Course Length:

2 Days

Course Description:

This course is designed to provide foundational understanding of the skills and knowledge areas of Business Analysis. This introductory course exposes the student to the concepts of Business Analysis at a high level. The course includes discussions of the multi-faceted role of the Business Analyst and examines the fundamental skills required. It explores such critical skills as communication techniques, risk analysis, visual modeling, and the gathering, documenting, managing and transmitting of requirements.

Who Should Attend:

Those individuals who desire to participate in a software development project as a Business Analyst or wish to begin the first steps towards preparation for the Business Analyst certification should take this course. This course will also be beneficial to Project Managers, System Analysts, and Developers seeking an understanding of this important role in the software development lifecycle.

Benefits of Attendance:

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Show familiarity with the International Institute of Business Analysts and the Business Analyst Book of Knowledge (BABOK).
• Understand the roles of the Business Analyst in the software development process, and apply the knowledge and skill requirements necessary to carry out the role.
• Explain the key differences between software development methods and processes.
• Discuss Requirements Engineering, Requirements Management and Requirements Development.
• Describe the levels, types, and characteristics of good requirements.
• Apply change management and requirements traceability to the Business Analysis process.
• Describe requirements that drive ongoing design, test, and user documentation activities.
• Identify and discuss the flow charting using Unified Modeling Language (UML) Activity Diagrams.

Prerequisites:

There are no specific prerequisites. A general understanding of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) is beneficial, but not necessary.

Course Outline:

• Introduction
  1. Introduction to the IIBA and the BA Book of Knowledge (BABOK)
  2. Business Analysis defined
  3. Business Analyst defined
  4. The knowledge areas of Business Analysis
  5. The skills of a Business Analyst
  6. Roles of Business Analysts in software projects
• Project Overview
  1. Phases of a project
  2. Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
  3. Project tools
  4. Software Project Artifacts
• Effective Communication
  1. What is communication?
  2. Written communication
  3. Presentation Skills
  4. Effective Listening
• Requirements Concepts
  1. Why requirements exist
  2. Requirements Definitions
  3. Characteristics of quality Requirements
  4. Requirement Levels and Types
• Requirements Engineering
  1. Associating activity diagrams with business and system use cases
  2. What is Requirements Engineering?
  3. Terms and Definitions
  4. What are good Requirements Engineering practices?
  5. Requirements management Overview
• Requirements Management
  1. Requirements Management Defined
  2. Components of the RM Process
  3. Benefits of a quality RM Process
  4. Risks of a poor RM Process
  5. The BA role in RM Activities
• Requirements Management Artifacts
  1. Requirements Management Templates
  2. Scope and Vision Document
  3. Requirements Plan
• Requirements Change Management and Traceability
  1. Requirements Change Management Overview
  2. What is Change Management?
  3. What does Change Control Management do for us?
  4. Requirements Change Management Process
  5. Establishing a Change Control Management Process
  6. Change Control Charter
  7. Change Control Board
  8. Change Control Process
  9. Impact Analysis
• Introduction to Visual Modeling
  1. Modeling notations and symbols
  2. The benefits of Visual Modeling
  3. The various models available for Business Analysis
• Requirements Development
  1. Requirements Development Defined
  2. Activities of the Business Analyst in Requirements Development
  3. Preparing to gather requirements
  4. Stakeholder Identification
  5. Problem Analysis
  6. Identifying User Classes
  7. Requirements Elicitation techniques
  8. Writing effective requirements
  9. Characteristics of quality requirements
• Requirements Verification and Validation
  1. Verification and Validation Defined
  2. Techniques to Verify and Validate Requirements
  3. Establish criteria for evaluation
  4. How to prepare and conduct successful reviews
  5. Determine the level of review formality
• Risk
  1. What is risk?
  2. Risk Identification
  3. Risk Analysis