This document discusses developing excellent business analysts (BAs). It states that organizations that have nurtured BAs are experiencing benefits from their investments. Excellent BAs can work on details while understanding the bigger picture, and look at how small changes may impact the organization. A variety of skills can be developed for BAs, including critical thinking, root cause analysis, and data analysis. Traditional management training is not sufficient for BAs; they need specific business analysis training and tools. The document advocates that while some skills are innate, BAs can be developed through education and practice.
The Porter’s Five Forces model is a simple tool that can be utilized to help strategic understanding where power lies in a business situation. The tool can also be used to understand both the strength of a company’s current competitive position, alongside the strength of a position the company may be looking to move into. The Five forces framework focuses on business concerns rather than public policy but it can also emphasize extended competition for value rather than just competition among existing rivals. The ease of its use has inspired numerous companies as well as business schools to adopt it.
P-CMM is a process based model which focuses on effectively executing HR day-to-day processes and functions. Once these processes become standardized and continue to be improved for broader purposes, they can be simulated and even transferred to diverse areas within an organization. Also with this process orientation in a progressive scope, P-CMM provides an operational direction of HR benchmarking, which can not only be used to diagnose and analyze the current stage but also to predict and provide for the future stage.
Six-Box model was used primarily as an organizing device. It is allowed for logical organization of thoughts and data. It also facilitated the prioritization of recommendations. This model provides a strong foundation for assessing organizations. It is also useful as a "quick look" tool to determine one's strategy for dealing or working with an organization.
This document discusses the evolving role of the business analyst from a traditional role focused on requirements documentation to a leadership role. It argues that for projects to be successful, the business analyst must lead in defining and advocating for the solution scope and business value. Specifically:
- Traditionally, the business analyst role focused on translating between business and IT and documenting requirements. However, the role has evolved to focus more on defining and recommending solutions and leading change enablement.
- For projects to deliver true business value, the business analyst must synthesize stakeholder needs, prioritize requirements, and challenge assumptions, which requires taking on a leadership role rather than just being a neutral party.
- Project managers and business analysts
CPBA - Creating Professional Business Analysts
A small presentation to give you glimpse of what Business Analyst job is, what our Business Analysis training is all about and how you can be a professional BA without external support.
Please go through entire presentation and if you any questions, then call us on +91 98497-33306 or email us at ba@batrainingschool.com
A user story is a tool used in Agile software development to capture a description of a software feature from an end-user perspective. The user story describes the type of user, what they want and why. A user story helps to create a simplified description of a requirement.User stories are short, simple descriptions of a feature told from the perspective of the person who desires the new capability, usually a user or customer of the system. They typically follow a simple template
Use Case and User Story Explained with example
Business analysis is a set of knowledge, tasks, and techniques used to identify business needs and determine solutions to business problems; in order to redesign of a process or organizational structure. Therefore, examine the role of the business analyst, the core concepts and leadership skills needed as a business analyst.
The Business Analyst: The Pivotal Role Of The FutureTom Humbarger
This presentation was originally made at the Silicon Valley IIBA Chapter meeting in June 2008 by Kathleen (Kitty) Hass from Management Concepts (www.managementconcepts.com). Kitty is also a new board member at-large for the IIBA.
This document provides information about a Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) training program taking place from May 28th to June 2nd, 2016 in Kuwait. The training will be led by Tareq A. Nashawati and will teach participants about business analysis based on the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK). Attendees will learn techniques to plan and conduct business analysis, elicit and manage requirements, and evaluate solutions. The training aims to help participants gain the CBAP certification and benefit their individual careers and organizations.
Ten Tips for Successful Business Analysis Interviews – By Fhyzics, an Endorsed Education Provider (EEP™) of International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®), Canada.
The Porter’s Five Forces model is a simple tool that can be utilized to help strategic understanding where power lies in a business situation. The tool can also be used to understand both the strength of a company’s current competitive position, alongside the strength of a position the company may be looking to move into. The Five forces framework focuses on business concerns rather than public policy but it can also emphasize extended competition for value rather than just competition among existing rivals. The ease of its use has inspired numerous companies as well as business schools to adopt it.
P-CMM is a process based model which focuses on effectively executing HR day-to-day processes and functions. Once these processes become standardized and continue to be improved for broader purposes, they can be simulated and even transferred to diverse areas within an organization. Also with this process orientation in a progressive scope, P-CMM provides an operational direction of HR benchmarking, which can not only be used to diagnose and analyze the current stage but also to predict and provide for the future stage.
Six-Box model was used primarily as an organizing device. It is allowed for logical organization of thoughts and data. It also facilitated the prioritization of recommendations. This model provides a strong foundation for assessing organizations. It is also useful as a "quick look" tool to determine one's strategy for dealing or working with an organization.
This document discusses the evolving role of the business analyst from a traditional role focused on requirements documentation to a leadership role. It argues that for projects to be successful, the business analyst must lead in defining and advocating for the solution scope and business value. Specifically:
- Traditionally, the business analyst role focused on translating between business and IT and documenting requirements. However, the role has evolved to focus more on defining and recommending solutions and leading change enablement.
- For projects to deliver true business value, the business analyst must synthesize stakeholder needs, prioritize requirements, and challenge assumptions, which requires taking on a leadership role rather than just being a neutral party.
- Project managers and business analysts
CPBA - Creating Professional Business Analysts
A small presentation to give you glimpse of what Business Analyst job is, what our Business Analysis training is all about and how you can be a professional BA without external support.
Please go through entire presentation and if you any questions, then call us on +91 98497-33306 or email us at ba@batrainingschool.com
A user story is a tool used in Agile software development to capture a description of a software feature from an end-user perspective. The user story describes the type of user, what they want and why. A user story helps to create a simplified description of a requirement.User stories are short, simple descriptions of a feature told from the perspective of the person who desires the new capability, usually a user or customer of the system. They typically follow a simple template
Use Case and User Story Explained with example
Business analysis is a set of knowledge, tasks, and techniques used to identify business needs and determine solutions to business problems; in order to redesign of a process or organizational structure. Therefore, examine the role of the business analyst, the core concepts and leadership skills needed as a business analyst.
The Business Analyst: The Pivotal Role Of The FutureTom Humbarger
This presentation was originally made at the Silicon Valley IIBA Chapter meeting in June 2008 by Kathleen (Kitty) Hass from Management Concepts (www.managementconcepts.com). Kitty is also a new board member at-large for the IIBA.
This document provides information about a Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) training program taking place from May 28th to June 2nd, 2016 in Kuwait. The training will be led by Tareq A. Nashawati and will teach participants about business analysis based on the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK). Attendees will learn techniques to plan and conduct business analysis, elicit and manage requirements, and evaluate solutions. The training aims to help participants gain the CBAP certification and benefit their individual careers and organizations.
Ten Tips for Successful Business Analysis Interviews – By Fhyzics, an Endorsed Education Provider (EEP™) of International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®), Canada.
The document discusses several techniques for requirements analysis including acceptance and evaluation criteria, benchmarking, and brainstorming. For each technique, definitions, advantages, disadvantages, and areas of applicability are provided. Acceptance criteria help ensure requirements are testable and address contractual obligations but may be difficult to change. Benchmarking provides competitive information but is time-consuming and may lack innovative ideas. Brainstorming elicits many ideas quickly in a non-judgmental way but depends on participant creativity.
The document discusses the five steps of an effective Joint Application Development (JAD) session for gathering requirements: 1) Planning ahead with the project team and executive sponsor, 2) Assembling the right team with defined roles, 3) Ensuring all team members are committed, 4) Staying on course during sessions, and 5) Following through by producing deliverables and evaluating the process. JAD sessions bring together key stakeholders to jointly discuss needs, develop solutions, and gain consensus in a structured workshop format.
The document provides an introduction to Shardul Parulekar, a Business Analyst working for TATA Consultancy Services in Europe. It outlines his educational background, core competencies including requirements gathering and process optimization, and interests outside of work such as drawing and watching movies. The document also provides definitions and explanations of key business analysis concepts including the roles and responsibilities of a business analyst, how the BABOK framework is used, and different types of requirements.
This book is an outcome of significant efforts from a team business analysts at Adaptive US. Key features of the book: Questions divided among BA knowledge areas Questions on contemporary BA aspects such as IoT, Social media, DevOps, Cloud, Analytics, Mobile, AI, Machine learning, Big-data Questions on human resource aspects Questions with scenarios Questions on requirements modeling We hope you will enjoy the book. We will be glad and thankful if you can share your feedbacks and suggestions on the book. Please provide your feedbacks and suggestions to Info@AdaptiveUS.com.
1) In the 1980s, the rise of personal computers and distributed systems disrupted traditional software development processes. Business needs grew more sophisticated and numerous, straining IT departments.
2) As business started driving technology more, people from different business functions took on the role of business analyst to more directly address automation needs.
3) Today's business analyst role involves requirements gathering, process modeling, and acting as an "agent of change" to influence organizations through major transitions that support business goals. The role continues evolving to meet changing business needs.
Business Analysis Knowledge Areas Big PictureMostafa Hashkil
This document outlines the knowledge areas, tasks, inputs, and outputs of the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK). It describes the six knowledge areas: planning and monitoring, elicitation, requirements management and communication, enterprise analysis, requirements analysis, and solution assessment and validation. For each knowledge area, it lists the associated tasks and the typical inputs and outputs of those tasks.
This document provides an overview of topics covered in a class on business analysis, including principles of business analysis, requirements documentation techniques, UML diagramming, use case creation, wireframing, software development life cycles like Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, and Kanban, workshops on requirements gathering and documentation, and additional analysis techniques. The document lists the sections covered and provides brief descriptions and examples of key concepts like use case diagrams, activity diagrams, prototyping wireframes, and Agile methodology roles.
The document discusses the importance of enterprise analysis for organizations. It provides examples from Buckman Laboratories, a global specialty chemicals company, which successfully weathered economic downturns through enterprise analysis. Buckman analyzed its business needs, capability gaps, and implemented a global business system with a single platform, team, infrastructure and consolidated reporting. This reduced costs, improved coordination and business performance. Enterprise analysis allows organizations to prioritize resources and projects to achieve strategies during difficult economic times.
This document provides an overview of a corporate restructuring and financial advisory firm. It offers services related to restructuring, turnaround management, bankruptcy, and financial advisory work for both debtors and creditors. The firm has over 30 consultants with expertise in areas such as valuation, forensic accounting, and corporate restructuring. It has experience advising companies in various industries and situations including bankruptcy, out-of-court restructurings, and mergers/acquisitions. Biographies of the managing director and restructuring team are also provided with details of their experience.
Projects are expected to address a business need and help an organization attain its goals. Business Analysts are expected to ensure that a project fits into the business context.
Business Analysts must know how to carry out Enterprise Analysis including:
- Conduct root cause analysis to determine business needs.
- Identify goals and define objectives.
-Identify capability gaps using Business Architectures.
- Justify projects through feasibility analysis.
- Establish the business case for a project.
Business Analyst Interview Questions with Answers, Business Analysis Interview Questions with answers, BA Interview Questions, Interview questions for business analyst, Business Analyst interview questions and answers, Real interview questions for business analysts, Hard interview questions during Business Analyst Interview, How to crack business analyst interview, BA Interview questions,
Web-Project-Management-Best-Practice-GuidelinesVu Nam Hung
This document summarizes research into practices for successful web project management. Some key findings include: 1) Nearly half of organizations do not have a structured approach to managing web projects, which can negatively impact meeting goals, deadlines, budgets and customer satisfaction. 2) While most organizations set flexible requirements, changing requirements are still one of the biggest challenges faced. 3) Successful organizations are able to tailor their project management approach to the specific circumstances, using a combination of agile and traditional methods, while also thinking strategically and delivering tactically.
In this presentation We discuss some of the questions hat are asked to Business Analyst In Interviews, These are the most common questions that get asked
The Evolving Role of the Business AnalystTracy Cook
Two years ago, no one knew what a Business Analyst was. Today, companies around the world can’t find enough of them – what happened?
This session will describe:
* What a Business Analyst is and what a BA does
* What are the factors that have driven the growth of the Business Analysis profession
* How does the type of organization impact its need for BAs
* What do you need to consider if you are a Business Analyst – or want to be one – both today and tomorrow?
The document discusses the importance of taking a big picture view before solving a problem. It explains that seeing the overall context helps with identifying stakeholders, defining roles and responsibilities, estimating tasks, and determining deliverables and processes. Taking a big picture perspective allows analysts to understand business problems and opportunities more fully in order to determine the best solution approach. The document then discusses different types of business analysis approaches and how they relate to factors like formality, change management, communication, and complexity.
The document discusses the role of a business analyst (BA). It defines business analysis as identifying business needs and solutions, which may include systems development, process improvement, or strategic planning. As a generalist, the BA understands both business and technology perspectives. Key BA roles include defining project scope, eliciting requirements, documenting requirements, communicating requirements, identifying solutions, and verifying solutions meet requirements. The BA acts as a bridge between technical and business stakeholders. Essential skills for BAs are facilitation, communication, analysis, and requirements management.
Business analysis can involve many different roles beyond just being a link between IT and the business. A business analyst (BA) helps facilitate improvements across technology, processes, and people. They may work with various teams like marketing to provide estimates and solutions or be involved in requirements gathering once a project begins. BAs can also drive profits by improving processes. Importantly, BAs may specialize in particular business domains.
This document provides an overview of business analysis models according to BABOK V3.0, including requirements states, business analysis model components, and underlying competencies. It outlines the stages of requirements elicitation, confirmation, communication, approval, prioritization, modeling, verification, validation, allocation, tracing, and maintenance. It also describes analyzing requirements and designs from different perspectives to ensure stakeholder agreement and alignment with business needs.
The Roger Williams University Center for Career & Professional Development's mission is to help students and alumni understand their personal and professional values and interests, and acquire skills to obtain employment or admission to graduate school. They provide career counseling, internship and job search assistance, career fairs and networking events, and online career management tools to support students and alumni throughout and after college. Students are required to attend a Career Planning Seminar prior to registering for an internship. The CCPD is located in Global Heritage Hall and can be contacted by phone, email, or by dropping in during specified hours for assistance.
The document discusses the role of business analysts in IT projects and how they can improve project outcomes. It describes what skills and activities a business analyst brings, such as requirements gathering, stakeholder engagement, and ensuring technical and business alignment. The document also outlines when in the project lifecycle a business analyst should be engaged, how to introduce the role to a project, and how to establish a business analysis center of excellence to share best practices across projects.
The document discusses several techniques for requirements analysis including acceptance and evaluation criteria, benchmarking, and brainstorming. For each technique, definitions, advantages, disadvantages, and areas of applicability are provided. Acceptance criteria help ensure requirements are testable and address contractual obligations but may be difficult to change. Benchmarking provides competitive information but is time-consuming and may lack innovative ideas. Brainstorming elicits many ideas quickly in a non-judgmental way but depends on participant creativity.
