BCS Certificate in Business Analysis Practice

On completion of this training, attendees will have knowledge, understanding and experience applying 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 organisation’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 their identification through gap analysis of desired and current business models
• The role of the 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
• Identify the competency skills required of a BA, across Personal Qualities, Business Knowledge, and Professional Techniques

Understanding The Strategic Context

• Apply the MOST and Resource Audit techiques to analyse an organisation’s internal environment
• Apply the PESTLE and Porter’s Five Forces techiques 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
• Describe the elements and use of the Balanced Business Scorecard

Understanding The Current Situation

• Identify generic stakeholder categories using the Stakeholder Wheel
• Identify the relevant Investigation Techniques for a given scenario
• 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

Stakeholder Analysis And Management

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

Analysing And Modelling Business Activities

• Explain the rationale for building conceptual models of a business situation
• Understand how to 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
• Explain types of Business Events
• Identify Business Events that will be handled by a particular business activity
• Explain the rationale for the consensus business activity model

Identifying Potential Solutions

• Distinguish between categories of business rules
• Describe the process for carrying out Gap Analysis
• Define a new business model across the components of POPIT

Building The Business Case

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

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

To qualify for the BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis, you should also consider:

• BCS Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis
• BCS Certificate in Modelling Business Processes
• BCS Certificate in Requirements Engineering

The BCS offers you full flexibility when choosing the sequence in which you achieve these certificates.  In general, Expleo Academy recommend that you attend the Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis after completion of these other BCS certificates, if intending to sit the International Diploma exam. We are happy to discuss your specific training needs to advise on your optimal learning pathway.

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  wish to become accredited in the internationally recognised BCS Certificate in Business Analysis Practice, on their path to achieving the BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis.