BCS Foundation in Business Analysis

• There are no entry requirements for this certification

The role of a Business Analyst (BA) is full of variety and is broad in scope. This certificate is introduces a range of concepts, approaches and techniques that are relevant in business analysis today. This certificate provides a foundation for the range of BCS Practitioner Certificates in various Business Analysis related specialisms and may be used as the knowledge-based specialist module in the BCS Diploma in Business Analysis.

Who is it for?

• The foundation certificate is designed for people who want to understand business analysis, support change and improve business processes
• Suitable for business analysts, business managers and members of their team, business change managers and project managers

What will I learn?

You’ll gain a broad understanding of business analysis, including:

• The role and competencies of a business analyst
• How to identify and evaluate options for improving your business
• Investigative techniques, including interviews, workshops, prototyping and scenarios
• How to categorise, analyse and manage stakeholders
• Making a business case and assessing feasibility
• How to document, manage and validate requirements

1. WHAT IS BUSINESS ANALYSIS?
   1. Describe the business change lifecycle.
   2. List the key principles of business analysis.
   3. Describe the variants of the business analyst role.
2. THE COMPETENCIES OF A BUSINESS ANALYST
   1. Explain the concept of the T-shaped Professional.
   2. Identify the three areas of business analysis competency.
3. THE STRATEGIC CONTEXT FOR BUSINESS ANALYSIS
   1. Describe business analysis and the strategic context.
   2. Define the factors assessed using PESTLE to analyse an external environment
   3. Idenitfy the elements of the VMOST technique used to analyse an internal environment.
   4. Describe the following elements of performance measurement.
   5. Describe the structure of a SWOT analysis.
   6. Describe the following techniques used in strategy execution.
4. THE BUSINESS ANALYSIS SERVICE FRAMEWORK
   1. Identify the activities in the Business Analysis Service Framework (BASF).
5. INVESTIGATING THE BUSINESS SITUATION
   1. Define workshops.
   2. Define observation.
   3. Define interviews.
   4. Define scenarios.
   5. Define prototyping.
   6. Define user role analysis.
   7. Define quantitative approaches.
   8. Describe two diagrammatic techniques used to record a business situation.
6. ANALYSING AND MANAGING STAKEHOLDERS
   1. Identify stakeholder categories using the stakeholder wheel.
   2. Describe the use of the Power/Interest grid technique to analyse stakeholders.
   3. Describe stakeholder responsibilities using a RACI chart.
7. IMRPOVING BUSINESS SERVICES AND PROCESSES
   1. Explain the business process hierarchy.
   2. List the following techniques used to model the enterprise level processes.
   3. Describe the following aspects of the event-response level.
   4. Describe the following aspects of the actor-task level.
   5. Describe the following aspects of the as-is process model.
   6. Identify generic approaches to improving business processes.
   7. Define the purpose of customer journey maps.
8. DEFINING THE SOLUTION
   1. Describe the gap analysis process.
   2. Explain the use of POPIT™ in gap analysis.
   3. Describe the process for developing options.
   4. Describe the purpose of design thinking.
9. MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE
   1. Describe the lifecycle for a business case in business case development.
   2. Identify the areas of feasibility assessment.
   3. Define the structure and contents of a business case.
   4. List the key features relevant to the production of a business case within an Agile environment.
   5. Identify the elements of a CARDI log.
   6. Explain the purpose of the following investment appraisal techniques.
10. ESTABLISHING THE REQUIREMENTS
    1. Explain the requirements engineering (RE) framework.
    2. Identify the following actors in requirements engineering
    3. Identify the types of requirement.
    4. Describe the hierarchy of requirements.
    5. Describe the requirements elicitation techniques.
    6. Explain the following elements of requirements analysis.
11. DOCUMENTING AND MODELLING REQUIREMENTS.
    1. Identify the following documentation styles.
    2. List the elements of a requirements catalogue.
    3. Describe the format of user stories.
    4. Describe the elements of the use case diagram used to model functional requirements.
    5. Describe the elements of a class model used to model data.
    6. Describe the product backlog in modelling and documentation in an Agile environment.
    7. Define the structure of the business requirements document.
12. VALIDATING AND MANAGING REQUIREMENTS
    1. Describe the following types of requirements validation.
    2. Describe the following aspects of requirements management.
13. DELIVERING THE REQUIREMENTS
    1. Describe the following types of delivery lifecycle.
    2. Explain advantages and disadvantages of the lifecycles.
14. DELIVERING THE BUSINESS SOLUTION
    1. Explain the role of the business analyst in the business change lifecycle.
    2. Describe the role of the business analyst during the design, development and test stages.
    3. Describe the following approaches used in the implementation stage.
    4. Describe how the benefits plan is used in the realisation stage.