Business Analysis Foundation

Audience

Business analysts, business managers and their staff, business change managers, project managers and developers.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Duration

3 days. Lecture presentations are supported by practical exercises which allow discussion, reinforcement of learning and enhancement of the understanding process.

Course Objectives

This course leads to the ISEB Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis. The qualification provides a foundation for the ISEB modular certificates in the areas of Business Analysis, IS Consultancy and Business Change as well as the higher level ISEB Diploma in Business Analysis. In addition, the certificate can be used to provide a foundation in Business Analysis for specialists in other disciplines, particularly Project Managers and System Developers. The course contents conform to the ISEB syllabus which is based on the BCS publication ‘Business Analysis’. The main objective of this course is to help participants gain a successful outcome in the ISEB Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis examination.

At the end of the course, participants should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of business analysis principles and techniques in the following areas:

• The role and competencies of a business analyst.
• Strategy analysis.
• Business system and business process modeling.
• Stakeholder analysis.
• Investigation and modelling techniques.
• Requirements engineering.
• Business case development.
• Management of business change.

Course Content

Introduction to Business Analysis
The origins of business analysis
The development of business analysis
The scope of business analysis work
Strategic analysis and definition
IT systems analysis
Business analysis
Taking an holistic approach
The role and responsibilities of a business analyst

The Competencies of a Business Analyst
Behavioural skills and personal qualities
Business knowledge
Techniques
The Skills Framework for the Information Age

Strategy Analysis
The context for strategy
The definition of strategy
Strategy development
External environment analysis – PESTLE and 5-Forces
Internal environment analysis – MOST, Resource Audit and Boston Box

SWOT analysis
Implementing strategy – McKinsey 7-S Model and the Balanced Business Scorecard

The Business Analysis Process Model
An approach to problem-solving
Stages of the business analysis process model
Objectives of the process model stages
Procedure for each process model stage
Techniques used within each process model stage

Investigation Techniques
Interviews
Workshops
Observation
Scenarios
Prototyping
Quantitative approaches

Stakeholder Analysis and Management
Definition of a stakeholder
Stakeholder categories and identification
Analysing stakeholders
Stakeholder management strategies
Managing stakeholders

Modelling the Business System
Soft systems methodology
Documenting business situations – Rich Pictures and Mind Maps
Business perspectives
Business activity models
Business events
Business rules
Critical success factors and key performance indicators
Validating a business activity model
Use of the business activity model in gap analysis

Business Process Modelling
Definition of a business process model
The importance of business process modelling
The business process modelling technique
Improving business processes

Requirements Engineering
Problems with requirements
The place of requirements engineering in development lifecycles
A process for requirements engineering
Actors in requirements engineering
Requirements elicitation
Building the requirements list
Requirements analysis
Documenting the requirements
Validating requirements
Managing changes to requirements

Modelling the IT System
Modelling system functions – Use Case diagrams
Modelling system data - Entity Relationship Diagrams and Class Models

Managing the Information Resource
Managing data resources
Valuing data
Supporting business activities

Making a Business and Financial Case
The business case in the project lifecycle
Identifying options
Assessing project feasibility – Business, Technical and Financial feasibility
Structure of a business case
Investment appraisal - Payback, Discounted Cash Flow and Internal rate of Return
Presentation of a business case
Benefits realisation

Managing Business Change
Introducing a new system
Emotions and the change process
Phases of the change process
The need for change management
The change process