The document discusses the five steps of an effective Joint Application Development (JAD) session for gathering requirements: 1) Planning ahead with the project team and executive sponsor, 2) Assembling the right team with defined roles, 3) Ensuring all team members are committed, 4) Staying on course during sessions, and 5) Following through by producing deliverables and evaluating the process. JAD sessions bring together key stakeholders to jointly discuss needs, develop solutions, and gain consensus in a structured workshop format.
The document provides an introduction to Shardul Parulekar, a Business Analyst working for TATA Consultancy Services in Europe. It outlines his educational background, core competencies including requirements gathering and process optimization, and interests outside of work such as drawing and watching movies. The document also provides definitions and explanations of key business analysis concepts including the roles and responsibilities of a business analyst, how the BABOK framework is used, and different types of requirements.
This book is an outcome of significant efforts from a team business analysts at Adaptive US. Key features of the book: Questions divided among BA knowledge areas Questions on contemporary BA aspects such as IoT, Social media, DevOps, Cloud, Analytics, Mobile, AI, Machine learning, Big-data Questions on human resource aspects Questions with scenarios Questions on requirements modeling We hope you will enjoy the book. We will be glad and thankful if you can share your feedbacks and suggestions on the book. Please provide your feedbacks and suggestions to Info@AdaptiveUS.com.
1) In the 1980s, the rise of personal computers and distributed systems disrupted traditional software development processes. Business needs grew more sophisticated and numerous, straining IT departments.
2) As business started driving technology more, people from different business functions took on the role of business analyst to more directly address automation needs.
3) Today's business analyst role involves requirements gathering, process modeling, and acting as an "agent of change" to influence organizations through major transitions that support business goals. The role continues evolving to meet changing business needs.
Business Analysis Knowledge Areas Big PictureMostafa Hashkil
This document outlines the knowledge areas, tasks, inputs, and outputs of the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK). It describes the six knowledge areas: planning and monitoring, elicitation, requirements management and communication, enterprise analysis, requirements analysis, and solution assessment and validation. For each knowledge area, it lists the associated tasks and the typical inputs and outputs of those tasks.
This document provides an overview of topics covered in a class on business analysis, including principles of business analysis, requirements documentation techniques, UML diagramming, use case creation, wireframing, software development life cycles like Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, and Kanban, workshops on requirements gathering and documentation, and additional analysis techniques. The document lists the sections covered and provides brief descriptions and examples of key concepts like use case diagrams, activity diagrams, prototyping wireframes, and Agile methodology roles.
The document discusses the importance of enterprise analysis for organizations. It provides examples from Buckman Laboratories, a global specialty chemicals company, which successfully weathered economic downturns through enterprise analysis. Buckman analyzed its business needs, capability gaps, and implemented a global business system with a single platform, team, infrastructure and consolidated reporting. This reduced costs, improved coordination and business performance. Enterprise analysis allows organizations to prioritize resources and projects to achieve strategies during difficult economic times.
This document provides an overview of a corporate restructuring and financial advisory firm. It offers services related to restructuring, turnaround management, bankruptcy, and financial advisory work for both debtors and creditors. The firm has over 30 consultants with expertise in areas such as valuation, forensic accounting, and corporate restructuring. It has experience advising companies in various industries and situations including bankruptcy, out-of-court restructurings, and mergers/acquisitions. Biographies of the managing director and restructuring team are also provided with details of their experience.
Projects are expected to address a business need and help an organization attain its goals. Business Analysts are expected to ensure that a project fits into the business context.
Business Analysts must know how to carry out Enterprise Analysis including:
- Conduct root cause analysis to determine business needs.
- Identify goals and define objectives.
-Identify capability gaps using Business Architectures.
- Justify projects through feasibility analysis.
- Establish the business case for a project.
Business Analyst Interview Questions with Answers, Business Analysis Interview Questions with answers, BA Interview Questions, Interview questions for business analyst, Business Analyst interview questions and answers, Real interview questions for business analysts, Hard interview questions during Business Analyst Interview, How to crack business analyst interview, BA Interview questions,
Web-Project-Management-Best-Practice-GuidelinesVu Nam Hung
This document summarizes research into practices for successful web project management. Some key findings include: 1) Nearly half of organizations do not have a structured approach to managing web projects, which can negatively impact meeting goals, deadlines, budgets and customer satisfaction. 2) While most organizations set flexible requirements, changing requirements are still one of the biggest challenges faced. 3) Successful organizations are able to tailor their project management approach to the specific circumstances, using a combination of agile and traditional methods, while also thinking strategically and delivering tactically.
In this presentation We discuss some of the questions hat are asked to Business Analyst In Interviews, These are the most common questions that get asked
The Evolving Role of the Business AnalystTracy Cook
Two years ago, no one knew what a Business Analyst was. Today, companies around the world can’t find enough of them – what happened?
This session will describe:
* What a Business Analyst is and what a BA does
* What are the factors that have driven the growth of the Business Analysis profession
* How does the type of organization impact its need for BAs
* What do you need to consider if you are a Business Analyst – or want to be one – both today and tomorrow?
The document discusses the importance of taking a big picture view before solving a problem. It explains that seeing the overall context helps with identifying stakeholders, defining roles and responsibilities, estimating tasks, and determining deliverables and processes. Taking a big picture perspective allows analysts to understand business problems and opportunities more fully in order to determine the best solution approach. The document then discusses different types of business analysis approaches and how they relate to factors like formality, change management, communication, and complexity.
The document discusses the role of a business analyst (BA). It defines business analysis as identifying business needs and solutions, which may include systems development, process improvement, or strategic planning. As a generalist, the BA understands both business and technology perspectives. Key BA roles include defining project scope, eliciting requirements, documenting requirements, communicating requirements, identifying solutions, and verifying solutions meet requirements. The BA acts as a bridge between technical and business stakeholders. Essential skills for BAs are facilitation, communication, analysis, and requirements management.
Business analysis can involve many different roles beyond just being a link between IT and the business. A business analyst (BA) helps facilitate improvements across technology, processes, and people. They may work with various teams like marketing to provide estimates and solutions or be involved in requirements gathering once a project begins. BAs can also drive profits by improving processes. Importantly, BAs may specialize in particular business domains.
This document provides an overview of business analysis models according to BABOK V3.0, including requirements states, business analysis model components, and underlying competencies. It outlines the stages of requirements elicitation, confirmation, communication, approval, prioritization, modeling, verification, validation, allocation, tracing, and maintenance. It also describes analyzing requirements and designs from different perspectives to ensure stakeholder agreement and alignment with business needs.
The Roger Williams University Center for Career & Professional Development's mission is to help students and alumni understand their personal and professional values and interests, and acquire skills to obtain employment or admission to graduate school. They provide career counseling, internship and job search assistance, career fairs and networking events, and online career management tools to support students and alumni throughout and after college. Students are required to attend a Career Planning Seminar prior to registering for an internship. The CCPD is located in Global Heritage Hall and can be contacted by phone, email, or by dropping in during specified hours for assistance.
The document discusses the role of business analysts in IT projects and how they can improve project outcomes. It describes what skills and activities a business analyst brings, such as requirements gathering, stakeholder engagement, and ensuring technical and business alignment. The document also outlines when in the project lifecycle a business analyst should be engaged, how to introduce the role to a project, and how to establish a business analysis center of excellence to share best practices across projects.
Business Analyst - Roles & ResponsibilitiesEngineerBabu
Business analysts can benefit business multifold by successfully performing their roles and responsibilities. One of their important jobs is to make the project better understandable for both, the team as well as the client. Read more: https://engineerbabu.com/blog/business-analyst-role-and-responsibilities/
The program aims to help entrepreneurs achieve the following:
1. Understanding funding landscape in SA and funding rejections
2. Conduct Self-assess 7C of credits and develop workplan
3. Review the Business Strategy: 1 page business strategy – PESTEL, 5 Forces of Porter and SWOT
4. Review and analyse marketing strategy and plan (responding to business strategy i.e. Go-To-Market)
5. Review and update business plan for short term and long term
6. Conduct Financial Statements Analysis and interpretation of ratios with aim of identifying weaknesses and work plan and capitalise on strengths to financial strategies
7. Understand financial model to be to raise capital (short or long term, build a financial model, projections to enable to manage cash flow
8. Understand valuation and capitalization (investment) of the business
9. Analyse potential investors/funders and learn how to approach them
10. Prepare pitch deck, elevator speech and presenting
11. Prepare for due diligence process
12. Prepare for Negotiation and Deal Structuring
13. Manage Post-Investment Management and
14. Design Exit Strategies
This document introduces a handbook for case interviews at QVartz, a Nordic management consulting firm. It recommends that candidates browse all sections of the handbook to familiarize themselves with topics covered. While the content will not be explicitly tested, the handbook aims to serve as inspiration for interview preparation. The handbook is most relevant for candidates new to case interviews undergoing QVartz's recruitment process, which includes case interviews, quantitative tests and group exercises over two days. Strong preparation is advised, as it significantly improves chances of receiving a job offer.
An Authority vs In Authority - Better having a sharp Business Analysis Skill than being in the role of a Business Analyst
How valuable and attractive are new skills like "Business Analysis"?
Job advertisements often ask for very special roles such as "Online Product Manager (m/f/d)" or "Business Developer (m/f/x)". The fact that these roles often have large overlaps in their skill requirements is not always clear to HR managers or interested parties. Thus, suitable employees are not found or employees are not aware of suitable vacancies. Rainer Wendt uses a business analysis skills catalogue to show how versatile these skills can be in a company and how many roles can be successfully filled with them. A rethink of skill orientation in recruiting can open up new perspectives for both recruiters and applicants.
The document provides tips for becoming a successful business analyst (BA). It discusses the importance of understanding business analysis, its key areas and tasks. It outlines the business analysis lifecycle and how BAs work closely with project managers. It emphasizes that to be effective, BAs need knowledge of both business analysis practices and the business domain of the projects they work on. BAs play a key role in requirements gathering and solution evaluation to ensure projects deliver value to the business.
GLOBALINX CORP. - Global Business Skill SeminarsGLOBALINX CORP
GLOBALINX business skill seminars combine step-by-step interactive lectures, workshops and role-plays to help the participants quickly learn and apply business communication skills and techniques in a realistic and supportive environment. Seminars can be facilitated in English or Japanese, and focus on the essential communication and business skills necessary to work in a global business environment. Participants also receive continued support after the seminar to encourage and support them to transfer the skills and techniques learned to their everyday working environment.
Scientific Evolution LLS Services Catalog v5.0 (2020)📡 Vincent Isoz
This document provides an introduction to the Scientific Evolution Sàrl company and their quantitative seminar programs. The company aims to be a leader in quantitative scientific management through their comprehensive range of open enrollment seminars focused on quantitative techniques. The seminars are designed for high-potential employees and cover topics like probabilities, statistics, forecasting, finance, data analysis, and more. Participants will learn practical applications of quantitative methods through case studies and real-world examples to help solve business challenges.
The candidate begins by thoroughly scoping the profitability problem by asking clarifying questions about the type of profit (margin vs amount) and specific products affected. They then explain the key frameworks of analyzing profitability through revenues, costs (variable vs fixed), and doing a value chain analysis. The candidate signals they will explore each cost element systematically, starting with the largest, and look at both price and efficiency factors. Their goal is to find the major drivers of declining profitability and recommend solutions like negotiating costs, improving processes, or altering the product mix.
This document provides a template for creating an internet marketing plan. The template includes sections for analyzing the business, products, market and competitors. It provides guidance on developing customer personas and selecting keywords. The template then outlines various marketing strategies and implementations, including PPC, SEO, affiliate marketing, email marketing, social media and offline activities. It includes sections for setting a calendar, tracking sales and contingency planning. Using this template helps ensure a complete marketing plan is developed in a systematic way.
The document provides an overview of the role and responsibilities of a business analyst. It discusses that a business analyst is responsible for analyzing project requirements throughout the project lifecycle and serving as a liaison between technical and business teams. The document also outlines important business analyst skills like communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, documentation, specification writing, and analysis techniques. It notes that while experience in formal business analysis may be lacking, many professionals have transferable skills from analyzing problems in other roles using different methods.
Good software architecture for business Anil Sharma
This document discusses software architecture and potential analysis of software systems based businesses. Section 1 defines software and systems architecture, focusing on academic abilities, experience needs, and knowledge requirements for architecture work. Section 2 discusses potential analysis of software systems based businesses, including talent selection, overall industry hiring, profit potential comparisons to other businesses, and considerations for analyzing an internet service business.
The document provides an overview of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's (CMHC) competency dictionary and framework. It describes the development process for the competency model, which includes reviewing CMHC's existing competencies, benchmarking other organizations, and drawing from external research. The framework clusters competencies into four categories: driving business results, partnering with others, managing self, and leading people. Definitions are provided for each of the 11 behavioural competencies, along with proficiency scales describing increasing levels of complexity. The benefits of using a competency model for selection, development, succession planning and performance management are also outlined.
21st century skills are a key requirement for any potential or existing employee to showcase. These contemporary skills are an indicator to an employer that you as an applicant are a well-rounded individual that is able to adapt and succeed in the role. In fact, employers often rate graduates who can demonstrate generic skills (sometimes referred to as ‘soft’ skills, professional skills or transferable skills) as preferential candidates as opposed to those who simply rely on academic results alone.
Explore the top 21st Century skills that employers are looking for in graduates, and consider how these skills relate to the skills, values and strengths you identified in the previous activities.
1. Collaboration
Is a skill relating to how well you:
· Work effectively as a team member
· Coordinate, cooperate and interact with others
· Contribute and participate with others
· Demonstrate ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams
· Assume shared responsibility for collaborative work
2. Communication
Is a skill relating to how well you:
· Select your channel and methods of communication (e.g. face-to-face, email, phone, chat)
· Adapt communication to ensure it is professional and fit for purpose and culture
· Continuously reflect on how your communication style is perceived by others
3. Community Engagement
Is a skill relating to how well you:
· Actively engage and connect to your local community
· Effectively operate in different communities and cultural settings
· Engage and work collaboratively to make a difference in community activities with a diverse group of people
4. Creativity
Is a skill relating to how well you:
· Use your imagination and ideas to create something new
· Demonstrate originality and inventiveness
· Push conceptual and practical boundaries
5. Critical Thinking
Is a skill relating to how well you:
· Apply logic in a holistic manner
· Use criteria and reflection to measure the impact of your thinking
· Recognise that learning and thinking are ongoing skills to acquire
· measure
· reflection
· measures
6. Enterprise Ready
Is a skill relating to how well you:
· Create new work opportunities
· Gather resources to support business start ups
· Use your business skills to improve business outcomes (e.g. relationship building / networking)
7. Global Outlook
Is a skill relating to how well you:
· Understand your rights and responsibilities as a global citizen
· Value diversity and be informed about the social and political world
· Support initiatives, values and practices that prioritise peace, security and human rights around the world
8. Innovation
Is a skill relating to how well you:
· Recognise opportunities to develop and apply new ideas
· Reflect on project outcomes and revise for ongoing improvement
· Work with a future mindset and identify opportunities for continuous improvement
9. Leadership
Is a skill relating to how well you:
· Negotiate, persuade and influence others
· Direct and g ...
