50-156-704Introductory Business Analysis
Course Information
Description
Prepares apprentices to work as liaisons among stakeholders and understand the structure, policies, and operation of an organization. Apprentices use techniques to gather and analyze business requirements using best practices and relevant technologies. Prepares apprentices to function as liaisons with IT and subject matter experts supporting the needs of businesses in a wide variety of industries.
Total Credits
1.5
Course Competencies
  1. Identify stakeholders
    Assessment Strategies
    Oral, Written and/or Skill Assessment
    Criteria
    apprentice identifies stakeholders, their roles, and attitudes in relation to a defined project
    apprentice compares and contrasts RACI diagrams, stakeholder matrixes, and onion diagrams
    apprentice prepares a stakeholder analysis report
    apprentice selects and documents stakeholder collaboration using documented communication plan
    apprentice produces a stakeholder engagement approach including collaboration and communication methods used

  2. Define the question to be answered
    Assessment Strategies
    Oral, Written and/or Skill Assessment
    Criteria
    apprentice prepares a business case with executive summary, mission statement, situation analysis, solution, and conclusion
    apprentice explains how project complexity, assumptions, constraints, and dependencies impact planning efforts
    apprentice contrasts use of predictive or adaptive approach
    apprentice prepares a root cause analysis (RCA) for an identified problem using Five Whys
    apprentice prepares a cause and effect diagram summarizing findings from RCA
    apprentice defines scope of change management and associated risks involved

  3. Establish the scope of the project
    Assessment Strategies
    Oral, Written and/or Skill Assessment
    Criteria
    apprentice determines project duration for timeline and timeframe.
    apprentice deconstructs question into requirements.
    apprentice assigns effort to tasks.
    apprentice defines user acceptance criteria.

  4. Elicit information when gathering requirements
    Assessment Strategies
    Oral, Written and/or Skill Assessment
    Criteria
    apprentice prepares facilitated meeting work plan describing appropriate techniques used for each session
    apprentice prepares standard meeting agenda including meeting objective, rules, and attendee expectations
    apprentice identifies elicitation activities goal, participants and their roles, locations, techniques, and languages
    apprentice creates elicitation activity plan including goals, scopes of change, outputs generated, and who provides and uses information
    apprentice determines which techniques would benefit from documented results with stakeholders
    apprentice documents minutes of elicitation session detailing relevant information

  5. Gather functional and nonfunctional requirements
    Assessment Strategies
    Oral, Written and/or Skill Assessment
    Criteria
    apprentice creates a requirements definition
    apprentice identifies various requirements analysis techniques such as use cases, case studies, and prototyping
    apprentice selects requirements-gathering technique appropriate for each scenario/project
    apprentice prepares a visual and textual model of functional and non-functional requirements
    apprentice explores various requirements documentation techniques such as concept maps, story cards, use cases, and task-lists

  6. Create technical specifications
    Assessment Strategies
    Oral, Written and/or Skill Assessment
    Criteria
    apprentice creates a BPMN (Business Process Model Notation) diagram to document technical, functional, and program specifications
    apprentice designs technical diagrams, wireframes, reports and applicable visualizations to support proposed future state
    apprentice model technical design conceptually, logically and physically
    apprentice designs multiple scenarios to test technical results based on user story and problem statement

  7. Create a requirements document
    Assessment Strategies
    Oral, Written and/or Skill Assessment
    Criteria
    apprentice prepares a visual and contextual example of a business process including the purpose, desired outcome, entry criteria, inputs, outputs, tasks, exceptions, business rules, roles and responsibilities, metrics, and exit criteria
    apprentice completes a business requirements package (BRP or BRD) with textual and graphical findings
    apprentice describes methods used when collecting performance measures
    apprentice presents use case and use case diagram results