Quality is the major business differentiator in IT. Studies such as the Chaos Report show that the most common cause of low quality is having poor, or poorly understood, requirements. Other common causes are poor design, code, and installation. While prevention of defects is the best cure, identifying and fixing defects as early as possible is key, and some of the responsibility for doing that falls on the business analyst (BA). This course, therefore, concentrates on the validation techniques for:

• Requirements
• The system at the business level (functional and usability testing)
• Acceptance
• Business purpose (stakeholder satisfaction with the production product)

In this course you will learn the importance of achieving quality and your role in doing so. You will learn which project and product factors affect the two components of risk (likelihood and impact), and you'll learn to apply those to various real-life validation situations using a case study and practicing testing decision-making. You will learn techniques for:

• Validating requirements or any text-based product (such as procedures or plans)
• Testing functional and manual requirements
• Assessing and testing usability

You will learn to plan functional and usability testing at the business level and the essential elements to document that planning. You'll examine your role in Acceptance, including Acceptance of an outsourced product, and you'll determine how to assess stakeholder satisfaction with the product in production.

Since there is never time, even theoretically, to validate all details of a product, an important concept is using risk assessment to determine the appropriate thoroughness of validation at every stage. Exercises in risk assessment and all the major validation techniques are an integral part of this course.

While the involvement of BAs in testing varies widely across companies, this course assumes maximum involvement at the business level (excluding nonfunctional testing except for usability). Each student can tailor the content to suit a specific company's policies.

Students pursuing a university-recognized and/or accredited certificate in Canada or continuing education units in the US must attend at least 90% of class time, participate in class exercises and section-knowledge checks, and score at least 70% on an end-of-class, multiple-choice assessment.

What You'll Learn

• Position the activities of the BA in the complete verification and validation process
• Use testing terminology in a standardized way
• Use risk to drive the validation effort and therefore use project money wisely
• Make decisions on what not to test for defects
  • Plan appropriate (risk-based) techniques to find defects in the BRD, that is, validate the BRD
  • Plan appropriate (risk-based) functional testing techniques at the BA level to find defects
  • Plan appropriate (risk based) glass box testing techniques for processes to find defects
• Check and test usability
• Choose appropriate (customer-selected) tests for acceptance, that is, compliance to requirements
• Manage test data and information
• Manage requirements problems and test failures
• Document the plans (activities, resources, risks)
• Gain acceptance, install the product, and validate to business needs

Hands-On Exercises

• Develop a High-Level BA Validation Strategy and Budget
• Determine Requirements That Can Be Validated and Tested
• Perform a Peer Review
• Choose the Appropriate Technique for Finding Defects
• Develop a Mid-Level Test Strategy
• Develop a Test Suite
• Develop Boundary Testing
• Develop a Condition Coverage Test Matrix
• Design CRUD Testing
• List Error Guessing Inputs
• Choose Testing Techniques
• Develop Inputs to Test Activity and Decision Coverage
• Develop Inputs to Test Condition Coverage
• Check a Web Page
• Conduct a Usability Test
• Manage Risk of Testing
• Desk Check a Test Plan
• Deciding What Test Coverage To Agree To
• Develop Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions

Who Needs to Attend

• Business analysts who have some testing experiencing and want one or more of the following:
  • A more formal understanding
  • To be more efficient
  • To standardize across a group, department, or organization
• Business analysts who don't know anything about testing and want to learn how to do it
• Project managers who want to understand BA terminology and how the BA sees risks

Prerequisites

• Business Analysis Essentials
• Requirements Development, Documentation, and Management

Follow-On Courses

• Use Case Modeling
• Data Modeling

Certification Programs and Certificate Tracks

This course is part of the following programs or tracks:

• CBAP® - Certified Business Analysis Professional
• CCBA™ - Certification of Competency in Business Analysis™

Course Outline

1. Testing and the BA

• Good Testing and Checking
• Project Team Verification and Validation Process
• Types of Testing
• Ways to Verify and Validate

2. High-Level BA Validation

• Your Budget and Risk Management
• Estimating the Risks of Defects in the System
• Developing a High-Level Validation Strategy and Budget

3. Finding Defects in the BRD

• Characteristics of a Good BRD
• Techniques of Finding Defects in a BRD
• Choosing the Appropriate Technique

4. Planning Testing

• Structured Testing
• Mid-Level Test Strategy
• Test Cases

5. BA-Level Functional Testing in the Automated System

• Black Box Testing
• Black Box Testing Techniques
• Automated Low-Level Test Strategy

6. BA Validation of Processes

• Validating Processes
• Glass Box Testing Techniques
• Process Low-Level Test Strategy

7. Usability Validation

• The Importance of Usability
• Usability Validation by the BA
• Getting Users Involved in Validation
• Usability Testing

8. Documenting the Test Plan

• Capturing the BA Test Plan
• Formal BA Test Plan

9. Acceptance, Installation, and Validation to Business Needs

• Acceptance
• Installing the System
• Validating to the Business Needs
• Completing the Project