Try the new Google Books. Check out the new look and enjoy easier access to your favorite features. Try it now. No thanks. Try the new Google Books My library Help Advanced Book Search. Get print book. com Fishpond Whitcoulls Mighty Ape Find in a library All sellers ». Shop for Books on Google Play Browse the world's largest eBookstore and start reading today on the web, tablet, phone, or ereader. Go to Google Play Now ». See TACIT KNOWLEDGE. External Business Environment The business environment that is external to an organisation and is the source of forces that may impact the organisation.

Types of forces may include the introduction of new laws, social trends or com- petitor actions. See PESTLE ANALYSIS, FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS. Force Field Analysis A technique to consider those forces inside and outside the organisation that will support adoption of a proposal and those that will oppose it. This technique was developed by Kurt Lewin and may be used in evaluating options for change and in change management. Functional Requirement A requirement that is concerned with a function that the system should provide, i. what the system needs to do. This leads to the identification of actions to improve the situation. The business activity modelling technique may be used to provide an ideal view, which can then be compared with a view of the current situation.

Holistic Approach The consideration of all aspects of a business system: the people, process and organisational areas, in addition to the information and technology used to support the business system. IMIS The Institute for the Management of Information Systems. Impact Analysis The consideration of the impact a proposed change will have on a business system and on the people working within it. Information Systems Examinations Board The vocational qualification division of BCS, offering examinations in over countries. Intangible Benefit A benefit to be realised by a business change project for which a credible, usually monetary, value cannot be predicted.

See TANGIBLE BENEFIT. Intangible Cost A cost incurred by a business change project for which a credible, usually monetary, value cannot be predicted. See TANGIBLE COST. Internal Business Environment The internal capability of the organisation that affects its ability to respond to external environment forces. Techniques such as MOST analysis or the resource audit may be used to analyse the capability of the internal business environment. See MOST ANALYSIS and RESOURCE AUDIT. Internal Rate Of Return A calculation that assesses the return on investment from a project, defined as a percentage rate. This percentage is the discount rate at which the net present value is equal to zero, and it can be used to compare projects to see which are the better investment opportunities. Alterna- tively, this rate may be used to compare all projects with the return that could be earned if the amount invested was left in the bank.

Interview An investigation technique to elicit information from business users. An agenda is prepared prior to the interview and distributed to participants. The interview is carried out in an organised manner, and a report of it is produced once it has been concluded. See BUSINESS SYSTEM. itSMF An internationally recognised forum for IT service management professionals. Key Performance Indicators These are defined performance targets or measures that assess the performance of an organisation. See CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS. McKinsey 7-S A technique developed by the McKinsey consultancy organisation. The 7-S model is used to consider key areas for the implementation of business change.

MoSCoW An approach to prioritising requirements. MoSCoW stands for: Must have: a key requirement, without which the system has no value. Should have: an important requirement that must be delivered, but, where time is short, could be delayed for a future delivery. This should be a short-term delay. Could have: a requirement that would be beneficial to include if it does not cost too much or take too long to deliver, but that is not central to the project objectives. The net present value is calculated using the discounted cash flow approach to investment appraisal.

Non-Functional Requirement A requirement that defines a constraint or performance measure with which the system or the functional requirements must comply. Object An object is something within a business system for which a set of attributes and functions can be specified. An object is an instance of a class. See CLASS. Pestle A technique used to analyse the external business environment of an organisation. The technique involves the analysis of the political, economic, sociocultural, technological, legal and environmental forces that may impact upon an organisation. Project Initiation Document PID A document that defines the business context for a project and clarifies the objectives, scope, deliverables, timescale, budget, authority and available resources.

Process See BUSINESS PROCESS. Process Model See BUSINESS PROCESS MODEL. Protocol Analysis A technique used to elicit, analyse and validate requirements. Protocol analysis involves requesting the users to perform a task and to describe each step as they perform it. Prototyping A technique used to elicit, analyse and validate requirements. Prototyping involves building simulations of a system in order to review them with the users. This technique helps the business users to visualise the solution and hence increases understanding about the system requirements. Questionnaires A technique used to obtain quantitative information during an investigation of a business situation.

Questionnaires are useful to obtain a limited amount of information from a large group of people. Raci or Rasci Linear responsibility matrix charts that identify stakeholder roles and responsibilities during an organisational change process. Requirement A feature that the business users need the new system to provide. Requirements Catalogue An organised set of requirements where each individual requirement is documented using a standard template. Requirements Elicitation Requirements elicitation is an approach to understanding requirements that requires the analyst to be proactive in drawing out the requirements from the business users and helping them to visualise the possibilities and articulate their requirements. Requirements Management Requirements management aims to ensure that each requirement is tracked from inception to implementation or withdrawal through all of the changes that have been applied to it.

