Systems Analysis What? Why?

By Nahla Ghoneim Senior Systems Analyst ITWorx Egypt

What?

Why?

Contents

My Story Requirements.. A problem Software Process Model Requirements Engineering Systems and Business analysis The Business Analysis Process Model Systems Analysis Skills Career path Questions

My Story
The story begins like any other
Software Engineer
ITWorx Sun Certified Java Programmer Senior

Computer Systems Engineering 2006

Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis Senior UTC, Reliance, du, Qtel

Business Executive GTMs EMBA

Graduation

Systems Analyst

Exercise

Terms Write requirements for a login page for an

internal system

A Classic Joke

Requirements: A big problem

The hardest single part of building a software system is deciding precisely what to build. No other part of the conceptual work is as difficult as establishing the detailed technical requirements...No other part of the work so cripples the resulting system if done wrong. No other part is as difficult to rectify later.
-No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering

Relative cost to repair a software error

Problems with Requirements

Lack of relevance to the objectives of the

project Lack of clarity in the wording Ambiguity Duplication between requirements Conflicts between requirements

Software Process Model: Waterfall

The Agile Model

Agile Methodology

Iteration/Sprint User Story Backlog Pair Programming Agile does not mean no documentation!

Requirements Engineering

Requirements Engineering

Requirements Engineering

Hurry up!

Requirements Elicitation
When I actually meet users... I find that they certainly have needs, but that these do not appear in an organized form at all. The needs come out in a rush, a mixture of complaints, design decisions, interface descriptions, current situations, and from time to time specific human-machine interface requirements.
-Alexander and Maiden (2004)

Requirements Elicitation Techniques

Interviewing Shadowing Workshops Scenario Analysis Prototyping

MOM

Requirements Analysis

Ensuring that all of the requirements

identified during Requirements Elicitation have been developed into clear, organized, and fully-documented requirements.

Requirements Analysis Filters

Ambiguous? Meaning clear? Conflict? -> Negotiate a resolution Reasonable? Expensive? Time-consuming? Atomic? Overlap? Duplicate?

Outcomes

Accept Reword Merge Clarify

Requirements Engineering

Requirements Specification/Documentation

Functional Requirements
What the system must do

Non-Functional Requirements
How the system will perform in certain areas: o Performance/Response time o Availability o Security o Backup o Archiving

Requirements Documentation
Requirements Template

Requirements Engineering

Requirements Validation
Deem requirements complete

Analysts

Review group

Confirm requirements suitability Review group: Business representatives Project Sponsor SME

Document

Signed off

Requirements Engineering

Prototyping
Software customers and end-users usually find it very difficult to express their real requirements. It is almost impossible to predict how a system will affect working practices, how it will interact with other systems and what user operations should be automated. Careful requirements analysis along with systematic reviews of the requirements help to reduce the uncertainty about what the system should do. However, there is no real substitute for trying out a requirement before agreeing to it. This is possible if a system prototype is available. -Software Engineering, 6th edition, Sommerville

Prototype Types

Evolutionary Prototyping
Throw-away Prototyping
o Best understood & highest priority requirements

o To validate or derive requirements o Least understood

Prototyping

Supports: Requirements Elicitation &

Requirements Validation POC UI Prototyping
o Wireframes o Axure

Business Analysis or Systems Analysis

Business Analysis

Production of clearly-stated business requirements definitions, which can be passed to a system designer to be turned into specifications that are the input to the development process

Systems Analysis

Analysing & specifying the IT system requirements in sufficient detail in order to provide a basis for the evaluation of software packages or the development of a bespoke IT system

What we do

A welldefined business problem

A solution based on a certain technology

Welldocumented requirements

Needs strong technical knowledge

The Business Analysis Process Model

Investigation Techniques

Interviewing Observation Workshops Scenario Analysis Prototyping

Five Whys

Systems Analysis Skills

Analytical Skills
[Analytical skills mean] not settling for the obvious, not accepting things at face value and not jumping to premature conclusions. It means digging deeper and deeper until the true situation is uncovered and the real problem has been defined. It involves sifting through masses of often conflicting data and determining which is relevant and which is not. And it involves challenging received wisdom at every turn.
-Business Analysis, Paul & Yeates, 2006

Systems Analysis Skills

Dealing with ambiguity

The Analyst as a Mixer!

Systems Analysis Skills

Dealing with ambiguity

Customer Management

Change Management

Systems Analysis Skills

Dealing with ambiguity

Customer Management

Change Management

Communication

Communication Skills
Communication is perhaps the most important skill that humans possess
-Business Analysis, Paul & Yeates, 2006

Systems Analysis Skills

Requirements Engineering

Dealing with ambiguity

Business Knowledge/Sense

Customer Management

Change Management

Communication

Presentation

Negotiation

Self-confidence!

Career Path

Engagement Presales Egypt

What you learned

The science of requirements engineering Keep an eye on the business world Broad range of positions in the industry
o o o o o o o Systems Analysis (like me!) Testing (Detail-oriented, persistence) UI developer (talent) Entrepreneurs (risk-taking) Academia (research) Engagement, Presales (customer interfacing) Management When the best leader's work is done the people say, "We did it ourselves." -Lao Tzu

What you learned

Study and develop yourself

Exercise
Whats wrong with this requirement? The reservations clerk must be able to record a booking. They must be able to amend or cancel bookings

Answer

Not atomic. Several requirements grouped

into one entry. Why did the text use they for a singular noun?

Exercise

Write requirements for a login page for an

internal system

References

"Business Analysis", BCS, by Debra Paul &

Software Engineering, 6th edition,

"No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of
Software Engineering, IEEE, by F. Brooks

Donald Yeates

Sommerville