I would like to seek your help for my current project. This is my first project as a Business Analyst and I am really very confused with requirements elicitation –
Where to start?
What questions to ask?
What kind of technical questions I need to dig into?
Project – it’s a new report generation project from an application for compliance purpose. The application runs on AS400, after getting involved with the business users I can envision the details and elements users are expecting in the new report to serve their purpose of audit.
Now I am struggling how to initiate my requirements sessions with SME of that application, as I have no knowledge of back end or technical side of this application. I have been told to skip the BRD and start the FRD, so starting your first project straight with functional specs is giving me hard time.
I just can’t figure out what questions I should ask to SME’s

Jake, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Can’t agree with you more.

Business Intelligence implementations are not projects but an ongoing process. Iterative/ agile methodology is an excellent way of handling BI implementations. It helps deliver small pieces quickly and get feedback from the business on a regular basis which is so important. As the business starts leveraging the benefits of the solution they get more involved and committed to the process.

Most of the time, people struggle to justify the ROI of BI projects. It becomes more difficult when it is treated as one big project. Breaking it down also helps in getting sponsorship more easily.

Of course, while the implementation needs to be more agile, the thought process should never miss the bigger picture. A balance of the two would help in making these projects extremely successful and rewarding for everyone involved in the process.

Learn.

Expand and enhance!

You should certainly give the overall Finance Mart needs a decent look to ensure you do not waste any major time… but remember, in most cases YAGNI (you ain’t gonna need it). So time box this effort to limit wasted time and effort.

I have watched warehouse projects that went on for years as the data was analyzed and mapped… nothing was ever delivered – until the scope was reduced to something that could be achieved in a few weeks.

Joe, glad that you liked the post. Thanks for the appreciation.
I understand the anxiety one feels in your situation. Rest assured, you will do great! Your past experience and skills will sail you through. Here are some of my thoughts.

Read as much about the business domain as possible. This will help you get more comfortable with the terminology and in understanding the application.

Leverage your people skills to create good rapport with colleagues, who will help you whenever you are stuck.

Don’t feel shy to ask questions. Others appreciate it more than we think. The message it sends across is that you are making effort to understand the system.

Spend some time daily to understand the database schema for the first few months. This will make you very comfortable with the data and help in finding required information quickly.

Participate actively in team meetings. Pay attention and feel free to make recommendations when appropriate. The biggest contribution you can make to an existing team is by bringing fresh ideas to the table. As a team keeps working on a project, they have more project knowledge. However, it does affect their ability to think out of the box. You can bring in new perspective to the team which will be appreciated by everyone.

Hoping, some of these tips turn out helpful. Good Luck and keep us posted.

Thanks
Anup

The role that I played was more like that of your Reporting Dashboard Team. I was charged with gathering requirements for reports and turning those requirements into a set of canned reports that were to be run daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. Of course there were times when, due to my knowledge of the system and data, I would get adhoc request from various people throughout the department that I supported. I was also responsible for the security, distribution, and maintenance of this system as well training the end users.

My biggest challenge was learning the data and the system up front. This was my first job right out of college and even though I knew how to use a computer I had no formal training in programming languages or processes. Luckily I was good with people and had the determination to learn as my company invested in my training of the technical aspects of the job. Fast forward to today… I’m working for another company that is implementing a BI tool and my role is being defined as I go. Though I am technically in a better place than where I started years ago, the anxiety still exist as I’m sitting in the mist of actual developers and programmers that probably know tons more than I do about how systems work. My question to you is what reading, training or course of action would you recommend to someone in my situation… (8 years of BA experience and starting a new job after being out of the field for 3 years)? I’m still a people person and great a great communicator but somehow I guess my confidence is a little shaky right now.