The resource audit considers five areas of organisational resource: tangible resources — physical, financial and human — and intangible resources — know-how and reputation. Rich Picture A pictorial technique offering a free-format approach that allows analysts to document whatever is of interest or significance in the business situation. This technique originated from the soft systems methodology. Risk A problem situation that may arise with regard to a project or a business situation. Potential risks are identified for each option in a business case. The probability of the risk occurring and the likely impact of the risk are assessed, and suitable countermeasures are identified. See BUSINESS CASE. Risk Management The identification, assessment, monitoring and control of significant risks during the development, design and implementation of IT systems.

Root Definition A perspective of a business situation based upon an individual world view that gives rise to a valid business system. Scenarios A technique used to elicit, analyse and validate requirements. A scenario will trace the course of a transaction from an initial business trigger through each of the steps needed to achieve a successful outcome. SFIA and SFIA plus The Skills Framework for the Information Age SFIA and the extended version provided by BCS SFIAplus. Standard frameworks for the definition of skills and competencies in the information systems industry. Six Sigma A business management approach developed by Motorola in the early s that aims to improve business processes by identifying and removing the causes of errors.

Shadowing A technique used to find out what a particular job entails. Shadowing involves following users as they carry out their jobs for a period such as one or two days. Six Thinking Hats A thinking tool developed by Edward de Bono for individuals and for groups, to improve the thinking process. Smart A mnemonic used to ensure that objectives are clearly defined, in that they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-framed. Soft Systems Methodology A methodology that provides an approach to analysing business situations, devised by Peter Checkland and his team at Lancaster University. Special-Purpose Records A technique that involves the business users in keeping a record about a specific issue or task.

Typically the record is based on a simple structure, for example a five-bar gate record. Categories of stakeholder include customers, employees, managers, partners, regulators, owners, suppliers and contractors. Stakeholder Analysis The analysis of the levels of power and interest of stakeholders in order to assess the weight that should be attached to their issues. This technique provides a means of categorising stakeholders in order to identify the most appropriate stakeholder management approach. Stakeholder Management The definition of the most appropriate means to be adopted in order to engage with different categories of stakeholder. The approach to stakeholders will vary depending on their level of interest in the project and the amount of power or influence they wield to further or obstruct it. Strategy The direction and scope of an organisation over the longer term. The strategy is defined in order to achieve competitive advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a changing business environment.

Strobe A technique that represents a formal checklist approach to observation, where the analyst is investigating specific issues rather than observing generally. STROBE stands for STRuctured Observation of the Business Environment and is used to appraise a working environment. Swimlane A row on a business process diagram or model that indicates who is responsible for a given process or task. Typical swimlanes represent departments, teams, individuals or IT systems. Swimlane Diagram A technique used to model business processes. A swim- lane diagram models the business system response to a business event. The model shows the triggering event, the business actors, the tasks they carry out, the flow between the tasks and the business outcome.

SWOT Analysis A technique used to summarise the external pressures facing an organisation and the internal capability the organisation has available to respond to those pressures. The mnemonic stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis is used during strategy analysis. Tacit Knowledge Those aspects of business work that a user omits to articulate or explain. This may be due to a failure to recognise that the information is required or to the assumption that the information is already known to the analyst. See EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE. Tangible Benefit A benefit to be realised by a business change project for which a credible, usually monetary, value can be predicted.

Task On a business process model or swimlane diagram, a piece of work carried out by a single actor at a specific moment in time. Task Modelling The technique for developing a model that describes the human activities and task sequences required by a business system. The task model elaborates the tasks identified by mapping business processes on to specific individuals or workgroups. Technical Option A technical option describes how the business solution may be implemented using information technology. Unified Modeling Language The Unified Modeling Language UML is a suite of diagrammatic techniques that are used to model business and IT systems. Use Case Description A use case description defines the interaction between an actor and a use case.

Use Case Model A technique from the UML. A use case model consists of a diagram showing the actors, the boundary of the system, the use cases and the associations between them, plus a set of use case descriptions. Value Chain A concept developed by Michael Porter to identify the primary and support activities deployed within organisations to deliver value to customers. Workshop An investigation technique whereby a meeting is held with business actors from a range of business areas in order to elicit, analyse or validate information. An agenda is prepared prior to the workshop and distributed to participants. The workshop is run by a facilitator; actions and decisions are recorded by a scribe. This new edition reflects this progress and incorporates much new material.

