Business Analysis for Practitioners
- Solution Evaluation (Domain 5)
COURSE STRUCTURE
Introduction to Business
Needs
Business Analysis
Assessment
Analysis Planning
Module 2
Module 1 Module 3
Requirements
Traceability and Solution
Elicitation and
Monitoring Evaluation
Analysis
Module 5 Module 6
Module 4
COURSE OBJECTIVE
At the end of this course, you will
understand what business analysis is all
about, why it is essential to the success of
any project and how to perform it on your
projects...
Business Analysis for
Practitioners
MODULE 6
MODULE OBJECTIVE
MODULE OBJECTIVE
At the end of this module, you will
understand what solution evaluation is
and how we get it done in Business
Analysis.
SOLUTION EVALUATION
Solution Evaluation consists of
business analysis activities performed
to:
-Determine how well a solution meets
the business needs expressed by
stakeholders
- Allowing this to inform the go/no-go
business & technical decisions about
releasing the solution
SOLUTION EVALUATION
• Recommended Mindset for Evaluation
• Plan for Evaluation of the Solution
• Determine what to Evaluate
• When and How to Validate Solution Results
• Evaluate Acceptance Criteria and Address Defects
• Facilitate the Go/No-Go Decision
• Obtain Signoff of the Solution
• Evaluate the Long-Term performance of the Solution
• Solution Replacement/Phase-out
SOLUTION EVALUATION
• Recommended Mindset for Evaluation
• - Evaluate Early and Often
• - Treat Requirements Analysis, Traceability ,Testing and
Evaluation as Complementary Activities
• - Evaluate with the Context of Usage and Value in Mind
• -Confirm Expected Values for Software Solutions
• Plan for Evaluation of the Solution
SOLUTION EVALUATION
• Determine what to Evaluate
• - Consider the Business Goals and Objectives
• - Consider Key Performance Indicators
• - Consider Additional Evaluation Metrics and
Evaluation Acceptance Criteria (Project
Metrics as Input to the Evaluation of the
Solution, Customer Metrics, Sales and
Marketing Metrics, Operational Metrics and
Assessments and Functionality)
• - Confirm that the Organization Can Continue
with Evaluation
SOLUTION EVALUATION
• When and How to Validate Solution
Results
• - Surveys and Focus Groups
• - Results from Exploratory Testing and
User Acceptance Testing
• - Results from Day-in-the-life (DITL) Testing
• - Results from Integration Testing
• - Expected vs. Actual Results for
Functionality
• - Expected vs. Actual Results for Non-
functional Requirements
• - Outcome Measurements and Financial
Calculation of Benefits
Format for Defining Functional
Acceptance Criteria
Format for Defining Functional
Acceptance Criteria
Format for Analyzing Expected vs. Actual
Results
Format for Analyzing Expected vs. Actual
Results for Nonfunctional Requirements
Outcome Measurement and Financial
Calculation of Benefit
SOLUTION EVALUATION
Predictive Life Cycle Projects
– Validate solution at end of
project life cycle before
release or at an agreed-upon
time after release
When and How
to validate
Solution Results Iterative/Adaptive Life Cycle
Projects – Validate at the end
of every iteration or release
when the team provides
production-ready functionality
for stakeholders to evaluate
SOLUTION EVALUATION
• Evaluate Acceptance Criteria and Address Defects
• - Comparison of Expected vs. Actual Results
• - Examine Tolerance Ranges and Exact Numbers
• - Log and Address Defects
• Facilitate the Go/No-Go Decision
• Obtain Signoff of the Solution
SOLUTION EVALUATION
Evaluation Evaluation
Techniques Techniques
Survey &
Expected vs. Actual
Focus
Results for functionality
groups
Results Expected vs. Actual
from Results for non-
integration functional requirements
testing
Outcome measurements & financial
calculation of benefits
SOLUTION EVALUATION
• Evaluate the Long-Term performance of the
Solution
• - Determine Metrics
• - Obtain Metrics/Measure Performance
• - Analyze Results
• - Assess Limitations of the Solution and Organization
• - Recommend Approach to Improve Solution
Performance
• Solution Replacement/Phase-out
SOLUTION EVALUATION
Massive one-time cutover
prior to installing the
replacement and phasing
out old solution
(Most Risky)
Segmented Permanent
cutover to Solution coexistence
replacement replacement of old and
prior to phase and phase- replacement
out of old out solutions
solution
Time-boxed coexistence of
the replacement and old
solution with a final
cutover on a specific
future date
SOLUTION EVALUATION
SOLUTION EVALUATION
Exercise
If you were the sponsor for this project (see
previous slide), would you sign it off?
I am certain you agree that Business Analysis is
important on all projects!!!