Course Overview:
This is an introductory course designed to provide participants with a basic understanding of the benefits, functions and impact of a Business Analyst has within an organization. The course discusses the business analysis process as it is applied throughout a project to include the pre-project activities that comprise enterprise analysis.
Course Description:
Audience profile
Designed for individuals new to the business analyst role or those who supervise and/or work with business analysts
At course completion
After completing this course, students will be able to:
- Understand the role of the business analyst
- Discuss industry standards/resources for obtaining more information about business analysis
- Acquire a solid understanding of the various tasks/activities that comprises business analysis
- Recognize the pre and post project business analysis activities
- Learn how to plan, elicit, analyze, model, and test requirements
Course Outline
Section 1: Introduction to Business Analysis
- Business analysis defined
- The activities that comprise business analysis
- IIBA/PMI and the goals of a professional association
- IIBA’s BABOK® Guide and PMI’s Practice Guide in Business Analysis
- Exercise: Requirements challenges
Section 2: The IIBA™ and 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
Section 3: Strategy Analysis and Change
- The definition of Strategy Analysis
- Components of Strategy Analysis
- Identifying stakeholders and business needs
- Exercises:
- Business Need development
- RACI Stakeholder Identification
Section 4: 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
- Create a context diagram
- Create a Use Case Diagram
Section 5: Understanding Requirements
- Define the term requirement
- Understand requirement types
- Present the requirements process
- Requirements vs. specifications and business rules
- Exercise: Identify Requirements
Section 6: Planning and 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
Section 7: Analyzing and 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
Section 8: Elicitation and 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
- Create a Prototype of your application
Section 9: Verifying and 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
Section 10: Additional Resources
- Helpful links for obtaining additional business analysis information