Course description

The course starts at 09.30 am and ends at 5 pm. Registration commences at 08.30 am.

[ONLINE FORMAT] We will send the course materials and meeting instructions well in advance as well as the invitation with hyperlink to join us online. The online meeting will be available at least one half hour earlier so please log in timely in order to check your sound and video settings beforehand.

Course Outline

Practical techniques and clear guidelines will be provided in seven main areas:

1. Business Analysis – goals, issues, and an integrating framework that works in real life

• A spectrum of techniques – simplistic to overly complicated
• The problem with list-based (“The system shall…”) requirements approaches
• A better approach – a model-based framework including
  • Goals and objectives
  • Business Process Modelling
  • Use Case Modelling
  • Service Specification
  • Concept Modelling
  • How Process Models provide context, and Concept Models provide a foundation for analysis
• Case study –
  • Using a Concept Model to discover the necessary Business Events, Services, and Use Cases
  • Clarifying process scope with a Process Scope Model and a Process Summary Chart
  • Understanding the relationship of Use Cases and Services to the Business Process
• Framework: Three progressive levels of detail – Scope, Concept, Detail
• Applying the model-based approach in an Agile setting – what to do and what not to do

2. Business Process Modelling review – identifying, scoping, assessing, mapping, and redesigning Business Processes

• Confusion – what actually is a Business Process vs. a Procedure vs. a Function?
• Clarifying the what, who, and how of a process with Process Scope Models and Summary Charts
• Case Study – using the Process Scope and Summary models to encourage enthusiasm for change
• An objective technique for discovering and demonstrating a true, end-to-end business process
• Framework: A holistic approach – the six enablers of process performance
• Framework: “You can’t be great at everything” – choosing a differentiator
• A proven three-phase, seven-step methodology for process change
• Why process change is needed & where we will go – the Process Case for Action, Vision, & Goals
• Swimlane Diagrams (Workflow Models) – what they are, why they work, how to succeed
• Framework: The cognitive psychology of diagramming – graphic guidelines for comprehension

3. Concept Modelling review – building a common language and “world view” with business-friendly Concept Models

• What actually is a Concept Model, and why do we care?
• Central ideas and principles in Concept Modelling – it’s a business, not a database
• Why a Concept Model has a graphic and narrative component, and what is in each
• The core components – entities, relationships, attributes, and rules with guidelines for each
• Framework: Encouraging engagement – why bottom-up approaches work for most people
• Five criteria for “good” entities, with an exercise
• A simple, angst-free approach to developing entity definitions, with exercises
• Graphic guidelines for accessible Concept Models
• Framework: More on graphic guidelines for comprehension
• Making the transition from Conceptual to Logical model – a simple, orderly approach
• “The Four Ds of Data Modelling”

4. The Application Layer: Use Cases and Service Specifications – rationale and core concepts

• Requirements definition issues – recap of simplistic and complex approaches
• Use cases to the rescue?
• Confusion – multiple approaches and perspectives for Use Cases
• Complex, overloaded Use Cases and how to avoid the “Useless Case” phenomenon
• Framework: Essence vs. Accident – separating “what“ from “who and how”
• Splitting the Use Case into internal (Business Services) and external (Use Cases) perspectives
• Business Services, Use Cases, Use Case Scenarios – how they relate
• The power of the concept – one Services deployed via many Use Cases

5. Service Specifications – describing what the application must do internally to deliver functionality

• Discovering Events, Use Cases, Business Services, and Results
• An exercise using a classic example for Services and Use Cases
• Event types: action, temporal, and conditional – and guidelines for corresponding Use Cases
• Business and technical perspectives on Services
• Guidelines and granularity for Services
• Framework: Getting to the Essence – how focusing on “what“ builds support for change
• A template – a simple, initial (concept level) Service description
• A template – extending the initial Service specification
• A template – the final (detail level) Service Specification
• State transition analysis – relating events, entity states, and business rules (in an appendix)
• Why your Service Specification is an ideal platform for Use Case modelling

6. Use Cases – discovering user expectations about a system’s external behaviour

• Use cases – making a Business Service available
• Essential components – actor, goal, steps
• Three types of Use Cases – “real” and “system” cases
• Framework: Procedure vs. Process – interaction vs. flow
• Who is involved? – actors, roles, stakeholders
• Discovering use cases and services at the right granularity – a multi-pronged method
• Exercise – good Use Case or not?
• A template – a simple, Initial (concept level) Use Case description
• Developing the initial Use Case dialogue – the “when – then” approach and why it works
• The usual questions about Use Cases
• Handling alternate and failure conditions
• Use case scenarios – demonstrating the use cases

7. Business Analysis tips, techniques, and frameworks will be described throughout, with real-life examples showing how they relate to our model-driven techniques
   1. The Magical Number 7 +/- 2 – “chunking” at the right level.
   2. Better diagrams from visual literacy – cognitive psychology, gestalt, simplicity, and directionality
   3. Essentials of facilitation, in-person and virtual – three critical techniques
   4. “No such thing as a dumb question” – the Principle of Constructive Ignorance
   5. Essence vs. Accident – the liberation of separating “what” from “who, how, and why”
   6. Bottom-up techniques – why they work, and specific examples of using them
   7. “When in doubt, make a list” – the “CoRSE” framework
   8. …and more!