Module 1 - Business Analysis Activities
While people have been performing the Business Analyst role in organizations for several decades differing definitions of the role abound. We explore these definitions and gain an understanding of where the industry appears to be heading and some emerging common standards for the profession.
Key Topics
- Business analysis defined and understanding the Business Analyst role and function
- The competencies/activities of the Business Analyst
- IIBA’s BABOK ® Guide and PMI’s Practice Guide in Business Analysis
- The rationale for business analysis
- The development of business analysis
- The scope of business analysis
- The responsibilities of a business analyst
- The Business Analysis Maturity Model
Module 2 - Communication and Influencing in the Business Analysis Context
Many tasks that are integral for successful business analysis involve significant communication. Participants will hone their ability to connect with project stakeholders at all levels using effective verbal and nonverbal techniques. We will also identify and practice overcoming sources of misunderstanding, which is vital for requirements validation.
Key Topics
- BA role vs. PM role
- Stakeholder analysis and management
- The three most important communication and collaboration skills for business analysis
- The biggest challenges Business Analysts confront
- Eliciting and clarifying information (communication and miscommunication)
- Requirements analysis and validating information
- The Requirements Work Plan (RWP)
- Components of the RWP
- Identifying good questions for elicitation
- Refining and writing better requirements
- Define the term requirement
- Understand requirement types
- Present the requirements process
- Requirements vs. specifications and business rules
- The deliverables produced as part of business analysis
- Understanding interaction skills and why Business Analysts need them
- Facilitation with stakeholders
- Negotiation and conflict resolution
- Leadership, teamworking, and influencing
Module 3 -Analytical Thinking and Problem Solving
Projects often arise to solve specific business problems. Understanding the underlying problem, though sometimes overlooked, is key to being able to develop the correct requirements so that the best solution can be developed. During this section, you will explore and practice problem analysis and its application.
Key Topics
- Why problem-solving is key to business analysis
- Defining solution scope and analyzing symptoms and causes
- Identifying and defining the problem: Project scope vs. product scope
- Defining a problem statement
- Developing solutions and solution evaluation defined
- Understanding the people side of problem-solving
- The business, technology and systems domain: what it is and what’s relevant to business analysis
- Making a business and financial case
- Realizing the benefits
- Key tasks of solution evaluation
- Solution evaluation practice
Module 4 - Strategy Analysis and Requirements Collaboration
One of the most overlooked functions of a Business Analysts is the strategy analysis, which can also yield some of the most valuable findings of a project. After the requirements are analyzed and refined, they have to be strategically validated with business customers, users and management. Communicating these requirements involves much more than information exchange; at its best, it is a process of negotiation, validation, and consensus building. We will examine the inherent communication challenges and help you confidently choose the best ways to achieve your communication goals and gain the stakeholder buy-in required for successful requirements management throughout the project lifecycle. Strategy analysis is a key best practice in business analysis, and they can be surprisingly straightforward. During this portion of the workshop, we will explore some practical techniques that produce keen, relevant, and useful insights for the business organization.
Key Topics
- Strategy analysis defined
- The role of the Business Analyst in strategy analysis
- Describing the business environment
- Describing the requirements scope
- Assessing feasibility
- Requirements collaboration defined
- Determining the appropriate requirements presentation format
- Creating the requirements package
- Presenting the requirements
- Conducting a formal requirements review
- Obtaining consensus and signoff of requirements
- 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
Module 5 - Project Initiation and Evaluation Analysis
The most effective business analysis goes beyond defining project scope and specifying requirements – it includes an evaluation of whether the specified solution meets the stakeholders needs. In this final module, you will have a chance to explore the key tasks for solution evaluation, have an opportunity to practice some ways to validate solution effectiveness and discuss the concept of acceptance criteria and some of the validation activities that BAs can perform on projects.
Key Topics
- Identifying project stakeholders
- Defining and documenting project scope
- Decomposing the application domain
- Analyzing and documenting key processes
- Eliciting functional requirements
- The definition of Strategy Analysis
- Components of Strategy Analysis
- Identifying stakeholders and business needs
- Modeling the desired state
MG84
