Business Analysis Essentials

1. Introduction to Business Analysis

• What Is Business Analysis?
• Role of the Business Analyst
• Core BA Skills
• BA Certifications

2. Project Definition and Planning

• Pre-Project Activities
• Vision and Scope Document
• Stakeholders
• Requirements
• Business Analysis Plan

3. Requirements Elicitation

• What Is Elicitation?
• Elicitation Techniques
• Selecting the Right Elicitation Technique

4. Requirements Analysis

• What Is a Model?
• Types of Models
• Requirements Prioritization

5. Requirements Documentation and Management

• Requirements and Design Documentation
• Requirements Verification
• Requirements Validation
• Obtaining Approval of Requirements
• Change Control
• Reuse of Requirements
• Requirements Communication

6. BA Involvement in Design and Development

• Role of the BA in Design and Development
• Requirements Implementation and Design Assessment

7. BA Involvement in Testing

• Role of the BA in the Testing Phase
• Test Plans
• Test Cases
• Acceptance Criteria in Agile
• Solution Acceptance and Closeout

8. Recap and Self-Assessment

Hands-On Exercises

1. Review the Vision and Scope Document
2. Identify Stakeholders and Other Sources of Requirements
3. Plan Business Analysis Activities
4. Conduct an Interview
5. Observe a Requirements Workshop
6. Choose the Best Elicitation Technique
7. Create a Swimlane Diagram
8. Create a Use Case Diagram
9. Analyze a Location Model
10. Identify Missing Stakeholders Using an Organization Model
11. Prioritize Requirements
12. Critique Requirements
13. Determine Impact of a Proposed Change
14. Provide Input for Decision between Two Solutions
15. Evaluate and Critique a Set of Test Cases

• Role and importance of the BA
• Vocabulary standards and business analysis practices through the use of the IIBA A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK Guide)
• Plan BA requirements activities
• Elicit requirements from stakeholders, with an emphasis on interviews
• Analyze stated requirements, with an overview of modeling techniques
• Document requirements for different types of projects
• Verify and validate requirements
• Elements of requirements management and communication and the BA's role in them
• Elements of solution verification and validation and possible BA roles
• Enterprise analysis: choosing appropriate projects
• Necessary competencies and best practices of BAs
• Waterfall, incremental, and agile lifecycles and how they change BA practices

Hands-On Exercises

• Identify Business Analysis Concepts and Activities in Your Organization
• Review a Vision and Scope Document
• Plan Requirements Activities for a Project
• Conduct an Interview
• Choose Elicitation Techniques
• Analyze a Location Model
• Analyze a Workflow Model
• Analyze a Use Case Model
• Analyze a CRUD Matrix
• Identify Models that Answer Key Questions
• Review a Requirements Document
• Determine the Impact of a Proposed Change to a Requirements Set
• Write a Test Case Using a Use Case
• Walk Through the Steps of Enterprise Analysis for a Project
• Develop a Personal Action Plan to Improve Your BA Skills or Environment

• Systems, business, and requirements analysts
• Developers
• Software engineers
• IT project managers
• Project managers who supervise business analysts and are responsible for business analysis activities, project analysts, project leaders, senior project managers, team leaders, program managers, testers, and QA specialists