Introduction to Business Analysis: Defining Successful Projects

This course is intended for anyone interested in gaining a broad knowledge of the key tasks and techniques involved in business analysis or anyone who needs to effectively analyse business options and outcomes.

This course will show you how to:

• Perform key functions of the business analyst by applying a solid business analysis framework
• Conduct a business needs analysis to elicit stakeholder requirements
• Apply business analysis techniques to identify key problems and potential opportunities in your enterprise
• Create effective requirements and communication plans
• Analyse and specify requirements using industry best practices
• Manage solution assessment and validation

Defining Business Analysis

Overview of the business analysis discipline

• Key roles and responsibilities
• Distinguishing between business analysis and other related disciplines

Introducing the business analysis framework

• The framework and the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK®)
• Industry best practice from the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®)

Capturing Business Requirements through Elicitation

Gathering business needs at the organisational or department levels

• Performing needs analysis
• Choosing the best elicitation technique
• Soliciting enterprise-level contextual analysis using strategic, tactical and operational tools

Identifying the nine elicitation techniques

• Verifying the necessary steps to gather information
• Recording and confirming elicitation results

Conducting Enterprise Analysis

Analysing the business landscape

• Categorizing and prioritizing business needs and issues using affinity diagrams
• Assessing business capabilities and gaps

Detecting problems and finding opportunities

• Exposing root causes of problems
• Finding opportunities for growth
• Identifying elements of the initial solution scope
• Developing action-oriented business initiatives to address business needs and opportunities

Measuring the feasibility of options

• 2x2 analysis grid
• Prioritization matrices
• Anticipating project benefits and costs

Documenting critical project parameters

• Building SMART project objectives
• Specifying critical project elements and deliverables

Planning and Monitoring the Business Analysis Process

Planning for requirements analysis

• Documenting assumptions, ground rules and templates
• Producing a requirements development plan to guide and manage the process
• Building the communication plan

Performing stakeholder analysis

• Identifying key stakeholders
• Analysing the impact stakeholders have on a project

Developing a change management process

• Baselining your plan
• Following the defined change management process
• Managing the change control process

Managing and Communicating Requirements

Analysing requirements

• Verifying, prioritising and organising requirements
• Specifying the requirements document
• Identifying key relationships using traceability

Executing the communication plan

• Addressing common pitfalls typically encountered during requirements development
• Validating the requirements document with key stakeholders
• Managing stakeholder agreement and conflict

Assessing and Validating Solutions

Allocating requirements

• Optimising business value
• Evaluating dependencies between the individual requirements

Assessing organisational readiness

• Identifying organisational capability gaps
• Defining business and technical organisational impacts

Developing Business Analysis Competencies

• Going beyond the mechanics of analysis
• Applying the IIBA® Business Analysis Competency framework