Business Analysis using "Method H"

Submitted by neville.turbit on Tue, 2008-06-17 10:59.

by Neville Turbit

Many Business Analysts start a conversation with users by asking what they do. The conversation tends to drift in no particular direction until a thread is sighted, then the BA follows that thread to the end. The next thread is fleshed out and a similar process followed. Hopefully, by taking enough random walks around the person’s job, sufficient information will be collected to come up with a requirement.

In this article Neville Turbit describes a more methodical approach to eliciting requirements called "Method H".

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Method_H improvement

Submitted by hirondel on Tue, 2008-06-17 12:21. *

I would add the "business process" improvement attribute with technological improvements as a sub-type.

Raffi Garabedian - hirondel

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Update on effectiveness?

Submitted by jimkfreel on Tue, 2008-06-17 13:01. *

Neville... do you have any feedback on effectiveness of this method or successes or learnings? I first saw this 4 years ago and am interested if you or anyone has any feedback on it use. Thanks.

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Method H

Submitted by modern_ba on Tue, 2008-06-17 16:19. *

Hello,

We are using similar sort of approach for our requirement elicitation. We are calling them as our "Shadowing " sessions. However, you can not capture all the business rules and functionality if the business process is very complex.

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Shadowing...

Submitted by fifedog on Tue, 2008-06-17 17:43. *

So in this shadowing sessions do you how do you capture those different areas? do you just write down notes of what they do? Or are you using some type of method like this "H" to help structure/capture those areas.

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Shadowing...

Submitted by modern_ba on Sun, 2008-06-22 22:42. *

Kind of Yes...Shadowing means observing "HOW" business users perform their duties and at the same items asking "WHY", they do certain things. That helps us in determining our USE CASEs because some of their answers to "WHY" can become my business goal and ultimately my use cases.

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Efectiveness

Submitted by neville.turbit on Wed, 2008-06-18 07:17. *

A big part of Business Analysis is translation. Taking what a user says and turning it into IT speak. Method H seems to bridge the gap. It elicits information in a way that business people think, and it fits IT requirements.

Since we developed the technique it has been used around the world and we have never had negative feedback. If fact one guy rang me from the UK to see if we would confirm he had been using the technique for years with a client. He was actually using it for the first time, but found it so easy he has been back to us a number of times with rave reviews.

Would I use it everywhere? Definitely not. Some processes are so complex, you need to do some serious BPM. Method H is better for smaller developments. Incidentally anyone doing serious BPM who does not use Holocentric Modeller needs their head examined!

Someone mentioned that Method H does not look at the 'why'. Correct. If you need to reengineer processes, use a modelling tool. If you are specifying a fairly stable process, use Method H. It is all about horses for courses.

Neville Turbit
www.projectperfect.com.au

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How do you address 'Why?'?

Submitted by bsy016 on Tue, 2008-06-17 19:27. *

I was first introduced to this idea with structured analysis as 'IPO' (inputs/process/outputs) or 'HIPO' (hierarchica IPO) I found it works really well at the system design level. I can see that it would also work well for documenting the 'as-is' process.

My problem with using it for business analysis is that it doesn't answer the question of 'why'. This is the first thing I start with -- why are you doing this? what is the goal? how does this benefit the company? I don't think you can really figure out the 'to-be' solution unless you know the answers to this.

Ginny

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Model H

Submitted by charbor on Fri, 2008-06-27 09:02. *

Yes, you ask a very important question. I think business drivers or why should be added to this model. This would ensure traceability from end to end.

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Method H

Submitted by dtegart on Wed, 2008-06-18 22:20. *

Fantastic diagram and text. It is exactly what I do and I love to know that it has a name! Always-- what do you do? what do you gather doing it? why do you do it? Thanks for the diagram!

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Business requirements s/b included

Submitted by charbor on Fri, 2008-06-27 09:04. *

This follow similar models in requirements gathering, I appreciate what is written here. I think business drivers should be added to the top rung of the ladder (the H) to address the "why". This would ensure traceability from end to end.

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