The Practical Guide by Elizabeth Larson, CBAP, PMP and Richard Larson, CBAP, PMP is one of those books that after reading is not put back to the shelf, but which will get a special place on your desktop or which will become a companion while on the go. This is mainly due to the practical approach that has been chosen the Larsons. One feels that the book is written by practitioners, I noted that the procedures described here are supported empirically. The book focuses as the subtitle "Part 1: Requirements Planning" says on the planning process for requirements management and puts requirements themselves in focus. What I like very much is that the book is based on both standards, PMBOK ® and BABOK ®, like in reality: Business Analysis can never be separated from Project Management, only the integration of BA and PM leads to better project performance. That is also considered in the joint planning processes and very well covered in this book. The topics in detail:
* Introduction Requirements
* Stakeholder Relationship Management
* Requirements Management Planning
* Business Analysis Planning Scope
* Business Analysis Estimating Effort
* Planning Business Analysis Communications
* Business Analysis Planning Risks
* Planning Business Analysis Performance Reporting
A valuable final chapter provides useful tips on the integration of PM and BA and as well some tables which map the PMBOK ® Process Groups and the BABOK ® knowledge areas, which is useful in practice; the cooperation of project managers and business analysts should be planned and agreed upon, I highly recommend this from my practical experience as PMP® and CBAP®.