Insights and Trends: Current Portfolio, Programme, and Project Management ...CollectiveKnowledge
2012 PWC's third global survey on the current state of project management. New study is starting now and will be release somewhere this year (2014). Meanwhile, this is only 2 years old, so quite relevant. A total of 1,524 respondents from 38 countries and within 34 industries shared their insights
This casebook was created by the 36th and 37th batches of the Consulting and Strategy Club of IIM Lucknow to provide an overview of the case interview process for consulting roles. It contains frameworks for different case types, examples of past cases, transcripts of interviews, and additional resources. The casebook aims to help students prepare for consulting interviews by understanding the typical process and practicing various case scenarios. It is a comprehensive guide developed based on experiences of previous candidates who interviewed with consulting firms recruiting from IIM Lucknow.
How To Put Subject Matter Expert On ResumeLindsay Adams
The document provides tips for effectively positioning yourself as a subject matter expert on your resume. It recommends highlighting your expertise through strategic placement of terms like "SME", providing evidence of experience and accomplishments, quantifying your impact when possible, and tailoring your resume for each application to emphasize relevant expertise. Continuously updating your resume to reflect evolving experience is also advised.
This document appears to be a catalog from leadership and organizational development company Linkage Inc. listing their various training programs, workshops, and certificates offered between May and December 2011. It includes offerings related to change management, organizational development, leadership development, on-site workshops, and virtual/blended learning solutions. Linkage is named among the top 20 leadership training companies by Training Industry in 2009 and 2010.
This document provides an overview and index of training courses offered by IndigoCube Academy related to agile methodologies, DevOps, continuous delivery, and business analysis. The courses cover topics such as agile fundamentals, scaled agile framework (SAFe), disciplined agile, agile testing, DevOps, and business agility acceleration. The training is delivered through interactive workshops and hands-on engineering classes to provide experience with modern practices.
Business Agility: a roadmap to the digital enterprise by Jaco ViljoenIndigoCube
Business Agility event 2018 hosted by IndigoCube was on 17th July at Fairlawns Boutique Hotel. Jaco Viljoen, Head of Digital presented on Business Agility: a Roadmap to the Digital Enterprise.
Business agility: a disciplined viewpoint by scott amblerIndigoCube
The document discusses business agility and the Disciplined Agile Framework. It defines business agility as the ability to respond rapidly to internal and external changes without losing momentum or vision. It also describes agile organizations as being adaptive, lean, responsive, and focused on learning. Finally, it introduces the Disciplined Agile Framework as providing light-weight guidance to help organizations streamline IT and business processes in a context-sensitive manner in order to provide the process foundation for business agility.
Agile transformation lessons from the trenches by Mark LinesIndigoCube
Presentation 'Agile transformation lessons from the trenches' by Disciplined Agile industry leader Mark Lines during the Business Agility event 2018 hosted by IndigoCube in-conjunction with IBM.
IndigoCube - business agility through continuous exploration by Calton NhandoIndigoCube
Business Agility Through Continuous Exploration presented by Calton Nhando for the Business Agility event 2018 with Scott Ambler and Mark Lines from Disciplined Agile.
How is Analysis Done in Agile by Robin Grace IndigoCube
“Even though the role of business analyst is rarely mentioned in descriptions of agile it does not mean that business analysis does not occur. In fact, agile’s focus on delivering value to customers requires the entire team to collaboratively perform business analysis on a frequent basis. This and other characteristics of agile change how a business analyst works on a project.” Kent Macdonald
A collaborative approach to the quality in the agile enterprise by Jaco ViljoenIndigoCube
The document discusses challenges with quality and collaboration in different software development systems like waterfall, water-scrum-fall, and continuous delivery. It proposes shifting user acceptance testing left to the development phase and implementing acceptance test driven development with the whole team. The solution is to prevent defects through early testing, collaborate around quality, automate acceptance and regression testing, and build a continuous delivery pipeline to enable frequent releases. The implementation involved shifting processes from "water-scrum-fall" to "continuous delivery" with a phased approach to minimize impact.
"Challenges Faced by Testers Working on Agile Teams" by Aldo RallIndigoCube
"Challenges Faced by Testers Working on Agile Teams" by Aldo Rall
As a tester, moving into an Agile team can be frustrating and difficult. Often times leaving testers disillusioned and projects suffering due to a lack of quality.
In this talk, Aldo Rall will be looking at the typical challenges that testers face when moving into the Agile world, and touch on some key points that needs consideration for testers to successfully adapt in this new and often strange world called Agile.
IndigoCube - a peek at the future of software testing by Polteq, Ruud TeunissenIndigoCube
This document discusses the future of software testing and how it has evolved over time. It begins with testing being unstructured and struggling for involvement, then progressed to defining processes and gaining recognition. Testing became more risk-based and independent. Over time, there has been a shift to agile methods, context-driven and exploratory testing, test automation, cloud computing, mobile and social aspects. The future will see even more emphasis on areas like DevOps, outsourcing, and optimizing people skills over rigid processes.
The need for good enterprise analysis by robin graceIndigoCube
Enterprise analysis is important for defining the business need, goals, and value of a potential solution before a project begins. It involves understanding the "why" through assessing capabilities, determining solution approaches, and defining the scope to address gaps and achieve objectives. A cost-benefit analysis should also be performed to quantify the value and justify investments based on benefits, costs, risks, and results measurement. Performing thorough enterprise analysis upfront helps ensure projects are aligned with strategic goals and deliver the intended business value.
IndigoCube the agile enterprise: moving beyond scrum by JacoViljoenIndigoCube
To stay relevant in a world of accelerating change, business executives are increasingly striving for greater business agility.
To achieve this, the modern enterprise faces challenges such as:
• Increased responsiveness to market demands,
• Managing business agility at the portfolio and program level,
• Aligning business and IT agility,
• Extending software development agility to the greater application life cycle,
• Scaling agile practices so that it perpetuates throughout the organisation,
• Enabling agility using DevOps toolsets that significantly enhance productivity and speeds up delivery.
Join Jaco Viljoen, Principal consultant for Agile Software Development at IndigoCube and hear about the latest thinking in scaling agile to the enterprise and learn how to address these problems. Furthermore, Viljoen will discuss the state of agile today, agile frameworks for the agile enterprise, enabling DevOps toolsets, and how it all comes together to facilitate business agility.
This document discusses IBM's Rational Collaborative Lifecycle Management software. It promotes the software as providing capabilities for in-context collaboration, real-time planning, lifecycle traceability, development intelligence, and continuous improvement. These capabilities are presented as five imperatives for effective application lifecycle management. The document also provides overviews of IBM Rational's core ALM offerings and their integration capabilities.
The document provides hints and tips for business analysts (BAs) on various stages of a project. It discusses important considerations when first assigned to a project like ensuring clear objectives and identifying an executive sponsor. It emphasizes the importance of planning before starting a project to avoid failure. Specific planning elements mentioned include stakeholder analysis, developing a business analysis workplan and allocating sufficient time to requirements discovery. During a project, the document notes things BAs should focus on like workshops, mentorship and requirements reviews. It also flags things to watch out for such as assumptions about domain knowledge. After a project, it discusses sign-off challenges, conducting post-implementation reviews and learning lessons around requirements quality and defects.
This document discusses business analysis methodologies and frameworks. It defines a methodology as describing who performs what tasks using what inputs to produce what outputs, when, how, and why. A framework is described as a partially completed solution with options for completion. The document outlines the Unified Methodology Architecture (UMA) components of roles, tasks, inputs, outputs, processes, and guidance. It presents a business analysis framework that maps requirements from business objectives to technical requirements. Finally, it discusses how methodologies and frameworks can be customized based on factors like competency levels and technique complexity.
This document discusses self-organizing teams and how leaders can subtly influence them. It covers that self-organizing means a team determines how it responds to its environment, not what goals it pursues. Complex adaptive systems are characterized by decentralized control and emergent behavior from interactions. Leaders can guide behavior through subtle rules and incentives rather than rigid control. The document suggests leaders can influence a team's self-organization by altering its containers, amplifying or dampening differences among members, and changing exchanges between members and other groups.
With many organisations re-thinking the execution of their innovation lifecycles in an attempt to gain better productivity, some of the key questions that keep recurring are:
• When does a BA get allocated to a new business initiative?
• When does the business initiative become a project and require some form of project management?
• How does enterprise analysis fit into the systems development lifecycle?
• Who creates a business case?
• Who is assigned first: PM or BA?
Robin Grace, a business analysis principal consultants at IndigoCube, contributor to an IIBA white paper, CBAP, and author of Aligning Business Analysis, Assessing business analysis from a results focus, tells all.
Lifting the lid on Business Rules - Robin Grace IndigoCube
Understanding Business Rules is key to understanding business analysis. Business Analysts must have an in-depth understanding of what business rules are and how to identify them accurately and completely when performing their business analysis tasks. Failing to accurately identify a business rule will result in a software defect that may be very costly to fix.
In this seminar, Robin Grace will explore the relationship between business rules and requirements, outlining a systematic approach to be used for the identification of business rules.
Walmart Business+ and Spark Good for Nonprofits.pdfTechSoup
"Learn about all the ways Walmart supports nonprofit organizations.
You will hear from Liz Willett, the Head of Nonprofits, and hear about what Walmart is doing to help nonprofits, including Walmart Business and Spark Good. Walmart Business+ is a new offer for nonprofits that offers discounts and also streamlines nonprofits order and expense tracking, saving time and money.
The webinar may also give some examples on how nonprofits can best leverage Walmart Business+.
The event will cover the following::
Walmart Business + (https://business.walmart.com/plus) is a new shopping experience for nonprofits, schools, and local business customers that connects an exclusive online shopping experience to stores. Benefits include free delivery and shipping, a 'Spend Analytics” feature, special discounts, deals and tax-exempt shopping.
Special TechSoup offer for a free 180 days membership, and up to $150 in discounts on eligible orders.
Spark Good (walmart.com/sparkgood) is a charitable platform that enables nonprofits to receive donations directly from customers and associates.
Answers about how you can do more with Walmart!"
it describes the bony anatomy including the femoral head , acetabulum, labrum . also discusses the capsule , ligaments . muscle that act on the hip joint and the range of motion are outlined. factors affecting hip joint stability and weight transmission through the joint are summarized.
How to Build a Module in Odoo 17 Using the Scaffold MethodCeline George
Odoo provides an option for creating a module by using a single line command. By using this command the user can make a whole structure of a module. It is very easy for a beginner to make a module. There is no need to make each file manually. This slide will show how to create a module using the scaffold method.
Leveraging Generative AI to Drive Nonprofit InnovationTechSoup
In this webinar, participants learned how to utilize Generative AI to streamline operations and elevate member engagement. Amazon Web Service experts provided a customer specific use cases and dived into low/no-code tools that are quick and easy to deploy through Amazon Web Service (AWS.)
How to Fix the Import Error in the Odoo 17Celine George
An import error occurs when a program fails to import a module or library, disrupting its execution. In languages like Python, this issue arises when the specified module cannot be found or accessed, hindering the program's functionality. Resolving import errors is crucial for maintaining smooth software operation and uninterrupted development processes.
How to Manage Your Lost Opportunities in Odoo 17 CRMCeline George
Odoo 17 CRM allows us to track why we lose sales opportunities with "Lost Reasons." This helps analyze our sales process and identify areas for improvement. Here's how to configure lost reasons in Odoo 17 CRM
Strategies for Effective Upskilling is a presentation by Chinwendu Peace in a Your Skill Boost Masterclass organisation by the Excellence Foundation for South Sudan on 08th and 09th June 2024 from 1 PM to 3 PM on each day.
Chapter wise All Notes of First year Basic Civil Engineering.pptxDenish Jangid
Chapter wise All Notes of First year Basic Civil Engineering
Syllabus
Chapter-1
Introduction to objective, scope and outcome the subject
Chapter 2
Introduction: Scope and Specialization of Civil Engineering, Role of civil Engineer in Society, Impact of infrastructural development on economy of country.
Chapter 3
Surveying: Object Principles & Types of Surveying; Site Plans, Plans & Maps; Scales & Unit of different Measurements.
Linear Measurements: Instruments used. Linear Measurement by Tape, Ranging out Survey Lines and overcoming Obstructions; Measurements on sloping ground; Tape corrections, conventional symbols. Angular Measurements: Instruments used; Introduction to Compass Surveying, Bearings and Longitude & Latitude of a Line, Introduction to total station.
Levelling: Instrument used Object of levelling, Methods of levelling in brief, and Contour maps.
Chapter 4
Buildings: Selection of site for Buildings, Layout of Building Plan, Types of buildings, Plinth area, carpet area, floor space index, Introduction to building byelaws, concept of sun light & ventilation. Components of Buildings & their functions, Basic concept of R.C.C., Introduction to types of foundation
Chapter 5
Transportation: Introduction to Transportation Engineering; Traffic and Road Safety: Types and Characteristics of Various Modes of Transportation; Various Road Traffic Signs, Causes of Accidents and Road Safety Measures.
Chapter 6
Environmental Engineering: Environmental Pollution, Environmental Acts and Regulations, Functional Concepts of Ecology, Basics of Species, Biodiversity, Ecosystem, Hydrological Cycle; Chemical Cycles: Carbon, Nitrogen & Phosphorus; Energy Flow in Ecosystems.
Water Pollution: Water Quality standards, Introduction to Treatment & Disposal of Waste Water. Reuse and Saving of Water, Rain Water Harvesting. Solid Waste Management: Classification of Solid Waste, Collection, Transportation and Disposal of Solid. Recycling of Solid Waste: Energy Recovery, Sanitary Landfill, On-Site Sanitation. Air & Noise Pollution: Primary and Secondary air pollutants, Harmful effects of Air Pollution, Control of Air Pollution. . Noise Pollution Harmful Effects of noise pollution, control of noise pollution, Global warming & Climate Change, Ozone depletion, Greenhouse effect
Text Books:
1. Palancharmy, Basic Civil Engineering, McGraw Hill publishers.
2. Satheesh Gopi, Basic Civil Engineering, Pearson Publishers.
3. Ketki Rangwala Dalal, Essentials of Civil Engineering, Charotar Publishing House.
4. BCP, Surveying volume 1
2. Copyright 2012 | IndigoCube (Pty) Ltd | www.indigocube.co.za P a g e 2
The more analysis tools a BA masters, the
more valuable he will be to the organisation.
