Business Analysis Foundation
Course Length: 3 days
DESCRIPTION
One of the main reasons of IT project failure because of bad requirements. According to project statistics, up to 56% of project errors originate from the requirement definition phase and completed projects offer only 52% of the proposed functionality. That is why today's understanding of the role of business analytics is very important and desirable.
This is an introductory course designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the benefits, functions and impact a business analyst has within an organization. The course discusses the business analysis process as it is applied throughout a project as well as the pre-project activities that comprise strategy analysis. Students learn how a business analyst supports the project throughout the solution development life cycle, from defining business needs and solution scope to validating that requirements have been met in the testing phase and ensuring the solution continues to provide value after implementation.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Designed for individuals new to the business analyst role or those who supervise and/or work with business analysts.
PREREQUISITES
This course covers all of the fundamentals. No prerequisites are required for this course. This course is suitable for both novices and experienced people who need to have a clear and systematic approach to Business Analysis.
COURSE OUTLINE
OVERVIEW OF BUSINESS ANALYSIS
- Introduction to the Course
- What is Business Analysis?
- What Problems does it Address?
- Business Analysis Activities
THE ROLE OF THE BUSINESS ANALYST
- Business analyst defined BA role vs. PM role
- Importance of communication/collaboration
- The deliverables produced as part of business analysis
- The BA career path
- Exercise: Review case Study
STAKEHOLDERS
- Who are they? And why do they matter?
- The most common stakeholders: The project team, management, and the front line
- Handling Stakeholder Conflicts
LIFE CYCLES
- Overview of Life Cycles
- Systems Development Life Cycles
- Project Life Cycles
- Agile SDLC
- Product Life Cycles
- Requirement Life Cycles, etc
STRATEGY ANALYSIS AND CHANGE
- The definition of Strategy Analysis
- Components of Strategy Analysis
- Identifying stakeholders and business needs
- Exercises: Business Need development and RACI Stakeholder Identification
UNDERSTANDING AND DEFINING SOLUTION SCOPE
- Defining Solution Scope
- Project scope vs. product scope
- Defining a problem statement
- Techniques for defining scope
- Exercises: Conduct a brainwriting session and create a context diagramOptional exercise: Create a Use Case Diagram
UNDERSTANDING REQUIREMENTS
- Define the term requirement
- Understand requirement types
- Present the requirements process
- Requirements vs. specifications and business rules
- Exercise: Identify Requirements
PLANNING & ELICITING REQUIREMENTS
- The Requirements Work Plan (RWP)
- Components of the RWP
- Identifying good questions for elicitation
- Active listening
- Categories and types of elicitation techniques
- Exercise: Planning for elicitation
ANALYZING & DOCUMENTING REQUIREMENTS
- Understanding requirements analysis
- The Business Requirements Document (BRD)
- The BRD vs. the functional requirements specification
- BRD components
- The purpose of packaging requirements
- Exercise: Analyzing Requirements
ELICITATION & PROCESS MODELING
- Why models are created
- Objectives of modeling
- What is process management
- Understanding process modeling
- Modeling using BPMN
- AS-IS vs. TO-BE modeling
- BPMN subclasses
- BPMN simple structure
- Prototyping
- Business Process Modeling case study
- Exercises: Modeling and create a Prototype of your application
VERIFYING & VALIDATING REQUIREMENTS
- The difference between validation and verification
- Characteristics of good requirements
- Risks associated with requirements
- Types of testing approaches
- Creating a test plan
- Requirements traceability matrix
- Verified and validated requirements
- Exercise: Testing Requirements
ADDITIONAL TOPICS AND RESOURCES
- Actual course outline may vary depending on practical needs of course participants
- Provide practical information and tools for applying business analysis (check lists, templates, helpful links for obtaining additional business analysis information and other tools)