COCT_ERP_BE-A_Vol 1_Issue 1_June 2015

Volume 1, Issue 1_June 2015

"BE-A"
Newsletter

ERP SAP SUPPORT CENTRE

ERP BUSINESS ANALYST FORUM

WELCOME

Hello and a very warm welcome to our For the budding business analysts, this is a
very first issue of BE-A! ; Our monthly ERP platform that is going to expose you to the
BA Forum Newsletter. This is going to be greater detail often left out in lecture slides,
an informative platform where ideas and as well as an opportunity to rub shoulders
knowledge will be shared, and keep you with more experienced professionals- who
updated with the relevant issues facing are willing to impart their knowledge to
business analysts today. With the inception those who wish to learn. Of course this is
of this forum, we hope to explore your role going to be an informative and wonderful
as a business analyst, workshop topics that journey, if you promise to BE-Awesome, the
affect your role in business, and share possibilities are endless- if you commit
advice that can help you master your yourself to "BEing-A" lifelong learner.
trade.

II AAMM AA BBA. FROM THE
EDITOR’S DESK
Imagine this. You're at a family
braai and you see a family LAVERNE PETERSEN
member that you haven't seen in
a while and they begin to enquire Or perhaps it is
about your career and you proudly time that we as a
respond, "I'm working as a group of BA's
business analyst." Which are the turn the tables
responses that you normally and take back
receive? our description in
the workplace.
a) Oh you analyse businesses! That we say,
Interesting. enough is
enough, "I am
b) Ooooh you work with not just a middle-
computers. man," and stop
walking with our
c) Er....what is that? heads low as if
d) all of the above
given the last name left in the IT-title
I don't know about you but I have dictionary. I think the best thing about being in
experienced all of these responses, the "middle" is that you hold the licence to cross
and some, too weird, to mention. borders on both sides, the power to be in two
places at one time, and basically get the best of
In my attempt to help family and both worlds. Use it. BE-A... whatever you enjoy
friends understand what a being in this crazy world of "fixing computers."
business analyst actually does, In retrospect, we have two choices:
90% of the time their blank stares
of confusion drives me to politely 1) Complain that we are an unseen group
nod and smile, and say, "yes I of individuals filling the gaps, or
work in IT" Walking away in
frustration because I ask myself 2) See this as an opportunity to grasp and
the question; do I really know learn from others who are doing what
what a business analyst does? we would like to do.

So allow me to direct that same As we so often hear, “look at the glass half-full,
question to you: What do you do or half-empty," the choice is yours.
for a living? What is your purpose
in your place of work? Funny. But WIN A MYSTERY PRIZE!
true. Perhaps the best place to
evaluate this description is in In 1 paragraph explain how you would describe
attempting to explain this to a what a business analyst does to your
family member who thinks you fix grandmother? Send your entry to:
computers for a living.
[email protected] with the
Subject Line: "BE-A Competition"

The most creative explanation wins!

THE FORUM CHAIR

BY VERITY JAPHTA

The first Issue marks the Germination Guide We encourage you to engage

sprouting or germination of To ensure the successful fully by participating in scheduled
the ESC Business Analyst
Forum. This has been a long germination of a seed, there events which will include
awaited platform that is
aimed at developing and are certain environment knowledge sharing, skill building,
enhancing the business
analysis skills, building a factors that have to be troubleshooting and information
talent pool of business
present. i.e. Water, Oxygen, sessions.

Light and Heat. In addition to

the environmental factors,

analysts who can be allocated the SEED MUST be viable.

to SAP projects within the ERP We rely on all of you to
Department and creating a
set of standards that will aide ensure that this forum grows "Acceptance makes
in the measurement of to its full potential. an incredible fertile

success within the business

analysis space.

Let's talk about Non-Functional Requirements soil for the seeds of
change."

 Frequency – how often do people playing the The technology exists to achieve almost any goal you
identified role need this user story? can think of assuming that you can afford it. Only if
the business community defines the goal in
 Urgency – how quickly does the application have measurable terms in advance do they have a
to respond to a user’s needs? legitimate right to expect that the delivered solution
will meet their needs. The question is not whether
 Volume – how much business data will the you need to specify measurable qualities in your user
application maintain for this user story? stories, but rather who is responsible for them, the
business community, the business analyst, or the
 Accuracy – how precise and timely does the data developer community? The correct answer is all
have to be from a business perspective? three.

 Usability – what features make the application Developers are obviously involved in getting the
easily usable by the role? technology to work fast enough to meet the highest
expected traffic, but it is the business community’s
 Learn-ability – how quickly can new users in this job to anticipate just how high that is. The one
role learn how to use the application? wearing the business analysis hat is responsible for
capturing, clarifying, and confirming user stories.
 Flexibility / Scalability – how fast do you That individual has to make the business community
anticipate frequency and volume to change? aware of the issues and ask the tough questions.
Assuming that non-functional requirements will take
 Reliability – how critical is it that the application care of themselves has proven to be a high-risk
does not fail? endeavour for many organizations.

