IT Business Analyst Knowledge Areas

Database - Normal forms
xml schema, Domain Model
PIM vs PSM
Zachmann FrameWork
IDEF1X
UML 2.0

Solution Documentation

1. User Story (The main stories the application will implement, stories start higher level and then drill down into details “I want to add blocks”)

2. Use Cases (The use cases are driven from the user stories, each use case must tie up to a user story. Use cases describe the various different ways the user can for example “Add blocks at top”, “Add blocks at bottom”, “Add blocks at specific position in existing list”)

3. Functional Requirements (Validation rules, formatting rules, business rules not fitting into use cases, and then rules coming from use cases, each functional requirement should be tied to a use case and user story)

4. Activity Diagrams (Only include these if a use case or functional requirement requires complicated logic flow – complicated is anything where you have a if/else or loop type logic)

5. Test plan (This is a list of all tests you would perform to check that all the functional requirements are matched. Each functional requirement must have an associated test)

The above makes up the functional specification for an application.

You could also include user interface screen mock ups, with examples of data. We find these really helpful aswell.