Business Systems Analysis

Prerequisites:

Course Description:

This course is suitable for, Business Analysts or Systems Analysts who need a logical approach to using structured analysis techniques, Business Analysts or Systems Analysts who need to cultivate a professional working relationship with business users, Business Analysts or Systems Analysts who have to understand, analyse and evaluate a business system.

If you are looking for a public scheduled course, please see either the course or the course.

This course includes the following modules:

SETTING THE SCENE

• Introduction
• Business drivers for effective analysis
• Role of the Analyst
• Profile of an effective Analyst
• Personal assessment (preliminary)

BUSINESS ANALYSIS OVERVIEW

• Benefits of a structured approach to business analysis
• Types of systems development lifecycle
• Tuning the lifecycle to fit the project

INTERVIEWING FOR FACT FINDING

• Data gathering methods
• Preparing to interview users
• Structuring effective user interviews
• Questioning techniques
• Recording information
• Validating information gathered with the user population

DATAFLOW DIAGRAMMING

• Defining business processes
• Taking a Top-Down approach
• The 4 types of Dataflow Diagram
• Components of the Dataflow Diagram
• Context Diagrams
• Level Zero Diagrams
• Defining Functional Primitives

DATA ANALYSIS - ENTITY RELATIONSHIP MODELING

• Benefits of data modelling
• Defining entity types
• Defining attributes
• Defining relationships
• Producing the Entity Relationship Diagram

LOGICAL DATA ANALYSIS - NORMALISATION

• History of Logical Data Analysis
• The 3 commonly used Normal Forms
• Moving from Un-normalised Form to 3rd Normal Form
• Producing the Relational Data Model
• Combining the Entity Relationship Diagram with the Relational Data Model
• Validating the combined model

LOGICAL DATAFLOW DIAGRAMS

• Logical versus physical processes
• Benefits of the logical view
• Steps involved in producing a logical Dataflow Diagram
• Validating the logical model

PROBLEM ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES

• Taking a systems view of life
• SWOT Analysis
• Pareto Analysis
• Business Requirements Workshops

CAUSE AND EFFECT DIAGRAMMING

• Components of the Ishikawa Diagram
• Building an Ishikawa Diagram
• Analysing an Ishikawa Diagram

ANALYSIS METHODS

• Analysing the Physical Dataflow Diagrams
• Analysing the Logical Dataflow Diagrams
• Analysing the Data Models
• Stakeholder Analysis
• Critical Review Technique
• Identifying Non-Functional Requirements

SUMMARY & CONCLUSION

• Key learning points
• Personal assessment (final)
• Action planning