ok folks, here's the work in progress....and I think this is a good one!

It's based on the theme of the presentation that was put on this forum "The Case for Doing Business Analysis". If you've not seen it, the basic message is that sufficient analysis up front means the solution will be delivered on time, to budget and deliver the right solution.

The task is:

Objective:

 To build a vehicle for your customer within the allotted time.

 The winner will be the team that can build the vehicle to specification and within time and budget.

 All teams must nominate a BA for the task – however this can not be an actual BA!

 At the end of the task your elected BA will present back to the group on their brief, the cost of the vehicle against budget and lessons learnt.

The customer will have a pile of lego that the teams can buy.

 The cost of the pieces that you buy for your vehicle are based on £1 per piece and wheels cost £3

 Your budget is £X

 Team A:

 They have no time for requirements gathering, no BA role and no access to the customer.

Team B:

 The BA already has fully signed off requirements from the customer which they can then validate throughout the task directly with the customer.

 Team C:

 Have 10 minutes for requirements gathering through a 3^rd party.

 The 3^rd party is allowed to answer questions correctly on: 

• If the vehicle has wheels

• If the vehicle is multicoloured

• Scale but not quantity

 The 3^rd party will not have answers for (and therefore make it up themselves) or ask the customer: 

• Colour

• Type of vehicle

• Dimensions (e.g. 4 x 8 blocks)

Team D:

 Have 2 minutes for requirements gathering direct with the customer.

  Halfway through (or later) task I will announce that: 

• No red parts on my vehicle

• I want a spare wheel on my vehicle

• It needs 7 wheels

The purpose og doing this is that all teams will have ploughed on making a vehicle and spent their budget. When the announcement comes out teams will have to accept that they may need to buy new parts and that they may have to dismantle what they#ve already built and start again.

The aim is that this will show various things about business analysis:

• Team A will end up with a solution that is totally incorrect and way over budget.

• Team B will have the exact product to scope and budget and on time.

• Team C will encounter the issues of going through someone else to gain requirements (this is a problem we currently face on our CRM project!). Althought they are given 10 minutes, they will probably end up spending 2 or 3 minutes via the 3rd party getting info which may change by the time it reaches them! The 3rd party can be as helpful or unhelpful as they like (e.g. if asked a question will say "I'll get that for you as soon as I can - then go for a coffee, or I'll be too busy to see them). Therefore although they have 10 minutes of access to build a simple lego vehicle, it will be wrong, over budget and possibly not on time.

• Team D will have a limited amount of time with the customer and therefore will get some parts right but not get anywhere near the detail to build the complete product to scope.

Questions that BA should have asked to get the requirements in the given timescales: 

• What colours and where to apply these colours?

• What type of vehicle is it?

• What are the dimensions – height x length x width (with actual scale e.g. cm, m etc)

• What is the lorry to be used for?

• How many wheels, height of wheels, are they inline or side by side or combination, any spare wheels?

• How many doors?

• Is the cab enclosed or open top?

bernard wrote   Hi all, We did the task yesterday. It was changed slightly so that it reflected the message in the presentation "the case for business analysis". It worked perfectly! The PM's and head of prog management were full of praise and thought it really gave the message as to what a BA can offer in a project. If anyone is struggling to get their company to understand the value of a BA, drop me a PM or email and I'll forward the stuff we used....

Bernard,

First, congratulations on was can only be classified as a great success.

I would love it if you could send me the final deliverables that were used to accomplish this.