Developing an Excellent Business Analyst
he emergence of the business analysis profession is
one of the best things that has happened to business
organisations in this decade! Organisations that have
nurtured and developed business analysts (BAs) are
experiencing huge paybacks for their investments.
People with titles as varied as project manager, quality
assurance analyst, and consultant possess business
analysis skills.
Regardless of the title, individuals who truly understand
how to turn high level corporate objectives into detailed
business solutions are extremely valuable resources.
Excellent BAs are unique individuals who have the ability
to work on details while also understanding how small
these details can impact the larger corporate picture. An
excellent BA looks upon a “simple” maintenance change
to determine if it has a broader impact to the
organisation.
BAs bring requirements skills to many different types
of projects, such as:
• selection and implementation of packaged
solutions (COTS)
• new software development
• business process improvement
The excellent BA is aware of his or her
organisation’s strategic plans and understands
how to implement them at the individual
business unit level. Many corporate executives
are uncertain where to find these people and
how to develop them. Traditional management
training is not appropriate for this role. Specific
technology or methodology training isn’t the
entire solution.
And, focusing on a particular technical
solution or approach is too narrow to
build an effective BA. The skills most
highly valued by an organisation are true
problem solving skills that are broad
enough to allow an individual to see
many possible solutions and to think
outside or beyond a predetermined
solution that may have been presented.
An excellent BA looks at each problem as
a missing puzzle piece that needs to
interlock and work with the other pieces
of the organisation. He or she has the
ability to examine the problem from
multiple perspectives and consider
possible solutions with a realistic view of
the organisation’s cost vs. benefit. Ideas
are easy to generate but a BA challenges,
dissects evaluates, and truly “tests” each
idea to determine if it fits within the corporate
direction while also addressing the specific
business problem at hand. Additionally, an
excellent BA assesses the impact of a
recommended change on the organisation.
Is the Excellent BA Born or Developed?
Is a BA born or made? We believe both.
Individuals selected for this role must have a
critical mind and an acute sense of curiosity. They
are people who are not satisfied settling for a
good solution but are determined to find an
excellent one. They intuitively understand
continuous process improvement. Once you find a
person like this, he or she is eager to learn
techniques that make him more capable and
effective. Analysis skills that can be acquired
through education and practice include critical
thinking skills, root cause analysis, process analysis
(breaking large things into manageable pieces),
and data analysis (organising, categorising, and
utilising large volumes of data in a useful way to
assist in decision making).
T
3. Copyright 2012 | IndigoCube (Pty) Ltd | www.indigocube.co.za P a g e 3
Analysis skills that can be acquired through education and practice include critical
thinking skills, root cause analysis, process analysis (breaking large things into
manageable pieces), and data analysis (organising, categorising, and utilising large
volumes of data in a useful way to assist in decision making). BAs learn to improve
their communication skills by widening the breadth of their questioning and by fine
tuning their ability to listen for true causes of problems, not just symptoms.
IndigoCube focuses on developing individuals to master business analysis. Our
courses and products equip BAs with a full range of complex business analysis skills,
techniques, and approaches. The more analysis tools BAs master, the more valuable
they will be to the organisation. In many organisations today, projects and problems
do not follow a simple 1-2-3 pattern. Most problems are usually more complex than
they initially appear, involving a number of interrelated factors. Solutions are not
always obvious or easy to build. An excellent BA knows how to get started on a
problem/project that may not be clearly defined or understood.
An excellent BA is flexible and able to adapt to each unique situation. They possess
an inventory of problem solving skills with which they feel comfortable to deploy as
needed. They are able to work with many different types of people on many
different types of projects. They must be agile. Agility is obtained by having a
complete set of skills; and knowing when and how to wield them quickly and
efficiently. Regardless of what type of project the BA is working on, having a solid
skill set will ensure the BA’s critical value to an organisation.
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Training Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
International Certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
South African Certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Certified Core Courses
Essential Skills for Business Analysis™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Business Process Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Detailing Business Data Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Use Case Modeling and Solution Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Certified Advanced Courses
Developing a Business Analysis Work Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Business Analysis in an Agile Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Facilitating Requirements for Business Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Specialised Courses
Requirements Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Business Analysis Essentials for Project Managers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Management/Technical Seminars
Overview of Business Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Developer’s Introduction to Business Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Practitioner Courses
Essentials of Rational Unified Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Writing Good Use Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Mastering Requirements Management with Use Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Mastering Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with U ML 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
BABOK / CCBA / CBAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Requirements Template Roadmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Business Analyst Assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
IIBA
®
BABOK
®
Alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Business Analysis Skills
Communication Skills
Facilitation Techniques
Use Case Analysis
Requirements Planning
Prototyping
Asking the Right Questions
Structured Approaches
Documentation Standards
Workflow Analysis
Traceability
Requirements Review
Requirements Management
Note Taking
SDLC Knowledge
Cost/Benefit Analysis
UAT Planning
Effective Meetings
Presentation Skills
Interviewing Techniques
Risk Assessment
Dataflow Diagramming
Excellent Requirements
Process Modeling
Elicitation Techniques
Software Design Knowledge
Change Control
Project Management
Data Modeling
Active Listening
Organisational Skills
Usability Principles
Business Rule Analysis
Gap Analysis
4. Copyright 2012 | IndigoCube (Pty) Ltd | www.indigocube.co.za P a g e 4
T R A I N I N G O P T I O N S
Onsite Training
All of our courses may be taught
on-site at your facilities, where
required, provided that there are
six or more delegates.
Please contact us to discuss your
specific course requirements,
group size, and available training
dates.
Self-study
For experienced business analysts,
study guides are available for our
four core courses. Go to
www.b2ttraining.com
These study guides are ideal for
skilled business analysts who are
unable to attend classes but would
like to receive the B2T Training
Certification.
Public Training
IndigoCube offers public classes at
our offices on the Ground Floor,
Victoria Gate South, Hyde Lane,
Hyde Park, Sandton.
Public classes allow students to
meet and learn with business
analysts from other companies
and industries, offering a broader
understanding of the business
analysis profession.
Customisation
Onsite classes can be tailored to address your unique organisational environment and the experience level and interest
of the students. The level of customisation required is dependent upon a review of your needs and the outline of our course
curriculum. This review will reveal areas that may need more or less focus during training. We will prepare a customised
training programme, if needed, which includes topics from existing material that address specific areas of concern.
Customisation requiring additional or new course development will incur a fee.
5. Copyright 2012 | IndigoCube (Pty) Ltd | www.indigocube.co.za P a g e 5
T R A I N I N G C U R R I C U L U M
Our comprehensive business analysis curriculum is developed and delivered by practicing business
analysts. Our mature programme has been proven through the success of our customers resulting in
improved requirements.
The curriculum is supported by full requirements document templates, a reference manual for post-
training guidance, coaching, and resources. The skills, techniques, and approaches that we teach
are not tied to or limited to any particular methodology.
Core Courses
Our core training programme is aimed at new
or experienced business analysts. These
courses comprise a complete curriculum and
are written for organisations looking to level-
set the business analyst role in their
companies and for individuals seeking a solid
foundational skill set. Our certification
programme is based on these four core
courses.
Core Courses:
■ Essential Skills for Business Analysis
■ Business Process Analysis
■ Detailing Business Data Requirements
■ Use Case Modeling & Solution Requirements
Advanced Courses
In addition to the four core courses, IndigoCube
offers courses that cover more advanced and
specialised business analysis topics. These
courses are designed for experienced business
analysts or to be taken after completing the four
core courses.
Attend two of the following Advanced Classes for the
BA Certified Exam:
■ Developing a Business Analysis Work Plan
■ Business Analysis in an Agile Environment
■ Facilitating Requirements for Business Analysis
Specialised Courses
We also offer specialised courses designed to
assist project managers and business analysts
who need an understanding of business analysis
practices in the software development
environment.
■ Business Analysis Essentials for Project Managers
■ Detailing Process and Business Rule Requirements
■ Writing Good Use Cases
■ Mastering Requirements Management with Use
Cases
■ Mastering Object-Oriented Analysis & Design with
UML 2.0
■ Requirements Validation
Management and Technical Seminars:
Our management and technical seminars are
designed to help those who work with business
analysts to gain a better understanding of the
business analysis role.
■ Overview of Business Analysis
■ Developer’s Introduction to Business Analysis
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B2T I N T E R N A T I O N A L C E R T I F I C A T I O N
Certification
IndigoCube believes that a certified business
analyst should exhibit real-world knowledge and
experience. Our certification programme tests a
business analyst’s ability to apply knowledge and
skills in real-world circumstances and offers two
levels of recognition. Our business analyst
certification programme recognises individuals
who have proven skills, knowledge, and
experience in eliciting, organising, analysing,
documenting, communicating, and verifying
requirements to facilitate the development or
purchase of software applications and/or business
process improvement efforts. Our certification
programme is based on the essential business
analysis skills covered in our four core courses.
BA Associate
TM
The BA Associate is a certificate that recognises
business analysts who possess foundational knowledge
of business analysis topics and skills taught in our four
core courses. It is designed for new and experienced
business analysts. Obtaining the BA Associate
certificate requires candidates to pass all online
proficiency area exams of our four core courses. The
cost of each exam is R900 excluding VAT. Candidates
wishing to test-out the four core courses may purchase
study guides for each of these courses to help prepare
for passing the proficiency exams.
BA Certified
TM
After obtaining the BA Associate certificate,
candidates are qualified to work toward BA Certified.
BA Certified is an elite certification that recognises
individuals who possess proven skills, knowledge, and
experience in eliciting, organising, analysing,
documenting, communicating, and verifying
requirements.
Becoming BA Certified consists of:
■ earning the BA Associate certificate
■ attending any two of the advanced courses
■ register for the final comprehensive exam
■ receive and review the CBAP Study Guide
■ writing and passing the final comprehensive exam
BA Certified business analysts are able to confidently
provide their employers or perspective employers with
evidence that they possess not only business analysis
knowledge, but the ability to apply that knowledge in
day-to-day real-world business analysis environments.
Cost of the final comprehensive exam is available on
request.
7. Copyright 2012 | IndigoCube (Pty) Ltd | www.indigocube.co.za P a g e 7
S O U T H A F R I C A N
C E R T I F I C A T I O N
Intended Audience
This course is designed for
business analysts, project
managers, business systems
analysts, system architects or
any other project team member
involved with analysis. New
practitioners will learn the tasks
they are expected to perform
and why each task is important.
Experienced practitioners will
learn new techniques and
more structured approaches to
improve their requirements
activities.
This course may also be
appropriate for individuals who
manage analysis activities and
business stakeholders who need
a more in-depth understanding
of the requirements process
and deliverables.
Prerequisites
None
B2T Certification
This class is a part of the
Business Analyst International
Certification Program. For more
information on this Certification,
please refer to Page 6 in this
catalogue.
B2T C E R T I F I E D C O R E C O U R S E
Essential Skills for Business Analysis™
Overview
To identify the best solutions for real business needs, this course provides an extensive
inventory of tools and techniques for use in business analysis work. The business analysis
skill set includes critical thinking skills, elicitation techniques and requirements analysis
and management. Equally important are communication and relationship building skills,
whether they be in person or virtual environments. Expertise with analysis tools and
techniques becomes even more necessary in today’s fast-paced environment. It is
further complicated by the use of dispersed or outsourced teams, complex business
processes, time-driven business initiatives, new agile software development approaches,
and poorly integrated legacy applications.
Regardless of the person’s title, the need for strong business analysis skills is necessary
for companies to remain competitive in any economy. Through education and practice
business or technical professionals will develop and enhance their analytical skills and
provide significant value to projects and the business enterprise.
This course teaches business analysis essentials to both new and experienced
practitioners. It supports and expands on the standards outlined in the IIBA® BABOK®
Guide V2.0. Mentor-led workshops allow students to practice the techniques as they
learn them. Depending on the participant’s skill level, the workshop cases and
discussions inspire learning insights for every level of experience. Students are
encouraged to bring their own projects to class. Using new techniques on a current
project often highlights missing requirements and gives the student specific next steps to
follow after class.
In this course students will learn to:
• Analyse and scope the area of analysis, working with project managers and business
sponsors to clarify the level and complexity of the business analysis effort needed for
the project
• Select the appropriate elicitation technique to efficiently identify critical requirements
• Analyse and refine business and functional requirements
• Ask the right questions through the use of interviewing templates developed
specifically for business analysis elicitation
• Identify the five core components necessary to analyse a business area
• Plan an approach for analysing, categorising, and managing requirements. Determine
the level of formality required and consider options for documenting and packaging
requirements based on project type, priorities, and risks
• Identify techniques and documentation options appropriate for various software
development approaches and project types (COTS, maintenance, business process
improvement, new development, etc.)
• Define testing objectives and verify requirements are testable
• Conduct effective requirements reviews to improve the quality of requirements
deliverables
• Build strong relationships with project stakeholders
• Apply new communication strategies for eliciting and interacting with virtual teams
• Anticipate issues, think proactively, and use critical thinking skills to plan stakeholder
elicitation sessions
4 DAYS
8. Copyright 2012 | IndigoCube (Pty) Ltd | www.indigocube.co.za P a g e 8
Course Outline
Introduction - 1 hr.
What is business analysis?
Review the major tasks performed by the
business analyst.
Define the essential skills needed to perform
their tasks.
Project Participants and their Roles - 1 hr.
Identify project stakeholders and their roles.
Discuss how the business analyst interacts
with these participants.
Elicitation Techniques - 3 hrs.
Learn to use and determine the appropriate
elicitation technique:
- One-on-one interviews
- Requirements workshops
- Surveys
- Brainstorming
- Document analysis
- Focus group
- Job shadowing/observation
- Competitive analysis
- Interface analysis
- Reverse engineering
- Learn to proactively plan interactions with
stakeholders to make the most effective
use of their time.
Scoping the Project from the Business Analyst's
Perspective - 5.5 hrs.
Understand why the project is being done.
Without this understanding it will be difficult
for business analysts to elicit and document
the right requirements and focus their
business analysis work in the appropriate
areas. Get an introduction to Enterprise
Analysis.
Understand the organisational environment.
Identify the business stakeholders who will be
involved in the project and how they will
impact business analysis.
Learn to ask probing questions about the
requirements scope and facilitate a discussion
with project stakeholders using visual
representations of the requirements
boundaries.
Learn the context level dataflow diagram
technique to identify and scope "what is" and,
more importantly, "what is not" to be
analysed. Analyse interfaces with people,
other organisations, existing systems, and
other software applications.
Discuss how a business analyst should collect,
organise, and maintain requirements for
efficient analysis and reuse on future projects.
Workshop - Scope the class case study
project.
Workshop - Reinforce the analysis techniques
on a current project. Students will leave class
with a draft visual representation of their
current business area along with a list of
follow up questions.
Defining and Detailing Requirements - 4 hrs.
What is a requirement? Why is it important to
elicit and document requirements? What are
the criteria used to judge the quality of
"excellent” requirements?
