English Language In The Business Analyst’s World Andris Grunde

Business Analyst

From everyday talk to engineered requirements

Presentation to:

Where is Philadelphia?

Language is the foundation of what we do.

Software requirements begin with high level discussions, but:

Business Analyst deliverables require precision.

Why language?

You are what you write in an online, email, IM and text message world

Who are you?

We function like lawyers in some respects◦Listen to our clients tell us their stories in

their words◦Produce documents to specification, using

more precise language Business requirements documents Process diagrams Use cases Functional specifications

We are like lawyers

Why English, now?FMS sale to Visma should create

need for English language documentsBusiness processes and requirements

are communicated internationally in English.

But .....◦Why English?

The Rise of GlobishFrom Robert McCrum, Globish, How the

English Language Became the World’s Language, 2010, W.W. Norton & Company:

English is informal.

Easy to talk about generalities and everyday topics.

English is formal.

Contracts, diplomacy, requirements.

Globish

Robert McCrum, Globish, How the English Language Became the World’s Language, 2010, W.W. Norton & Company. Page 230.

“The most unexpected thing about the ... world that followed 1989 was ... widespread enthusiasm for the language of the surviving superpower. There are perhaps three reasons for this. First, it made sound economic sense. Secondly, as we have seen, English has always had this subversive* capacity to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds, to articulate the ideas of both government and opposition, to be the language of ordinary people as well as the language of power and authority, rock ‘n’ roll and royal decree.”

*graujošs

Globish.com *

*No relationship to the book

English is often ambiguous in everyday natural language.

We don’t often say what we mean.We encode and decode our messages.

◦ “Can you tell me what time it is?”

◦ “What does the clock say?”

English – can be ambiguousLatvian – more precise?

Problems with English

More language ......Regional and international expressions and

idioms Business jargon

◦ “Going forward, .... “ ◦ What choice do we have other than ‘going

forward’?We use these maybe with a sense of

shared aims or commonality. Being too literal can be irritating.

Fun with language Why are there Interstate highways in

Hawaii?Why do we park our car on a driveway and

drive our car on a parkway?Why is a boxing ring square?

“Ineligible” used in natural language by management to describe some clients using a service.

Ineligible actually describes two different clients:◦Have reached their annual usage limit and

complied with business rules.

◦Have not complied with business rules.

Example from a Client

In large US companies with many divisions:◦Two different words or phrases describe

the same business process or rule.

◦The same word or phrase may describe two different processes or rules.

Occurs when one company buys another; meanings may occur over time.

Common Industry Situations

William M. Wilson, Writing Effective Natural Language Requirements Specifications, 1999, Software Assurance Technology Center, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Same ProblemsNASA study of 40 approved requirement

documents found “many instances of three common weaknesses”:

Organization of requirements

Individual statement structure

Language used to express requirements.

M. Osborne, C.K. MacNish, Processing Natural Language Software Requirement Specifications, 2013, Cyber Security and Information Systems Information Analysis Center, The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeer Archives

Informal, but ....Unfortunately, using natural language, to

construct System Requirement Specifications (SRS)is still problematic, even when combined with formal techniques. Perhaps the main problem is that natural language is ambiguous, with many possible interpretations. Another problem is that a SRS expressed in natural language may be vague.

‘Gather’ in job descriptions“…responsible for gathering business

requirements within a department.”

“… gathering and documenting requirements…”

“Requirements gathering skills (interviewing business users and functional leaders).”

“Gathers and documents the detailed business requirements….”

One job posting used ‘gather’ four times.

Outstanding in his Field

Dictionary Definition of Gather transitive verb 1 : to bring together : collect <tried to gather a

crowd> <gathered firewood>2 a : pick, harvest <gather flowers> b : to pick up or amass as if by harvesting <gathering ideas for the project> c : to scoop up or take up from a resting place <gathered the child up in his arms>3 : to serve as an attraction for : accumulate <books gathering dust>4 : to effect the collection of <gather contributions>5 a : to summon up <gathered his courage> b : to gain by gradual increase <gather speed> c : to prepare (as oneself) by mustering strength d : to gain or regain control of <gathered his wits>6 : to reach a conclusion often intuitively from hints or through inferences <I gather that you want to leave>7 a : to pull (fabric) along a line of stitching so as to draw into puckers b : to draw about or close to something <gathering her cloak about her> c : to bring together the parts of <gathered her hair into a ponytail> d : to assemble (the signatures of a book) in sequence for binding e : to haul in <the sailors gathered the sails>I

intransitive verb 1 a : to come together in a body b : to cluster around a focus of attraction2 a : to swell and fill with pus b : grow, increase <the gathering crisis>

No Longer Available

ARM, Automated Requirement Measurement tool.

No longer supported/distributed

Processed text document, summarized strong, weak, incomplete, and other words in the document.

ARM Standard Indicators IMPERATIVE CONTINUANCE DIRECTIVE OPTION WEAK PHRASES INCOMPLETES

shall below: e.g. can adequate TBD

must as follows: i.e. may as appropriate

TBS

is required to

following: For example

Optionally be able to TBE

are applicable

listed: Figure be capable of

TBC

are to in particular: Table capability of not defined

responsible for

support: Note: capability to not determined

will and effective but not limited to

should as required as a minimum

normal

provide for

timely

easy to

Questions?