It can be trying to read about what as a business analyst you should have as inputs to begin BA activities when you don’t have those materials but are still actively working. Business analysts who are responsible for product installation and software implementations at client sites do not always receive the necessary information they need as inputs to their processes. In addition, not every organization is supportive about providing input materials to begin business analyst activities. Still, projects kick-off and resources are assigned and business analysts and project teams get to work. What should a BA do when placed in this situation?
Below, I will share 10 tips to help guide BAs mitigate requirement risks when faced with some of the most common business scenarios where they do not have the essential input information.
| Business situation | What you can do |
| 1. The contract is not finalized so the scope is still not defined | After the formal project kick-off, start off the requirements project by reviewing the assumed boundaries of scope. Secondly, clarify those original assumptions once the contracts are finalized and reset expectations if there were changes. |
| 2. The project charter is not shared with the consulting BA team | Project SMART goals can still be established through means of elicitation either before the kick-off or during the first week of elicitation. This is as important as the scope to understand how the project success will be measured and it should not be skipped. Even if the goals are not SMART and measurable, obtain as much information as you can and include it in your discovery notes and documentation, and perhaps at a later date the client may be more open to re-addressing with you. |
| 3. Requirements planning cannot be conducted prior to a formal project kick-off | When the pressure is on to begin a project immediately after a contract signature and the time is not given for proper requirements planning, you can roll requirements planning into the project itself. Requirements planning still needs to occur and must happen in a joint fashion with the clients. You can conduct a joint planning meeting on the first day of the project and continue into the second (if necessary) with the clients while on-site prior to any elicitation activities. This is a very important activity that can save time and iterations of unnecessary elicitation sessions by having the joint teams ready for each session and taking a tactical approach. The time spent planning will save time overall and will allow you to flex your influence and ensure that this critical step occurs. If your company does not have a standard tactical approach for the planning of your projects, save your plans, take out the client references and begin to build your standard plan for re-use on other projects. |
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