From the course: Business Analysis Foundations

Using requirements modeling techniques

From the course: Business Analysis Foundations

Using requirements modeling techniques

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- Let's talk about the importance of modeling business requirements. As a business analyst, you're very important to the project effort because of your ability to not just discover requirements, but also to analyze those requirements. To best wrap our mind around this, we develop various models to look at requirements from three points of view, nouns, verbs, and rules. Let's take the example. I, as a customer, want to order a camera to take photos of my family. If you break the requirement down, "to order" is the verb and the "camera" is the noun. Keep in mind though that there are some unspoken rules in there, too. You'll utilize two key models to break the requirements down. One for the process or verbs, call process modeling, and one for the data or nouns, call data modeling. Easy to remember, right? So we create the process model firs. To understand the various steps required, you'll be looking for those verbs. One of the best methods to do this is by having a face-to-face discussion with your business stakeholders at a white board. You can use the board to take notes, sketch drawings, and capture the discussion. Start by drawing out the order in which things happen, your verbs. That will complete your process model. Next, ask what's the noun or the product. Cameras? Customers? Are there different types of cameras or different types of customers? We use what's called data modeling techniques to figure it out. Now, picture yourself adding your nouns or products to the whiteboard on stickies. The first part of the data modeling technique is done. And now you can move on to the business rule model. Let's refer back to what we already know. Our nouns and verbs are what make the rules. Picture yourself with your stakeholder, again. You'll be listening during the discussion for relationships and differences. Here's a pro tip. Stickies are an effective way to show the differences, in this case, between different types of customers and cameras. Once identified, these rules identify the steps that apply for individual customers, as well as any pricing discounts that might apply. Now, the process model, data model, and business rule model will help you analyze requirements individually. But the real power comes from bringing it all together. Don't worry if you don't have formal complete models. Fragments of requirements still help you know what steps are needed to fulfill an order request, which exact product is being requested, what price is being charged depending on the product and the customer, et cetera. If you can map everything together, you'll be able to deliver a solution that exceeds the customer's expectations while still following the rules established by the organization.

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