UML For The IT Business Analyst, Second Edition

400 Pages·2009·4.61 MB·English

by  Howard (Howard Podeswa) Podeswa

UML™ FOR THE IT
BUSINESS ANALYST,
SECOND EDITION:
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO REQUIREMENTS GATHERING
USING THE UNIFIED MODELING LANGUAGE
Howard Podeswa
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For my incredible kids,Yasha and Sam.
And for Joy Walker.You are the prototype.1
1From the song “Prototype”on the album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,2003,by Outkast.
Preface
From 1998 to 2000,I spent part ofmy winters on the Cape Town peninsula in South
Africa.It was one ofthose rare times when all aspects oflife lined up.There were times
when I prepared for an art exhibition,facilitated workshops in poor neighborhoods,
and analyzed IT systems—all in the same day.This book is one of the products of that
exciting and very productive time:Its case study is drawn from IT work my company did
there for the Community Peace Program (CPP),an organization that aims to reduce vio-
lence in poverty-stricken neighborhoods through a process of dispute resolution called
restorative justice.
One ofthe communities I visited often due to my work was the township ofZweletemba.
There is a point in the trip to Zweletemba when you enter a tunnel that goes right through
the mountains.Inevitably,it was at that point in the journey that I always fell asleep,awak-
ening just as we exited the tunnel into what seemed like a magical world.Zweletemba,sit-
uated in the mountainous interior of the peninsula,is a place of contradictions.There is
great poverty,with many people living in ramshackle homes built of materials salvaged
from junk piles,but there is also great physical beauty,personal warmth,music,and humor.
It was in Zweletemba that the CPP was conducting a pilot project when I arrived in South
Africa.The CPP was,at that time,interested in growing the organization using the lessons
learned from Zweletemba—and,in the years that have followed,has in fact expanded to
include numerous communities in the country.It was in advance of this expansion that
the organization had asked my company to prepare requirements for an IT solution
that would assist them in case management.
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Preface v
The CPP’s restorative justice system came to mind when I began work on the first edition
of this book.I was looking for a case study that would be complex enough to include the
intricacies oftypical systems.I chose the CPP’s system because it has stakeholders who play
multiple roles (in the same manner as customers of an insurance firm who appear
as beneficiaries,policy holders,etc.); a key business object to which events,action,and
information items are tied (similar to a customer call in a CRM system),as well as other
complex characteristics that show up time and again in business systems.And, as an
unfamiliar system,it puts the reader in the position of extreme business analysis—really
not knowing anything about the system at the start ofthe project.
Projects like the CPP case study exemplify what I love most about business analysis—that
it has introduced me to a variety ofsystems and,through them,to the people behind those
systems.Through business analysis,I have met and worked with people from all walks of
life—defense contractors,social workers,investment bankers,funeral directors—and they
have, in turn, satisfied my inquisitiveness about people and how they do things. This
quality of endless curiosity is a trait I’ve seen in many of the business analysts I’ve met.If
it describes you,you’ve found a great profession.I hope that this book will help you excel
at it so that it gives you the enjoyment it has given to me over the years.
—Howard Podeswa
Acknowledgments
Special thanks go out to Charlie Orosz,Scott Williams,Tim Lloyd,Gerry de Koning,
Fern Lawrence,Clifford Shearing,Ideaswork (formerly Community Peace Program),
and the Zweletemba Peace Committee.Many thanks,also,to Adrian Marchis and the
business analyst community at modernanalyst.com for the extensive input they have
provided with respect to planning and tailoring business activities for specific projects.
Thanks also to Adam Kahn, David Barrett, and Amy Ruddell of Diversified Business
Communications for promoting the business-analysis profession and the ideas in this book
through the BA World conferences they have organized,the Noble workshops my com-
pany has delivered there over the years,as well as their publication,Business Analyst Times.
And a personal thank you to the technical editor of the book’s first edition,Brian Lyons,
for an incredibly knowledgeable and thorough review.In the time that has passed between
the two editions,Brian was tragically killed in a road accident.I am honored to have been
able to benefit from his advice while he was alive.The experience of being put under the
Lyons microscope was a challenging one—but one I wouldn't have missed for the world.
vi
About the Author
Howard Podeswais the co-founder ofNoble,Inc.(www.nobleinc.com),a business-
analysis (BA) consulting and training company. Podeswa has contributed to
the formalization of the business-analysis profession as a subject-matter expert
for NITAS—a BA apprenticeship program (a CompTIA and U.S. federal government
initiative)—and as a member ofthe review team for the Business Analysis Body ofKnowledge
(BABOK).
Podeswa has 30 years’experience in many aspects ofthe software industry,beginning as a
developer for Atomic Energy of Canada,Ltd.and continuing as systems analyst,business
analyst,consultant,lead designer ofbusiness-analysis programs,and author ofThe Business
Analyst’s Handbook,a BA reference manual incorporating ITIL,the BABOK,BPMN,UML,
agile,and other best practices and standards of importance to the BA.He has provided
consulting and training services to a diverse client base, including the Mayo Clinic,
Thomson Healthcare,Canadian Air Force (MASIS),the South African Community Peace
Program,and major financial institutions (Deloitte,CIBC bank,CGU,etc.).Podeswa is
also a sought-after speaker at international BA conferences. In addition, Podeswa has
collaborated with CDI Education on object-oriented projects and training and has designed
BA training programs for numerous institutions,including Boston University Continuing
Education Center and New Horizons.
Podeswa is also a recognized visual artist whose artwork has been exhibited and reviewed
internationally and supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.His exhibition,Object
Oriented Painting Show (OOPS)—from which the images on the cover were taken—was
the first to combine his two passions:OO technology and painting.His artwork is represented
by the Peak Gallery (www.peakgallery.com).
vii
viii About the Author
Contact Info
The author may be contacted at [email protected] questions and support
material related to this book, please visit the Noble Inc.Web site at www.nobleinc.ca.
For a full suite ofbusiness-analysis courses based on this and other writings by the author,
please visit the Noble Inc. Web site at www.nobleinc.ca or contact the company at
[email protected] download electronic versions of business-analysis templates,please
visit http://nobleinc.ca/downloads.html.
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xix
Chapter 1 Who Are IT Business Analysts? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Chapter Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
The IT and Non-IT BA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Perspective on the IT BA Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Why Modeling Is a Good Thing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
The Behavioral (Dynamic) Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
The Structural (Static) Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
For Those Trained in Structured Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Mapping the BABOK 2 to This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Chapter 2 The BA’s Perspective on Object Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Chapter Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
What Is OO? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
The UML Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
Cognitive Psychology and OO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
The BA Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Attributes and Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
The BA Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Operations and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
The BA Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Encapsulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
The BA Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 ix