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| Does the business expert have to understand the data model?
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A data model expresses constraints that a technological solution will place on the business community. If the business experts can not identify the constraints on the model, they will have difficulty determining what it means to accept the constraints. At the very least, the business experts should be conversant with the concepts of cardinality, relationships and attribute assignment.
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| Why analyze a business area if the business experts already know what they want?
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A large number of information technology projects start with a solution that "has to" be implemented. The solution may or may not be the right decision. Whereas it is in IT's best interest to deliver the solution that the end-user wants, the better the analysis of the thought process behind the decision, the easier it is for them to deliver a working system. Without sufficient understanding, IT may be implementing a solution that will not work.
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| What is business analysis?
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A business is a complex construct and analysis is a complex process. As a result, the combination is entirely open to interpretation. We distinguish between business area analysis and financial business analysis. Business area analysis, which we support, consists of identifying and analyzing business processes, business problems and business data. We currently do not offer financial business analysis.
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| Do you have anything on unit, integration, and system testing?
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We present unit, integration, and system testing as concepts in all of our testing seminars. In "Testing Information Systems", a seminar for developers, we focus heavily on those testing activities that will be required during unit and integration testing. In "End User Acceptance Testing" and "Testing Business Systems", the emphasis is on identifying user acceptance test scenarios. The system testing phase can use these scenarios very effectively.
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| What can I do if I do not have enough time to test?
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If you do not have sufficient time to test, you will need to plan on more time to fix errors that crop up in production. This should be a simple business decision that weighs what the error in production can cost against the cost of delaying putting the component into production until it has been sufficiently tested.
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| What is an equivalence class?
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An equivalence class is any set of input data and conditions that execute a common set of business rules, modules, files, etc. Each test situation can be different, but if the result that you are evaluating is achievable with a variety of different test cases, those test cases form an equivalence class. You can test any single member of the class and evaluate the systems' reaction to the entire class.
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| We have scheduled a JAD session. How can I prepare myself?
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Effective preparation for a JAD session requires that you know and understand the goal of the JAD session (what will the session produce) and how the deliverables will be created (tools or techniques). If you do not have access to this information, contact the project leader or JAD facilitator and ask for help. He/she should be able to recommend advanced training or presentations that will help you prepare yourself. The most effective participants are those who know what to expect and feel confident in their ability to deliver.
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| Who should attend a JAD session?
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The four critical categories of JAD session attendees are the facilitation team, technical experts, contributors and observers. The facilitation team has to lead the session and produce the deliverables based on the input from the "contributors". The "technical experts" pose pertinent questions and have to use the deliverables to do their job once the session is complete. "Observers" are present to study the process and potentially to learn about the topic under discussion but have no active role in the discussion.
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| Who has to be involved in a pre-session?
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The purpose of a pre-session is to evaluate the project and determine whether a JAD session is the appropriate approach for creating deliverables within the project environment. Typically, the people who have to be involved in making this determination are the project leader, IT management, client management, business analysts and/or system analysts, and the proposed facilitation team. This group may need input from other project participants or peers to be confident that their decision is right for all involved.
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