Business Analysis Practice

This course is presented as Live Virtual Training. Click for more details.

Business Analysts are increasingly required to extend themselves beyond their traditional role of developing and maintaining business systems. They need the capability to understand the business strategy, use proven techniques to analyse the business area, and identify changes to business processes needed to meet internal and external challenges.

The BCS Business Analysis Practice course provides the fundamental skills and framework needed by effective business analysts engaged in a business change project. The course develops the skills needed to work with business and IT staff to effectively analyse and model business activities. Delegates will learn how to investigate business problems and how to identify and recommend appropriate creative solutions.

The course prepares to sit the BCS Business Analysis Practice certificate examination.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this course you will be able to:

• Describe how a business strategy is developed and apply a number of strategic analysis techniques
• Understand a number of investigation techniques and how these can be applied to ascertain an organisation’s business systems (current or future state)
• Explain the importance of stakeholder management and use stakeholder identification and analysis techniques
• Use techniques for the analysis and modelling of business systems and determining a way ahead when there are multiple different stakeholder perspectives on the future state of a business system
• Describe how recommendations for business improvement may be identified
• Describe the contents of a rigorous business case for the development and implementation of business changes
• Identify costs, benefits, impacts and risks for an option in a business case

Who should attend

This course is designed for anyone likely to become involved in business analysis at any level, including:

• Business Analysts and Systems Analysts
• Business Managers
• Business Improvement and Continuous Improvement Analysts
• Project Managers and Team Leaders

Course contents

1. Strategic Context for Business Analysis

• Explain the purpose of an organisation’s vision.
• Apply a suitable technique to analyse the internal environment of an organisation.
• Apply a suitable technique to analyse the external environment of an organisation.
• Prepare a SWOT analysis.
• Use tools to measure performance.

2. Analysing and Managing Stakeholders

• Explain the activities required to engage stakeholders.
• Identify generic stakeholder categories using the stakeholder wheel.
• Use the CATWOE technique to analyse stakeholder perspectives and identify similarities and differences.
• Categorise stakeholders in terms of their power and influence and level of interest.
• Choose an appropriate stakeholder management strategy.

3. Analysing the Current State

• Choose suitable methods to research the business situation.
• Identify a suitable quantitative or qualitative investigation technique.
• Identify advantages and disadvantages of the different investigation techniques.
• Use tools to represent the current business situation

4. Establishing the Target State

• Use a business activity model (BAM).
• Identify the 5 activities included in a BAM.
• Explain the need for a consensus BAM.
• Explain the three types of business events.
• Explain the use of a target operating model (TOM).

5. Designing and Defining the solution.

• Identify the stages of Design Thinking.
• Describe the use of divergent and convergent thinking.
• Explain the process of gap analysis.
• Distinguish between areas of feasibility.

6. Developing a Business Case

• Explain the rationale for the development of a business case.
• Identify the contents of a business case.
• Identify tangible and intangible costs and benefits.
• Identify risks and their potential impact.
• Explain the rationale for the financial case and the appraisal techniques.
• Relate the business case to the business change lifecycle.

* A case study allows the delegates to undertake a simulated business analysis assignment

Course fees

BCS Business Analysis Practice Certificate Course (3 days)

• $2350 + GST

The fee includes:

• Course presentation, accredited by BCS
• Comprehensive ALC course workbook
• The BCS Business Analysis Practice Certificate exam
• The BCS Business Analysis Fourth Edition Textbook (ISBN 9781780175102)
  • If you have recently attended the Business Analysis Foundation course with ALC, you might already have this textbook. If so, please get in touch with ALC for instructions on how to receive a discounted price covering the cost of the Textbook. 

Examination

Live Virtual Training – At course completion participants will be provided by BCS the examination institute, an access code to the online web-proctored exam hosted by QuestionMark and accessed via a web browser. Access codes are valid for 6 months. 

Face-to-Face Training – Participants will be provided with a paper-based exam which is completed whilst at the course in the same venue of the course itself.

Examination Format and Duration

Candidates who are awarded a pass for the examination are awarded the BCS Certificate in Business Analysis Practice.

Prerequisites
There are no formal pre-requisites to attend the BCS Business Analysis Practitioner courses. However, it is assumed that participants do have some practical experience. If you are new, or relatively new, to Business Analysis then you should first sit the Business Analysis Foundation course.