Analyzing Business Data Requirements

Course Description

Missing a critical piece of data or incorrectly defining a data element contributes to the majority of maintenance problems and results in systems that do not reflect or support the business needs. Business users often fail to articulate their business data needs because they are so inherent in their work that it is difficult to uniquely identify each data requirement. A business analyst, skilled in data elicitation and definition, can save the business significant time and cost for any project.

Even if your organization has a data administrator or data warehouse team who is responsible for documenting and managing the organization’s information needs, every project uses a subset of that enterprise information in its own unique way. Business analysts must understand the importance of data in all their projects and include data requirements in their business requirements. Failing to document which data elements need to be used in a calculation, or displayed on a report, leaves the developer the responsibility of choosing the correct pieces of business data from hundreds if not thousands of available fields. These missing requirements often lead to expensive and lengthy project delays during the testing phase.

This course teaches students an in-depth approach to data modeling: identifying and defining all necessary data components using both textual templates and an entity relationship diagram. This course teaches business analysis techniques for eliciting, analyzing, and documenting data requirements to both new and experienced practitioners. Students will be given data templates with a suggested documentation structure for defining Business Data Requirements.

This course supports and expands on the techniques in the IIBA BABOK^® Guide. Facilitator-led workshops require students to practice the techniques as they learn. Students are encouraged to bring their own projects to class.

Learning Objectives

• Identify core data requirements beginning with project initiation
• Identify relationships between data elements and understand their impact on the business
• Develop excellent data requirements at an appropriate level of detail
• Detail business data requirements (using a data dictionary and data model)
• Detail complex data-related business rules
• Use data requirements to verify and communicate a more complete understanding of the business domain
• Assist with the transition of business data to database design
• Utilize easy normalization techniques (without all the mathematical theory)
• Validate data requirements with activity (process or use case) requirements

Intended Audience

This course is designed for business analysts, project managers, systems analysts, data administrators, database administrators, or any other project team member practicing business analysis. This course may also be appropriate for individuals who manage or mentor business analysts.

Prerequisites

We recommend that students first attend our Essential Skills for Business Analysis class or have experience in project scope definition, gathering requirements from subject matter experts, and understand how business requirements fit into the entire systems development effort.