Business Analysis Professional Development Program

Business Analysis Fundamentals – Level 1: This course provides participants with the fundamental knowledge of the processes and disciplines that enable the delivery of objective requirements that add maximum value to an organisation.

By combining a practical and pragmatic approach to business analysis, aligned with industry standards, this course will provide you with the opportunity to prepare for the International Institute of Business Analysis^™ (IIBA^®) industry certification ECBA^™.

Using real-life scenarios will develop your skills, enabling you to put into practice tasks and techniques that allows you to gain general knowledge and practical experience. Undertaking a set of review questions at the end of each session will ensure full understanding of the material covered. It will also serve as a study aid for those who wish to undertake the ECBA™ certificate.

Business Analysis in Practice – Level 2: This course provides participants with a standardised and systematic approach for eliciting, analysing and managing business requirements that form the basis for successful solutions delivered to the organisation.

It uses a real-life case study approach to plan, manage and execute a detailed requirements development process, to successfully manage stakeholders, and to reduce organisational risk by understanding the impact of change across the business.

In BA Fundamentals, the focus is on understanding the role of the Business Analysts, key business analysis concepts and which common techniques can assist the BA in specific situations. The focus of BA in Practice is to practically apply a range of techniques to common analysis activities.

This course can assist in preparation for the Certification of Capability in Business Analysis^™ (CCBA®) Certification.

COURSE SUMMARY

Module 1

Session 1: Setting the Scene
Course objectives. IIBA certification.

Session 2: Introduction to Business Analysis – Core Concepts
What is Business Analysis? Core competencies of a successful Business Analyst. Working with the BABOK^® Guide

Session 3: Planning Business Analysis activities
Planning and the BABOK Guide. Writing a problem / opportunity statement. Scope modelling.

Session 4: Eliciting and Communication Information
Elicitation and the BABOK Guide. Conducting elicitation using collaborative games. Confirming elicitation results and communicating information.

Session 5: Stakeholder collaboration
Identifying and analysing stakeholders. Categorising stakeholders. Engaging stakeholders through collaboration

Session 6: Strategy analysis
Strategy analysis and the BABOK Guide. Analysing the current state. Defining the future state.

Session 7: Defining requirements
Requirements and the BABOK Guide. Writing effective requirements (taking into account attributes, constraints, business rules and assumptions).

Session 8: Requirements Lifecycle Management
Requirements lifecycle management and the BABOK Guide. Overview of tracing and maintaining requirements. Prioritising requirements. Assessing and approving requirements changes.

Session 9: Modelling requirements
The Requirements Analysis and Design Definition knowledge area. Specifying and modelling requirements. Understanding the difference between: requirements and designs, and matrices and diagrams. Using models to drive requirements.

Session 10: Evaluating Requirements, Designs and the Solution
Evaluating requirements through verification and validation. Recommending a solution using acceptance and evaluation criteria. Evaluating the implemented solution.

This course follows a practical path with participants working on a case study to fully define, scope, model, validate and verify a solution based on elicited, prioritised requirements from identified stakeholders.

Module 2

Session 1: Setting the Scene
Course objectives. IIBA certification.

Session 2: Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring
Overview of the Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring knowledge area. Planning your approach – predictive (e.g. waterfall) versus adaptive (e.g. agile). Identifying and analysing stakeholders. Planning for BA governance and Information Management. Identifying BA performance improvements.

Session 3: Elicitation and Collaboration
Overview of the Elicitation and Collaboration knowledge area. Preparing for and conducting elicitation. Confirming and communicating elicitation results.

Session 4: Strategy Analysis
Overview of the Strategy Analysis knowledge area. Techniques used in Strategy Analysis.

Session 5: Requirements Analysis and Design Definition (RADD)
Overview of the RADD knowledge area. Specifying and verifying requirements using boilerplates, user stories, pre-defined quality characteristics and acceptance criteria. Modelling requirements using a range of techniques such as process models, data models and business rules analysis. Defining design options and recommending a solution based on potential value.

Session 6: Requirements Lifecycle Management
Overview of the Requirements Lifecycle Management knowledge area. Tracing, maintaining, prioritising and reusing requirements.

Session 7: Solution Evaluation
Overview of the Solution Evaluation knowledge area. Measuring solution performance using value attributes, qualitative and quantitative measures. Analysing performance measures. Assessing solution and enterprise limitations that limit the value an implemented solution brings to an organisation. Recommending actions to increase the value of an implemented solution.

This course follows a practical path with participants working on a case study to develop a solution using the most appropriate method (agile / waterfall). This will include practical experience of using a range of techniques and models such as personas, business capability maps, use case diagrams and scenarios, user stories and acceptance criteria, data flow diagrams, state models, and many more…

This course will also focus on managing and improving BA work, so participants will be asked to create supporting artefacts such as risk registers and change control procedures.