Month: October 2020

What is Root Cause Analysis (RCA) ?

What is Root Cause Analysis?

What is Root Cause Analysis

Root Cause Analysis is very important it helps us to understand on below. You may have the doubt that what is root cause analysis and who performs the Root cause Analysis, Let us observe below.

  1. What is the issue?
  2. How to prevent these types of issues in future?
  3. Why this issue occurred?
  4. What steps could be taken to not to occur this issue?
  5. What are the preventive actions?
  6. Getting into the roots helps in removing the main cause of the defects.
  7. The RCA helps in getting the exact reason of the problem?

What is a Problem?

An incident which impacts the smooth flow of the process is termed as Issue. And same issue is occurring again and again and impacts the smooth functioning of the application and impacts the business then it termed as problem.

Then we need to perform Root cause Analysis to identify why this issue is happening again and again. Sometimes client also expects RCA document from us.

Usually RCA document contains below.

  1. What is the issue?
  2. Why it happened?
  3. How you fixed that Issue?
  4. What preventive steps to be taken to not to repeat the same issue in future?.

When RCA or RootCause Analysis is required?

Usually RCA is needed when same incident is happening again and again and it is impacting the smooth functioning of the application.

For the smooth functioning of the processes, it is necessary to identify the Root cause of this particular issue and how to prevent the same issue in future.

RCA should be performed as soon as issue or defect identified so that it helps to avoid major problems in future.

Depends on the issue and situation it is suggested to involve the stake holders while conducting the  RCA. Because sometimes issue may occur due to misunderstanding of the application functionality.

Stake holders help in getting away from the fictionalization of the facts.

Below Techniques can be used for RCA.

  1. 5 Why Technique
  2. Tabular Method
  3. Fishbone Diagram

What are the Advantages of Waterfall Model?

What are the Advantages of Waterfall Model:

What are the advantages of Waterfall Model?
What are the advantages of Waterfall Model?

What are the Advantages of Waterfall Model?

  • Simple and easy to use
  • Easy to manage – each phase has specific deliverable’ s and a review process
  • Phases are processed and completed within scheduled time
  • Works well if requirements are very clear
  • It is one the easiest model to manage. Because of its nature, each phase has specific deliverable’s and a review process. In each phase we will get to know what to deliver and when to deliver.
  • Faster delivery of the project
  • Process and results are well documented and documentation plays important role in Waterfall methodology.
  • Easily adaptable method for shifting teams.
  • This project management methodology is useful to manage dependencies.
  • It works well for smaller size projects where requirements are easily understandable.

Disadvantages:

  • Handling change request is difficult.
  • Feedback from the client is not there.
  • There may be chance to no coordination between the teams.
  • Team work and coordination is not there
  • Continuous improvement process
  • This model is not suggestible for Large projects
  • If the requirement is not clear at the beginning, we can’t use waterfall methodology because every phase is dependent on previous phase.
  • Here next phase will start once previous phase completed.
  • Very difficult to move back to makes changes in the previous phases.
  • The testing process starts once development is over. Hence, it has high chances of bugs to be found later in development where they are expensive to fix.
  • There is no team work in this model.
  • Difficult to manage change requests in this model.

I hope now you got some idea about what are the advantages of waterfall Model? 

FAQ’S

What is waterfall model?

Definition: The waterfall model is a classical model used in system development life cycle to create a system with a linear and sequential approach. It is termed as waterfall because the model develops systematically from one phase to another in a downward fashion.

What are the 5 stages of waterfall model?

Phases of waterfall project management differ from one project to another. But generally, you can group the activities of the waterfall approach into five stages: planning, design, implementation, verification, and maintenance.

What is waterfall model in SDLC?

The Waterfall model is the earliest SDLC approach that was used for software development. The waterfall Model illustrates the software development process in a linear sequential flow. This means that any phase in the development process begins only if the previous phase is complete.

Why is waterfall model used?

As an internal process, the Waterfall methodology focuses very little on the end user or client involved with a project. Its main purpose has always been to help internal teams move more efficiently through the phases of a project, which can work well for the software world

Where is waterfall model used?

The waterfall model is most commonly used in software engineering and product development, less often – in other projects and industries. Employ the waterfall model only if your project meets the following criteria: All the requirements are known, clear, and fixed. There are no ambiguous requirements.

What are the 7 phases of waterfall model?

The waterfall model is a sequential design process in which progress is seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through the phases of Conception, Initiation, Analysis, Design, Construction, Testing, Production/Implementation, and Maintenance.

What is Sprint in Agile?

What is Sprint in Agile?

What is Sprint in Agile?
What is Sprint in Agile?

Sprint Zero:

In this phase all the stakeholders will join in meeting, and we have high level requirements in this phase.

Based on the requirements Product backlog will be created
Product backlog will have user stories (user stories means Requirements.).
Once Product backlog is prepared, there will be 3 activities performed
(a) along with core team – Scrum master will conduct story point estimation session. In this session team will discuss on prioritized requirements, how many man days needed and how to do and all.
(b) Team will prepare high level architecture document
(c) Release Planning

What is Sprint in Agile

Sprint : Sprint is nothing more than that set period of a time to complete the prioritized requirements, usually sprint duration is two weeks. It may vary based on the product and project. Usually for banking project they scheduled for 4 weeks.

Assigned work should be completed within the sprint and it should be ready for product owner to review the completed task.

Before development starts, team will do sprint planning. i.e how many sprints are required to complete the project? Which stories will go under which sprint?
Usually sprint duration will be ranging from 2-4 weeks maximum.
Sprint-1 starts
During sprint, we will take the user stories Design>> Develop>>Test>> Integrate
We will have ‘Show & Tell’ Session. Product owner will give his feedback in this session. If any rework to be done based on feedback, we will take those points and add it to next sprint. (these points to be updated in Product backlog as user stories)
Participants : Client, developers, testing team and Business Analyst.

Business Analyst will split the requirements and prepares the product backlog.

Will discuss with the client regarding backlog, then client will prioritize the requirements which we need to deliver on priority. So, team will first work on prioritized requirements only.

For example, out of ten requirements client prioritized 1,2 and 3.

So, in this sprint planning session we will discuss about 1,2 and 3 only even though we have 10 requirements in backlog.

Business analyst will write user stories; user story is nothing but requirement.

Will discuss about how much effort needed to complete this prioritized user stories.

Will use the JIRA tool to track the requirements.

I hope this provided you the overview of what is Sprint Planning  and what is sprint in Agile?

For Certifications:

For Business Analyst Certifications:

FAQ’S

What is Sprint in Agile ?

What are sprints? A sprint is a short, time-boxed period when a scrum team works to complete a set amount of work. Sprints are at the very heart of scrum and agile methodologies, and getting sprints right will help your agile team ship better software with fewer headaches.

What is the purpose of sprints?

Sprints enable predictability by ensuring inspection and adaptation of progress toward a Product Goal at least every calendar month. When a Sprint’s horizon is too long the Sprint Goal may become invalid, complexity may rise, and risk may increase.

Why is it called sprint in Agile?

And so my team embarked on what we called “sprints”. We called them that because the name evoked a quality of intensity. We were going to work all out for a short period of time and stop to see where we were.

How many sprints are in Agile?

Agile differs from standard Waterfall development in that development has a smaller timeframe with a smaller feature set. Agile Scrum implements releases every 30 days (called 30 day sprints). In the purest implementation of Scrum, the 30 days is 30 calendar days. We have found that 30 working days works best.

What is Scrum vs sprint?

The distinction between Sprint and Scrum is that they are two linked but different terms. Scrum is a framework often used in Agile methodology, and a Sprint is part of Scrum’s framework structure. Scrum gives meetings, tools, and roles, while a Sprint is a defined period for creating a feature.

What is sprint in Jira?

What is a sprint? A sprint is a fixed time period where teams complete work from their product backlog. Sprints are usually one, two, or four weeks long. At the end of the sprint, a team will typically have built and implemented a working product increment.

How many sprints are in scrum?

Depending on the scale of your project and what you determine as a team during goal setting — including sprint planning— you may have as few as two to three, or as many as 10–20 Scrum sprints.

What is a sprint backlog?

What is a sprint backlog? A sprint backlog is the set of items that a cross-functional product team selects from its product backlog to work on during the upcoming sprint. Typically the team will agree on these items during its sprint planning session. In fact, the sprint backlog represents the primary output of sprint planning.

What is a sprint cycle?

A Scrum sprint cycle is a timeboxed period when a team delivers a set amount of work. It is typically two to four weeks in duration and each sprint starts the moment the previous one is completed. The Scrum sprint cycle is often referred to as a process of continuous development.

How long is a sprint in Agile?

one to four weeks

Agile projects are broken down into sprints or iterations — short, repeatable phases, typically one to four weeks long. The number and length of the sprints should be determined at the beginning of the project, and each sprint should result in a draft, prototype, or workable version of the final deliverable.

Who set sprint goal?

the Scrum TeamThus, the Sprint Goal is determined by the Scrum Team. Product Owner, Development Team and Scrum Master together. Note That: The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product and he/she manages the Product Backlog

What does backlog mean in Agile?

