How do techniques help a Business Analyst?
Let’s consider the next possible reason for having only user stories in your requirements. It could be a lack of understanding of how a technique can help you. The word “technique” itself suggests that it’s a tool. You eat with a fork or spoon, although you could use your hands. It’s just sometimes inconvenient.
A technique offers certain questions and perspectives on an entity. It’s a checklist to verify and point out some things. When you start applying a technique, drawing a diagram, the rules or elements of the diagram make you think about things you wouldn’t consider without it.
A data dictionary forces you to think about many things that you definitely won’t describe with just bullet points.
A process diagram helps identify if all paths are described after a branching or a certain condition because, in conversation, we say, if Rule A = yes, then Path A. In other words, in conversation, we start explaining Path A and may never return to the second path that triggers when Rule A = no. The process diagram compels us to get back and investigate that.
In the previous video, I showed how using a Use Case Diagram, we identify common functions for many requirements and structure the backlog.
Different techniques cover different aspects and help reveal different gaps. Therefore, the fewer techniques applied, the fewer aspects reviewed and analyzed. This increases the chances that developers will make you do the analysis during development due to questions and returning stories for further analysis.
The more techniques, the more details will be identified and analyzed before development. The user story will then be the result of that analysis.
Thus, the analysis itself happens through techniques.
I’ll share a secret ingredient for applying techniques — curiosity and a genuine desire to “uncover” the subject of study, not just formally apply the technique.
One more thing, don’t go to extremes and apply all existing techniques.
We’ll talk about how to choose a technique next time.
