Business Analysis Essentials

Course:  BAE
Duration:  4 Days
Level:  I
Course Summary

Have your software projects been suffering from the age-old development problems of slipped schedules and ballooning budgets? Has your development organization experienced a variety of failed and canceled projects? Why do requirements errors cost more to correct than any other class of error? How can you best deal with requirements which the user can express only in vague terms?

It is estimated that 85 percent of the defects in developed software originate in the requirements. Once defects are embedded in the requirements, they tend to resist removal. They are especially difficult to find via testing. Therefore it is crucial that training be required for business requirements analysts and engineers that explains how to reduce the common types of requirements errors, including incorrect assumptions (49 percent), omitted requirements (29 percent), inconsistent requirements (13 percent), and ambiguities (5 percent).

At the project?s earliest stages the business analyst is key to defining the requirements, as well as planning, defining and validating project scope. It?s important to have an understanding of the breadth of knowledge that a business analyst brings to the project team when developing business solutions.

Defining a clear set of customer requirements is an essential and important first step to successful software projects. This workshop will provide participants with industry proven methods for successfully identifying, analyzing, specifying and documenting better user requirements for software projects.

In this course, you gain the knowledge and skills needed to capture software requirements using clearly defined processes. You learn to specify user and system requirements, match the process to the size of your project and apply quality and consistency tests to the requirements model.

Requirements gathering is the cornerstone of any software development project. Failing to obtain proper user and system requirements can result in an ineffective software project burdened by increased costs. In addition, many requirement documents fail to capture the non-functional requirements, the "ilities" that also lead to poor system acceptance

Participants learn how to create Business Case and Business Requirements documents. These deliverables will identify what the project will do (and for whom) and what it will not do (also known as in-scope and out of scope.) This information is also needed by the Business Sponsors to decide whether or not the project should proceed to the next step, frequently known as the Functional Specifications.

The workshop follows and reinforces the IIBA BABOK (Business Analysis Body of Knowledge), and the PMI (Project Management Institute) Project Scope Management and other related Knowledge Areas.

This course provides a special focus on the business analysis function as it relates to developing IT solutions, given that such an understanding is essential for project success.

The course discusses the business analysis process as it is applied throughout a project, including the pre-project activities that comprise enterprise analysis.

After completing this course, you will understand why, when and how to involve the business analysis function.

« Hide The Details
Topics Covered In This Course

Introduction

  • What is business analysis?
  • Best practices in business analysis
  • Benefits of business analysis

The Role of the Business Analyst

  • The business analysis process
  • BA role vs. project manager role
  • BA competencies
  • The BA career path

Supporting the Project Portfolio

  • The project portfolio
  • Strategic enterprise analysis
  • Solution Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Developing the Solution Vision and Scope

  • Defining solution vision and scope
  • Vision and scope report
  • Conducting a visioning workshop
  • Validating solution scope
  • Traceability
  • Case study exercise

Understanding Requirements and Business Rules

  • Functional, nonfunctional and implementation requirements
  • Requirements vs. specifications
  • Requirements vs. business rules
  • Risk management and risk response strategies
  • Case study exercise

Planning and Eliciting Requirements

  • The Requirements Work Plan (RWP)
  • Components of the RWP
  • Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
  • Elicitation keys to success
  • Elicitation techniques
  • Preparing for change
  • Case study exercise

Analyzing and Documenting Requirements

  • Analyzing requirements
  • Characteristics of effective requirements
  • The Business Requirements Document (BRD)
  • The BRD vs. the technical specifications document
  • Components of the BRD
  • BRD validation techniques
  • Case study exercise

Modeling Requirements

  • Modeling requirements
  • Models vs. diagrams
  • Context diagrams
  • Use cases
  • Workflows
  • AS-IS vs. TO-BE modeling
  • Types of models
  • Models and the BRD
  • Case study exercise

Assessing and Validating Requirements

  • Validation and verification
  • V-Model of testing
  • Levels and types of testing
  • The master test plan
  • Test scenarios and test cases
What You Can Expect

You'll learn how a business analyst supports the project throughout the solution development life cycle, from establishing the solution vision and scope in the analysis phase to validating that requirements have been met in the testing phase.

At the completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Identify the roles and responsibilities of the business analyst
  • Define requirements
  • Explain the importance of managing risk
  • Define the solution vision and scope
  • Plan the requirements elicitation process
  • Recognize the importance of analyzing and documenting requirements
  • Explain the role of modeling for documenting and communicating requirements
  • Understand how to create context diagrams, use cases and workflows
  • Perform requirements validation and traceability
Who Should Take This Course

The target audience for this course includes those who are new to the business analyst role or those who supervise and/or work with business analysts. This program is for anyone who participates in, or leads teams involved in developing the business requirements.

Training Style

Instructor-led, group-paced, classroom-delivery learning model with structured hands-on activities and case studies.

The seminar can be tailored to your specific needs. Actual organization examples may be used throughout the presentation as examples or the instructor will use generic examples.

In addition, we further customize by going through the course agenda with you and have you tell us which items you want stressed and emphasized. There is no extra charge for this customization.

« Hide The Details
Related Courses
Code Course Title Duration Level
BMPMN
Business Process Modeling with BPMN
3 Days
I
Details
BSANF
Foundations of Business Analysis
3 Days
I
Details
BPA1
Introduction to Business Process Analysis
5 Days
I
Details
USECS
How to Define and Document Use Cases
2 Days
I
Details
BAAGL
Business Analysis in an Agile Environment
3 Days
I
Details
DAI
INTRODUCTION TO DATA ANALYSIS
2 Days
I
Details
BMUML
Business Modeling and Analysis w/UML
3 Days
I
Details
BAPBC
Boot Camp: Preparing for the IIBA Certified Business Analyst Professional (CBAP) Exam
4 Days
I
Details
BAPMN
Business Analysis with BPMN
5 Days
I
Details
WEREQ
Writing Effective Requirements
2 Days
I
Details
BPA2
Intermediate Business Analysis
5 Days
II
Details
RQFAC
Facilitation Techniques for Requirements Development
2 Days
II
Details
BPA3
Advanced Business Analysis
5 Days
III
Details

Every student attending a Verhoef Training class will receive a certificate good for $100 toward their next public class taken within a year.

You can also buy "Verhoef Vouchers" to get a discounted rate for a single student in any of our public or web-based classes. Contact your account manager or our sales office for details.

Schedule For This Course
There are currently no public sessions scheduled for this course. We can schedule a private class for your organization just a couple of weeks from now. Or we can let you know the next time we do schedule a public session.
Notify me the next time this course is confirmed!
Can't find the course you want?
Call us at 800.533.3893, or
email us at [email protected]