform an evaluation of the solution; and discusses work performed to evaluate, analyze, and report on the evaluation results.