Professional Business System Analyst

An ILM-endorsed title of ‘Business System Analysis’

Introduction

Business systems analysis is the elicitation, analysis and specification of the logical requirements of a business in order to design and build or procure effective computer-bases business systems.

In this training course, participants will gain knowledge of the right approaches, tasks and techniques to define the requirements for business system projects. They will learn about gathering business requirements from users and other stakeholders; analyzing and communicating these requirements; creating models and use cases that describe the requirements; defining business rules and requirements specifications to communicate them to solution developers.

They will also explore a broad spectrum of current techniques that can be used to ensure that systems are comprehensively described and correctly defined.

Objectives

This training course aims to enable participants to achieve the following objectives:

• Understand the role of the business systems analyst, the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and how the system scope is defined
• Identify system stakeholders
• Appreciate the range of techniques used to elicit requirements from stakeholders
• Develop system context diagrams
• Define system actor goals and convert these to use cases
• Write effective business rules
• Document functional and non-functional business requirements
• Compile a business requirements specification

Training Methodology

State-of-the-art business systems analysis methods and techniques are transferred by means of short, focused presentations, which are followed by experiential learning workshop sessions. In these sessions, the knowledge gained is applied to real-world examples and case studies. Rapid learning of the methods and techniques is achieved by means of group work, individual work, participant discussion, facilitator interaction and constructive feedback.

Organizational Impact

• Reduced information technology development risk, costs and time overruns
• Improved integration of information technology projects with business needs
• Improved communication between the business and the information technology department of the organisation
• The correct fit between the requirements of the organisation and information systems that are developed or procured

Personal Impact

• Work more effectively in or with a systems development project
• Have the ability to gather elicit business requirements from users
• Be able to comprehensively identify the requirements of the business
• Effectively communicate business requirements to developers

Who Should Attend?

This training course is designed for business and systems analysts, enterprise architects, systems development project leaders, systems development team members and managers who need to understand more about this vital link between business users and IT systems.

Seminar Outline

DAY 1

Introduction to Business Systems Analysis

• The Role of the Business Systems Analyst
• Alternative approaches to Business Systems Analysis
• The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
• Starting a Systems Development Project
• Identifying System Users and other Stakeholders
• Creating a Vision Statement
• Defining the System Scope

DAY 2

Modelling the System

• An Introduction to Systems Modelling Concepts
• Enterprise Architecture Modelling
• Modelling the System Context
• System Scope Modelling
• Use Case Modelling
• Modelling Information Requirements

DAY 3

Gathering and Communicating Requirements

• Interviewing Methods
• Surveys and Questionnaires
• Document Analysis and Observation
• Interface Analysis
• Workshop Facilitation Techniques

DAY 4

Writing Effective Use Cases

• Gathering User Stories
• Defining Actors and Actor Goals
• Converting Actor Goals to Use Cases
• Documenting detailed Use Case Descriptions
• Refactoring Use Cases
• Maintaining the Data Dictionary

DAY 5

Developing a Business Requirements Specification

• Gathering and Writing Business Rules
• Documenting Functional and Non-functional Requirements
• Preparing the Specification
• Verifying and Validating Requirements
• Writing Test Cases
• Presenting your Requirements Specification

Assessment

Following attendance on the seminar, delegates are required to complete an assignment related to their organisation. They should bear in mind the topics covered on the seminar. It is recognised that information is vital when undertaking business analysis. Devise a sample questionnaire, which you could use to gather such information.