The Salesforce Business Analyst Handbook

Book description

Become a proficient Salesforce business analyst with the help of expert recommendations, techniques, best practices, and practical advice Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free eBook in the PDF format.

Key Features

  • Learn the intricacies and nuances of every stage of a project's implementation
  • Discover real-world examples, tips, and tricks that you can apply to any Salesforce project
  • Overcome the challenges inherent in user interaction and improve your customer experience

Book Description

Salesforce business analysis skills are in high demand, and there are scant resources to satisfy this demand. This practical guide for business analysts contains all the tools, techniques, and processes needed to create business value and improve user adoption.

The Salesforce Business Analyst Handbook begins with the most crucial element of any business analysis activity: identifying business requirements. You’ll learn how to use tacit business analysis and Salesforce system analysis skills to rank and stack all requirements as well as get buy-in from stakeholders. Once you understand the requirements, you’ll work on transforming them into working software via prototyping, mockups, and wireframing. But what good is a product if the customer cannot use it? To help you achieve that, this book will discuss various testing strategies and show you how to tailor testing scenarios that align with business requirements documents. Toward the end, you’ll find out how to create easy-to-use training material for your customers and focus on post-production support – one of the most critical phases. Your customers will stay with you if you support them when they need it!

By the end of this Salesforce book, you’ll be able to successfully navigate every phase of a project and confidently apply your new knowledge in your own Salesforce implementations.

What you will learn

  • Create a roadmap to deliver a set of high-level requirements
  • Prioritize requirements according to their business value
  • Identify opportunities for improvement in process flows
  • Communicate your solution design via conference room pilots
  • Construct a requirements traceability matrix
  • Conduct user acceptance tests and system integration tests
  • Develop training artifacts so your customers can easily use your system
  • Implement a post-production support model to retain your customers

Who this book is for

This book is for intermediate- to senior-level business analysts with a basic understanding of Salesforce CRM software or any CRM technology who want to learn proven business analysis techniques to set their business up for success.

