Foundations of Business Analysis Training (24 PD/CDUs)

Successful projects begin with clearly defined requirements that trace to specific business needs. Most companies rely heavily on the IT Business Analyst to make this happen. The Business Analyst serves as the liaison between non-IT employees who have a business problem to solve and the IT team who provides the technical solution. The Business Analyst must be tech-savvy, must be able to build consensus, and must be a great communicator as these two sides of the company often speak very different languages.

In this era of bare-bones IT budgets and extreme cost-cutting pressure, the Business Analyst role is growing in importance. This introductory course provides knowledge and the essential skills needed to be an effective Business Analyst. The full life cycle of Requirements planning, gathering, modeling, analysis, specification, documentation, and verification are covered. Both object oriented and structured techniques for modeling are introduced. Learn the practical skills required to grow in the Business Analyst role. Gain skills in communication, consensus building, and management of scope creep though many engaging exercises, discussions, and tips/techniques.

Upon Completion:

By taking this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Understand the role of a Business Analyst and why "good" requirements are essential to project success
• Describe the key tasks performed by a Business Analyst
• Introduce a requirements framework that aligns with evolving industry standards
• Utilize popular requirements gathering techniques
• Leverage analysis and modeling techniques
• Identify the characteristics of a "quality" requirements and practice good documentation techniques
• Recognize the impact that un-controlled change can have on a project and apply techniques to control it
• Introduce Best Practices for planning and managing the requirements process
• Establish checkpoints for quality assurance throughout the requirements process

• Define the role of a Business Analyst and the key competencies required to be a successful Business Analyst
• Recognize the key tasks performed in Business Analysis
• Communicate scope to your stakeholders
• Identify the challenges associated with gathering requirements and leverage best practices to prevent or overcome them
• Introduce standards in business process modeling
• Describe the purpose and value of use cases
• Explain the requirements analysis process and differentiate between techniques that can used to analyze requirements
• Write good requirements; follow basic rules and avoid ambiguity
• Determine the appropriate formality and content of documentation
• Specify techniques to communicate requirements
• Explain the fundamental principles of validation

Day 1 Course Introduction Defining Business Analysis The Role of the Business Analyst through the project life cycle Key tasks performed in Business Analysis The value of quality requirements Understanding the Project Objectives and Scope Define requirements and differentiate between business and system requirements Understanding the business context for your requirements Nail down Project Objectives and Boundaries The Context Diagram Communicate scope to your stakeholders Gathering Requirements An approach to gathering requirements Challenges associated with gatherings requirements Best practices to overcome challenges Popular Techniques Brainstorming/Brainwriting Interviewing Facilitating Requirement Workshop Sessions Day 2: Business Process Modeling using Activity Diagrams The value of process modeling in gathering and analyzing requirements Key features of BPM As-is, To-be models Using UML for BPM notation Using Use Cases to Elicit, Analyze and Document Requirements Purpose and Value of use cases Key Terms The Use Case Diagram The Use Case Specification Best practices in developing use cases Analyzing Requirements The requirements analysis process Techniques that can be used for analysis When, why, and how to use each Day 3: Documenting and Communicating Requirements Rules for writing good requirements Traceability of requirements The appropriate formality and content of documentation How to communicate requirements Planning and Managing Requirements The requirements team Selecting and estimating requirements activities Managing requirements scope The importance of Change Control Validating Requirements The importance of Quality and its relationship to requirements Validation vs. Verification The role of the BA in QA/Test Course Summary

Upcoming Dates & Locations