Foundations of Business Analysis - Level 2

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:

BA30 – Level 1

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: 

• Develop interviewing skills and explore ways to plan and structure interviews

• Examine different forms of requirements documentation 

• Explore elements of communication, conflict, and issue management

• Obtain a solid understanding of the concepts and activities involved in solution evaluation

• Obtain hands-on experience with a number of business analysis techniques for eliciting, analyzing, and modeling requirements

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.

DAY 1

Section 10: Elicitation using Interviews and Workshops

• Conduct the Interview

• Establishing rapport with stakeholders

• Active listening and listening styles

• Workshops and getting the right people

• The role of the facilitator

• The brainstorming technique

• Decision rules and reaching consensus

• Avoiding Groupthink

• Encouraging participation

• Managing meetings and conflict

• Workshop: Conduct an Interview

Section 11: Confirming Elicitation Results

• Defining requirements analysis

• Prioritizing requirements (MoSCoW, Timeboxing, Voting, etc.)

• Documenting requirements

• Other uses for specifications and models

• Unified Modeling Language (UML®)

• Explaining user stories

• The traceability matrix

• Communicating requirements

• Workshop: 

• Analyzing Requirements

• Identifying User Stories

• Tracing Requirements

• Obtaining Approval

Section 12: Analyzing Requirements with Use Cases

• What is an actor?

• Types of actors

• Defining actors

• Locating use cases

• Use case diagrams

• Use case tips

• Defining and identifying scenarios

• Parts of a use case

• Defining primary, secondary actors and pre and post conditions

• Best practices for writing use cases

• Template:  Use Case Specification

Workshop:

• Drawing a Use Case Diagram

• Write the Main Success Scenario

DAY 2

Section 12 (cont’d): Documenting Requirements

• Scenarios and flows

• Alternate and exception flows

• Alternate scenario post conditions

• Guidelines for Alternate flows

• Examples of alternate and exception flows

• Workshop: Writing Alternate and Exception Flows

Section 13: Documenting Requirements

• How requirements relate to use cases

• Writing Non-Functional requirements

• User Interface Requirements

• Reporting requirements

• Data requirements

• Data accessibility requirements

• Business requirements document (BRD)

• BRD vs the Functional Requirements

• Verifying Requirements

• Quality attributes

• Purpose of the requirements package

• BA Deliverables across knowledge areas/domains

• Planning BA deliverables

• Workshops: 

• Develop a User Interface

• Verifying Requirements

Section 14: Managing and Communicating Business Analysis Information

• Business analysis communication

• The business analyst’s role in communication

• Forms of communication

• 7Cs of communication

• Symptoms of information overload

• Information mapping

• Presentation and common elements

• Requirements walkthroughs

• Conflict and issue management

• Conflict resolution techniques

Section 15: Evaluating the Solution

• Understanding solution evaluation

• Verification vs. validation

• Timing of solution evaluation

• Planning solution evaluation

• Performing solution evaluation

• Using existing metrics

• Evaluating long term performance

• Qualitative vs. Quantitative measures

• Tools and techniques used in solution evaluation

• Comparing expected vs. actuals

• When variances occur  

• Proposing recommendations to address variances

• Communicating evaluation results

Section 16: Additional Information

• Helpful links for obtaining additional business analysis information