Business Process Analysis (AA-Bus-Proc-Ana)

In this course, you'll learn to model business processes as they are currently enacted, assess the quality of those business processes, and identify improvements.

The course begins by highlighting the characteristics of a quality process and the role of the business analyst in process analysis. You will learn how to identify business processes that could become more streamlined. Discover how to select the elicitation technique that is best suited to your stakeholders and how to prepare for and hold elicitation sessions. Using several different modeling techniques, youíll explore different facets of the business process, identify the most effective improvements to the process, and clearly define the future process state. Once a new process is defined, youíll learn how to present your analysis work to management and hold a successful project retrospective.

Students pursuing a university-recognized and/or accredited certificate in Canada or continuing education units in the US must attend at least 90% of class time, participate in class exercises and section-knowledge checks, and score at least 70% on an end-of-class, multiple-choice assessment.

1. Introduction to Business Process Analysis

• Business Process
• Business Process Analysis
• Triggers to Analyze a Process
• Process Scope

2. Identify Stakeholders and Elicit Information

• Stakeholders
• Elicitation Techniques
• Elicitation Sessions

3. Use the Goal-Question-Metric Approach

• Goal Question Metric
• Selecting Metrics

4. Model the Current Process

• What Is a Model?
• SIPOC Diagram
• Use Case Diagram
• Process Diagrams
• Flowchart
• Swimlane Diagram
• Entity Relationship Diagram

5. Determine Causes of Problems and Identify Improvement Options

• Causal Analysis
• Process Improvement

6. Take the Next Steps: Business Case to Retrospective

• Business Case
• Project Retrospective

• Attributes of a quality process
• Contributors to process quality
• Process of business process analysis
• Triggers for business process analysis
• Responsibilities of the BA
• Stakeholder identification and analysis
• Elicitation techniques, such as interviewing and observation
• Elicitation session preparation and management
• Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) analysis
• Metrics selection
• Modeling techniques and best practices (including SIPOC, use case, flowchart, swimlane, and entity relationship diagramming)
• Causal analysis, including the use of Ishikawa (fishbone) and Pareto diagrams
• Identification of improvement options using the situation-target-proposal (STP) method
• Structure of an effective business case
• Project retrospectives

Do you have more questions? We're delighted to assist you!

• Lab 1: Apply a Quality Checklist
• Lab 2: Choose a Business Process to Analyze
• Lab 3: Fill Out the Abbreviated Project Minicharter Template
• Lab 4: Identify Stakeholders of Your Process
• Lab 5: Identify Information Elicitation Techniques for Your Stakeholders
• Lab 6: Prepare to Interview the Stakeholders
• Lab 7: Perform and Document a GQM Analysis
• Lab 8: Create a SIPOC Diagram
• Lab 9: Create a Use Case Diagram
• Lab 10: Create a Swimlane Diagram
• Lab 11: Create an Entity Relationship Diagram
• Lab 12: Perform Causal Analysis
• Lab 13: Use the STP Method to Identify Improvement Options
• Lab 14: Model the Improved Process
• Lab 15: Prepare a Management Briefing
• Lab 16: Provide Feedback on the BPA Process

• Systems analysts
• Business analysts
• IT project managers
• Associate project managers
• Project managers
• Project coordinators
• Project analysts
• Project leaders
• Senior project managers
• Team leaders
• Product managers
• Program managers