The business analyst’s role is key to defining the requirements of a project at its earliest stages, as well as to planning, defining and validating project scope. It’s important to have an understanding of the breadth of knowledge that a business analyst brings to bear in developing business solutions. This introductory course is designed to give people new to the business analyst role or those who supervise and/or work with business analysts a basic understanding of the benefits, functions and impact of this critical position. You’ll experience how a business analyst supports the project, from establishing its scope in the analysis phase to ensuring the requirements have been met in the testing phase. The course provides a special focus on the business analysis function as it relates to developing information technology solutions, given that such an understanding is essential for project success. After completing this course, you’ll understand why and when to involve the business analysis function. Plus, you’ll have a working vocabulary to enable you to communicate effectively with those who perform that role. If you are new to the role of the business analyst and need to pursue more in-depth skill development, you’ll leave this course with the framework necessary to support your future efforts.

Course Topics

1. What is Business Analysis?
   • IT business analysis
   • Business process improvement
   • Challenges of gathering and analyzing requirements
   • History and current trends in business analysis
   • Role of the business analyst through the project life cycle
2. Defining the Business Problem
   Techniques to determine the underlying business problems
   • Understanding the business environment at a high-level
   • Relating business "problems" and "processes"
3. Root Causes of Problems
   Business problems and root causes
   • Applying modeling to understand root causes (the AS-IS state)
     • Workflow modeling
     • Use Case analysis
     • Data modeling
4. Solution Vision and Scope
   Vision and envisioning
   • The key players in setting the vision
   • How to determine the product scope
   • Quantifying process improvement goals
5. Making the Business Case
   How the business analyst adds insight to business cases
   • Estimating the benefits associated with the product
6. Modeling the Future State
   Models and modeling
   • Relating models to requirements
   • Modeling the information requirements (data modeling)
   • Modeling the TO-BE state (process and workflow modeling)
7. Getting Requirements from Models
   The value of Use Cases
   • Use Case analysis
   • Unified Modeling Language (UML) and object-oriented analysis
8. Requirements Definition and Documentation
   SMART requirements
   • Identifying the boundary between requirements and specifications
   • Managing changes to the ¬requirements
9. Quality Assurance and Testing
   The business analyst's role in testing
   • Quality assurance activities: checking and testing
   • Introduction to test strategies and plans

 

“PMBOK”- is registered mark of Project Management Institute, Inc.