Learn how software developers use
requirements
Understand the difference between analysis
and design or "business" vs. "technological"
requirements. Why is it necessary to
understand the business problem before
deciding on a solution?
Learn the 5 core requirement components,
what they describe, and why they are
important.
- Entity
- Attribute
- Process (use case)
- External Agent (actor)
- Business Rule
Requirements Analysis Techniques - 5 hrs.
Learn the recommended approach to
categorising requirements. Why should
requirements be categorised? Who uses each
category? Why is it difficult to create distinct
categories?
- Business Requirements
- Functional Requirements
- Non-functional Requirements
- Technical Requirements
Learn the concept of traceability of
requirements.
Discuss the most commonly used analysis
techniques to organise and refine
requirements. Business analysts should have
expertise in many analysis techniques to be
able to adapt to different types of projects
and businesses.
- Structured textual templates (process
descriptions, data descriptions, business
rules, use cases)
- Entity relationship diagram
- Decomposition diagram
- User stories, use case diagram and use case
descriptions
- Workflow diagram (UML, BPMN, ANSI,
swim lane)
- Prototyping
Consider options and level of formality for
packaging requirements and choosing the
appropriate documentation techniques for
each project.
Review currently available software tools that
can be used for requirements management.
Workshop - Put into practice several of the
analysis techniques on the course case study
requirements.
Conducting a Requirements Review - 2 hrs.
Learn how to conduct a requirements review:
Who should participate? What are the
required steps? How is a session conducted?
What are the common challenges?
Workshop - Review a sample requirements
package.
- Identify missing or incomplete
requirements.
- Identify potential test cases.
- Document issues and develop an approach
for going forward.
Validate the Requirements - 2 hrs.
Understand the role of business analysis in
validating requirements and software testing.
Introduction to software testing: Why is
testing important? What is the business
analyst's role in testing? What is the primary
objective of testing? What are the phases and
types of testing?
Learn to verify that the business requirements
are complete by identifying test cases.
Practice identifying test cases and refining
requirements based on quality assurance
principles.
Analysis Communication Skills - 2.5 hrs.
Learn the importance of building strong
relationships with project stakeholders. How
should business analysts communicate with
users? How should business analysts
communicate with the technical team?
Improve your ability to develop in-depth,
detailed questions for stakeholders by
identifying the appropriate source of
information, deciding on an approach, and using
clear, consistent language.
Review selected analysis techniques to frame
questions driving stakeholders to reveal core
needs and problems. Ask the right questions
through the use of interviewing templates
developed specifically for business analysis.
Recognise active listening as the most powerful
elicitation communication skill, learn to listen
for key phrases that reveal specific types of
requirements.
Improve listening skills by recognising common
barriers to listening, understanding verbal and
nonverbal messages, acknowledging the
message, and responding with appropriate
feedback.
Learn to effectively plan communications and
facilitate groups to consensus.
Workshop - Practice active listening and receive
feedback from the instructors and other
students.
Working with Virtual Teams - Optional
Understand what constitutes a virtual team.
Learn about virtual team structures and
terminology.
Learn about technology requirements for virtual
teams
- Define Webinars, web conferencing,
webcasting.
- Understand the uses for collaboration tools.
Consider business analysis process changes for
virtual team work
- Set policies for the team.
- Utilise the Six Thinking Hats® technique.
Effectively utilise the people on the virtual team
- Understand the critical success
characteristics.
- Tips for conducting virtual meetings
successfully.
- Choose the appropriate elicitation techniques
for virtual teams.
Develop Your Action Plan/Course Summary
- 2 hrs.
Review Business Analysts tasks and skills.
Workshop - Draft an initial Business Analysis
Communications Plan for a CRM project.
Develop an Action Plan with next steps on the
student's current project.
Student questions/discussion topics.
Appendix - Overview of Application Development
Methodologies - Optional
Discuss various methodologies for application
development.
Learn which models are used in each
methodology:
- Waterfall
- Information Engineering
- IDEF
- RAD
- Iterative/Agile
- BPMN
- Object Oriented – UML
- Spiral/RUP
9. Copyright 2012 | IndigoCube (Pty) Ltd | www.indigocube.co.za P a g e 9
Intended Audience
This course will be beneficial to
any person, in any size
organisation, hoping to improve
their business processes. The
techniques presented can be
used without any sophisticated
software to quickly identify
areas for improvement and fix
broken processes
Prerequisites
It is recommended that students
first attend our Essential Skills
for Business Analysis class or
have experience in project
scope definition, eliciting
requirements, and
understanding how process
modelling relates to, and is
different from, a software
development project
B2T Certification
This class is a part of the
Business Analyst International
Certification Program. For more
information on this Certification,
please refer to Page 6 in this
catalogue.
B2T C E R T I F I E D C O R E C O U R S E
Business Process Analysis
Overview
Did you know the six costliest words in business are “we’ve always done it that way”? In
this class you will learn techniques to help your business look at how things are being
done and create solution options to improve the business processes. Creating AS IS and
TO BE workflows gives the business analyst a strategic view of business architecture
which is essential in Agile, SOA, BPM, and any type of process improvement or COTS
project. Workflows are also the foundation for documenting Six Sigma, Lean, and Value
Stream process maps.
Business process analysis is a fundamental activity in defining changes to existing
business systems, business process improvement activities, or performing gap analysis
for COTS. It provides the analyst an understanding of the core business processes they
can use to suggest alternative solutions which meet core business needs and fit with
existing IT infrastructure. Management can then evaluate each alternative for its
potential return on investment and the cost of implementation. Every business is
searching for better ways of getting work done. Improving efficiency, decreasing costs,
increasing productivity and customer service are goals that are universal.
Evaluating the business process may result in software changes, procedural changes,
organizational changes, personnel changes, etc. The best way to improve business
operations is to: 1) study the current procedures, 2) find the core or essential work being
done, and 3) define how this essential work will be accomplished. This course teaches a
proven approach which gives the business analyst the confidence and credibility to offer
and promote the right solution to solve the business problem or opportunity.
In this course students will learn to:
Identify and document complex business process steps in an easy-to-review diagram
using industry standard notation BPMN
Schedule and conduct discovery/elicitation sessions to learn about current business
processes (AS IS)
Identify areas for process improvement by reviewing AS IS models
Develop process re-design strategies and present them for approval (TO BE)
Ask detailed questions to get a complete understanding of business procedures,
business rules, information use, and events that impact the business processes
Initiate a process modeling effort with clear objectives and an agreed upon goal
Define key terms used by the business domain to improve communications within
the business
Decompose complex processes into lower level tasks and sub-processes
Identify the most important business component: Essential Processes
Conduct a review of a process model to assure accuracy
Please Note: If students prefer and have experience using MS Visio to draw diagrams,
they may bring their laptops with MS Visio to use during some of the workshops. This is
not a requirement.
3 DAYS
10. Copyright 2012 | IndigoCube (Pty) Ltd | www.indigocube.co.za P a g e 10
Course Outline
Introduction to Business Process
Analysis – 1 hr.
Define student learning objectives.
Define business process analysis.
Solidify strong project objectives and
goals.
Learn the importance of the glossary to
process modeling.
AS IS Workflow Analysis – 5 hrs.
Utilise workflow analysis to understand
the current business process (AS IS).
Discuss key terms in process modeling
and their subtle differences (process,
sub-process, function, activity,
essential process, task, procedure).
Discuss the reasons for creating AS IS
diagrams and models.
Learn to create detailed Business Process
Models.
Learn the key BPMN symbols and their
usage (tasks, connections, events,
gateways).
Discover and analyse tasks in the
business domain.
Identify events within the business
process including delays,
communications and triggers.
Decompose complex processes into
sub-processes and create related
diagrams.
Use data artifacts to collect and
analyse information currently used by
the business.
Collect metrics or measurements to
establish the business process
baseline.
Learn to capture business rules during
analysis and document them in a useful
fashion.
Learn to review a business process
model looking for process improvement
opportunities.
Learn an approach to managing your
workload on a large business process
modeling project.
Workshop: Create an AS IS Business
Process Model for the course case study
and present it to the class.
Discovering Business Rules – 3 hrs.
Learn to listen for business rules when
eliciting business process requirements.
Learn to ask detailed questions to clarify
business rules.
Consider several approaches to
organising, documenting and getting
confirmation on business rules.
Use decision tables to represent complex
business rules.
Workshop: Identify business rules from
case study.
Essential Business Process Modeling – 3 hrs.
Learn to identify essential business
processes. An essential business process is a
core requirement of the business area
necessary to re-design the process for
improvement. Each process must be clearly
defined, consistently named, and
completely described.
Learn to extract essential processes from
detailed user descriptions and the AS IS
process models.
Learn to identify redundant and reusable
processes.
Use an interviewing template to document
business narratives for each essential
process.
Process Analysis – 3 hrs.
Learn to organise essential business
processes in a process outline or
decomposition diagram.
Learn to decompose business processes
into sub-processes and tasks.
Workshop: Identify and present essential
processes for the class case study.
TO BE Workflow Analysis – 5 hrs.
Review BPMN AS IS Models and transition
to a TO BE Model.
Evaluate the business value of each
process step following the principles of
Six Sigma, Lean, Value Stream Mapping,
etc.
Identify areas for improvement from the
AS IS Models.
o Use root cause analysis to find the true
reason for each problem.
o Review current process metrics.
o Examine handoffs and communications
between process participants.
Prioritise areas for improvement.
Brainstorm on TO BE alternatives.
Create TO BE models with a re-design or
the business procedures supporting the
essential processes.
Collaborate with stakeholders to develop
alternative solutions and evaluate each
one.
Use a solution table to define desired
functionality and priorities. This table can
be used as the backlog for future projects.
Perform gap analysis to analyse gaps
between the AS IS Process and the
recommended TO BE Process.
Identify transition requirements.
Workshop: Create a TO BE Business Process
Model for the course case study and
present it to the class.
Develop Your Action Plan/Course Summary
– 1 hr.
Develop an Action Plan with next steps on
the student’s current project.
Student questions/discussion topics.
11. Copyright 2012 | IndigoCube (Pty) Ltd | www.indigocube.co.za P a g e 11
Intended Audience
This course is designed for
business analysts, systems
analysts, data administrators,
database administrators, or any
other project team member
involved with business analysis.
This course may also be
appropriate for individuals who
manage business analysts or
those who work with the
business requirements
document and need a more in-
depth understanding of the
process and documentation.
Prerequisites
It is recommended that students
first attend our Essential Skills
for Business Analysis class or
have experience in project scope
definition, eliciting requirements
from subject matter experts, and
understand how business
requirements fit into the entire
systems development effort.
B2T Certification
This class is a part of the
Business Analyst International
Certification Program. For more
information on this Certification,
please refer to Page 6 in this
catalogue.
B2T C E R T I F I E D C O R E C O U R S E
Detailing Business Data Requirements
Overview
Understanding and documenting business data requirements is a critical component in
defining complete requirements. Eliciting information needs often uncovers additional
processes and business rules. Every business process uses data and almost all business
rules are enforced by data. Missing a critical piece of data or incorrectly defining a data
element contributes to the majority of maintenance problems and results in systems
that do not reflect the business needs. This course teaches students an in-depth
approach to data modeling: identifying and defining all necessary data components using
both textual templates and an entity relationship diagram.
This course teaches business analysis techniques for eliciting, analysing, and
documenting data requirements to both new and experienced practitioners. Students
will be given data templates with a suggested documentation structure for defining
Business Data Requirements. It supports and expands on the techniques in the IIBA
BABOK® Guide V2.0. Mentor-led workshops require students to practice the techniques
as they learn. Students are encouraged to bring their own projects to class.
In this course students will learn to:
• Identify core data requirements beginning with project initiation
• Identify excellent data requirements at the appropriate level of detail
• Detail the data requirements (using a data dictionary and data model)
• Detail complex data-related business rules
• Assist with the transition of business data to database design
• Utilise easy normalisation techniques (without all the mathematical theory)
• Validate data requirements with activity (process or use case) requirements
Even if your organisation has a data administrator or data warehouse team who is
responsible for documenting and managing the organisation’s information needs, every
project uses a subset of that enterprise information in its own unique way. Business
analysts must understand the importance of data in all of their projects and include data
requirements in their business requirements documentation. Failing to document which
data elements need to be used in a calculation, or displayed on a report, leaves the
developer the responsibility of choosing the correct pieces of business data from
hundreds if not thousands of available fields. These missing requirements often lead to
expensive and lengthy project delays during the testing phase.
“… the data sees the big picture, while the various people and machines and
organisations that work on the data see only a portion of what happens. As you go about
doing a Structured Analysis, you will find yourself more and more frequently attaching
yourself to the data and following it through the operation. I think of this as
“interviewing the data.”‘ It is usually more productive than any other single interview.”
Tom DeMarco.
3 DAYS
12. Copyright 2012 | IndigoCube (Pty) Ltd | www.indigocube.co.za P a g e 12
Course Outline
Introduction – 1 hr.
What is a business data requirement? Why
are these requirements important?
Review requirements categories and
classifications.
What is the difference between business
data and database design?
Review the 7 characteristics of "excellent"
requirements.
Review the core requirements components.
Entities and Attributes – 5 hrs.
Review the components of excellent project
initiation and scope analysis.
Learn to use the context level dataflow
diagram as a starting point for identifying
data requirements.
Entity types are the basic building blocks of
the business data. This section defines
entities, gives suggested naming guidelines,
teaches the importance of entity
definitions, gives criteria to evaluate
potential entities, describes entity unique
identifiers, and has students identify and
document entities from the case study.
Attribute types are characteristics of entity
types. This section defines attributes, a data
dictionary, gives suggested naming
guidelines and class words, gives criteria to
evaluate attributes, and has students
identify and document attributes from the
case study.
Templates for analysing and documenting
data requirements are provided.
Entity Relationships and Diagramming
Conventions – 4 hrs.
Learn how business data requirements are
displayed in an entity relationship diagram.
Relationships are data associations that
define the business rules of the project as
they relate to data. This section defines
relationships and business rules, gives
suggested naming guidelines, teaches
relationship cardinalities, and has students
identify and document relationships from
the case study.
Review common diagram notations for data
related business rules.
Learn about an alternative model: the class
diagram.
Detailing the Data Requirements – 5 hrs.
Detailing repeating data elements.
Repeating attributes must be broken down
into their components, properly named,
and clearly documented with example data
values. Students will refine their
requirements document based on
additional business requirements.
Detailing complex business rules. Complex
business rules (many-to-many
relationships) should be properly named
and clearly documented with example data
values. Students will refine their
requirements document based on
additional business requirements.
Detailing sub-category entities. Some
business data naturally falls into sub-
categories and should be documented as
such.
Review techniques for documenting data
conversion, interface requirements and
perform gap analysis.
Transition from Business Data to a Physical
Design – 2 hrs.
