BCS Business Analysis Foundation Course

The first module will introduce you to the course and the BCS Business Analysis Foundation exam. It will then go on to explain the rationale and origins of business analysis, the way it developed, and its relationship to business change through programme initiatives.

The session wraps up by looking at the scope of business analysis and the roles and responsibilities of the Business Analyst and the guiding principles.

The second module will look at the skills and competencies required by a Business Analyst. During the session you will consider:

• The categories of competence
• Behavioural skills and personal qualities
• Business knowledge
• Techniques
• The right competence for the right situation.

The session will conclude with a short discussion on developing competence.

The third module covers Strategy Analysis. In the session you will cover the context for strategy, strategy development, internal and external environmental analysis, SWOT analysis and Implementing strategy. This will enable you to:

• Understand the nature of strategy
• Describe how strategies are developed
• Explain some techniques for internal and external environmental analysis
• Understand SWOT analysis
• Describe tools for implementing strategy and reducing risks associated with business change.

This module covers The Business Analysis Service Framework. The session will teach you how to explain the Business Analysis Service Framework and understand the key services, which are:

• Situation investigation and problem analysis
• Feasibility assessment and business case development
• Business process improvement
• Requirements definition
• Business acceptance testing
• Business change deployment
• Stakeholder engagement

Module five will introduce you to Investigation Techniques. In the first part of the session, you will look at prior research, planning and qualitative investigation techniques, before moving on to discuss the quantitative techniques. This will enable you to:

• Understand the principal stages in conducting an investigation
• Have a theoretical grasp of how the techniques in the syllabus are undertaken and the circumstances when each are appropriate
• Appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of each of the techniques
• Understand some of the techniques for documenting an existing business system and the ‘as-is’ situation and their benefits.

This module looks at Stakeholder Analysis and Management. In the session you will consider Soft Systems Methodology, Business Perspectives and Business Activity Modelling. By the end of the session, you will be able to:

• Appreciate the need to manage stakeholders at different stages in the project life cycle
• Be able to categorise stakeholders and understand the role of each category of stakeholder in the business analyst activity
• Be able to use a technique to analyse stakeholders and develop the approaches needed to manage them
• Understand the principles of conceptual modelling and in particular the logic of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM)
• Appreciate the significance of business perspectives and their role in developing business systems
• Know how to build Business Activity Models based upon business perspectives derived from CATWOE.

In module seven you will look at Modelling Business Processes. In the session you will cover the techniques available to model these processes – covering both the organisational view of the process and the more detailed business process models. By the end of the session, you will be able to:

• Understand the purpose of process models
• Be familiar with the hierarchy of process models and some of the techniques for modelling at each level
• Know the components of Porter’s Value Chain and why it is used
• Understand the significance and importance of Value Propositions
• Demonstrate the notation for one modelling technique and its use in constructing as-is process models and its analysis.

This module covers ‘Defining the Solution’. One of the key activities of the business analyst is the analysis of the gap between where the business currently is and where it needs to be.

As well as understanding the implications of moving to the new systems as defined by the Business Activity Model (BAM), we also need to make sure that the selected option aligns with the organisation’s business architecture.

Module nine will cover ‘Making a Business and Financial Case’. In the session you will look at the contents of the business case and the main types of investment appraisal, which provide the cost benefit analysis in financial terms. By the end of the session, you will be able to describe:

• The purpose of the business case and the actors involved with it
• The various types of feasibility assessment within a business case
• The difference between tangible and intangible costs and benefits
• Three methods of investment appraisal
• Benefits realisation and the actors involved in the process
• The contents of a benefits realisation report.

Module 10 will look at ‘Establishing the Requirements’. In this session, you will learn about the historic reasons for project failures due to inadequate requirements specification, along with how to use a formalised approach to the engineering of requirements.

You will go on to look at techniques of requirements elicitation and their applicability, and techniques for requirements analysis. Finally, you will cover the roles to be undertaken in the violation of requirements.

This module covers ‘Documenting and Managing Requirements’. During this module, you will learn about the Requirements Document and the purpose of its components in a business change project.

Additionally, you will consider the contents of the Requirements Catalogue and the relevance of each of its attributes and finally, the importance of forwards and backwards traceability in the management of requirements and the techniques that make this possible.

In the session, you will learn the different methods of modelling systems and gain a working knowledge of the syntax and application of three modelling techniques. These are: Use Case Modelling, Entity Relationship Modelling, and Class Modelling.

The penultimate module will explore ‘Delivering the Requirements’, which includes some or all of the following:

• Business process change where the business process is changed to make it cheaper, faster, more effective or more accurate
• People changes which may involve adding new skills, recruitment and training
• Changes to organisation structure where we may remove various posts, merge or split departments
• Changes to IT systems that support the business processes and provide information used by the organisation.

During the session we’ll be considering the lifecycles that support these change initiatives and by the end of the session, you will be familiar with a range of lifecycles and understand the advantages and disadvantages of each.

The final module covers Delivering the Business Solution. During the session, you will look at the business change life cycle and the role of the business analyst at the Design, Implementation and Realisation stages.

You will then move on to the SARAH model which deals with an individual’s response to change.