These are examples of non-functional requirements
that you might need to define whether you use user
story or any other form to express your requirements.
The key point is that the business community needs to
define these from the business perspective before the
project moves into the development phase.

WHAT GOES INTO A

FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATION Laura Brandenberg,
“Bridging the gap.”

DOCUMENT? Often it is reviewed and approved by both
business and technical stakeholders. The
If you find yourself in a business analyst role business users confirm that yes; this is what they
on an IT project, it’s likely that at some point really want the system to do. The technical users
you’ll need to create a functional specification. confirm that, yes; these requirements are
But what is a functional specification? Why do
you create a functional specification? And,

perhaps more importantly, what goes into a feasible, implementable, and testable.

document like this?

The purpose of a functional specification is to
define the requirements to be implemented by
the software solution. Now, as business
analysts, not all aspects of our solutions are
software-based. A perfectly legitimate solution
to a business problem could involve a business
process change, organizational change, or
even a configuration adjustment. But since so
much of business today is supported directly
by IT systems, many times solving a problem
means upgrading or building new
software…and that means specifying
functional requirements.

Functional Specifications Take Many Forms Where Business Meets IT
Depending on your methodology and business The functional spec is the moment of true
analysis practices, a functional specification alignment between business and IT. Other
can come in a variety of different formats. documents, such as business process models and
Let’s look at a few of the most common business needs assessments might be primarily
formats. reviewed by business stakeholders. More
technical documents such as technical design
 Functional Requirements Document specifications are often primarily reviewed by
 System Requirements Specification BAs, QAs, and technical stakeholders.
 Business Requirements Document
It’s the functional spec that sits in the middle and
(contrary to the name, they commonly do holds everything together. Early in my career I
not include only business requirements but tended to create 50+ page software
also functional, software requirements) requirements specifications which included
 Use Cases information about the project, project team,
 User Stories open issues, environment, assumptions,
dependencies, constraints, key dates, business
Whatever template is in place at your model, data requirements…continued on next page
organization, the purpose of the functional
specification is to capture what the software
needs to do to support a business user.

…, pages of these long documents.) These  In a FRD, SRS, or BRD, functional
documents were thorough, but they lacked spunk. requirements are typically represented
as “system shall” statements. You’ll
As I matured as a business analyst, I gravitated typically have a list of system shalls,
towards a shorter scope document that often organized in tables by feature
consolidated many of the overview sections in my with a priority identified. For example,
earlier documents along with a set of use cases to “The system shall enable course
drill into the functional details. I’ve also been on a participants to submit a question.” or
few agile projects where user stories were the “The system shall enable the course
preferred format. instructor to view all course
participant questions.” category.” (We
Whatever the format, my focus was creating cover documenting use cases in a lot
alignment between what the business users more detail in our Use Cases and
wanted and needed the system to do and what IT Wireframes course.)
was prepared to build for them. And that’s really In a Use Case, functional requirements
the essence of the functional spec. are typically represented as a series of
steps. The use case puts a collection of
What Actually Goes Into this Spec?  functional requirements into the
You might be wondering what you actually need to context of user action, which typically
put into your functional specification. In addition to eliminates a lot of ambiguity that
contextual information about the project, a makes its way into an out-of context
functional specification includes a list of features list of system shalls. For example,
and functions to be supported by the software. “Course participant selects to submit a
How these features and functions are represented question. Course participant provides
depends largely on the template in use. their name, selects a question.
In a User Story, functional
Let’s take a quick look at our examples again, this requirements are typically captured in
time adding more detail about what the functional the following syntax: “As a {user}, I can
requirements look like in each case: {do something} so that{I receive some
benefit}. When used appropriately, the
FUNCTIONAL SPECS & ALM?  user story syntax is brilliant at
capturing user goals, functional
So you may have heard the term, Application Life requirements, and business benefits
Cycle Management (ALM), being used a lot lately and altogether in one concise statement.
perhaps not really understanding where it fits into the For example, “As a course participant,
picture? I can submit a question so that I get
my concerns about the course
This project feeds directly into this discussion of materials addressed” and “As a course
functional specification documentation requirements instructor, I can view all course
and which are the most effective templates, one of participant questions so I can respond
the many benefits offered by the ALM project is in a timely manner.
exactly that- access to functional specification
documentation that actually makes sense, and that
allows business analysts to capture the needs of our
complex organization in a concise and relevant
manner.

No more searching for the most suitable templates,
soon you will have access to a tailor-made functional
spec that will create a sense of consistency in the way
we design project documentation at ERP.

GETTING TO KNOW In this issue we got to know Melanie Sonnenberg, a
MELANIE... little better. She is from the ERP Infrastructure Life
Cycle Management Team and sits very close to the
ERP entrance.

