Business Analysis Practice Practitioner

This certification is a key requirement for the following jobs:

• Business Analysts
• Business Managers
• Business Change Managers
• Project Managers and other IT Service Management related jobs

• Rationale for Business Analysis
• Understanding the Strategic Context
• Understanding the Current Situation
• Stakeholder Analysis and Management
• Analysing and Modelling Business Activities
• Identifying Potential Solutions
• Building the Business Case

This course is likely to add to the employment-related skills of the participants. The skills developed are likely to be used in the course of being an employee or working in a business.

• Business Analysts
• Business Managers
• Project Managers
• Business Change Managers

• Explain the role of the BA throughout the stages of the business change lifecycle
• Understand the scope of the BA role within the context of the range of analysis activities: strategic analysis and definition; business analysis; IT systems analysis
• Identify that there are three areas of competency for a BA: personal qualities, business knowledge and professional techniques
• Apply the MOST technique to analyse the internal environment of an organisation
• Apply the resource audit technique to analyse the internal environment of an organisation
• Apply the PESTLE technique to analyse the external environment of an organisation
• Apply Porter’s Five Forces technique to analyse the external environment of an organisation
• Explain the purpose of a SWOT analysis
• Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for a given scenario
• Define and explain the relationship between the Critical Success Factor, Key Performance Indicator, and Performance Target
• Define the elements of the balanced business scorecard and describe how it may be used to identify critical success factors and key performance indicators
• Identify the generic stakeholder categories defined in the stakeholder wheel
• Identify relevant investigation techniques for a given scenario, including: Interviews, Workshops, Observation, Document analysis, Scenario analysis, Surveys or questionnaires
• Explain the rationale for taking a holistic view when investigating a business situation
• Interpret the business situation represented in rich pictures, mind maps and fishbone diagrams
• In a given scenario, describe stakeholders in terms of their power/influence and level of interest
• Select an appropriate stakeholder management strategy based on the position on the Power/Interest Grid
• Apply the CATWOE technique to explore stakeholder business perspectives
• Explain different stakeholder business perspectives based on elements of CATWOE to identify similarities and differences in their worldviews
• Explain the rationale for building conceptual models of a business situation
• Understand how to construct a conceptual business activity model, based on a given scenario
• Show understanding of how the five types of high-level activity within a business activity model (and the dependencies between them) represent a stakeholder’s business perspective
• Explain the role of the planning activities in determining performance targets for a business system represented in the business activity model
• Explain the role of the enabling activities, in acquiring and replenishing resources for a business system represented in the business activity model
• Explain the role of the doing activities in conducting the work of the transformation, as defined in the stakeholder’s CATWOE
• Explain the role of monitoring and control activities, in regulating a business system represented in the business activity model
• Explain the three types of business events: External, Internal, and Time based
• In a given business activity model, identify the business events that will be handled by a particular business activity
• Explain the rationale for the consensus business activity model
• In a given business scenario, distinguish between the different categories of business rule: External constraints, Internal policies, Internal procedures
• Describe the process for carrying out gap analysis, through comparison of the conceptual business activity model and existing business situation
• Define the components of a new business model: Process, Organisation, People, Information, Technology
• Explain the rationale for the development of a business case
• Describe the contents of a business case, including: Background description, Options and their descriptions, Costs, Benefits, Cost/benefit analysis using investment appraisal techniques, Risks, Impacts, Recommendations – the preferred option
• Interpret a scenario in order to identify the Tangible and intangible costs, Tangible and intangible benefits, Risks, and Impacts
• Understand the rationale for the development of the financial case and the following appraisal techniques: Payback, Discounted cash flow, and Internal rate of return
• Explain where a business case sits within the business change lifecycle and the rationale for reviewing it at each stage

Business Analysis Foundation
Business Change Foundation
Commercial Awareness Foundation
Agile Foundation