Terms of Reference

The terms of reference document defines a formal agreement between the project and the business. It forms the basis of what you, the business analyst, will do, who with, to what timescales, what will be covered (and what not) and what will be delivered.

This first set of slides is the Terms of Reference for the Feasibility Study. 

If you join a project at its outset and no terms of reference document exists, your first task should be to get one written up and signed off. The sign-off authorities should include the project sponsor, project manager and identified stakeholders. That way there can be no chance of misunderstanding and no chance of effort wasted pursuing the wrong things.

If a ToR document does exist, review it and make sure it covers off, at a minimum, the areas shown here - make changes, if necessary and, again, get it signed off.

Key to Case Study Notes

Whenever a point needs to be made, like above, about the method being used or about aspects of the case study, the notes will appear in a callout box as shown below.

From now on, all notes discussing aspects of the case study, hints and tips about the method or just good practice, will appear in one.