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. 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