Root Cause doesn’t have to hurt like a Root Canal! Five Proven Techniques for Understanding Business Needs

Overview
Needs are arguably the most important input to any business analysis effort. It is the most-mentioned concept in the BA Core Concept Model from IIBA. It is also the anchor domain in PMI’s Standard for Business Analysis, providing inputs to every other domain. Given the impact of business needs, it is critical for business analysts to have tools and techniques to get to the root cause of business problems and opportunities. This presentation covers five essential techniques for uncovering and understanding needs. You will leave the session feeling confident you can better analyze the current state for your next effort.
Abstract
Needs are arguably the most important input to any business analysis effort. Why is that? For one thing, the BA Body of Knowledge from IIBA literally starts with Needs as the core input when planning the BA approach. Needs are also the primary input when eliciting requirements, which leads to virtually every other task in the BABOK.
The PMI Standard for Business Analysis includes Needs Assessment as its initial domain. Outputs of that domain are key inputs to all but one of the other domains: the situation statement, business case, and project charter.
Given the importance of Needs, it is critical for business analysts to have tools and techniques to get to the root cause of business problems and opportunities. Without them, it is difficult to understand the current situation and solve the right problem. This presentation covers five essential techniques for uncovering and understanding Needs. You will leave the session feeling confident you can begin applying any of the techniques in your next effort.
Learning Objectives
Attendees will be able to:
• Describe the importance of Needs in any project.
• List which techniques apply best to certain situations.
• Be in position to use any of the techniques to uncover and understand business needs.
Speaker Bio - Richard Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA
President and Founder of Watermark Learning, Richard Larson is a successful entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in business analysis, project management, training, and consulting. He has presented workshops and seminars on BA and PM topics to over 10,000 participants on five different continents.
Rich is a frequent speaker at Business Analysis and Project Management national conferences and IIBA® and PMI® chapters around the world. He has contributed to the BA Body of Knowledge version 2.0 and 3.0, was a lead author for the Needs Assessment chapter of the PMI publication Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, and was an author of the PM Body of Knowledge, 4th edition. He and his wife Elizabeth Larson have co-authored five books on business analysis.