Business

Requirements
Workshop
This class
• Practice writing business requirements:
o Business Objectives

o Success Metrics

o Business Risks

o Assumptions

o Dependencies

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QUICK REVIEW

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Last class
• Defining business requirements
• Developing a vision and scope
• Vision and Scope document
• Thinking from the business perspective
• Introduce IA1: Business Requirements

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What are business requirements?
• Business requirements define the project goals
and objectives, and ways to measure whether
those goals were met

• Business requirements should be completed

before you move on to document user and
functional requirements

• Main two elements of business requirements are

vision and scope, and these are documented in
the Vision and Scope Document

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Defining Vision and Scope
Vision
• Describes the ultimate product that
will achieve the business goals and
objectives
o What do we ultimately want to build?
Scope
• Identifies what portion of the vision
the current project or iteration will
address
o What part of the vision can we build
right now?

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Eliciting Business Requirements
• We begin eliciting business requirements early in the project, in a workshop with
the Customer Team

Requirements
Vision and
Project Kick- Elicitation Development Requirements
Scope
Off Meeting Planning Baseline
Workshop

Project Team Elicit Business Plan for how to Elicit Stakeholder Customer Team
discusses pain Requirements elicit Stakeholder and Solution signs of on
points and needs from Customer and Solution Requirements requirements.
at a high level Team Requirements Building may
begin.

We may also learn non-requirements things like

business rules, constraints, and solution ideas.

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What is the Vision and Scope Document?
• Business Requirements are captured in the Standard Table of Contents
Vision and Scope Document
• BA usually writes the document with input from
Executive Sponsor and senior stakeholders

• Executive Sponsor signs off on the document,

and then is the official owner of the document

• For a sample Vision and Scope Document,

see Appendix D in your textbook

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BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

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REVIEW: Business Objectives
• Business objectives describe what outcome the business wants to accomplish, by
how much, and by when
• They must be measurable – include a Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

• They typically have a longer time frame of 1 year after product launch to meet the
objective
• Business objectives don’t always have to be financial
o E.g. Financial BO: Increase sales by $X per year within Y months.

o E.g. Non-financial BO: Achieve customer satisfaction rating of X% within Y months.

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How to write a business objective
• Every business objective needs a unique ID (e.g. BO-1)
• Business objectives start with a verb (action word)
o E.g. Increase, decrease, reduce, develop, capture, reach, achieve, etc.

• Follow this format: [Action] + [measure] + [timeframe]

• Samples:
o BO-1: Reduce support costs by $2K within 1 year of product launch.

o BO-2: Increase productivity by 25% within 18 months after release.

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Scenario
• We have been hired as a Business Analyst by a
chain of book stores.
• The company wants to begin selling books online
through their website.
• The company hopes they will sell more books in
total by reaching a wider audience than just
those that come in to shop at their stores.

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ACTIVITY: Business objectives
1. Consider:
a) What is the customer’s problem or pain point?

b) What is the customer’s goal?

c) What can we measure to indicate meeting that goal?

2. Write a business objective for the bookstore scenario.

o Remember the format: [Action] + [measure] + [timeframe]
• E.g. Reduce support costs by $2K within 1 year of product launch.

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SUCCESS METRICS

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REVIEW: Success Metrics
• Since we’re measuring our Business Objectives a year after the product launch, it
would be good to know earlier if we are on track to meeting them
• Success metrics are indicators of whether we are going to meet our business
objectives – think of them like milestones
• They are usually incremental, because we cannot determine a trend based on a
single data point – i.e. measure weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.

Product Time Business

launch Objective

SM SM SM SM

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How to write a success metric
• Every success metric needs a unique ID (e.g. SM-1)
• Success metrics follow the exact same format as business objectives:

o [Action] + [measure] + [timeframe]

• Compared to business objectives, success metrics are:
o More specific, smaller scale

o Timeline will be shorter and usually incremental measurements (i.e. monthly,

weekly, quarterly, etc.)

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ACTIVITY: Success metrics
Based on this business objective:
o BO-1: Increase the total number of books sold by 30% one year after website
launch.

1. Think about:
o What smaller metrics could we use to let us know that we are on track to sell
more books.
• E.g. number of unique users visiting the book store’s website

2. Write a success metric based on the bookstore’s business objective:

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BUSINESS RISKS

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REVIEW: Business Risks
• Business risks are the negative things that could
happen to the business if:
o The customer goes through with the project, or

o The customer does not go through with the project.

• NOTE: Business risks are not the same as project risks

o Project risks are things like going over budget, scope
creep, failing to document requirements, etc.

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How to write risk statements
• Risk statements also require unique IDs (e.g. RI-1)
• Typically we format risks using an “If/then” statement
o If [condition], then [outcome or consequence]

• Examples: Risks for automating a vacation request workflow

o If the automated vacation request workflow is implemented, then the database of
employees and their managers needs to be kept current at all times.
o If the company does not automate their vacation request workflow, then productivity may
suffer as a result of the time taken to complete the manual process.

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ACTIVITY: Risk statements
1. Consider:
o What are the risks to the business if the bookstore creates a website to sell
books online?
o What are the risks to the business if the bookstore does not go through with the
project to sell books online?

2. Write a risk statement for a business risk associated with the bookstore’s
project.

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ASSUMPTIONS

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REVIEW: Assumptions
• Assumptions are things we believe to be true that will affect our project’s
outcome
o They are called assumptions because we don’t have proof or specific knowledge
– they are educated guesses
• Assumptions are directly related to the business objective that you set – they
justify or substantiate the KPI
• Example: BO is to increase sales by 25% within 1 year of launch.
o Why 25% Where did that number come from?
• Assumption: New website will reach 200 unique users every month after launch.

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How to write assumptions
• Assumptions require unique IDs (e.g. AS-1)
• Write assumptions in clear, complete sentences.
• EXAMPLE
o BO-1: Decrease manual effort of approving a vacation by 70% within 1 year after product
launch.
• AS-1: There are 10 vacation requests processed every month.

• AS-2: Each manual workflow takes an employee 4 hours to complete from start to finish.

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ACTIVITY: Assumptions
Based on this business objective:
o BO-1: Increase the total number of books sold by 30% one year after website
launch.

1. Consider the assumptions that contributed to how we established that KPI.

2. Write your assumption statements.

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DEPENDENCIES

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REVIEW: Dependencies
• Dependencies are factors that may affect our project, but they are not within our
control – they are external to the project
• Usually dependencies are related to third-party software or external systems
that are connecting to our solution
• Example:
o The calorie tracking iPhone app is dependent on being connected to an online nutritional
database.

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How to write dependencies
• Dependencies require unique IDs (e.g. DE-1)
• Begin your dependency statements with “The solution is dependent on…” but
specify what solution, or part of the solution, when possible
• EXAMPLES
• DE-1: The automated vacation request workflow is dependent on the accuracy of the HR
system’s employee records being kept current.

• DE-2: The intranet solution is dependent on the reliability of the Office 365 cloud host.

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ACTIVITY: Dependencies
1. Consider the external factors that our solution may be dependent on.
2. Write some dependencies related to the bookstore’s project of creating an
online store.

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Summary
• Today we practiced documenting the following Business
Requirements from the Vision & Scope document:
o Business Objectives
o Success Metrics
o Risks
o Assumptions
o Dependencies

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For next class
• Review the Instructional Plan

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