Business Analyst

What you will study

What does a business analyst actually do?

• Understand the prevalent methods used in business analysis, including the importance of Agile and the Agile Manifesto.
• Consult with stakeholders to understand a business’s current state and conduct a root cause analysis.
• Map your current state and understand the user journey.

Core communication skills and requirement gathering

• Use communication tools, including active listening, open-ended and closed-ended questions and the five whys to understand a problem.
• Choose an appropriate communication method and determine when to interview and workshop stakeholders.
• Learn how to resolve conflicting stakeholder priorities.
• Capture, review and rate your requirements.

Process mapping and user story writing

• Build a draft of a ‘to be’ process map that illustrates the new process, including impacted actors and data flows.
• Consider the scope of your product and break down the work through release planning.
• Turn your requirements into user stories that create business value and include clear acceptance criteria.

Adapting to mid-project requirement changes

• Update your to-be process map to reflect the changed requirements.
• Identify project dependencies and risks.
• Identify and review non-functional requirements.
• Facilitate an Agile retrospective.

Presenting your work to stakeholders

• Prepare a clear presentation incorporating storytelling, language and visuals tailored to your audience.
• Deliver a presentation demonstrating successful objection handling, parking lots and capturing the next steps.
• Shape business analysis artefacts to be presentation-ready.

Submit your final project and next steps

• Explore the latest information in the business analysis industry and describe opportunities available to you.

For your final project, you will be assessed on your ability to:

• Create a current process map, actors register and user journey map.
• Capture, review and rate functional and non-functional requirements.
• Create a future process map.
• Break down work using Agile methods.
• Write user stories.
• Present business analysis findings to diverse stakeholders.

What you will learn

• Break down business problems into requirements that facilitate the resolution of conflicting needs and reflect contemporary ways of working
• Critically analyse cognitive and behavioural professional skills relevant to business analysis and apply those skills to engage with business and technical stakeholders
• Illustrate the business analysis process to stakeholders and justify how the process and findings create business value

How you will learn

You’ll gain universal technical skills in requirements gathering, process mapping and user story writing. Simulating common real-life situations that require problem-solving, you’ll also learn how to update process maps based on changed requirements and review non-functional requirements. By the end of this course, you’ll present your findings through a stakeholder presentation and video for your final, scenario-based project.

Who should attend

• Early and mid-career IT and business professionals looking to gain proficiency and close knowledge gaps in order to transition towards becoming a business analyst.
• Mid-level professionals from business analyst adjacent roles looking to develop the skills to effectively work with multidisciplinary teams. You’ll most likely be, but are not limited to, a quality assurance tester, product manager, digital marketer, solutions architect, UX designer, or consultant.