In Agile development, a product backlog is a prioritized list of deliverables (such as new features) that should be implemented as part of a project or product development. It’s a decision-making artifact that helps you estimate, refine, and prioritize everything you might sometime in the future want to complete.

How do you run sprints in Agile?

How to prepare for Agile sprint planning

  1. Examine team availability. …
  2. Establish velocity for your team. …
  3. Plan your sprint planning meeting. …
  4. Start with the big picture. …
  5. Present new updates, feedback, and issue. …
  6. Confirm team velocity and capacity. …
  7. Go over backlog items. …
  8. Determine task ownership

What is difference between iteration and sprint?

Sprints are more focused on productivity techniques developed by a group of individuals working on the same project. Iterations describe a development and planning process where a project is developed in small sections.

What is output of sprint?

Outputs of Sprint Planning

At the end of sprint planning, the development team communicates its commitment through the two sprint planning outputs: a finalized sprint goal and a sprint backlog.

What is the key features of sprint?

The key feature of Sprint is its fixed time-frame. In the beginning of the Sprint, some goals are defined which are then worked upon and carefully reviewed throughout the sprint. If review implies any deviations in the product, then adjustments are made as soon as possible to control further deviation.

What is epic in agile?

What is an agile epic? An epic is a large body of work that can be broken down into a number of smaller stories, or sometimes called “Issues” in Jira. Epics often encompass multiple teams, on multiple projects, and can even be tracked on multiple boards. Epics are almost always delivered over a set of sprints.

What is Feasibility Study and why it is important?

What is feasibility study?

What is feasibility study
Before accepting or committing any requirement, as a Business Analyst, first we need to do the feasibility study, during (feasibility study) analysis we need to concentrate on below.

  1. The requirement is feasible or not.
  2. Whether it will impact any existing functionalities.
  3. Whether this requirement may cause to any performance issues.
  4. Whether this requirement fits in the current system or not.
  5. What are the dependencies on this requirement?
  6. What are the integration points?
  7. Any impact on integration points?

You can discuss with internal and external stakeholders to understand the requirement clearly, if we not understand requirement clearly, then there is a chance to miss out some functionalities. It may lead to system issues/ bugs or client escalations.

If we delivered defect product then client will not happy and they may lose confidence on us.  So it is very important to understand the requirement clearly before committing to client.

A Analysis  is a preliminary analysis of solution alternatives or options to determine whether and how each option can provide an expected business benefit to meet the business need or requirement.

A Analysis  may address either a business problem to be resolved or a business opportunity to be exploited.

We can do the feasibilitystudy based on the resource and data available with us.  Some tools also can be used to do the feasibility study.

The feasibilitystudy is an integral part of formulating a major business transformation project.  Eg. Re-engineering a core business process and supporting  technology, establishing a new line of business, increasing market share through acquisition, or developing a new product or service.

Who is project Manager & what they do?

Who is Project Manager?

Who is Project Manager
Who is Project Manager?

Let us discuss and observe who project manager is and what he does in project.  Till now we have discussed the role and responsibilities of Business Analyst in project.  And we may have get doubt as “Business Analyst is handling the project and he is involving in every phase of the software development life cycle.

Business Analysts are usually active members of project teams and many business analysis tasks are very similar to project management tasks, but who exactly is a Project Manager?

As we discussed and observed in previous articles business analysts involves almost all the phases of the software development life cycle.

  1. Requirements gathering
  2. Requirements Analysis
  3. Design
  4. UAT
  5. Functional Testing
  6. Production Movement
  7. Maintenance and Support

Business Analyst involves in above phases based on the project and organization. Now a day’s some of the organizations expecting even technical skills from the Business Analyst.

As Business Analyst involves in all the phases of the software development life cycle but Project Manager is the person who can take decisions and who can decide how project should be and how project to be drive in smoothly to reach the customer expectations and meet the project goals.

He / She is the person who can decide which methodology to be used and project manager is the person to design the project.  Project Manager is the responsible for the entire project.

What are the skills needed to prove as a good project Manager.

  • They have to be able to manage people and develop trust and communication with the project’s stakeholders in order to ensure the project’s success.
  • He/ She has to be able to adapt to change, work well under pressure.
  • He/ She is responsible for using their skills and techniques to ensure the project’s success.

Some of the important responsibilities are below.

  1. Ensure that the project is delivered on-time, within scope and within budget.
  2. Develop a detailed project plan which is used to monitor and track progress.
  3. Set deadlines, assign responsibilities and monitor the progress of the project.
  4. Perform risk management to assess the project’s risks.
  5. Meet with clients to understand the project’s requirements.
  6. Manage the stakeholder’s relationships.
  7. Measure the project’s performance.
  8. Create and maintain comprehensive project documentation

What is GAP Analysis and why it is important?

What is GAP Analysis?

What is GAP Analysis

What is the GAP Analysis and why it is important? GAP means the difference between Current state and future state.

Who performed GAP Analysis?

This is a process performed by Business Analysts and Project Managers. The difference between the current process and future process is known as GAP. This help us to understand where we are (Current State)  and where do we want to be (Future State)?

This helps us to measure investment of time, money and human resources required to achieve a particular outcome or desired outcome.

There is no formal method to conduct (GAP) Analysis. It depends on organization to organization and process to process. A simple excel sheet can be used to for this purpose. The main objective of the (GAP)analysis is to provide difference between current state and future state or desired state.

Key Points :

  • Good understanding of the current process.
  • All the business affecting factors must be well defined.
  • GAPanalysis is an assessment tool used to find the deviation or gap between what exists versus what is needed or desired.
  • No ambiguity in the requirements and future prospects.
  • Document the gaps using graphs, charges and images.
  • Ensure to include the feedback from the stakeholders.
  • Ensure to inform to all the involved parties or stakeholders about the identified gaps.

Different stages in GAP Stages

  • Review System
  • Develop Requirements
  • Comparison
  • Implications
  • Recommendations

This is one of the best procedures followed by any organization to improve the process and recognize the processes which needs improvement.

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Who is insurance Business Analyst and what he does?

Let us discuss and observe what Business Analyst does if Business Analyst works in Insurance domain. As we discussed earlier Business Analyst works in multiple domains, For Example: Banking, Insurance, Telecom, Real estate, Healthcare etc. A Insurance Business Analyst is a business analyst who works in the Insurance domain.

Insurance Business Analyst

BusinessAnalyst on insurance domain also performs the standard business analyst tasks such as Requirements Gathering, Requirements Elicitation, Prepare Documentation, verification, validation and coordinate and support during the UAT in Insurance domain perspective.

Business Analyst have knowledge on Insurance process like, how it works, what are the functionalities and what are the modules in Insurance.

Basically, Insurance Business should have knowledge and experience on below.

  • New Business Process
  • Policy Serving process
  • Claim process and settlement life cycle.

So, Business Analyst should have experience and knowledge on specialized modules, it helps them to understand the client requirements and provide suitable solutions or suggestions.

As they have good knowledge and experience in Insurance, will also work as a SME(Subject Matter Expert)in the business unit.

They also need to understand the business processes to identify the business need and provide suitable solutions which would fulfil those needs.

Some of the responsibilities of  BusinessAnalyst in insurance  domain:

  1. Prepare Documentation. Ex: BRD, FSD,FRD
  2. Use Cases
  3. Post implementation system support
  4. Production support (Functional)
  5. Understand the existing system or current system functionalities.
  6. Provide recommendations or suitable solutions to improve the application functionality
  7. Support project management activities
  8. Coordination with stake holders
  9. Ensure implemented changes should not impact on existing application functionality.
  10. Discuss and coordinate with the end users to understand the application functionality and to identify the gaps.

How to become BusinessAnalyst in Insurance  .domain:

Most of the  Business Analysts actually start career in insurance company as insurance employees and then convert on the subject matter expert role in a project as they have good knowledge and experience in Insurance process.

After the project is completed, they are converted into the Business Analysis role based on their knowledge of the business domain and their project and solution experience.

Some of the Example Domains and sub domains:  Travel insurance, software testing, health insurance, manage customer, customer service, insurance covers, types of insurance, life insurance, insurance protects, general insurance, insurance business,  social media, accidental death,  crm interview questions and  medical expenses.

Business Analyst in Banking or Who is Banking Business Analyst?

Let us discuss and observe what Business Analyst does if Business Analyst works in Banking domain. As we discussed earlier Business Analyst works in multiple domains, For Example: Banking, Insurance, Telecom, Real estate, Healthcare etc. A banking business analyst is a business analyst who works in the banking domain.

Banking Business Analyst

BusinessAnalyst in Banking domain also performs the standard business analyst tasks such as Requirements Gathering, Requirements Elicitation, Prepare Documentation, verification, validation and coordinate and support during the UAT in banking domain perspective.

BusinessAnalyst have knowledge on banking domain like, how banks works, what are the functionalities and what are the modules in Banking.

As Banking is a Big domain, here so many sub modules also there in Banking. Modules or banking specialization domains as below.