Learn how to link the data and process
elements to identify missing or incomplete
requirements. Each essential process must
use data, and each data element must be
used by at least one essential process.
How does business data become a database
design? Review the data requirements for
completeness, understand how logical
components are translated to physical
components, and develop a strategy for
maintaining the business requirements.
Introduction to database design.
Scope the design area using subject areas.
What is de-normalisation? Why de-
normalise a database design?
Workshop - Identify and document data
requirements for the case study – 4 hrs.
Identify and document entities.
Identify and document attributes.
Identify and document data related
business rules.
Appendix - Data Normalisation - Optional
What is data normalisation and why is it
important?
What are the rules of normalisation?
13. Copyright 2012 | IndigoCube (Pty) Ltd | www.indigocube.co.za P a g e 13
Intended Audience
This course is designed for
business analysts, systems
analysts, or any other project
team members responsible for
developing functional, non-
functional, and transition
requirements. Students are
encouraged to bring examples of
their requirements documents
to the class for review and
feedback. This course may also
be appropriate for individuals
who manage business analysts.
Developers and solution
implementers will benefit from
an understanding of how
functional and non-functional
requirements are elicited and
analysed.
Prerequisites
It is recommended that students
first attend our Essential Skills
for Business Analysis class or
have experience in project scope
definition, eliciting requirements
from stakeholders, and
understanding how business
requirements fit into the entire
systems development effort. It is
also recommended that
students attend Business Process
Analysis before attending this
class
B2T Certification
This class is a part of the
Business Analyst International
Certification Program. For more
information on this Certification,
please refer to Page 6 in this
catalogue.
B2T C E R T I F I E D C O R E C O U R S E
Use Case Modeling and Solution
Requirements
Overview
Use case modeling is a commonly used analysis technique which results in functional
requirements and a framework for test case development. When the solution to a
business problem or opportunity involves a software component, the solution team
must determine how software will best support the business. This class focuses on the
business analysis work which includes defining functional, non-functional, and transition
requirements which describe the solution and roll out needs.
This course supports and expands on the techniques in the IIBA BABOK® Guide V2.0.
Specifically techniques for communicating the business requirements to the solution
team, tracing each business requirement to the supporting solution component,
assessing the solution applicability and planning for a smooth transition to the solution.
Mentor-led workshops require students to practice the techniques as they learn.
Students are encouraged to bring their own projects to class.
In this course students will learn to:
• Use business requirements to identify, evaluate and present alternative design
solutions which meet customer needs
• Prioritise requirements for inclusion in the software development phase using
plan-driven (traditional) and change-driven (iterative and agile) techniques
• Elicit analyse, and communicate functional requirements that specify how users
will interact with the software and how the software will respond
• Deliver consistent, detailed use case descriptions
• Incorporate usability principles when developing prototypes
• Identify non-functional requirements appropriate for each project
• Learn to assess organisational readiness and build a transition or rollout plan to
smooth the implementation of new software for the business
3 DAYS
14. Copyright 2012 | IndigoCube (Pty) Ltd | www.indigocube.co.za P a g e 14
Course Outline
Introduction – 1 hr.
Define students learning objectives.
What are solution requirements? What are
transition requirements?
Review requirements categories and
classifications.
What are the differences between business
and functional requirements?
Discuss requirements implications based on
the type of solution being developed (COTS,
in house development, maintenance, BI)
Learn about the software development
approaches used by the team (change driven
vs. plan driven) as it relates to solution
requirements.
Determine the Solution Scope – 4 hrs.
Define the solution scope model. Use
approved business requirements to define a
solution and allocate the solution
components to each requirement
(traceability).
Learn a six-step approach to bringing the
business domain stakeholders and
implementation stakeholders to consensus
about the definition of the solution scope:
Determine the functionality desired.
Elicit the business priority of each function.
Assess technical priority and estimated
cost of the desired functionality.
Break project into phases or iterations.
Create a scope model using a use case
diagram:
o Define actors involved with the
application.
o Identify actor interactions.
o Determine use cases within each phase
or iteration.
Obtain approval.
Review the backlog and learn the change
driven approach to iteration planning.
Allocate the requirements to the solution
components.
Defining Functional Requirements – 4 hrs.
Learn to elicit user stories and scenarios.
Learn to identify use cases.
Outline each use case for a high-level
understanding of broad behaviour.
Identify primary path, alternate path, and
exception paths.
Decompose large use cases into smaller sub-
sets, identifying reusable use cases where
possible.
Learn how and where to document system
user messages.
Learn to create detailed use case
descriptions.
Designing User Interfaces – 2 hrs.
Learn to identify where prototypes are
necessary.
Create and document prototypes.
Learn to document report requirements,
including ad-hoc and predefined. Learn the
definition of business intelligence.
Learn to document field edits and screen
functionality.
Incorporate usability principals into user
interfaces.
Analyse Interface Requirements – 3 hrs.
Identify required interfaces based on the
phase/iteration plan.
Determine how each interface is affected by
the solution design.
Write interface requirements for each
interface.
Identify Non-Functional Requirements – 2 hrs.
Identify requirements not previously
addressed by business, functional, or
technical requirement categories:
Performance requirements
Security requirements
Quality requirements
Scalability
Consider which non-functional requirement
types are important for your project.
Discuss the business analyst role in the
development of these requirements.
Develop Transition Requirements – 3 hrs.
Identify requirements for a smooth rollout of
the solution to the business
Consider scheduling and timing issues
Determine the timing of interface
transition and data conversion
Consider parallel operations vs. cutover
Develop an implementation plan
Develop Action Plan/Course Summary
Workshop – 2 hrs.
Review Business Analysis tasks and skills
learned.
Workshop: What would you do? Determine
analysis approach based on case study.
Develop an Action Plan with next steps on
the student's current project.
15. Copyright 2012 | IndigoCube (Pty) Ltd | www.indigocube.co.za P a g e 15
Intended Audience
This course is intended for
anyone who is interested in
learning a practical approach to
planning the necessary tasks for
their project.
Prerequisites
Business analysts registering for
this course must have attended
Essential Skills for Business
Analysis, or have at least 2 years’
experience in requirements
elicitation, analysis and
documentation using structured
techniques. Contact IndigoCube
if you would like to discuss an
exception being made to these
prerequisites.
B2T Certification
This class is a part of the
Business Analyst International
Certification Program. For more
information on this Certification,
please refer to Page 6 in this
catalogue.
B2T A D V A N C E D C O U R S E
Developing a Business Analysis Work Plan
Overview
Having trouble getting started with your business analysis work? Unsure about how
much time to request from your project manager?
Developing a business analysis work plan will prevent major problems by ensuring that
all of the appropriate stakeholders are involved and the requirements will be analysed
and presented using the most effective communication approaches. This class teaches
students to consider all of the project and stakeholder characteristics before deciding on
appropriate deliverables and producing a time estimate. The work plan also helps the
business analyst develop realistic time estimates based on the chosen deliverables.
These estimates provide detailed justification for negotiation with project managers and
project sponsors. During class students are presented the Business Analysis Planning
Framework™ and are given worksheets to guide their planning efforts.
Students are encouraged to bring their own project initiation documentation for a
current or past project to the class. During the workshops, students will develop their
business analysis work plan. If students do not have a project, a class case study is
available and should be reviewed prior to the first day of class.
Regardless of when the BA joins a project or the project type, this class will guide
planners to deliver an intelligent business analysis work plan to the project manager and
have a detailed roadmap upon which they can immediately begin to execute. The
business analysis work plan may be a single sheet of brief notes on a small project or a
more formal document on larger projects. Regardless of the output produced, an
excellent business analyst thinks through the plan before starting work.
This course supports and extends the techniques in the IIBA’s BABOK® Guide V2.0.
“Rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction.”
Kenichi Ohmae, Management consultant
3 DAYS
16. Copyright 2012 | IndigoCube (Pty) Ltd | www.indigocube.co.za P a g e 16
Course Outline
Introduction – 1 hr.
Business analysis planning.
Overview of business analysis planning
activities.
Discuss the relationship of the project
manager and the business analyst in
planning.
Use of the BA Planning Framework™
approach to planning.
Project - Understanding the project
characteristics.
People - Identifying stakeholders and
planning for communications.
Process - Planning the analysis activities.
Root cause analysis and the fishbone
diagram.
The business analysis work plan.
Planning for Different Types of Projects –
4 hrs.
Introduce the concepts of plan driven vs.
change driven approaches to projects.
Planning around unique project
characteristics:
A large development project.
Enhancement or maintenance projects.
A COTS (commercial off-the-shelf
software) project.
A reporting or data warehouse project.
A process improvement or re-engineering
effort.
An infrastructure upgrade (getting a new
e-mail or operating system).
Planning around methodology and process
characteristics:
An outsourced or off-shore development
project.
Iterative style development
methodology.
Agile style development process.
Group workshop: Discuss planning
considerations for case study projects
Project - Understanding the Project
Characteristics – 4 hrs.
Let's get started - A checklist to assess the
current state of the project and to help get
started.
The Project Overview Worksheet - Is the
project clearly defined?
Business objectives
Problems/opportunities
Requirements scope
High-level business processes
The Business Impact Worksheet - What is
the relative importance of the project to
the organisation?
Size (number of stakeholders, number of
business processes involved, number of
business rules).
Importance (estimated cost, potential
benefits, criticality of business area, level
of key stakeholders).
Risk analysis (project, business,
technology).
Enterprise analysis - Understanding how
this project fits into the organisation's
overall strategy.
Group workshop - Assess the project and
score the business impact of a sample
project.
People - Stakeholder Analysis and the
Communication Plan – 4 hrs.
Why plan for stakeholder interactions?
Assess the project sponsor
Identify both primary and secondary
stakeholders:
Searching for all stakeholders, not just
the obvious ones
Understanding each stakeholder's area
of concern
Documenting stakeholder's needs
Consider the characteristics of each
stakeholder group
Determine effective communication
practices for each stakeholder group:
Is this group providing requirements,
using requirements, or supporting the
project work?
Which elicitation technique(s) will be
most effective?
What requirement presentation format
will be most comfortable for this group?
The Stakeholder Analysis Worksheet
When and where will communications
with each stakeholder be most effective?
What are the best communication
techniques for each stakeholder?
Group workshop - Identify and analyse the
stakeholder groups for an example project
and identify the appropriate
communication techniques
Process - Planning the Analysis Activities –
3.5 hrs.
Plan the analysis activities
Step one - Assess which requirements
components are needed?
Step two - Determine which deliverables
are needed using the Deliverable List
Worksheet
Step four - Develop an approach for
creating each deliverable using The
Deliverable Worksheet
Consult with organisational standards/
methodologies for required deliverables.
Creating the Business Analysis Work Plan –
3 hrs.
Step one - Create the business analysis task
list
Step two - Estimate analysis time
Using historical and expert data to
estimate
Tracking actual time to estimate
Step four - Finalise the business analysis
work plan
Group workshop - develop a task list of
analysis and requirements activities for a
sample project.
Intelligent negotiation skills.
Getting signoff on the plan.
Base lining the plan and initiating change
control.
Ongoing Requirements Management – 1 hr.
What is Requirements Management?
Using a requirements repository
Develop a requirements management
plan
Reusing existing requirements
Reusing existing data
Identifying requirements attributes
Plan for requirements traceability
Learn about traceability matrices and
requirements links
Understand the purpose of forward and
backward traceability
Determine which requirements should
be "traced"
Determine the appropriate approach for
managing traceability
Exercise: Perform impact analysis using
traceability
Course Summary – 0.5 hr.
Final thoughts
Planning Worksheet Map
Optional Exercises
Appendix - Advanced Project Initiation
Requirements – Optional
Advanced project initiation
requirements:
Learn techniques to identify strong
project objectives.
Learn a technique to help subject
matter experts scope a project with
unclear boundaries.
Group workshop - scope an unclear
project.
Appendix - Advanced Topics – Optional
Developing a cost/benefit analysis for
a business case
Evaluating software applications for
purchase (COTS)
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Intended Audience
This course is designed for
business analysts, systems
analysts, product owners,
project managers or any other
project team member involved
with requirements on an agile
project. This course may also be
appropriate for individuals who
manage business analysts and
need a more in-depth
understanding of the process
and skill set a business analyst
can bring to an agile project
Prerequisites
This is an advanced class. It is
recommended students first
attend our Core classes or have
equivalent experience
B2T Certification
This class is a part of the
Business Analyst International
Certification Program. For more
information on this Certification,
please refer to Page 6 in this
catalogue.
B2T A D V A N C E D C O U R S E
Business Analysis in an Agile Environment
Overview
Agile environments are causing a shift in how teams are formed and the roles individuals
have on their teams. While some agile teams do not have a formal role called Business
Analyst, business analysis skills are still needed on agile teams. BAs possess unique skills
including clear communication, organization, facilitation, requirements elicitation,
critical thinking, and requirements analysis and management skills.
This course is designed to show how business analysis fits in an agile environment and
highlights the reality that business analysis activities are absolutely necessary. For the
Business Analysis practitioner you will understand how the skills you have will help you
become a valued agile team member.
Students will gain knowledge and skills by practicing techniques and soft skills needed to
operate effectively in a requirements-driven agile environment.
In this course students will:
• Agile approaches, key principles, practices and terminology focusing on Scrum.
• How to map traditional skills and tasks of a Business Analyst to agile task and skills.
• How a Business Analyst adds value to an agile project.
• To develop user stories and specify acceptance criteria to assist the Product Owner
and business stakeholders.
• How requirements are managed in an agile environment pre and post the product
backlog.
• How to assist Product Owner and delivery team with four types of agile
planning: Strategy and product planning, release planning, Sprint/Iteration Planning,
daily planning during the Stand-up Meeting.
• To communicate requirements in different ways, adjusting the level of detail and
elaborating requirements iteratively as needed while developing just enough
documentation.
• To prioritise the Product Backlog and handling new requests
3 DAYS
3 DAYS
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Course Outline
Introduction – 1 hr.
Define student’s learning objectives.
Understand student’s knowledge of
business analysis techniques and agile.
The Agile Environment – 3 hrs.
Learn how plan- driven (traditional) vs.
change-driven (iterative, agile)
development approaches impact
business analysis tasks and priorities.
Overview of agile principles,
methodologies and terminology. Learn
values and principles from Agile
Manifesto.
Discuss business and IT benefits for
using a light agile framework versus
traditional development approach.
Workshop: Create list of challenges
moving from a traditional environment
to an agile environment.
Business Analysis Skills for Agile Projects – 3
hrs.
Review the major tasks and skills
needed by BA professionals for
traditional and agile projects.
Discuss alignment with the IIBA®
BABOK®.
Discuss the BA’s relationship with the
other project members.
Learn to transfer BA skills from
traditional methodologies to an agile
approach.
Workshop: Create a Product Vision.
