Enroll by December 1, 2024

Essentials of Business Analysis

Prepare to enhance the organizational effectiveness of a company by learning to identify, analyze and design processes that improve the communication and application of data.

Enroll Now

8-Week Course

8 Continuing Education Units

80 Military Clock Hours

About the Course

If you’re involved in eliciting, analyzing and defining project requirements, Essentials of Business Analysis could be a valuable course to help build your expertise. This eight-week course teaches business analysts, managers and professionals to identify, analyze and design processes that improve the overall flow of information within a company.

You can gain skills to determine the business requirements that drive IT-related projects, plus learn how to maintain an effective information system to ensure timely delivery of cost-effective products. Read more about business analysis training.

Earn a Digital Badge

Villanova students will earn a digital badge when they successfully complete an individual course or full certificate program. These badges help to emphasize their skills and commitment to professional development and enables them to easily share and display the badge on a resume and/or social media.

Curriculum

8 Week Course

Planning for Requirements

Plan for the business analysis approach to be used
Selecting the appropriate business analysis techniques
Identifying stakeholders and planning for stakeholder meetings
How business analysis information will be captured, stored and used
Determine how the information captured will be made available in order to make collaborative decisions
Determine how business analysis work will be monitored and can be improved over time
How to create a stakeholder map

Eliciting Requirements and Working with Stakeholders

Communicating what will be needed from the stakeholders
Conducting elicitation activities
Confirming the outcomes of elicitation activities
Understanding the needs of stakeholders
Providing the stakeholders with relevant information
Keeping stakeholders engaged throughout the business analysis process

Requirements Lifecycle Management

How to maintain traceability between requirements, designs, solution components and other work products
Ensuring that requirements and designs are cohesive, complete, consistent and correct
Facilitating the reuse of requirements and designs when feasible
Understanding how to assign a value, priority, and risk to requirements and designs
Evaluating new and changing stakeholder needs
Helping stakeholders reach agreement on requirements and designs

Strategy Analysis

Understanding the business need and the context for change
Determining objectives, and identifying what needs to change in order to meet these objectives
Identifying the options for reaching the desired future state and determining any potential transitional states required
How to leverage the following techniques:
- Developing a business case
- Conducting a formal risk assessment

Requirements Analysis and Design

How to communicate requirements using various analytical and visual techniques
Ensuring that requirements and designs are of high quality
Ensuring that requirements and designs deliver business value
Structuring requirements and designs so they cohesively support the business purpose
How to leverage the following techniques:
- Data flow diagram
- Process modeling
- User story map / user stories
- Use cases / storyboards

Solution Evaluation

How to identify potential solutions
How to recommend the solution that will provide the greatest overall value
Determining how the performance of a solution will be assessed
Assessing solution performance to understand value delivered
Investigating internal and external solution issues that may be leading to poor performance
Identify actions that can be taken to increase the value delivered by a solution
How to leverage the following techniques:
- Acceptance Criteria
- Evaluation criteria / vendor Assessment
- Determining non-functional requirements

Learning Objectives

Skills Learned

Business Analysis Risk Assessment Communication Change Management Project Management

What You’ll Study

Planning for Requirements

Introduction to the BABOK Guide
Stakeholders in Business Analysis
Understanding Needs
Predictive vs. Adaptive Methodologies
Complexity and Risk
Business Analyst Role
Stakeholder Identification and Analysis
Requirements Reuse
Managing Requirements Changes and Approvals
Planning and Communication for Business Analysts
Assessing Business Analysis Performance
Business Analysis Governance

Eliciting Requirements and Working with Stakeholders

Elicitation Tasks
Determining Elicitation Techniques:
- Individual Elicitation Techniques
- Workshop Techniques
Understanding the Scope of Elicitation
Guiding the Elicitation Activity
Communicating Elicitation Results

Requirements Lifecycle Management

Requirements Analysis and Prioritization
Allocating and Tracing Requirements
Approving Requirements
How to Combine Waterfall and Agile Approaches

Strategy Analysis

Analyze Current State
Determining Business Needs
Assessing the Current State
Defining the Future State
Understanding Business Goals and Objectives
Defining Solution Scope
Defining Assumptions and Constraints
Defining Potential Value
Assessing Risks
Defining Change Strategy

Requirements Analysis and Design

Specifying and Modeling Requirements
Requirements Attributes
Implementing Appropriate Levels of Abstraction
Analyzing Requirements
Verifying Requirements
Generating Quality Requirements
Evaluating Requirements
Defining Requirements Architecture
Identifying Design Options
Analyzing Potential Value
Solution Recommendation

Solution Evaluation

Determine Solution Performance Measures
Measure Solution Performance
Assessing Solution Limitations
Assessing Enterprise Limitations
Recommending Actions to Increase Solution Value

Related Certificate Programs

Certificate in Business Analysis

20+ Weeks

3 Courses

$5,883

Develop analytical and problem-solving skills while preparing for industry-recognized Business Analysis certification.

Certification Prep

Applied Project Management Certificate

16+ Weeks

3 Courses

$5,883+

Learn to become an expert in project management while preparing for the PMP® or CAPM® Certification exam.

Certification Prep

Business Process Management Certificate

24 Weeks

3 Courses

6,056+

Learn to increase your organization's efficiency and performance.

Certification Available

Cybersecurity Certificate

20+ Weeks

3 Courses

$5,883+

Learn to assess risks and protect critical data from cyber threats.

Certification Prep

Who Should Register?

This business analysis course is for anyone involved in gathering, analyzing, documenting and validating information in a professional environment or those looking to transition into the role of business analyst. It provides knowledge, skills and techniques that can help enable you to strengthen your organization in key areas.

Tuition & Payment

Total Course Cost

$2,095

Enroll Now

Course offerings and associated prices are subject to change without prior notice. Pricing for multi-course certificate programs varies depending on course selection. View the Professional Education Catalog for more information on the courses and programs.

Payment Options

There are multiple ways to pay for your certificate program. Just let your enrollment representative know the choice that works best for you.