The main audience for this book is still practising Business Analysts at all levels. It offers them a wide-ranging source of practical guidance on how to approach business analysis and how to use key techniques. It will therefore appeal to people wanting to improve their understanding of business analysis. The book also supports everyone wanting to achieve industry qualifications in business analysis especially those studying for ISEB qualifications in Business Analysis. In addition, the book will be useful for business analysis and information systems students at university, and for managers in other Information Systems disciplines who need to understand business analysis.

The book includes material drawn from research discussions and conversations with practitioners in business analysis in the UK, Australia, the USA and Canada. Some important additions since the first edition include: The introduction of new analysis techniques now more widely used such as Ishikawa diagrams and spaghetti maps. An expanded explanation of requirements engineering — now taking up four chapters. More on the process and techniques of investigating business needs. A more detailed treatment of benefits realisation including the use of benefits realisation maps.

Throughout the business world public, private and not for profit organisations face immense challenges. Business Analysts must respond by developing practi- cal, creative and financially sound solutions. Also thanks must go to Alan Paul — husband of Debbie — for reviewing much of the book and improving it. BCS publications team members Matthew Flynn, Karen Greening and Sarah Woodall made it all come together in the end and their detailed examination of what had been written has, we hope, saved us from embarrassing ourselves too much. Also, we thank the BCS legal team for their work in protecting copyright. Many of those solutions will involve new or enhanced information systems, but others may have a broader scope incorporating changes to areas such as business processes and job roles.

The reason for producing this book is to provide guidance about business analysis that reflects the breadth of the role and the range of techniques used. What do business analysts do? What skills do they require? How do they add value to organisations? Also, in the absence of a standard definition of business analysis and a standard business analysis process model, problems have arisen: Organisations have introduced business analysis so as to make sure that business needs are paramount when new information technology IT systems are introduced. However, recognising the importance of this in principle is easier than considering how it might be achieved.

Some business analysts were experienced IT systems analysts and have been less comfortable considering the business requirements and the range of potential solutions that would meet those requirements. Many business analysts come from a business background and have a limited understanding of IT and how computer systems are developed. While knowl- edge of the business is invaluable for business analysts, problems can occur where IT forms part of the solution and the analyst has insufficient under- standing of IT. This can cause communication difficulties with the developers, and may result in failure to ensure that there is an integrated view of the business and the computer system.

Some business analysts, as they have gained in experience and knowledge, have felt that they could offer beneficial advice to their organisations — but a lack of understanding of their role has caused organisations to reject or ignore this advice. This chapter examines the business analysis discipline and considers how we might define the business analyst role. Much of this book provides guidance on how the various stages in this process model may be carried out. Business analysis work is well defined where there are standard techniques that have been used in projects for many years. In fact, many of these techniques have been in use for far longer than the business analyst role has been in existence.

Our aim is to help business analysts carry out their work, to improve the quality of business analysis within organisations and, as a result, to help organisations to adopt business improvements that will ensure their success. THE ORIGINS OF BUSINESS ANALYSIS Developments in IT have enabled organisations to create information systems that have improved business operations and management decision-making. In the past this has been the focus of IT departments. However, as business operations have changed, the emphasis has moved on to the development of new services and products. The use of IT has also created opportunities for organisations to focus on their core processes and competencies without the distraction of the peripheral areas of business. These days, the absence of good information systems would prevent an organisation from developing significant competitive advantage. Yet for many years there has been a growing dissatisfaction in businesses with the support provided by IT.

This has been accompanied by recognition by senior management that IT investment often fails to deliver the required business benefit. In short, the technology enables the development of information systems, but these often fail to meet the requirements of the business and deliver the service that will bring competitive advantage to the organisation. This situation applies to all sectors, including the public sector. In July the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology POST report on Government IT projects listed six UK government departments and agencies where there had been recent high-profile IT difficulties. The perception that, all too frequently, information systems do not deliver the predicted benefits continues to be well founded.

They have transferred much of their IT work to specialist service providers. in the UK, will be able to deliver higher quality at lower cost. So, in organisations that have outsourced their IT functions, the IT systems are designed and constructed using staff employed by an external supplier. This undoubtedly has advantages both for the organisation purchasing the services and for the specialist supplier. The latter gains an additional customer and the opportunity to increase turnover and make profit from the contractual arrangement; the customer organisa- tion is no longer concerned with all staffing, infrastructure and support issues and instead pays a specialist provider for delivery of the required service. In theory this approach has much to recommend it, but, as is usually the case, the flaws begin to emerge once the arrangement has been implemented, particularly in the areas of supplier management and communication of requirements.

The issues relating to supplier management are not the subject of this book, and would require a book in their own right. However, we are concerned with the issue of communication between the business and the outsourced development team. The communication and clarification of requirements is key to ensuring the success of any IT system development, but an outsourcing arrangement often complicates the communication process, particularly where there is geographical distance between the developers and the business. Investigation of the outsourcing business model has identified that, in order to make such arrangements work, new roles are required within the organisation. A study by Feeny and Willcocks listed a number of key skills required within organisations that have outsourced IT. This report specifically identified business systems thinking, a core element of the business analyst role, as a key skill that needs to be retained within organisations operating an outsourcing arrangement.

Series ISSN : Series E-ISSN : Edition Number : 1. Number of Pages : XVI, Topics : Operations Research and Decision Theory , Statistics in Business, Management, Economics, Finance, Insurance , Data Analysis and Big Data. Skip to main content. Search SpringerLink Search. Editors: Bhimasankaram Pochiraju 0 , Sridhar Seshadri 1. Bhimasankaram Pochiraju Applied Statistics and Computing Lab, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India View editor publications. View editor publications. Offers a comprehensive introductory approach to business analytics that includes an emphasis on big data handling, applications in different verticals and case studies Highlights big data handling, applications of analytics in different verticals, and real life case studies Includes exercises for each chapter and downloadable use cases for students and professionals to practice and test the analytics tools Request lecturer material: sn.

Sections Table of contents About this book Keywords Editors and Affiliations About the editors Bibliographic Information. Buying options eBook EUR Hardcover Book EUR Learn about institutional subscriptions. Table of contents 30 chapters Search within book Search. Page 1 Navigate to page number of 2. Front Matter Pages i-xvi. Introduction Sridhar Seshadri Pages Tools Front Matter Pages Data Collection Sudhir Voleti Pages Data Management—Relational Database Systems RDBMS Hemanth Kumar Dasararaju, Peeyush Taori Pages Big Data Management Peeyush Taori, Hemanth Kumar Dasararaju Pages Data Visualization John F. Tripp Pages Statistical Methods: Basic Inferences Vishnuprasad Nagadevara Pages Statistical Methods: Regression Analysis Bhimasankaram Pochiraju, Hema Sri Sai Kollipara Pages Advanced Regression Analysis Vishnuprasad Nagadevara Pages Text Analytics Sudhir Voleti Pages

No eBook available Amazon. com Fishpond Whitcoulls Mighty Ape Find in a library All sellers » Shop for Books on Google Play Browse the world's largest eBookstore and start reading today on the web, tablet, phone, or ereader. Search Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More Calendar Translate Books Shopping Blogger Finance Photos Docs. Account Options Sign in. Try the new Google Books. Check out the new look and enjoy easier access to your favorite features. Try it now. No thanks. Try the new Google Books My library Help Advanced Book Search. Get print book. com Fishpond Whitcoulls Mighty Ape Find in a library All sellers ». Shop for Books on Google Play Browse the world's largest eBookstore and start reading today on the web, tablet, phone, or ereader. Go to Google Play Now ». Essentials of Business Analytics. Jeffrey D.

Camm , James J. Cochran , Michael J. Fry , Jeffrey W. Ohlmann , David R. The expanded material in the second edition of Essentials of Business Analytics also makes it amenable to a two-course sequence in business statistics and analytics. All statistical concepts contained in this textbook are presented from a business analytics perspective using practical business examples. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version. What people are saying - Write a review. Bibliographic information. About Google Books - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - Information for Publishers - Report an issue - Help - Google Home. Essentials of Business Analytics Jeffrey D. BiBTeX EndNote RefMan.

Request lecturer material: sn. Competitive advantage of using IT A parallel development that has helped to increase the profile of business analysis and define the business analyst role has been the growing recognition that three factors need to be present in order for IT systems to deliver competitive advantage. Task Modelling The technique for developing a model that describes the human activities and task sequences required by a business system. About Google Books - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - Information for Publishers - Report an issue - Help - Google Home. Chapter 3 explores a range of strategic analysis techniques and provides an overview of the strategic planning process.

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