Requirements on an Agile Project – 4 hrs.
Define the levels of Agile planning- The
focus will be exploring how the BA will
assist with Product and Release
Planning.
Develop a Product and Sprint Backlog.
Learn how to replace formal
requirements documents with face-to-
face communication where
appropriate. Learn how to use informal
models. Don’t strive for requirements
perfection.
Writing User Stories at the appropriate
level of detail following guidelines of 3
Cs (card-conversation –confirmation)-
and INVEST techniques.
Learn good story writing tips and what
to avoid.
Workshop: Breakdown one item on a
product backlog into user stories.
Business Analysis Roles – 2 hrs.
Understand what activities are
performed by a Business Analysis
Practitioner in an Agile environment
Learn how the BA supports the Product
Owner.
Workshop: Create list of ideas how you
can best be utilised on an agile project.
Develop Your Action Plan – 1 hr.
Discuss role adaptation you will have to
make to be successful in an agile
environment.
Discuss your skill development
opportunities (Cross functional, Project
Management, technical skills, etc.).
Develop an Action Plan with next steps on
the student's current project.
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Intended Audience
This course is designed for
experienced, knowledgeable
business analysts or project
managers involved with
requirements elicitation and
analysis.
Students are expected to
understand the purpose of
business and functional
requirements.
Prerequisites
It is recommended that students
first attend our Essential Skills
for Business Analysis class or
have experience in project scope
definition, eliciting requirements
from subject matter experts, and
understanding how business
requirements fit into the entire
systems development effort.
B2T A D V A N C E D C O U R S E
Facilitating Requirements for Business
Analysis
Overview
The art of bringing people together, face-to-face or remotely, to elicit requirements and
gain consensus on solutions is a critical success factor for all business analysis
professionals. This course teaches facilitation techniques that can be used for structured
sessions and “facilitation-on-the-fly.” This course goes beyond traditional facilitation
training by focusing on facilitation techniques specific to eliciting business and functional
requirements.
This class is limited to 8 students, allowing each student the opportunity to practice
facilitating multiple requirements sessions in a “safe” environment with personalised
feedback. Students will spend 60% of class time participating in interactive, real-world
business case studies and performing each key role in at least one session.
The workshops in this course require students to plan the requirements eliciting session,
develop the correct questions to ask the group, and facilitate the group to a consensus
on the requirements using one of the learned techniques. Students will conduct a
requirements workshop for at least one requirement deliverable (i.e. context level
dataflow diagram, workflow diagram). This course supports and expands on the
techniques in the IIBA BABOK® Guide V2.0.
In this course students will learn to:
• Facilitate using proven techniques for eliciting detailed business, functional and non-
functional requirements
• Identify when and how to use each technique
• Develop confidence and a skill set to conduct requirements workshops
• Actively practice learned skills and techniques
• Use a requirements planning session template
• Prepare the participants for the requirements session
• Perform each facilitation role through role playing each session
• Conduct the session to stay focused on the core requirement that was planned as a
deliverable
• Select which facilitation technique to use for each core requirement being elicited
• Complete checklists for managing and conducting the session
• Facilitate a requirements workshop
3 DAYS
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Course Outline
Introduction to Facilitating Requirements
– 1 hr.
Learn guidelines for requirements
facilitators.
Set session rules and manage the session.
Learn reactive techniques to use during the
session:
Encourage participation.
Manage group focus.
Manage group conflict.
Consider remote facilitation techniques.
Student Workshop – 1.5 hrs.
Conduct a mini-requirements workshop.
Practice techniques used for requirements
workshops.
Session Feasibility – 1 hr.
Determine when requirements workshops
are appropriate:
Determine need/requirements
deliverable desired.
Determine commitment level.
Determine risks.
Practice determining session need using
real-world scenarios.
Review the core requirements components
and discuss how they are best elicited.
Learn when not to use requirements
workshops.
Planning and Preparing for a Facilitated
Session – 4 hrs.
Plan the session:
Determine the number session(s) needed
and the length of the session(s).
Document the purpose of the session.
Identify potential participants.
Define session requirements deliverables.
Document the plan using session
planning templates.
Prepare for a session:
Outline the goals and requirements
deliverables.
Select session participants and determine
if pre-session interviews are appropriate.
Learn facilitation techniques:
Brainstorming
Consensus building
Flowcharting
Force field analysis
Hip pocket techniques
Nominal group
Root cause analysis
Storyboarding
Facilitating across distance
Develop focused questions to elicit
requirements:
Direct
Open-ended
Clarifying
Leading
Re-focusing
Create a detailed agenda for the facilitation
team.
Learn group-oriented facilitation
techniques.
Create a formal agenda for the session
participant.
Orient the facilitation team.
Prepare the facilities.
Student Workshop – 3.5 hrs.
Each student will practice elicitation
techniques in a requirements workshop.
Personal feedback will be provided to drive
skill development.
Conducting the Session – 1 hr.
Learn the stages of group
development/productivity.
Facilitate decision making – work toward
consensus.
Conducting the session:
Introducing the session.
Managing the session.
Creating a follow-up action plan.
Review/approve requirements deliverables.
Student Workshop – 8 hrs.
Plan and conduct a requirements workshop.
Use one or more of the learned facilitation
techniques.
Produce the requirements deliverable using
one of the facilitation techniques.
Personal feedback will be provided to drive
skill development.
Session Follow-Up – 1 hr.
Produce the final requirements document.
Share session feedback.
Determine the next steps to finalise the
requirements.
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Intended Audience
This course is designed for
business analysts, quality
analysts, project managers, or
anyone interested in improving
and validating the quality of
their requirements.
Prerequisites
It is recommended that students
first attend our 3 core courses
(or at a minimum Detailing
Process and Business Rule
Requirements) before enrolling
for this course.
B2T S P E C I A L I S E D C O U R S E
Requirements Validation
Overview
This course takes you through the steps to ensure that business requirements are
validated, that the solution is usable and meets the business needs. Validating
requirements improves the likelihood of project success, making sure that we are
building the right solution. The cost to correct a software defect may be as high as 2900
times the cost to correct a requirement. Finding missing requirements and requirements
inconsistencies decreases the overall project length and cost.
Business analysis and quality assurance professionals must use risk assessments to
prioritise requirements and requirements validation activities. The highest risk areas of
the business must be addressed first. This course teaches business and quality analysts
to design efficient requirements validation tests to make the best use of limited
resources and time.
Solution Assessment and Validation is one of the key knowledge areas in the IIBA
BABOK® Guide V2.0. This course addresses many of the important tasks in the
knowledge area along with giving business analysts the ability to design efficient and
effective tests to demonstrate that the application solutions meet their user’s needs.
This course answers many of the key questions about requirements validation including:
• How do we validate requirements?
• Which types of validation and verification processes are appropriate for my project?
• How does the team ensure that the solution meets the business stakeholder needs?
• Where does validation fit in the software development life cycle (SDLC)?
• What is software usability? Why is it important?
• How does the team correct problems when they are discovered?
• How do I work with technical members of the solution team? What do they need
from a business analyst to be successful?
2 DAYS
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Course Outline
Introduction to Requirements Validation –
1 hr.
What are requirements?
Understand the value of acceptance and
evaluation criteria
How do we validate requirements?
When should requirements be validated?
Who validates requirements?
Validating and Testing Requirements –
3 hrs.
What does it mean to validate
requirements?
Conducting effective structured
walkthroughs of requirements.
o Review guidelines.
o Examine a sample review invitation
and results form.
o Review question checklists.
o How do reviews improve future
projects?
o Workshop: validate requirements
using a formal review
Introduction to usability testing.
Effective user acceptance testing (UAT).
Conduct a post implementation user
assessment to identify lessons learned.
How to correct problems that are
discovered during requirements validation?
Use a consistent problem tracking
procedure.
Track defect/problem types to improve
requirements on future projects.
Assess each problem for its type,
severity, and status.
Usability Testing – 2 hrs.
Learn the principles of usability.
Learn how usability testing differs from
traditional testing.
Discuss methods of usability testing.
Learn to use requirements to design
usability tests.
Workshop: Conduct a usability test
Working with IT Stakeholders – 3 hrs.
Communicating with IT development
stakeholders.
Verifying requirements or specification.
o Unit testing.
o Integration testing.
o Systems testing.
o Evaluate solution performance -
validate non functional requirements.
o Validate solution against
requirements.
Business requirements.
Functional requirements.
Technical requirements.
o Regression testing - re-testing after a
change.
Testing environments.
Common IT testing methods.
o White box and black box testing.
o Positive and negative testing.
o Choosing data values for testing.
Working with QA stakeholders.
o Software quality assurance (SQA)
planning and structure.
o Utilising SQA personnel throughout
the SDLC.
Documenting Requirements Validation
Deliverables – 3 hrs.
Designing a requirements validation plan
IEEE testing templates.
What is a test design, test case, test
procedure?
Identifying tests from requirements
documentation.
Using use case descriptions to develop
testing procedures.
Tracking test cases.
Workshop: Validating requirements
using test cases.
Tracing test cases to requirements - cross
checking the solution.
Designing a requirements validation
plan.
Planning considerations:
o Who will validate requirements?
o How will this be accomplished?
o Where are the highest risks?
o Where will tests be conducted?
o Who will conduct testing?
o Who will review test results?
o What test data will be used?
Solution Assessment and Validation
BABOK Knowledge Area – 2 hrs.
Understanding the tasks in the IIBA
BABOK - Solution Assessment and
Validation.
Assess the proposed solution
Allocate requirements.
Assess Organisational Readiness.
Define Transition Requirements.
Validate Solution.
Evaluate Solution Performance.
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Intended Audience
This course is designed for
Project Managers who are
responsible for reviewing
requirements, managing the
business analysis efforts,
overseeing the testing efforts, or
obtaining sign-off on the
business analysis deliverables.
For PMs who are also
responsible for eliciting the
business requirements, it is
recommended that they attend
all of the core courses on
business analysis.
Prerequisites
None
B2T S P E C I A L I S E D C O U R S E
Business Analysis Essentials for Project
Managers
Overview
The best way to guarantee success of any type of project is to have a strong, experienced
Project Manager and a strong, experienced Business Analyst. These two individuals,
working together from the beginning of the project, set the stage for success by
accurately planning and clearly defining the expected outcomes. Both roles are
necessary because they are each responsible for a different set of tasks and they each
possess a set of skills that complement each other. The two roles are closely tied, but
exactly what are the similarities and differences, and why does a project need both?
This course discusses the role of Business Analysts and the business analysis skills that a
Project Manager should also possess. The business analysis skill set includes critical
thinking skills, elicitation techniques and requirements analysis and management.
Experienced project managers may already possess some of these skills, but may apply
them differently than BAs. Understanding the complexity of the business analysis role
will allow the PM and BA to work seamlessly and increase the project efficiency.
Scoping is one of the most critical areas on which the PM and BA should work together.
In addition to the project scope, as defined in the PMBOK™, the BA is responsible for
defining the scope of business analysis. When these two components of scope are
combined they define the entire boundary of the project. In this course, Project
Managers will learn how Business Analysts define the scope of the area for which they
will be performing analysis. This is just one example of a task with separate roles for the
PM and BA. Understanding their unique roles is critical to project success.
In this course students will:
• Learn to analyse and scope the area of analysis to clarify the level and complexity of
the business analysis effort needed for the project
• Learn what is an excellent requirement and the difference between business and
functional requirements
• Learn the five core components necessary to analyse a business area
• Be introduced to the most commonly used analysis techniques
• Discuss alternatives for traceability of requirements
• Plan an approach for analysing, categorising, and managing requirements.
Determine the level of formality required and consider options for documenting and
packaging requirements based on project type, priorities, and risks
• Identify techniques and documentation options appropriate for the various software
development approaches and project types (COTS, maintenance, business process
improvement, new development, etc.)
• Understand how validating requirements impacts the project and the components of
software testing
• Review business analysis requirements to improve the quality of your deliverables
3 DAYS
3 DAYS
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Course Outline
Introduction – 1 hr.
What is business analysis?
Review the major tasks performed by a
business analyst.
Define the essential skills needed to
perform these tasks.
Project Participants and their Roles – 1 hr.
Identify typical project stakeholders and
their roles.
Discuss how the business analyst interacts
with these participants.
Scoping the Project from the Business
Analyst's Perspective – 4.5 hrs.
Understand why the project is being
done. Without this understanding it will
be difficult for business analysts to elicit
and document the right requirements
and focus their business analysis work in
the appropriate areas. Get an
introduction to Enterprise Analysis.
Understand the organisational
environment. Identify the business
stakeholders who will be involved in the
project and how they will impact business
analysis.
Learn to ask probing questions about the
requirements scope and facilitate a
discussion with project stakeholders using
visual representations of the requirements
boundaries.
Learn the context level dataflow diagram
technique to identify and scope "what is"
and, more importantly, "what is not" to be
analysed. Analyse interfaces with people,
other organisations, existing systems, and
other software applications.
Discuss how a business analyst should
collect, organise, and maintain
requirements for efficient analysis and
reuse on future projects.
Workshop - Scope the class case study
project.
Defining and Detailing Requirements – 4 hrs.
What is a requirement? Why is it important
to elicit and document requirements? What
are the criteria used to judge the quality of
"excellent” requirements?
Learn how software developers use
requirements.
Understand the difference between
analysis of the business and design of the
solutions or "business" vs. "technological"
requirements. Why is it necessary to
understand the business problem before
deciding on a solution?
Learn the 5 core requirement components,
what they describe, and why they are
important.
Entity
Attribute
Process (Use Case)
External Agent (actor)
Business Rule
Requirements Analysis Techniques – 5 hrs.
Learn the recommended approach to
categorising requirements. Why should
requirements be categorised? Who uses
each category? Why is it difficult to create
distinct categories?
Business Requirements
Functional Requirements
Technical Requirements
Learn the concept of traceability of
requirements.
Discuss the most commonly used analysis
techniques to organise and refine
requirements. Business analysts should
have expertise in many analysis techniques
to be able to adapt to different types of
projects and businesses.
Structured textual templates (process
descriptions, data descriptions, business
rules, use cases)
Entity relationship diagram
Decomposition diagram
User stories, use case diagram and use
case descriptions
Workflow diagram (UML, BPMN, ANSI,
swim lane)
Prototyping
Consider options and level of formality for
packaging requirements and choosing the
appropriate documentation techniques for
each project.
Review currently available software tools
that can be used for requirements
management.
Workshop – Put into practice several of the
analysis techniques on the course case
study requirements.
Conducting a Requirements Review – 2 hrs.
Learn how to conduct a requirements
review: Who should participate? What are
the required steps? How is a session
conducted? What are the common
challenges?
Workshop - Review a sample requirements
package.
Identify missing or incomplete
requirements.
Identify potential test cases.
Document issues and develop an
approach for going forward.
Validate the Requirements – 2 hrs.