  1. Retail Banking

  • Customer On Boarding
  • Account Opening
  • AML and KYC
  • Loans
  • Treasury

  1. Corporate Banking

  • Customer On Boarding
  • Account Opening
  • AML and KYC
  • Loans

  1. Payments

  • NEFT
  • RTGS
  • UPI Payments
  • Swift

  1. Digital Banking

Example:

  • Online Account Opening
  • BPM Solutions.

  1. Investment Banking

  2. Core Banking , Banking applications
  • Finacle
  • T24
  • Profile

So, BusinessAnalyst should have experience and knowledge on specialized modules, it helps them to understand the client requirements and provide suitable solutions or suggestions.

As they have good knowledge and experience in banking, will also work as a SME(Subject Matter Expert)in the business unit.

They also need to understand the business processes to identify the business need and provide suitable solutions which would fulfill those needs.

Some of the responsibilities of BusinessAnalyst in Banking Domain:

  1. Prepare Documentation. Ex: BRD, FSD,FRD
  2. Use Cases
  3. Post implementation system support
  4. Production support (Functional)
  5. Understand the existing system or current system functionalities.
  6. Provide recommendations or suitable solutions to improve the application functionality
  7. Support project management activities
  8. Coordination with stake holders
  9. Ensure implemented changes should not impact on existing application functionality.
  10. Discuss and coordinate with the end users to understand the application functionality.

To gain knowledge on Banking.

What is Use Case Diagram with Example

How to draw Use Case diagram

Business Analysis – Use Case Diagram

UseCase Diagram

UseCase diagrams plays very important role, these diagrams help to understand the relationship between user to user and user to system. Like what is the relationship with the user and what are the actions done by the User and how user wants to interact with the system.

The focus of this diagram will be on “how external interfaces” (End users, Support systems, Database and internet connectivity to third party) will be interacting with the Proposed IT System.

Use Case Diagram contains below:

  1. Use Case will be as below:

Use Case

        2. Actor:

Use Case Actor

        3. Use Case System Boundary.

Use Case System Boundary

        4. Lines to match the Activity with the user:

Relationships between Actors and Use-Cases

Use-cases could be organized using following relationships −

  • Generalization
  • Association
  • Extend
  • Include

Where and Why Use Case Diagrams can be used:

  1. Describe the functionality of a System
  2. Describe the user Actions
  3. Use case diagrams represents only positive flow.
  4. Should not use for alternate flow, like if any error happens what to be done.
  5. To describe how user interacts with the system.
  6. To describe how external interfaces, interact with the proposed system.
  7. Actor and use case play important role.
  8. Lines represent the relationship between Actor and Use Case (Oval Shape).

Information which we should not use in use case diagrams.

  1. Technology Names (Java, .Net Mainframes)
  2. Brand Names ( Lenovo, Sony etc..)
  3. Data Base Names (SQL, MySQL, Oracle etc..)
  4. Networks (LAN, WAN etc.,)
  5. Architectures (2 Tier, 3 Tier etc..)
  6. Name of the systems (Laptop/ Desktop)

Actor :

  1. Actor stay away from the system boundary.
  2. Primary actor initiates the system to work.
  3. System depends on secondary actor for information.
  4. Reusable actors will be placed right side of the system boundary.

How to draw Use Case diagram

  1. Write all sequence of Actions.
  2. Differentiate information against Actions.
  3. Try to find out which actor is performing which action.
  4. Try to find out some modules with respect to functionality or usage.
  5. Try to draw the relationships between the identified Actors and use Cases

Once completes the Use case diagram then we will prepare use Case Specification Document. This is also called as Use Case description Document. This document helps to provide the clear picture of the Use Case Diagram.

UseCase Specification document contains below.

  1. Name of the Use Case
  2. Description of the Use Case
  3. Actors
  4. Primary
  5. Secondary
  6. Basic flow
  7. Pre-Conditions
  8. Post conditions
  9. Assumptions
  10. Dependencies
  11. Constraints
  12. Input and output
  13. Miscellaneous information.
  14. Alternate Flow.

We can’t tell which use case diagram is correct and which use case diagram is wrong. It depends on the project and stakeholders.

How to Derive Test cases.

  1. UseCase Diagram
  2. UseCase Description Document
  3. UseCase specification document will have, Basic flow, Alternate flow and description of the use cases.
  4. We can identify the scenarios from these flows.
  5. Try to identify 3 to 5 valid test data from each scenario.
  6. Then try to write the test cases from the gathered test data and scenarios.

To Know more about UML Diagrams.

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