This course provides a usable, practical, step-by-step approach to business analysis. All aspects of business analysis are covered, from
beginning with an investigation into a business problem to developing a business case for a proposed business change.
The course focuses on several inter-related areas:
- The role and tasks of the business analyst, and how the role links to project management and the business and solution provider
communities
- Stakeholder analysis, information gathering, interviews and workshops
- Modelling, including modelling processes, information, problems, requirements, and solutions
- Identifying and quantifying business needs, problems, challenges and opportunities
- Business process analysis, metrics, mapping and design
- Requirements definition, including requirements elicitation, analysis, specification, validation, and organisation and ensuring
traceability of requirements throughout
- Financial analysis, including costing of different options and investment appraisal
The course has been developed by experts with a wealth of experience of business analysis in real world projects, large and small, in both
the public and private sector. The real world knowledge comes out again and again in practical guidelines, tips, tricks, and pitfalls to avoid
throughout the course.
INTRODUCTION
Why perform Business Analysis?
- The business change lifecycle
- Why do business problems occur and what are their causes?
- Types of business problems
- Business process improvement
- Business analysis vs. System analysis
- What benefits does Business Analysis Bring
The Role of the Business Analyst
- Understanding the strategic direction of the business
- Viewing the business from a high level perspective
- Investigating the relationship between business 'problems' and 'processes'
- The role of the business analyst in the project lifecycle
- Capturing requirements
- Developing the Business Case
- Quality assurance activities
When to perform Business Analysis
- A project approach to business analysis
- Performing business analysis as a project in its own right
- Developing the terms of reference
- Initiating the project
- The business benefits of undertaking a business analysis project
- The project management context
- Selecting an appropriate lifecycle approach
- The unified process
- Process improvement
Communication
- Human factors in communication: the counter-intuitive reality
- Communication models
- Establishing effective communication
- Assessing our individual communication strengths and weaknesses
UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS NEED AND PROBLEM DIAGNOSIS
Business Analysis : Investigating a business problem
- Overview of the approach
- Organisational SWOT and SOFT Analysis
- Analysing the business and its environment
- Resource Audit
- PESTLE Analysis
- Representing the overall business situation
- Deliverables of Business Analysis
Stakeholder Analysis
- Understanding stakeholder needs
- User requirements validation
- Dealing with conflicting requirements
- Prioritising stakeholder requirements
Developing a Business Case to support a Solution
- The structuring of a business case
- Selecting a suitable solution
- Defining Project Objectives
- Defining Business Objectives
- Cost and benefit analysis
- Risk and impact analysis
- Gaining agreements
- Project Initiation & defining terms of reference
- Assurance of the delivery of Business Benefits - quantifying improvement goals
- Quality Assurance
- Presenting the business case
Understanding of the overall business area
- Identifying and defining business perspectives
- Identifying and resolving Conflicts
Investigative Techniques
- Organising quality research and gathering consistent data
- Information gathering plan and method, and the need for iteration
- Question design
- Primary data sources, accelerated techniques including compression workshops, and secondary sources
- Effective Elicitation techniques
- Overview
- Developing Questionnaires
- Planning and conducting interviews
- Planning and conducting workshops
- Determining user classes and categories
- Using multiple information sources to verify requirements
User requirements analysis
- Introduction to requirements gathering
- Identifying the boundary between specifications and requirements
- Requirements Framework
- Overview of the iterative process
- Eliciting, analysing, specifying, validating and managing requirements
- Ensuring requirements are measurable and testable
- Ordering and classifying user requirements
- Prioritising user requirements
- Dealing with changing requirements - a systematic process approach
- Evaluating changes
- Traceability : ensuring that all changes are traceable, accountable and are authorised by stakeholders
- Understand the root causes of the problem
- Foreseeing future requirements
Modelling Business Processes
- Identifying business activities and dependencies
- Business rules and constraints
- Building business events and activity indicators
- Measuring business performance
- Modelling multiple activities
- Relating models to requirements
- Process modelling with UML activity diagrams
- Modelling interactions in a process using UML sequence diagrams
- Process metrics, simulation, and task design
- Overview of additional techniques to model business problems
- Use Case Analysis (UML/Rose/Object Orientated Analysis)
- Data Modelling
- Workflow Modelling (as-is state)
- End to end process maps
Business use cases and use case diagrams
- Use case introduction
- Identifying use cases
- Use case descriptions
- Business use cases and their relationships to business processes
- Use case diagrams
- Use case refinement
- Other ways to capture requirements, including non-functional requirements
- Use case modelling process observations
DEVELOPING SOLUTIONS
Developing Solutions to Business problems
- Identifying areas for business improvement
- Structure
- People
- Processes
- Stimulating creative thinking
- Developing a new Business Model
- Data Modelling
- Process and Workflow modelling (to-be state)
- Developing solutions
- GAP analysis - comparing existing system to desired functionality
- Approaches to developing innovative and creative solutions
- Select the best solution to solve the business problem
