BI Project Planning Steps

http://www.bridging-the-gap.com/business-analysis-process/



Get Oriented

1. Clarifying your role (create deliverables that meet stakeholder needs) 
2. Determining the primary stakeholders (define the project’s business objectives and scope)
3. Understanding the project history (don’t inadvertently repeat work that’s already been done or rehash previously made decisions) 
4. Understanding the existing systems and business processes (the current state that needs to change)

Discover the Primary Business Objectives

1. Discovering expectations from your primary stakeholders (discovering the “why” behind the project)
2. Reconciling conflicting expectations (a shared objectives & not unique to one person’s perspective)
3. Clear and actionable business objectives (with momentum and context while defining scope and detailed requirements)

Define Scope
Participants can envision their contribution to the project and the implementation.

1. Technology and business process changes to be made
2. Scope statement with stakeholders
3. Business case (makes sense for your organization to invest)

Formulate Your Business Analysis Plan
the process that will be used to successfully define the detailed requirements for this project

1. Analysis deliverables
2. Stakeholders (creation and validation of each deliverable)
3. The timelines

Define the Detailed Requirements

1. What the business community wants from a specific feature or process change
2. Draft deliverables containing the detailed requirements for the project.
3. Reviewing and validating each deliverable with appropriate business and technology stakeholders and asking questions to fill in any gaps.

Support the Technical Implementation
help the implementation team fulfill the intended benefits and a positive return on investment

1. fulfills all of the requirements and looking for opportunities to meet additional business needs without increasing the technical scope of the project.
2. Updating and/or repackaging requirements documentation
3. Engaging with quality assurance professionals to ensure they understand the business context for the technical requirements. This responsibility may include reviewing test plans and/or test cases to ensure they represent a clear understanding of the functional requirements.
4. Answer questions and help resolve any issues that surface
5. Managing requirements changes to ensure that everyone is working from up-to-date documentation and that appropriate stakeholders are involved in all decisions about change.
6. When appropriate, leading user acceptance testing efforts completed by the business community

Help the Business Implement the Solution
if your business users don’t use it as intended and go back to business-as-usual, your project won’t have delivered on the original objectives

1. Interim and future state business process documentation
2. Training end users
3. Update other organizational assets impacted by the business process and technology changes

Assess Value Created by the Solution
assess the value created by the solution, how do we know if we are actually operating from a track record of success?

1. Actual progress & which the original objectives have been fulfilled.
2. Communicating the results to the project sponsor, and if appropriate, to the project team and all members of the organization.
3. Suggesting follow-up projects and initiatives to fully realize the intended business objectives of the project or to solve new problems that are discovered while evaluating the impact of this project.