Forums for the Business Analyst

 
  Modern Analyst Forums  Business and Sy...  Agile Analysis ...  White Boarding Session
Previous Previous
 
Next Next
New Post 11/28/2012 5:03 PM
User is offline JDeanBA
2 posts
No Ranking


White Boarding Session 

 Hi,

I have been tasked to facilitate a whiteboarding session to gather requirements.  We have a web application & we need to develop a maintenance function for the user.  I am new to business analysis & wanted to find out what sort of documents should be produced from the session.  Also if there are examples I can build upon.  Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

 
New Post 11/29/2012 4:28 AM
User is offline Tony Markos
493 posts
5th Level Poster


Re: White Boarding Session 

Hi:

Use the white board to quickly create just barely good enough models.   System behavior analysis drives system data analysis, so the first order of business is to create and walk through behavioral models.   

If your system is simple, then you can jump right into sequence based behavioral modeling techniques (BPM and Activity Diagrams).   If your system is complex, then you need to model at various levels of abstraction using decomposition to handle the complexity.   This is where data flow diagrams come into play.   With DFD's after you decompose a system far enough down, then you switch over to sequence based modeling to handle modeling  the "system in the small".

After you have scoped out the essential behavior of the system, then use the white board to create just barely good enough data models, like ERDs.

 
New Post 12/5/2012 8:01 AM
User is offline dldelancey
61 posts
8th Level Poster


Re: White Boarding Session 

Your deliverables should be defined by the needs of the people who will consume them.  Identify those people and ask them what documents they need.  Typically, the consumers are developers, testers, release managers, operations, security, product owners, change managers, etc. etc. etc.  Having said that, there's several ways that could go depending on the development methodology in place (or lack thereof).

Is this a contractual arrangement with an external client?  If so, check the contract and/or the statement of work.  Your deliverables hopefully are stated there.  Keep in mind, however, that what you are contractually obligated to deliver may not actually be what the consumers of the deliverables need.  Which brings me back to... identify those people and ask them what they need. 

If your team is doing waterfall development, you're likely to be document heavy, and you probably need requirements specs and such.  If your team is agile, you're likely to be document light and may only need user stories and such. 

 
New Post 12/7/2012 5:59 AM
User is offline Tony Markos
493 posts
5th Level Poster


Re: White Boarding Session 

didelancey said:  "If your team is doing waterfall development, you're likely to be document heavy, and you probably need requirements specs and such.  If your team is agile, you're likely to be document light and may only need user stories and such."

Unfortunately, this confuses bad waterfall with waterfall.     Good waterfall has always been "just barely good enough" documentation.   I know that bad waterfall is much more common, but, just like good Agile is not "hackers gone wild" , good waterfall is not "heavy documentation"

Tony

 

 
New Post 12/10/2012 11:43 AM
User is offline dldelancey
61 posts
8th Level Poster


Re: White Boarding Session 

 Tony Markos wrote
 

didelancey said:  "If your team is doing waterfall development, you're likely to be document heavy, and you probably need requirements specs and such.  If your team is agile, you're likely to be document light and may only need user stories and such."

Unfortunately, this confuses bad waterfall with waterfall.     Good waterfall has always been "just barely good enough" documentation.   I know that bad waterfall is much more common, but, just like good Agile is not "hackers gone wild" , good waterfall is not "heavy documentation"

Tony

 

You will note my use of the word likely.  Unfortunately, bad waterfall is more likely than good.  But that is entirely beside the point of the original poster's question. 

 
Previous Previous
 
Next Next
  Modern Analyst Forums  Business and Sy...  Agile Analysis ...  White Boarding Session

Community Blog - Latest Posts

Fabricio Laguna talks Business Analysis and AI
I recently connected with Fabricio Laguna, aka The Brazilian BA. Fabricio is a passionate and pioneering business analyst from Brazil. During our conversation, we had a thought-provoking discussion on how artificial intelligence stands to shape the field of business analysis in the years ahead. While AI promises to transform many aspects of busines...
Business Architecture, Ontology and More with Terry Roach
It's been a privilege meeting Terry Roach, a visionary in the field of enterprise architecture and business architecture. Terry's insights into the evolution of business models, the importance of ontology in architecture, and the potential of AI to shape our future were not only thought-provoking but also a reflection of his extensive exper...
Today I had the pleasure of chatting to Jignesh Jamnadas, Chief Operations Officer at Mosaic, about his Blueprints for Success. As a Senior Finance and Operations Executive, Jigs (as he is known to many) has a holistic understanding of all facets of business and a flair for managing both people and processes. Having worked with Jigs, I was struc...

 



Upcoming Live Webinars




 

Copyright 2006-2024 by Modern Analyst Media LLC