Foundations of Business Analysis - Level 1

Course Duration:

2 days

Course Level:

Beginner/Intermediate

Audience: 

• Data Analysis

• Project Managers

• Business Analysts

Helps prepare for the IIBA or ECBA Certification Exam. Includes practice questions. Additional preparation recommendations will be discussed in class.  

Prerequisites: 

No prerequisites – Foundations of Business Analysis is a practitioner-based, skill enabling course geared towards both the beginner and intermediate business analysts who would like to increase their skills in order to better elicit, analyze, write and effectively manage requirements for their projects. 

The course is aligned to BABOK Version 3 and covers the IIBA knowledge areas on the Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA) exam. The course provides students a clear understanding and total immersion into all the facets of the business analyst role, including a thorough walkthrough of the various domain/knowledge areas that comprise the business analysis profession. Students are provided an opportunity to try their hand at several business analysis techniques for eliciting, analyzing, and modeling requirements. The business analysis work performed in strategy analysis and solution evaluation, which is most often the least familiar to business analysts, is thoroughly presented and explored. Students completing this course will be well equipped with new skills and knowledge that can be immediately applied on current and future projects.

Course Objectives:

This course intends to provide beginner and intermediate students a total immersion into the business analyst role by exposing attendees to the various aspects of the business analysis profession and numerous techniques to allow them to improve elicitation, analysis, and documentation of requirements.

This course is compliant with IIBA’s Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK® Guide) version 3 and is aligned with and upholds the practices as discussed in PMI’s Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide. 

Included: 

• Full Student Guide

• Student workbook

Intended Audience: 

This course is intended for beginner to intermediate business analysts who are looking to improve their skills by learning best practices and techniques for eliciting, analyzing, documenting, validating, and communicating requirements.

Learning Objectives: 

• Obtain a thorough understanding of the core responsibilities of the business analyst 

• Understand the main professional associations and standards supporting business analysts in the industry

• Discuss and explore the components of each of the domains/knowledge areas that comprise the work of business analysis

• Recognize the importance of properly defining the business need prior to engaging in requirements activities

• Formulate a strong understanding of the concepts that comprise strategy analysis

• Obtain knowledge of and experience with the important work of stakeholder analysis

• Decipher between project and product scope and successfully use models to communicate scope

• Thoroughly understand and identify the various requirements categories and be able to recognize requirements of various types

Workshop Objectives: 

• Throughout the course, students work together in small groups on a pre-determined project.  Each exercise allows students to apply their learnings throughout the course.

Section 1: Introduction to Business Analysis

• What is Business Analysis?

• Benefiting from business analysis

• Business analysis and project success

• Challenges of business analysis

• Discussions: 

• Who performs business analysis functions in your organization?

• Exploring solutions options

• Your biggest challenges on past projects

Section 2: A Closer Look at the Business Analyst Role

• Definition of business analyst

• Responsibilities of a business analyst

• The BA/PM roles

•  IIBA/PMI and the goals of a professional association

• Purpose for having a BA standard

• IIBA’s BABOK® Guide and PMI’s Practice Guide in Business Analysis

• Business analysis core concepts

• Business analysis perspectives

• IIBA and PMI certifications for business analysts

• Workshop: Introduction to Case Study

Section 3: Strategy Analysis and Change

• Define Strategy Analysis

• When to perform Strategy Analysis

• Business models

• Defining the business need

• Root cause analysis

• 5 Whys

• Fishbone diagram

• Defining business requirements

• Discussions:

• Who is involved in strategy analysis in your organization?