When we asked her to share more about herself
and her interests in the BA space she was very keen.
She showed us that she is a little bit of a perfectionist
as she was eager to revisit her responses to the
interview questions, just to make sure it was of a
good standard- an excellent characteristic that all
business analysts should have.

Apart from that, she is a very busy woman and quite
hard to get hold of, thus we must conclude that she
is a very hard working BE-A. This is what Melanie
shared with us:

What would you identify as your strengths in Was this always your dream job, and if not,
business analysis? what did you always dream of becoming?
o Problem Solving Management It started way back when I accompanied my mom to
o Analytical ability work and she took me to the Mayor’s offices, I
o Stakeholder Management always used to dream of working for this
o Strategic Thinker organization. When I applied for my first permanent
o Quick learner position, I simultaneously applied at the SA Navy. I
o Objective and focused went through the recruitment process (Interviews,
aptitude tests, medical etc.) for both applications
Which projects have you worked on recently simultaneously. The City’s appointment came first
and were you involved in requirements and I became the first female Electricity Meter
gathering?

My project involvement is as follows: Reader in the history of the City. I firmly believe that

o AMI POC the essential work and service delivery to

o AMI phase 1 communities on a daily basis, is a calling. From there

o AMI Phase 2 (Project Manager) I have only grown and I developed my skills,

o Electricity Quotation Tool (Project Manager) knowledge and abilities. My career path is to grow

o Disconnection Re-connection Mobility Project within the City of Cape Town and achieve the

(SAP Work Manager) professional goals I set for myself. I believe that my

o Prepaid inbound Interface career thus far is a success story and still evolving.

o Third Party IT/ Device integration projects Where would you like to be more exposed to in

What is your current position and years of the BA space? Process Design Analysis and Solution
experience in position? design.
I am currently a Senior ERP Analyst. I have been What is your ideal position/career path? My ideal
placed in this position since December 2006. position is to be City Manager or Strategic architect
Currently I am the team leader for the Device for various departments within the City of Cape Town.
Management and Billing & Invoicing teams. What would you identify as your developmental

What are your hobbies? areas in the BA space? Software development, to
Hiking, reading, and outdoor activities align with evolving technology and requirements and
also to gain understanding of the dynamics within the

Political landscape of the City of Cape Town. 

BE-ATING THE DEADLINES: PROJECTS

Since the beginning of the year, In the pie chart depicted Tip 1: "Managing Project Risks"
ERP has established a Project below, we can see that
Management Office (PMO) great progress is being There can be a risk at any time
which is designed to manage made and a number of
the administration of all ERP projects have gone live, during the project. Your project
projects. The purpose of with more quickly
featuring the PMO in our approaching the "Go Live" management experience with
monthly, “BE-A” newsletter is to milestone.
keep our business analysts up to It seems that the PMO hub similar projects can help guide you
date on the progress of various embodies a great source of
projects. project evaluation and so that you may be able to foresee
progress. Thus creating a
Also, encouraging our business community where project when risk is imminent and when
analysts to approach the project managers can learn from
managers of these various one another, adapt success corrective action needs to be taken.
projects to get involved and factors to their own
gain knowledge in the desires projects, and obtain advice By having open communication,
modules of interest. on how to deal with various you should be able to understand
project risks.
what, if any, risks are approaching
and manage them before they get

out of hand. You will need to

identify and control project risks

before they control you. Since a risk

is only a potential problem, you

want to take care of it before it

becomes an actual problem. As one

of the most imperative best

Top Tips for practices in the project
Project Managers:
management process, risk

management is essential to project

success. -

Villanova University



REFERENCES

Brandenberg, L. (2015). What goes into a functional specification.

Bridging-the-gap. Retrieved on May 26th, 2015, from http://www.bridging-the-

gap.com/functional-specification/

Nel. J.P. (2015). Application Life Cycle Management Project Slide Deck.

Unknown. (N.D). Cartoons. Retrieved on May 26th, 2015, from http://www.modernanalyst.com

Unknown. (N.D). Quote. Retrieved on May 26th, 2015, from http://www.google.com/motivational

quotes

Unknown. (N.D.). Universal Alliance. 10 Tips for Project Management Success. Villanova University.

Retrieved on May 28th , 2015, from,http://www.villanovau.com/resources/project-

management/ project-management-tips/#.VWbS5E-qqko

Unknown. (N.D). Who-are-you-image. Retrived on June 5th, 2015, from

https://workingsmartercafe.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/ who-are-you.png

Unknown. (N.D). Suggestions picture. http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/13035/file-13128978-gif/images/

suggestions-resized-600.gif

If you would like to contribute ideas and
suggestions for discussion topics that will keep
this forum relevant and effective, please feel
free to forward your suggestions and
comments to us. You can also feature in our
next issue, if interested, please feel free to
contact us:

 Verity Beukes (Forum Chairperson)
 Laverne Petersen (BE-A Editor)