BCS Certificate in Business Analysis Practice Training

This BCS Certificate in Business Analysis Practice course takes you through an end-to-end holistic business analysis process. This holistic approach considers four aspects of a business system: the processes, the people, the organisational context, and the technology. Starting with the rationale for a holistic approach, the course provides a clear understanding of the strategic context and the project discipline needed for business analysis.

Description

Module 1: The Rationale for Business Analysis

  • Recognising the business change life-cycle
  • Clarifying the role of the business analyst
  • Examining other roles in business change
  • Understanding the framework for business analysis

Module 2: Understanding the Strategic Context

Internal and external analysis

  • Analysing the Internal analysis
  • Surveying the business landscape with external analysis

Linking to the internal and external business environment analysis

  • Performing a SWOT analysis
  • Using a SWOT analysis
  • Identifying the strategic context

Executing strategy

  • Balanced Business Scorecard
  • Recognising Critical Success Factors and Key Performance Indicators

Critical success factors and key performance indicators

  • Identifying Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
  • Creating Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
  • Setting performance targets
  • Deploying the balanced business scorecard as a frame

Module 3: Business Analysis Project Discipline

  • Identifying the Terms of Reference and/or Project Initiation Documentation
  • Clarifying business and project objectives

Module 4: Understanding the Current Situation

Stakeholder identification

  • Stakeholder wheel
  • Other potential sources of information

Investigative techniques

  • Investigating the current business situation
    • Interviews
    • Observation
    • Workshops
    • Document Analysis
    • Focus Groups
    • Questionnaires/Surveys

The Business Analysis Process Model

  • Stages of the business analysis process model
  • Considering the perspectives
  • Analysing the needs
  • Evaluating the options
  • Defining the requirements

Investigating the situation

  • Interviewing stakeholders
  • Effective Requirements Workshops

Representing a holistic view of the business situation

  • Taking a holistic view
  • Using various documentation techniques
    • Rich pictures
    • Mind maps
    • Fishbone diagrams

Module 5: Stakeholder Analysis and Management

Identifying, categorising and analysing stakeholders

  • Defining stakeholder types
  • Deploying the Power/Interest Grid

Stakeholder management strategies

  • Levels of power and interest
  • Building a communication strategy

Understanding stakeholder perspectives

  • Analysing stakeholders with CATWOE
  • Creating business activity model

Module 6: Modelling Business Processes and Requirements

Creating a process model

  • Pinpointing business events
  • Developing the business process model

Modelling system functions and data

  • Use case diagrams
  • Entity Relationship Diagrams and Class Models

Module 7: Defining the Solution

Gap analysis

  • Identifying areas of concern
  • Analysing the gap with POPIT

Introduction to Business Architecture

  • Definition of Business Architecture
  • Business Architecture techniques

Module 8: Making a Business and Financial Case

Structuring the business case

Identifying and shortlisting options for business change

Identifying and categorising costs and benefits

  • Tangible and intangible costs and benefits
  • Investment appraisal techniques

Identifying and categorising risks

  • Identifying risks
  • Assessing the impact of the risks
  • Assessing the probability of the risks
  • Risk management approaches

Identifying impacts

  • Organisational culture
  • Organisational behaviour

The business case life-cycle

Prerequisites

Experience at the level of:

  • Introduction to Business Analysis Training: Defining Successful Projects
  • BCS Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis

Similar events

3 separate linked courses, carried out over a total of 9 days.

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