Description

Instructions

Describe in your own words some types of models and/or modelling techniques you have encountered in your experience (either as a business analyst or in other roles). 

List some benefits of the modeling processes that you have used.

Responses

In my experience, I have encountered Data Modelling, Process Modelling and Prototyping techniques etc. used in business analysis. We use the Entity-Relationship diagram (ERD) to understand the data structure, data flow and relationships. This helps us to understand the data our Customer needs and to show the changes, if any, to that data. The Process Modelling in the form of Data Flow Diagrams (DFD) enhances our understanding of how the data behaves in our workflow within the system. In my current project, we are also using Prototyping to assist our Stakeholders in visualizing the appearance and capabilities of the proposed solution.

The big benefit of modelling is the ability to easily revise the diagrams to better understand and communicate the problem domain as the solution concepts evolves through iterative steps. It is almost like thinking about the problem and its solution multiple times, and then write the code once.

Regardless of which modelling technique was used, it allowed us to compare alternative views to look for gaps and disconnects, e.g. when we have multiple requirements views where the information is shown in different ways, the models all must agree. This is particularly useful when you have cross functional requirements dependencies. We invested the time to model the business processes and system requirements up-front in order to realize the pay-off later in multiple ways. As the old adage says, “A picture is worth a thousand words

Below are some of the modelling techniques I have come across:

1. Organizational Modelling: During all hands meetings I have seen the CEO of the company representing all the people and their roles through an organizational chart. This is a great visual representation to understand employee roles, who they report up to and understand their relationship within the organization.

I have used this modelling technique for my QA team as well. I use this chart to represent all the members of my teams , who they report up to and which clients they support. This visual representation is very useful and efficient. For example when we have a new hire , I just pull this model up and it is pretty self explanatory. However , I need to remember to keep this updated as and when we get new hires and when exist people leave.

2. Activity Flow process modelling: I use this modelling to depict the life cycle of a bug. A bug usually has a variety of statuses ( New, Active, Proposed, Resolved, Closed, Ready for testing, In Development, Rejected, Stalled) , and teams usually gets confused on setting the correct status on a bug. We have created a process flow chart for the life cycle of a bug and we have it shared on the wiki. This has been beneficial since it is a good visual representation that gives users a fast solution to identify the correct status a bug should be in.

3. Structured data modelling, ERD’s: Our backend database is SQL server, a relationship database. During the kick off meetings of large projects one of the main components is an ERD walk through with the database architect on upcoming changes. This is of particular importance to the QA engineers since it will give them a better insight to the testing approach. An ERD review gives the team a good visual representation of new tables and views being added, new columns being added to existing tables, foreign key relationships and understand the various attributes of fields. Understanding all these data points helps to create a more efficient and holistic testing plan and strategy.