Getting Started in Business Analysis

Length:

In-person classes –2 day / Virtual (Live online) – 4 sessions

Overview: 

Are you new to Business Analysis? Are you not sure what a Business Analyst does? Whether you are fresh out of college, have little to no project experience or are simply looking to understand this profession better, this course provides participants with a foundation for a career in business analysis. Understanding and applying the core Business Analysis (BA) skills on projects helps organizations to achieve their goals and objectives. Organizations that employ Business Analysts with strong skills on their projects help them to stay competitive in the ever-changing marketplace.

Participants will learn what Business Analysis is and how the Business Analyst impacts the organization. This course explores the professional skills of the Business Analyst and lets the participants practice those skills in a safe environment. Additionally, participants will understand the importance of stakeholders and how to build relationships for project success.

Through a realistic exercises and role plays the participants will learn how to build their professional skills sets, build relationships, practice eliciting, documenting, and reviewing requirements with stakeholders.

Pre-requisites: None

Skill Level: Basic

Audience:

People moving into the BA role from the business or from a different IT job who have had little to no training. Anyone who is seeking a career in Business Analysis.

PDUs/CDUs: 14 CEUs: 1.4

To help assimilate the tools and techniques learned, there is a mixture of individual and team exercises throughout the course.  Students will need to be prepared for a high level of participation.  Each participant will receive a comprehensive student guide complete with examples and workshop solutions.

Objectives: 

Upon successfully completing this course, participants will be able to understand:

  • What business analysis is and how it is used.
  • What projects are and the roles that support them.
  • The professional skills of a business analyst.
  • Meeting managment.
  • Clear communication techniques.
  • How to build and understand relationships.
  • How to identify the various levels of requirements.
  • Business, project and requirements context.
  • How to identify stakeholders.
  • How to elicit requirements through interviews, observation, and document analysis.
  • The various models that may be used by business analyst.
  • How to capture requirements and review with stakeholders.

Content:

So you want to be a Business Analyst! 

  • Define what it means to analyze something

  • Define what business analysis is

  • Define the role of the business analyst

  • Exercise: Identify personal characteristics of a business analyst

  • Career path of a business analyst

    • Where do BAs come from?

    • The many titles of Business Analyst

    • Business analyst career path

    • How to become a business analyst

    • IIBA & BA Body of Knowledge

    • Average salary overview

  • Exercise: Value of the business analyst to the organization.

Projects and the Business Analyst

  • What is a project?

  • Why do projects get initiated?

  • Types of projects What is a process?

  • Exercise: Project versus process

  • Requirements approaches & the business analyst: Plan vs. Change driven

    • Waterfall

    • Incremental

    • Agile

  • Common BA activities by SDLC

  • Project roles (PM, DEV, QA, Sponsor, SMEs, Stakeholders)

  • BA & PM partnership

  • Exercise: Identifying key responsibilities by role

A Business Analyst’s Tool Set

  • Communication venues & etiquette

    • Communication media considerations

    • In person etiquette

    • Meeting etiquette

    • Phone & voice mail etiquette

    • Phone conference etiquette

    • Email etiquette

    • Video/web conference etiquette

    • Exercise: Selecting appropriate communications medium

  • Good communication skills

    • Communication model

    • Types of communication

    • Exercise: how personal interpretation gest in the way of clear communication

    • Tips to a great conversation

    • LAMP communications

      • Listen

      • Ask

      • Mirroring

      • Paraphrazing

    • Barriers to communication

    • Exercise: Practicing LAMP communications

  • Unlocking the secrets to Meeting Management

    • Is the meeting really necessary

    • Meeting alternatives

    • Meeting management steps

    • Preparation checklist

    • Creating an agenda

    • Opening the meeting checklist

    • Closing the meeting checklist

    • Meeting follow-up checklist

    • Exercise: Plan for a meeting

  • How to build trusting relationships with stakeholders

    • Trust model

    • Exercise: Building trust

So what is a Requirement?

  • Requirements defined

  • Definition of a requirement

  • Requirement classifications

    • Business

    • Stakeholder

    • Functional

    • Non-Functional

    • Transition

  • Definition of a business rule

    • Business rule checklist

    • Requirements versus business rules

  • Assumptions and constraints

  • Analysis versus design

  • Exercise: practice distinguishing different types of requirements

Where do I Begin?

  • Business analysis…a simplified process

  • Understanding context

    • What is context

    • Business, project & requirements context

    • Where to start

    • Exercise: Understanding the importance of context

  • Identifying Stakeholders

    • Define stakeholder

    • Identify types of stakeholders

    • Where to find stakeholders

    • Stakeholder identification checklist

    • Exercise: Identifying stakeholders on a project

How do I elicit requirements?

  • Elicitation defined

  • Common elicitation techniques

  • Elicitation process: PCDC

  • Interviewing

    • Interviewing types

    • Strengths & weaknesses

    • Effective interviewing tips

    • Open vs closed questions

    • Exercise: Practice interviewing using closed & open questions

  • Observation / shadowing

    • Observation types

    • Strengths & weaknesses

    • Effective observation tips

    • Exercise: Revealing Tacit information

  • Document Analysis

    • Document analysis types

    • Strengths & weaknesses

    • Effective document analysis tips

    • Exercise: The challenges of document analysis

  • Scribing elicitation results

    • BAs make the best scribes

    • When a scribe is needed

    • What to capture

    • When scribing for self

    • When scribing for someone else

    • Exercise: Practice scribing


What models?

  • Model defined

    • Benefits of modeling

    • Common models used in analysis

    • Scope models

    • Functional decomposition

    • Process Map

    • Swim lanes

    • Entity relationship diagram

    • Data flow diagram

    • CRUD matrix

    • State Diagram

    • Use Case Model

    • User interface prototype

    • Exercise: Identifying models

How do I document and review requirements?

  • Documenting requirements

    • What to document

    • Common documentation challenges

    • Characteristics of “good” requirements

      • Clear

      • Complete

      • Concise

      • Confirmed

      • Consistent

      • Testable

    • Requirement decomposition

    • Exercise: Documenting requirements

  • Reviewing requirements

    • Types of requirements reviews

    • Why conduct reviews?

  • Exercise: Conducting an informal review of requirements

 

NOTE: This outline is subject to change.