Understand the role of business analysis in
validating requirements and software
testing.
Introduction to software testing: Why is
testing important? What is the business
analyst's role in testing? What is the
primary objective of testing? What are the
phases and types of testing?
Learn to verify that the business
requirements are complete by identifying
test cases.
Practice identifying test cases and refining
requirements based on quality assurance
principles.
Course Summary – 1.5 hrs.
Review business analysis tasks and skills.
Workshop – Draft an initial Business
Analysis Communications Plan for a CRM
project.
Develop an Action Plan with next steps on
the student’s current project.
Student questions/discussion topics.
Appendix - Overview of Application
Development Processes and Standards –
Optional – as time allows
Discuss various methodologies for
application development.
Learn which models are used in each
approach:
Waterfall
Information Engineering
IDEF
RAD
Iterative/Agile
BPMN
Object Oriented - UML
Spiral/RUP
.
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Intended Audience
This seminar is a management
overview of business analysis for
managers, supervisors, and
project managers who work with
business analysts.
Prerequisites
None
Intended Audience
This course is designed for
software developers, software
architects, or any other project
team member who will be using
requirements documents for
their development work. It is
useful for both new developers
and experienced developers.
Developers will learn how
business analysts elicit, analyse,
and document requirements.
Prerequisites
None
B2T S P E C I A L I S E D C O U R S E S
Overview of Business Analysis
This seminar presents the business analyst role to managers and others who lead and
work with business analysts. For the business analyst to be successful, both the IT and
business community must embrace the business analysis process. This seminar can be
used as a working session to discuss how an organisation will implement the business
analysis process and approaches for documenting the requirements.
Both large and small organisations are realising the benefits of using business analysts on
all of their application development projects. Improving the communication between the
business areas and the IT team significantly increases the quality of the systems
developed.
A business analyst’s main responsibility is to elicit, analyse, and document requirements
in a format that is useful to their business stakeholders and the technical developers.
Analysis is a very important and time-consuming phase of every project. Business
analysts need strong leadership as they elicit and document requirements that are often
unclear, inconsistent, and expensive. Business analysts work most effectively when they
have clear direction and frequent reviews of progress.
Developer’s Introduction to Business
Analysis
This class provides an overview of the business analyst role and a detailed review of the
Requirements Document provided to the development team. To ensure an integrated
team, IT developers need to understand the role of the business analyst.
They should also be familiar with the requirements that business analysts are eliciting
and documenting. This includes understanding categories of requirements, the core
requirement components, and the documentation formats used for each type of
requirement. IT team members must also understand the testing life cycle and the
personnel involved. This course gives students an overview of the role of the business
analyst, requirements documentation, and software testing.
½ DAY
1 DAY
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Intended Audience
This is a basic course for:
• Process engineers
• Technical managers
• Project leads
• Analysts and designers
• Software architects and
engineers
• Configuration management
personnel
• Testing and quality-assurance
personnel
• Individuals who need an
overview of the RUP
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of software
development
IBM P R A C T I T I O N E R C O U R S E
Essentials of Rational Unified Process V7.0
Course Description
Explore this introductory course to the Rational Unified Process (RUP). RUP is a
knowledge base, containing software engineering practices that represent many of the
best practices observed in a successful software development. Get an introduction to
iterative development and to the organisation and content of this knowledge base.
Emphasise the main principles of iterative software development: phases and their
objectives and the mitigation of risks. Also, gets an introduction to RUP tailoring choices.
Skills Taught
Upon completion of the course, participants should be able to:
Understand the Key Principles of Business-Driven Development
Be familiar with the guidance RUP provides for iterative development
Be familiar with the structure and navigation facilities of RUP
Be introduced to the content of RUP and its application
Be introduced to RUP tailoring and implementation choices
Have simulated the use of RUP on a project
Topics Covered
An Introduction to RUP and the Key Principles of Business-Driven Development
RUP Structure and Navigation
Iterative Development
RUP Content
Tailoring RUP
RUP Project Simulation
2 DAYS
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Intended Audience
This is a basic course for team
members who are involved in
writing use cases
Prerequisites
None
IBM P R A C T I T I O N E R C O U R S E
Writing Good Use Cases
Course Description
This course is designed to systematically build student skills in writing good use cases.
After taking the course, students will be able to define use-case modeling concepts, and
apply different writing techniques to write a detailed use case using the recommended
Rational Unified Process (RUP) style.
Note: This course does not teach requirements management using the RUP. To learn how
to manage requirements using the RUP and to write use cases, enrol in Mastering
Requirements Management with Use Cases.
Skills Taught
Define key use case related terms
Describe the use case writing process
Write a detailed use-case specification
Topics Covered
Introduction to use-case modeling
Use cases and the requirements management process
The use-case writing process
Finding actors and use cases
Creating use-case diagrams
Outlining a use case
Detailing a use case
Use case writing tips
1 DAY
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Intended Audience
The course serves two
audiences. The primary audience
is people who will be actively
engaged in the elicitation and
definition of software
requirements. This includes
systems analysts, requirements
analysts, and business analysts.
The secondary audience would
be interested in taking this class
because they are consumers of
the software requirements and
need to under-stand how to
read, verify, interpret and plan
with the software requirements
of the system. This group
includes project managers,
software analysts and designers,
QA designers and testers, and
customers and users.
Prerequisites
Students should have an
understanding of:
Project management
practices
The software development
lifecycle
IBM P R A C T I T I O N E R C O U R S E
Mastering Requirements Management
with Use Cases
Course Description
Mastering Requirements Management with Use Cases provides training in requirements
management and use-case modeling techniques. The course focuses on eliciting and
managing the changing requirements of a project; analysing the problem, defining the
product vision and feature requirements, defining software requirements with use cases,
and requirement attributes, and maintaining traceability, change management, and
impact analysis for project scope management. The course shows how use-case
modeling and requirements management techniques are used to define and document
requirements that meet stakeholder needs. In-class exercises will give students practical
experience in developing use cases.
Skills Taught
Upon completion of the course, participants should be able to:
Apply requirements management techniques to define a clear statement of
product requirements.
Capture and document requirements with use-case modeling techniques.
Develop requirements in an iterative process.
Describe a documentation hierarchy and standards for defining levels of
requirements for a product.
Use requirement attributes and traceability to help manage scope and change
throughout product lifecycle.
Use requirements to drive ongoing design, test, and user documentation activities
Topics Covered
Best Practices of Software Engineering
Introduction to Mastering Requirements Management with Use Cases
Introduction to Use-Case Modeling
Analyse the Problem
o Find the root causes of the problem
o Identify the best solution to solve the business problem
Understand Stakeholder Needs
o Define the System
Define product features
Find Actors and Use Cases
Manage System Scope
o Use requirements attributes to plan and manage scope
o Refine the System Definition
Detail the Use Cases
Define Supplementary Specifications
o Manage Changing Requirements
o Structure the Use-Case Model
Include, extend, use-case, and actor generalisation
Requirements across the Product Lifecycle
3 DAYS
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Intended Audience
Analysts, designers, and
software developers, and other
practitioners, who desire an
understanding of object-
oriented analysis and design
concepts and hands-on practical
experience applying the
techniques within a use-case-
driven, architecture-centric, and
iterative development process
Note: You should be currently
involved in analysis and design
work or in developing analysis
and design models using UML
Prerequisites
Understanding of the SDLC
IBM P R A C T I T I O N E R C O U R S E
Mastering Object-Oriented Analysis and
Design with UML 2.0
Course Description
Mastering Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Unified Modeling Language
(OOAD/UML) 2.0 presents the concepts and techniques necessary to effectively use OO
technology and UML through the project life-cycle from understanding the business ‘as
is’ process, to the ‘to be’ process to capture and communicate analysis and design
decisions. System requirements are captured in use cases to drive the development from
an analysis model to a robust design model. In this intensive hands-on workshop, learn
to apply UML 2.0 notation to fundamental OOAD concepts, including objects, classes,
components, subsystems, stereotypes, relationships, and supporting diagrams.
Use UML throughout the project life-cycle to capture and communicate analysis and
design decisions. Thus, you learn UML 2.0 notation in the context of an iterative, use
case-driven, architecture-centric process.
Note: There is no visual modeling toolset training incorporated into this methodology
course.
Skills Taught
Upon completion of the course, participants should be able to:
Apply the OO concepts of abstraction, encapsulation, inheritance and
polymorphism
Use UML 2.0 to represent the full SDLC from business process to analysis to design
Topics Covered
Principles and benefits of modeling
Concepts of object orientation
Business process modeling as a precursor to system development
Requirements overview
Analysis and design overview
Use-case analysis
Identify analysis elements
Identify design elements
Identify design mechanisms
Describe the run-time architecture
Describe distribution
Use-case design
Class design
OO to RDBMS Database design (optional)
4 DAYS
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Prerequisites for
CCBA/CBAP
Individuals must meet the
IIBA’s application
requirements to sit for the
CCBA /CBAP exams
including work
experience, areas of
expertise, education and
professional development,
and references. See the
requirements listed on the
IIBA website at
www.theiiba.org for
details.
B A B O K / C C B A / C B A P
BABOK®
The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge
®
(BABOK
®
) is the collection of knowledge
within the profession of Business Analysis and reflects current generally accepted
practices. As with other professions, the body of knowledge is defined and
enhanced by the Business Analysis professionals who apply it in their daily work
role.
The BABOK
®
Guide describes Business Analysis areas of knowledge, their associated
activities and the tasks and skills necessary to be effective in their execution. This
Guide is a reference for professional knowledge for Business Analysis and provides
the basis for the Certified Business Analysis Professional™ (CBAP
®
) Certification.
CCBA™ and CBAP® Certifications
The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA
®
) is dedicated to the
development and maintenance of standards for the practice of Business Analysis,
and for the certification and recognition of practitioners. It is the first organisation
to offer formal certification for Business Analysis Professionals.
The IIBA
®
has created the Certification of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA™)
and the Certified Business Analysis Professional™ (CBAP
®
), designations awarded to
candidates who have successfully demonstrated their expertise in this field. This is
done by detailing hands-on work experience in business analysis through the
application process, and passing the relevant IIBA
®
examination.
For more information on B2T Training’s IIBA® CBAP® Prep Study Guide, go to
www.b2ttraining.com.
Certified Business Analysis Professionals are experts in identifying the business
needs of an organisation in order to determine the best solutions, a role that is
increasingly seen as a vital component of any successful project. More and more
companies are recognising the CBAP
®
designation and the value and expertise that
these professionals bring to their organisations.
If you are working in the role of business analysis, systems analysis, requirements
analysis or management, project management, consulting or process improvement,
and have an advanced level of knowledge and experience, you may want to consider
the many professional benefits of earning the CBAP
®
designation
Requirements Template Roadmap
Each project that a business analyst works on is unique
and may require different combinations of
requirements components. Templates provide
a checklist for planning requirements
work. The Requirements Template
Roadmap helps the business
analyst choose appropriate
templates to use for each project.
To assist business analysts in
documenting requirements,
we offer a Requirements
Package Template that is available
on the “Downloads” section of our
website.
The templates in this package
provide business analysts with a structured format for
eliciting and
documenting requirements. Standard, re-usable
templates allow for faster and easier requirements
review and approval.
The Requirements Template Roadmap may be used as
a companion to B2T Training’s Requirements Package
Template. This “Roadmap” serves as a reference tool
for business analysts when completing the
requirements package based upon the templates.
Using this Roadmap as a guideline or “map” for the
requirements templates will help
business analysts determine
what to include in a
requirements package, who
should prepare package,
who should prepare
requirements components should
be prepared. Additionally, the Roadmap provides
examples of complete requirements templates.
The Requirements Template Roadmap is available
for purchase from IndigoCube.
Contact: info@indigocube.co.za
*Students who attend the Essential Skills for
Business Analysis™ course will receive a free copy
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Developing the skills of an individual Business Analyst is no simple task. An
ideal Business Analyst has to have the right aptitude (inborn ability) and the
acceptable skill levels for the relevant methodology and techniques used by
an organisation.
Most Business Analysts will have different skills and abilities while the
relevant skills they require might differ from one organisation to the next.
Any attempt to improve skills levels to a common level will require some
insight into the existing abilities, skills levels and imbalances.
In response, IndigoCube has developed one of the most comprehensive
individual assessments to address these challenges.
Our assessment consists of several modules that allow tailoring to the specific skills requirements of the organisation
before it is executed. We use the output from the individual assessment to tailor training and skills development
initiatives for the organisation, as well as for the individual.
What are we testing?
This assessment focuses on two critical components
required of a Business Analyst: aptitude and skill.
The aptitude test determines how closely a person
matches the ideal profile of a Business Analyst. A
person may undergo ongoing training but, if they don’t
have the required aptitude, performance may be
insufficient.
The skills assessment is a practical test that questions the
Business Analyst within all the Knowledge Areas of the
BABOK (Business Analysis Body of Knowledge) and on
specific methodologies and techniques.
Enterprise Analysis
Requirements Planning and Management
Requirements Elicitation
Requirements Communication
Requirements Analysis and Documentation
Solution Assessment and Validation
Business Analysis Fundamentals
How do we test?
Aptitude test
We make use of the Neethling Brain Instrument (NBITM
).
By using the NBITM
we are able to map a
person’s profile and then compare that to the ideal. This
not only allows us to determine the suitability of the
individual to do Business Analysis but also to identify
areas where training and skills development need to
receive more attention.
Skills assessment
The skills assessment is done using a structured
questionnaire that contains four sections:
Section 1: A multiple-choice section that tests the
individual’s understanding of the Business
Analyst’s role.
Section 2: A case study that tests the individual’s
analytical skills.
Section 3: Scenario-based questions that test the
individual’s ability to use specific Business
Analysis techniques which are relevant to the
organisation.
What is the output?
After completion of the assessment, a report is
compiled that will indicate the following:
1. The suitability of the individual in the role as a
Business Analyst.
2. Confirmation of the individual’s skills levels.
3. Training recommendations specific to the individual.
Assessing the skills of the Business Analysts
in your organisation
32. B A B A O K A L I G N M E N T
IIBA Business Analysis Body of Knowledge®
and IndigoCube Courses
IndigoCube’s programme is a comprehensive programme that aligns with all areas of the BABOK. The BABOK is a collection of
business analysis tasks categorised into like groupings called knowledge areas. The BABOK is not a methodology and does not
infer any particular order of performing the activities. IndigoCube’s programme is taught in a series of courses that reflect the
order of work and iterative nature of business analysis. This chart illustrates the alignment between the current version of the
BABOK and IndigoCube training courses.
33. Office: +27 11 759 5950
Facsimile: +27 11 759 5907
Website: www.indigocube.co.za
Email: info@indigocube.co.za
Victoria Gate South | Hyde Lane | Hyde Park | Sandton
PO Box 408 | Gallo Manor | 2052
Certified Consulting, Training and
Software Provider