BCS Certificate in Business Analysis Practice

On completion of the Business Analysis Practice course, delegates will have knowledge, understanding and experience applying Business Analysis Practice principles and techniques in:

• The breadth of the Business Analyst (BA) role, the value of the role, and the skills required

• The processes and techniques of strategy analysis

• Investigation of an oranisation’s business systems in order to uncover the problems and issues occurring within them

• The importance of, and techniques used within, stakeholder management and the need for analysing perspectives

• Conceptual modelling through the use of business activity models

• Recommendations for business improvements and how they may be identified through gap analysis between desired and current business models

• The role of business case within the business change lifecycle, including the contents of a business case for the development and implementation of business changes

Rationale for Business Analysis 

• The role of the BA throughout the stages of the business change lifecycle

• Understand the scope of the BA role within the context of strategic analysis, business analysis, and IT systems analysis

• Recognise the competencies required of a BA across the areas of Personal Qualities, Business Knowledge, and Professional Techniques

Understanding the strategic context

• Apply the MOST and Resource Audit techniques to analyse an organisation’s internal environment

• Apply the PESTLE and Porter’s Five Forces techniques to analyse an organisation’s external environment

• Explain the purpose of a SWOT analysis, and apply SWOT to a given scenario

• Understand the relationship between Critical Success Factors (CSF), Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and Performance Targets

• Use the Balanced Business Scorecard

Understanding the current situation

• Identify generic stakeholder categories using the Stakeholder Wheel

• Identify the relavent Investigation Techniques for a given scenario

• Understand 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

Stakeholder Analysis and Management

• Explain different stakeholder perspectives based on elements of CATWOE, to compare their world views

• 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

Analysing and modelling business activities

• Understand the rationale for building conceptual models of a business situation

• Construct a conceptual business activity model (BAM), based on a given scenario

• Understand the role of the five BAM activity types, and the dependencies between them

• Understand types of Business Events, and the business activities to handle them

• Analysing business rules

• Understand the rationale for the consensus business activity model

Identifying potential solutions

• Understand the differences between types of business rules

• Understand how to carry out a Gap Analysis

• Define a new business model across the components of POPIT

Building the business case

• Understand the rationale for developing a business case

• Describe the contents of a business case

• Identify and categorise costs, benefits, risks, impacts

• Understand the rationale for financial appraisal techniques

• Understand where a business case sits within the business change lifecycle

Exam Format

Certification is dependent on achieving the Pass Mark of 26/40 correctly answered Multiple-Choice Exam questions. The Exam is paper-based, closed-book, and has a duration of 60 minutes. Additional time is available under certain circumstances, which are outlined on the BCS website.

There are no course prerequisites, however attendees will be expected to have reviewed chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9 from the most recent BCS publication of “Business Analysis” by Paul, Yeates & Cadle (3rd Edition).

This Practitioner certificate is relevant to Business Analysts, Business Change Managers, Product Owners, or anyone seeking an introduction to organisational strategy and making a business case for change.

The course is also aimed at individuals who would like to achieve the internationally recognised BCS Certificate in Business Analysis Practice, on their path to achieving the BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis.