BCS Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis

The organisations are offering their latest products as well as services to the potential customers every year. This in itself is a quite cumbersome job. These companies aim to satisfy customers with these products and services. How to do so? The acquiring of a business analyst in an organisation helps to achieve objectives. Business Analysts recognize the needs of the customer based groups such as demography, interests, culture etc. Earlier on the job was being performed by the senior level management but as of now, it is the Business Analysts working as a separate identity who perform this job. Once the Business Analysts has given his report then the only production can start. We at MSP Training make sure that the delegates get the skills to do so from those who are already certified and experienced as regards the concepts of Business Analysis.

The Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis is the stepping stone for courses such as Business Analysis, IS Consultancy and Business Change.  It lays the foundation for professional courses which culminate in the Professional or Expert module. These courses are mainly targeted towards Project Managers and System Developers. It is one of the courses from which a delegate can choose to complete the Knowledgebase module as a part of the  BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis.

Exams

To clear the exam for the BCS Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis, the delegate is required to obtain 65% marks from the 40 questions that have to be attempted. The candidates must get a minimum of 26 out of a maximum of 40 marks. The duration of the exam is one hour. No calculators are allowed by BCS during the exam.

• Business Analysis – An Understanding
  • The roots of business analysis
  • The development of business analysis
    • The impact of outsourcing
    • Competitive advantage of using IT
    • Successful business change
    • The importance of the business analyst
    • Business analysts as internal consultants
  • Bussiness Analysis and Its Scope
    • The scope of analysis activities
    • Defining Strategic analysis
    • Analysing IT systems
  • Business analysis - an UnderstandingUsing a complete methodology
  • Roles and Responsibilities of a Business Analyst
    • Business analyst and his role
    • Business analyst role and its additional features
• Skills of a Business Analyst
  • Personal Traits
  • Knowledge of the Business
  • Professional methods
  • Developing Analyst Skills
• Strategy Analysis
  • The background for the approach
  • Strategy – It’s Definition
  • The developing of a Policy
  • Outward Analysis of the Environment
    • Using the PESTLE method to perform analysis
    • Five Forces Model of Porter
  • Inner Analysis of the Environment
    • MOST analysis – Defining and Using
  • Auditing Resources
  • Boston Box
• SWOT (Strength , Weaknesses, Oppurtunities and Takeover) assessment
• Implementing policy
  • The McKinsey 7-S Framework
  • Using The Balanced Business Scorecard to track activities
  • KPI’s and the Critical Success Factors
• The Business Analysis Process Prototype
  • Solving Problems
  • Business analysis process model – Its Stages
  • The process model stage
  • Objectives
  • Procedures
  • Techniques
• Techniques for Investigation
  • Interviews
    • Pros and Cons
    • Preparing
    • Conducting
    • Following up
  • Reflection
    • Pros and Cons
    • Formal Reflections
    • Protocol study
    • Surveillance
    • Ethnographic readings
  • Seminars
    • Pros and Cons
    • Preparing
    • Facilitation
    • Procedures
    • Follow Up the Seminar
  • Situations
    • Benefits and shortcomings
    • Ways to for develop scenarios
    • Documenting
  • Modelling
    • Rewards and hindrances
  • Quantifiable Methodologies  
    • Surveys or Questionnaires
    • Special Purpose Records
    • Activity Sampling
    • Document Analysis
  • Documenting the current situation
    • Rich Pictures
    • Mind Maps
• Stakeholder Analysis and Management
  • Stakeholder categories and identification
  • Stakeholders Analysis
    • The Power/Interest Grid
  • Stakeholder management strategies
  • Managing stakeholders
    • Stakeholder plan/assessment
  • The Stakeholder Perspectives – An Understanding
    • Soft Systems Methodology
    • Analysing the perspectives
    • CATWOE
  • Business activity models
    • An Overview Of business activity model
    • Learn About Activity Types
    • Forming a consensus model
• Modelling Business Processes
  • Organisational context
    • Functional view of an organisation
  • An alternative view of an organisation
  • The corporate view of business processes
  • Value propositions
  • Process models
    • Business events
    • Developing the business process model
  • Analysing the as-is process model
  • Improving business processes (to-be business process)
• Defining the solution
  • Gap analysis
    • Pointing Out Focus Areas
    • The Gap Analysis Framework
    • Formulating options
  • Introduction to Business Architecture
  • Definition of Business Architecture
  • Business Architecture techniques
    • Definition of a capability model
    • Definition of a value stream
• Making a Business and Financial Case
  • The business case in the project lifecycle
  • Identifying options
  • Assessing project feasibility
  • Structure of a business case
  • Investment Assesment
    • Payback – An Overview
    • Discounted cash flow and Internal Return Rate
• Establishing the Requirements
  • A framework for requirements engineering
  • Actors in requirements engineering
    • The business representatives
    • The project team
  • Requirements elicitation
    • Tacit and explicit knowledge
    • Requirements elicitation techniques
  • Requirements analysis
    • Requirements filters
    • SMART requirements
  • Requirements validation
• Documenting and Managing Requirements
  • The requirements document
    • Structure
    • Content of the requirements document
  • The requirements catalogue
    • Types of requirements
      • functional and non-functional
      • general
      • technical
    • Hierarchy of requirements
    • Recording requirements
  • Manage requirements
    • Elements of requirements management
• Modelling Requirements
  • Modelling system functions
    • Use case diagrams
  • Modelling system data
    • Entity Relationship Diagrams
      • Entities, attributes and relationships
      • Types of relationships
    • Class Models
      • Objects and classes
      • Attributes
      • Associations
• Delivering the Requirements
  • Providing the solution
  • Context
  • Lifecycles
    • The waterfall lifecycle
    • The ‘V’ design lifecycle
    • Incremental lifecycle
    • Iterative systems development lifecycle
• Delivering the Business Solution
  • BA role in the organisation change lifecycle
  • Design stage
  • Implementation stage
  • Realisation stage