Table of contents

  1. The Salesforce Business Analyst Handbook
  2. Contributors
  3. About the author
  4. About the reviewers
  5. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. Download the color images
    4. Conventions used
    5. Get in touch
    6. Share Your Thoughts
    7. Download a free PDF copy of this book
  6. Part 1: Planning and Analysis – BRD/Prioritized Product Backlog
  7. Chapter 1: Identifying Requirements
    1. The role of business analysis in identifying requirement sources
      1. Types of requirements
    2. Securing support from the project sponsor
    3. Common sources where you can identify business requirements
      1. Document analysis
      2. Identify key stakeholders
      3. Navigate the organization
      4. Current system usage
      5. Identify the key end user
      6. Needs decomposition
      7. Get a system walkthrough
      8. Active participation
      9. Existing systems
      10. Note-taking
      11. Assumptions
      12. Meeting minutes
    4. Real-life scenarios with examples
      1. Scenario 1
      2. Scenario 2
      3. Scenario 3
    5. Practical tips for success
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
    8. Further reading
  8. Chapter 2: Elicitation and Document Requirements
    1. Elicitation planning
      1. Elicitation tasks
    2. Requirement elicitation techniques
      1. Observation
      2. Brainstorming
      3. Surveys
      4. Interviews / focus groups
      5. Conference room pilots / requirements workshops
      6. Prototyping
      7. Process models
      8. User stories
    3. Requirement documentation
    4. The art of elicitation
    5. Practical tips for success
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
    8. Further reading
  9. Chapter 3: Prioritizing Requirements
    1. The importance of requirement prioritization
    2. Reviewing prioritization techniques
      1. MoSCoW analysis
      2. Story mapping
    3. Dependency map between requirements
    4. Managing prioritization meetings
    5. Practical tips for success
    6. Simple CRM requirement prioritization and roadmap scenario
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
    9. Further reading
  10. Chapter 4: Process Flows – “As-Is” versus “To-Be”
    1. Reviewing the process flow
      1. Process flow types
    2. Understanding and capturing the current state “as-is”
      1. Current state swim lane process flow diagram
    3. Proven techniques to capture the current state
    4. Identifying gaps and improvement/automation opportunities
    5. Developing the future state – “to-be”
      1. Future state swim lane process flow diagram
      2. Benefits of creating process flows
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
    8. Further reading
  11. Chapter 5: Business Requirements Document
    1. Reviewing the need for business requirements documentation
    2. Understanding user requirements and use cases
    3. Exploring functional and non-functional requirements
      1. Functional requirements
      2. Non-functional requirements
    4. Learning what level of detail is sufficient
      1. Requirements matrix (prioritized product backlog)
    5. Explaining a typical business requirement document and its key attributes
    6. Practical tips for success
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
    9. Further reading
  12. Part 2: Design, Development, and Testing – Iterative Cycles with Prototypes and Conference Room Pilots
  13. Chapter 6: Solution Design and Functional Document
    1. Understanding solution design
    2. Identifying functional requirements
    3. Identifying non-functional requirements
    4. Reviewing data conversion requirements
    5. Understanding the functional requirements matrix
    6. Developing the function document
    7. Practical tips for success
    8. Summary
    9. Questions
    10. Further reading
  14. Chapter 7: Demonstrate Functionality Using Prototypes
    1. The need for prototyping and its categories
      1. Categories of prototype
      2. When to do prototyping
    2. Prototype stages
    3. What and how do you prototype?
    4. Tools to document prototyping
    5. The benefits of prototyping
    6. Practical tips for success
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
    9. Further reading
  15. Chapter 8: Exploring Conference Room Pilots
    1. Understanding what CRPs are
    2. Exploring the timing and participants of CRPs
      1. Scope CRP
      2. Design CRP
      3. Build CRP
      4. Test CRP
    3. Facilitating CRPs
    4. Managing scope creep during CRPs
    5. Reviewing the benefits of CRPs
    6. Practical tips for success
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
    9. Further reading
  16. Chapter 9: Technical and Quality Testing
    1. Planning testing activities
    2. Testing strategy
      1. Testing levels
      2. Testing methods
      3. Testing schedule
    3. Testing approach
    4. Testing phases
    5. Types of testing
    6. Sample test script/case fields
    7. Benefits of testing
    8. Practical tips for success
    9. Summary
    10. Questions
    11. Further reading
  17. Chapter 10: Requirements Traceability Matrix
    1. Understanding the importance of an RTM
    2. Learning what to capture in an RTM
    3. Exploring types of traceability
    4. Reviewing an RTM template sample
    5. Benefits of an RTM
    6. Practical tips for success
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
    9. Further reading
  18. Part 3: End User Testing, Communication, Training, and Support
  19. Chapter 11: User Acceptance Testing
    1. Identifying the right set of UAT users
    2. Learning how to help UAT users test effectively
    3. Getting feedback on usability
    4. Exploring the need for UAT
    5. Reviewing the benefits of UAT
    6. Practical tips for success
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
    9. Further reading
  20. Chapter 12: Communication and Knowledge Management
    1. End user communication
    2. Different knowledge management types
      1. Explicit knowledge
      2. Tacit knowledge
    3. Knowledge artifacts accessibility
    4. Benefits of communication and knowledge management
    5. Practical tips for success
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
  21. Chapter 13: End User Training
    1. Planning for training
    2. Preparing for training
    3. Setting up the training environment
    4. Reviewing types of training materials
    5. Understanding the importance of in-person or live training
    6. Facilitating a training session
    7. Benefits of end user training
    8. Practical tips for success
    9. Summary
    10. Questions
  22. Chapter 14: Post Go-Live Support / User Forums
    1. Super care
    2. Production support
    3. User forums
      1. Topics to cover during the user forum
    4. Delivery cadence
    5. Benefits of production support
    6. Practical tips for success
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
  23. Assessments
    1. Chapter 1 - Identifying Requirements
    2. Chapter 2 - Elicitation and Document Requirements
    3. Chapter 3 - Prioritizing Requirements
    4. Chapter 4 - Process Flows – “As-Is” versus “To-Be”
    5. Chapter 5 - Business Requirements Document
    6. Chapter 6 - Solution Design and Functional Document
    7. Chapter 7 - Demonstrate Functionality Using Prototypes
    8. Chapter 8 - Exploring Conference Room Pilots
    9. Chapter 9 - Technical and Quality Testing
    10. Chapter 10 - Requirements Traceability Matrix
    11. Chapter 11 - User Acceptance Testing
    12. Chapter 12 - Communication and Knowledge Management
    13. Chapter 13 - End User Training
    14. Chapter 14 - Post Go-Live Support / User Forums
  24. Index
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Product information

  • Title: The Salesforce Business Analyst Handbook
  • Author(s): Srini Munagavalasa
  • Release date: November 2022
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781801813426