The Accidental Business Analyst
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Business Analyst Boot Camp Training Curriculum
The role of the Business Analyst within companies is slowly coming to maturity.
As the roles of software developer, database designer and software architect become more and more defined in the IT industry, the Business Analyst role has also been more defined to fill analysis and design tasks that have been left out of those roles.
As a software development team begins to improve its development processes, many people become Business Analysts simply because they begin picking up the requirements gathering and analysis tasks that are left lying undone on their team.
These are the Accidental Business Analysts. They did not plan to take on the title, and in some circumstances, many still bear titles other than "Business Analyst".
Like programmers, business analysts seem to come from different backgrounds. One business analyst that I worked with in the past had a degree in computer science. He worked as a programmer for many years on our team.
He eventually became our business analyst because none of the rest of us wanted to spend time with the customers. For some strange reason, he was eventually promoted to team manager!
Another business analyst I worked with had a degree in business. He was hired as a systems analyst with the Federal Reserve Bank.
Even though he had no real background in technology, his role was to talk to managers about what they needed in the systems and translate and communicate those needs to the IT personnel. Other business analysts I am acquainted with have backgrounds in biology, literature and even theatre!
While those business analysts who took college classes in business and computer science may have been introduced to the process of requirements gathering and business modeling, most did not. Where do they get their skills from?
As an Accidental Business Analyst, chances are that you start out simply winging many of your tasks and responsibilities. Even in situations such as these, your ability to lead, understand and communicate with customers, your understanding of your business domain and your ability to express customer needs to IT and vice versa will serve you excellently.
However, as the business analysis industry comes to maturity and you begin to grow your career, you should take the time to understand what a business analyst really does.
You should move towards excellence by finding out what makes a good business analyst, sharpen your requirements gathering and analysis skills, your business understanding and even your interviewing skills.
A little UML and Use Cases wouldn't hurt you either? You will want to understand how to balance the business side of a project with the IT side of the project. You should grow your value to your company by learning how to take a high level view of business issues as well as getting down to understanding processes and how systems support these processes.
The Business Analyst Boot Camp provides complete end to end training for business analysts.
The Business Analyst Boot Camp training is designed to be an in-depth online business analyst training that takes you from beginner to mastery in all the skills and competencies you need to be a great business analyst.
The high level summary of the Business Analyst Boot Camp curriculum is below. If you would like to download the detailed curriculum, request for the detailed business analyst training curriculum here:.
INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS ANALYSIS COURSE
- INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS ANALYSIS
REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING COURSE
- REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING
- ADAPTING PRACTICES TO PROJECTS
- AGILE REQUIREMENTS METHODOLOGY
CREATING THE BUSINESS CASE COURSE
- DEVELOPING VISION AND SCOPE
- MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE
RISK ASSESSMENT AND MITIGATION COURSE
- RISK ASSESSMENT AND MITIGATION STRATEGY
ELICITING REQUIREMENTS COURSE
- STAKEHOLDERS & REQUIREMENTS SOURCES
- ELICITATION TECHNIQUES
ANALYZING REQUIREMENTS 1 COURSE
- THE REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS LIFE CYCLE
- PRIORITIZING REQUIREMENTS
- BUSINESS PROCESS MODELING CONCEPTS & PRACTICES
ANALYZING REQUIREMENTS 2 COURSE
- RELATIONSHIP MAPS
- PROCESS MAPS
- CONTEXT DIAGRAMS
- EVENT-RESPONSE TABLE
- BUSINESS POLICIES
- ACTOR TABLE/MAP
- USE CASES I
- USE CASES II
- STORYBOARDS
- DATA MODELING
- STATE DIAGRAMS
- BUSINESS RULES
SPECIFYING & DOCUMENTING REQUIREMENTS COURSE
- CREATING A USER REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT
- CREATING A SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
- SPECIFICATION DOCUMENT
VALIDATING REQUIREMENTS COURSE
- CREATING TEST CASES
- CONDUCTING PEER REVIEW
- USER ACCEPTANCE TESTING
MANAGING REQUIREMENTS COURSE
- CHANGE CONTROL
- ATTRIBUTES & TRACING
MODELING WITH UML 2.0 COURSE
- UML ONE
- UML TWO
- UML THREE
- UML FOUR
- UML FIVE
- UML SIX
- UML SEVEN
- UML EIGHT
INTRODUCTION TO OBJECT-ORIENTED CONCEPTS COURSE
- OBJECT-ORIENTED CONCEPTS
Click here to request the detailed business analyst training curriculum
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4 Comments
December 17th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I don't see sequence diagrams mentioned in the outline? Lots of analysts use them to visualize interactions between different the parties in a business process.
Here's a nice tool you might want to use during your course :
http://www.tracemodeler.com
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:28 am
Yanic:
Sequence Diagrams are not always necessary for Business Analyst Processes ok?
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:31 am
I have been using sequence diagrams for a long time and I've never heard of your tool, what gives?
December 22nd, 2008 at 6:41 pm
@m.b.a.
True, if there's little communication or only a few parties involved you could get by without sequence diagrams. But if someone is aiming for 'mastery in all the skills and competencies you need to be a great business analyst' they can be a valuable artifact.
@b.a.u
I'm not sure why you've never come across Trace Modeler before, it is relatively new though.