Principles of Business Analysis

Course overview

The Business Analyst serves as the liaison between the business community and the technical solution providers. Gain skills to fully communicate requirements to the technical team before solutions are designed and implemented. Develop leadership and facilitation skills needed to glean the right information to understand the business environment and the user needs. Create key deliverable documents that are actionable by the development team. Define the key changes needed for an organization to develop lean processes. Learn how to position an organization for success in outsourcing projects.

Prerequisites

• Project team experience is extremely desirable

Audience

• This course is intended for business analysts and related professionals such as Project Managers, QA Managers, Project Customers, Technical Leads, Systems Engineers or anyone with a substantive role in the success of projects
• By successfully completing this course, the participant earns 21 educational contact hours or PDUs which may be applied to meet PMI’s requirements for initial or continuing certification requirements

Course objectives

• Write accurate requirements for your projects
• Prepare a requirements management work plan
• Create a problem solving framework for process improvement
• Enhance your ability to communicate the scope of the proposed solution through a context design diagram
• Determine the best modeling approach for various project types
• Implement a project test plan approach
• Work effectively with distance team members
• Create a productive outsourcing environment
• Apply lean techniques for project processes

Benefits to you

• Gain exposure to essential business analysis concepts and techniques
• Learn terminology and role content consistent with the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA)
• Articulate and execute the job responsibilities of a Business Analyst
• Successfully perform the Business Analyst (BA) role on a small to medium size application development project

Why education services from HP?

• One-Stop Shopping
  Project management training from industry recognized experts who bring you PMO Services, Technical IT Training and ITSM/ITIL Training. Worldwide leader in numbers of qualified PMPs
• Global Training Locations
  State-of-the-art classroom and distance learning facilities at over 80 training locations from Seattle to Singapore that are consistent world-wide. Or setup and deliver training at your location. Localization for all major languages
• Modular Offerings / Blended Learning
  Need work-sensitive preparation for the PMP exam, or just review a specific topic? End-to-end delivery choices -- traditional ILT, webinars, self paced WBT, Books or a solution customized to meet specific needs – all available globally
• Engaging, Effective Courseware
  World-class reference materials -- real case studies, example projects, individual and group exercises, fun and engaging simulations
• Expertise
  Highest quality, most experienced instructors who have real world hands-on project experience. Feel safe with HP’s award-winning world class service

Next steps

• Advanced Business Analysis topics such as Project Management Skills for Business Analysts (HE552S) or Business Analyst Leadership (HE553S)

Course outline

• Define the business analyst deliverables in the business solutions life cycle and the key roles for the business analyst, project manager, and technical lead
• Discuss multiple project types and project life cycles
• Discuss the key challenges associated with business analysis
• Identify areas of collaboration between the business analyst and the project manager

Unit 2: Strategic Planning and Enterprise Analysis

• Use a strategic plan and business case to identify high-level requirements
• Create the product vision through the strategic plan and business case
• Use the business case as a guiding and measurement tool for the project
• Use a context diagram to articulate scope and get agreement

Unit 3: Requirements Elicitation

• Identify the different classes of users
• Identify sources of requirements
• Determine the requirements decision-makers for your project
• Develop a user class analysis
• Determine elicitation objectives
• Compare key elicitation techniques for requirements gathering
• Discuss common elicitation challenges
• Prepare for an elicitation workshop

Documenting Requirements Part 1

• Use a requirements management plan for planning the work
• Describe key parts of the business requirements document and determine which supplementary documents are required to describe additional requirements
• Use a variety of requirements documentation tools and techniques

Documenting Requirements Part 2

• Explain the purpose of the context design diagram for project scope planning and trade-off analysis
• Discover key techniques for describing high-level requirements and architecture
• Explain requirements feasibility and reliability and alternative study of requirements

Documenting Requirements Part 3

• Define key elicitation techniques
• Discuss visual models that are used to verify requirements
• Create data models to communicate with the development team

Unit 4: Requirements Analysis

• Decompose requirements
• Model requirements
• Study requirements for feasibility
• Assess requirements for risks
• Derive new and lower-level requirements
• Prioritize requirements

Unit 5: Requirements Specification

• Structure requirements for usability
• Identify sources of requirements
• Uniquely label each requirement
• Specify quality attributes
• Unit 6: Requirements Management
• Plan for requirements
• Prepare the requirements baseline
• Define a requirements change control process
• Discuss the role of a requirement’s Change Control Board
• Discuss the impact of change and the reason for an impact analysis
• Modify a requirements traceability matrix
• Discuss the pros and cons of using a software tool to manage requirements
• Discuss common challenges of managing requirements

• Plan for requirements
• Prepare the requirements baseline
• Define a requirements change control process
• Discuss the role of a requirement’s Change Control Board
• Discuss the impact of change and the reason for an impact analysis
• Modify a requirements traceability matrix
• Discuss the pros and cons of using a software tool to manage requirements
• Discuss common

• Define the purpose of verification
• Discuss requirements verification techniques
• Examine the verification process
• Define the purpose of validation
• Discuss requirements validation techniques
• Examine the validation process
• Modify a project test plan approach

• Discuss requirements engineering considerations
• Examine Agile “Lightweight” Methods
• Review the issue of scalability
• Identify recipe for project success
• Discuss importance of partnership between the Business Analysts and Project Managers