BASA
Business And Systems Analysis course

Must-Have Skills for any IT staff and anyone dealing with business systems. The course with the most ROI for you!

Why you and your staff need this course.

There has always been a noticeable gap between the requirements of the business and the perceived ability of IT to deliver on time and on budget, to the satisfaction of both parties. We are now in the transition stage of the evolution of IT and business. This problem must be tackled, and we need to do it NOW in order to remain relevant.

Business and Systems Analysis Modeling the focus

Modeling is the basis of all kinds of analysis. Think of  the ubiquitous spreadsheet (eg MS Office Excel). It is used by almost everyone to do "what-if" analysis on numbers. For example, "What if I increase my selling price by five percent; will this result in higher or lower expected profits?". We just don't normally think of the task as modeling. Business analysis also perform "what-if", although it will require a lot more tools/techniques than the spreadsheet. How do you know that you have considered most, if not all, the user requirements - especially if they did not tell you most of it? Modeling! We need to be able to ask, and to answer, questions like "What if we put this application on the cloud; in what way will our systems need to change?". or "If we go ahead with the proposed change in company policy, what work is required by IT, and what is the impact on the companys business operations in terms of people and bottom-line?". This sort of ability taught in the course will make you very comfortable in dealing with senior management and cross-department colleagues because you can now provide them with quick answers to their questions. And you too can ask the right questions at the right time. Business Systems Models are representations of various aspects of the business, both IT-enabled and manual, that allow us to test out alternative answers to these types of questions, safely and quickly. As an IT professional, or a business change leader (e.g. Project Manager), you will be able to increase your effectiveness many folds, by knowing, and applying the main system modeling techniques taught in the course. All the modeling techniques taught are Best-practice, mainstream, used and proven over many years by people, organisations and methodologies.
However, it is critical that the modeling is based on real life case studies that are from participants own environment. Text book case studies are useless! Analysis is a thinking skill. Modeling is only the frame to apply the analysis, not the end purpose.

Topics Covered This course

takes into account the best of the old and new, to get you up to speed as quickly as possible. What models are. How to tell if it is a living model or just a diagram. The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture. The total range of information that is possible, for any complex system. The Secret - What they never told you at university.
How to see beyond the obvious, to solve the “no time” problem as described in “The Paradox of Time” (see the In-Tech published article by Simon Seow).
 Differences and similarities between Business Analysis and Systems Analysis. Entity and Data Models; Process Models; Event Timing Models, Object Oriented models, Service Oriented Approaches, Use Cases.   Coordinating Analysis and Project Management Governance issues and your role in it.  Discovering/showing relationships between Owner, Business, Application, System, Hardware and Infrastructure. The OBASHI methodology. Creating Blueprints for Corporate Mission and Vision statements.  Outsourcing decisions and planning. Identifying Risk and Security issues. Improving Process Improvement capabilities.   Quality improvement and management.   Addressing issues of alignment and integration.  How to define your role in your organisation and how to help your organisation to improve interdepartmental coordination. Audit and Control issues.
Moving from Analysis to Design, and other parts of your SDLC. The place of analysis in different kinds of standards and methodologies, e.g. ITIL®, PRINCE2®, Agile, SCRUM, TOGAF® etc.  Case Studies from different industries. Documentation the realistic and effective way. Requirements Specification. Enterprise and Solution Architectures. Where to look for opportunities. Communicating with management and other stakeholders.