BA Tools - 02 Investigate Situation Cheat Sheet by anikrou

Interv­iewing

A fact-f­inding, invest­igation or elicit­ation technique.

Typically, a one-to-one discussion with the stakeholder.

Types of questions: open, closed, limited choice, leading, probing, and linking

Workshop

A gathering of stakeh­olders to plan and agree on: scope of the project; the busine­ss/­system requir­ements; possible solutions to the requirements.

Workshop roles: partic­ipant, scribe, facili­tator (ice-b­rea­king, discovery, and docume­ntation techniques must be considered).

Using workshops: Right/­wrong partic­ipants, number of partic­ipants, over-a­mbi­tious agenda, venue, choice of technique, having a scribe, the BA as facili­tator (not recomm­ended), losing control

Mind maps

A visual repres­ent­ation of a set of ideas, words, things or tasks and the relati­onships between them.

Create the outline mind map – the trunk and main branches only – from the agenda and then populate the rest of the diagram with inform­ation supplied by the interv­iewee. Because only a few words need to be written down, this can simplify note taking.