Business Analysis Training

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 organisations 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 isnt 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 organisations 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).

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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 BAs 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 Developers 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


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.


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 Developers Introduction to Business Analysis


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 analysts 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 AssociateTM

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 CertifiedTM

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.


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 todays 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 persons 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 participants 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


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


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



Business Process Analysis

Overview Did you know the six costliest words in business are weve 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


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 students current project.



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.



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 organisations 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


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?


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



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


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.



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 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 IIBAs BABOK Guide V2.0.

Rowing harder doesnt help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction. Kenichi Ohmae, Management consultant

3 DAYS


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)


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



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


Course Outline

Introduction 1 hr.

Define students learning objectives.

Understand students 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 BAs 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. Dont 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.).



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.


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.


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 users 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


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.


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


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 students current project.


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 analysts 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.

Developers 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.

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 so

Date post:	14-Sep-2014
Category:	Education
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