Why Business Analysis?
• The business analysis value proposition
• Activity: Identifying the BA’s responsibilities
• The role and responsibilities of the Business Analyst

The Business-Project Lifecycle
• Business analysis and project management: interrelations and distinctions
• IIBA Knowledge Areas
• ISEB/BCS Knowledge Areas
• Activity: Establishing a Baseline – BA competencies

Strategic Alignment
• How business strategy is expressed
• Mission, Objectives, Strategy and Tactics (MOST)
• Activity: Identifying Maersk’s Business Drivers
• Aligning with business drivers

Internal Business Analysis
• Business Process Improvement (BPI)
• Informal BPI and problem reporting
• Tools: MOST, Ishikawa Diagrams, Mind-mapping, 5 Whys
• Activity: Root cause analysis
• Aligning BPI with business strategy

External Business Analysis
• Pressures on the business
• Tools: PESTLE and Porter’s 5 Forces
• Activity: PESTLE analysis

Combining External and Internal Analysis
• Tactical versus strategic business change
• Activity: SWOT Analysis

Stakeholders: Roles and Responsibilities
• Identifying key stakeholders
• Stakeholder identification matrix
• Activity: Analysing stakeholders to create a stakeholder management and communication plan

Defining and Documenting the Business Outcome
• Creating a clear problem statement
• Eliciting and documenting stakeholder goals
• Activity: Creating an Affinity Diagram
• Creating outcome-focused business requirements

Business Case Analysis
• The business case analysis process
• Identifying tangible and intangible benefits and costs
• Tracking tangible and intangible benefits back to business drivers
• Key tools for cost benefit analysis
• Building a benefits rationale

• Quality criteria for solution research
• Prioritsation Tools
• Activity: Using A Prioritization Matrix
• Quantifying and handling risk

• The cost of poor requirements
• Three key reasons for poor requirements
• Using a spiral development process
• Managing and testing requirements
• Requirements Classification
• Functional vs Non-Functional
• Business
• Stakeholder
• Solution
• Transitional

• Planning the requirements communication process
• Documenting project approach and key assumptions
• Developing and using requirements templates
• Common challenges of the requirements process

• Elicitation: Talking to stakeholders
– Elicitation techniques
– Activity: Planning for elicitation
• Analysis: Detecting and resolving requirements conflict and overlap
– Activity: Spotting issues using process modelling
• Specification: Writing Well-Formed Requirement
– Structuring requirements
– Activity: Why writing clear requirements is so difficult
– Industry standards for writing well-formed requirements
– Basic requirements format
– Use cases and user stories
• Validation: Getting buy-in  from key stakeholders
– Recognising potential problems prior to committing resources
– Activity: Planning requirements gathering using the requirements process model

• Industry standards for writing well-formed requirements
• Basic requirements format
– Activity: Writing well-formed requirements
• Use cases and user stories
– Activity: Writing use cases and user stories
• Structuring the requirements

• Communicating requirements to the business
• Using storyboards and wall walks to communicate with the business

• Partnering with downstream development
• Validation tools and techniques
• Creating the benefits realisation strategy