Introduction to BA

10-11-2023

Hi, welcome to my second blog, where I introduce requirements layers, which are often referred to as Requirement Classification Schema. According to BABOK, there are 4+1 types of requirements in the schema: Business requirements, Stakeholder requirements, Solution requirements, which is further divided into Functional requirements & Non-functional requirements, and Transition requirements.  In this blog, I would introduce the first type: Business Requirements. Business requirements are “statements of goals, objectives and outcomes that describe why a change has been initiated” (BABOK Guide v3.0). Right from its definition, it is obvious that business requirements must be established during the Initiation phase of a project. It guides the strategic direction for the entire endeavor. A good business requirement should be short, concise, and measurable. Below are a few examples of business requirements: The project leverages Machine Learning to forecast ATM cash demand which results in reduction in the frequency of cash delivery trips to ATMs by 20%. The project builds a new system to automate the recruitment process within the company, which boosts productivity of the HR department by 20%. The project builds a digital workplace for the company, which aims to increase employees’ productivity by 20% and their satisfaction by 25%. Looking into Business Requirements, a BA would understand the purpose of the project, as well as the objectives of the product to be built within that project. It is a solution for a pain point or opportunity that a company is suffering or pursuing, respectively. The question may arise at this moment: well, am I as a BA supposed to define this?  There is one thing for certain: the Sponsor of the project must approve it. However, the responsibility of the proposal is not so clear, mainly due to the complexity level of the product. “Complexity” is not a sexy term, but its close relatives “Digital Transformation” is one among the trendiest nowadays. Complexity of a product positively correlates to its digital type, going from the easiest Digitization to Digitalization, and the most difficult is Digital Transformation. You may easily find the definition of Digitization, Digitalization and Digital Transformation everywhere, just by searching through the Internet. Simply speaking: Digitization focuses on recording and converting data. An example is e-book. Before digitization, you could only read physical books, but after digitization, you have one more choice: e-book. Digitization is at task-level and thus the simplest. Digitalization focuses on processes with the aim to automate that in part or as a whole and improve wherever possible. You may see the application of digitalization everywhere in the last decades, like a system to automate procurement processes, CRM, ERP, etc. Digitalization is at process-level. Digital Transformation focuses on creating new ways to do business leveraging technology advancement. You see it coming and may hear about it more often than experience it. An example is AI changing the way business works. Several jobs are soon to be replaced by AI, and many others must change to adapt with the new model. Digital Transformation is organization-level with strategy shift and thus the most complex. Through my career, I do not see much on Digitization projects, but due to its simple nature, anyone should be able to spot the improvement opportunity and propose. For Digitalization projects, very senior business BA could assist the team in eliciting the business process, even perform business process re-engineering to come up with ideas on process improvement opportunities. I want to emphasize again on the word “idea” in the absence of feasibility and P&L validation. For Digital Transformation projects, with the focus on building a new business model, more senior people would be required for the Initiation phase. It could be Program Manager, who takes care of both project and product aspects of an endeavor, to be responsible for the proposal for Sponsor’s approval. That concludes my second blog of introduction about BA. Next blog let us discuss stakeholder requirements. Thanks to VNPT for the nice business model canvas picture! You are reaching the end of this blog. Thanks for reading!