Tool – Visualization

Visualization is a tool I have found very useful in doing business analysis work aimed at delivering  software solutions in the organizations I belonged to. The job is majorly about eliciting and  understanding business and technical requirements from various groups of stakeholders & to be users  of the new system and document such requirements in an organized and easy to understand manner  that the development team can use as a bible to build the solution.

To do this, we can always resort to writing paragraphs and essays on the requirements. Nevertheless on  projects we have seen that any amount of words is not enough in clearly communicating the  requirements of the solution in the most understandable way. That is when we chose to use the  Visualization technique by providing wireframes of how the application screens should look like with  clearly thought out layout of screen components and features.

These demo screens in addition to the requirements list helped drive a very clear understanding of the  requirements between all the stakeholders of the project, eliminating rude shocks upon final delivery of  the solution. The visualization helped in 2 ways. One, the visualization helped me as a business analyst  to understand if I myself have understood the requirements clearly by validating them with the  requirements sources. Two, it helped me communicate the business requirements in a more  understandable manner to the otherwise technical group of developers.

The visualization helped reduce the length of requirement analysis meetings considerably since now  people are able to visualize how the solution is going to look like and hence suggesting changes or  driving acceptance among all felt like a much easier task. Requirement conflicts could also be handled  more effectively now since the people visualize how one component clashes with the other and so are  able to review the entirety of the solution more objectively than ever before minimizing the bias.

Visualization was also used by me to depict the user flow in the system and various use cases for the  application being developed. This helps building consensus among people on the business value  expected out of the system and also helps the technical team understand the user behavior expected in  the system and plan the technical capabilities of the application accordingly.

Visualization takes time in terms of getting the visuals / pictures ready basis the requirements gathered,  however reduces lot of efforts afterwards through reducing time needed for requirement analysis,  conflict resolution, explaining requirements to technical developers, reworks on solution delivered, etc.


Tool – Visualization Visualization is a tool I have found very useful in doing business analysis work aimed at delivering software solutions in the organizations I belonged to . The job is majorly about eliciting and understanding business and technical requirements from various groups of stakeholders & to be users of the new system and document such requirements in an organized and easy to understand manner that the development team can use as a bible to build the solution . To do this , we can always resort to writing paragraphs and essays on the requirements . Nevertheless on projects we have seen that any amount of words is not enough in clearly communicating the requirements of the solution in the most understandable way . That is when we chose to use the Visualization technique by providing wireframes of how the application screens should look like with clearly thought out layout of screen components and features . These demo screens in addition to the requirements list helped drive a very clear understanding of the requirements between all the stakeholders of the project , eliminating rude shocks upon final delivery of the solution . The visualization helped in 2 ways . One , the visualization helped me as a business analyst to understand if I myself have understood the requirements clearly by validating them with the requirements sources . Two , it helped me communicate the business requirements in a more understandable manner to the otherwise technical group of developers . The visualization helped reduce the length of requirement analysis meetings considerably since now people are able to visualize how the solution is going to look like and hence suggesting changes or driving acceptance among all felt like a much easier task . Requirement conflicts could also be handled more effectively now since the people visualize how one component clashes with the other and so are able to review the entirety of the solution more objectively than ever before minimizing the bias . Visualization was also used by me to depict the user flow in the system and various use cases for the application being developed . This helps building consensus among people on the business value expected out of the system and also helps the technical team understand the user behavior expected in the system and plan the technical capabilities of the application accordingly . Visualization takes time in terms of getting the visuals / pictures ready basis the requirements gathered , however reduces lot of efforts afterwards through reducing time needed for requirement analysis , conflict resolution , explaining requirements to technical developers , reworks on solution delivered , etc .