ISEB Certificate in Systems Development (Agile) Essentials... Done!!!

I am so so so happy all is working out so well! I have now done 4 of the courses and have just the oral to go! Yippee!!! I did the course on the 25th-26th of April, it was soooo coool! I used to think Agile was some kind of hardware in a computer! lol! OMG! I am so funny... it isn't. The course was done in another location. I did not like the food at this location but i absolutely loved the layout of the room. It helped my concentration 100%! It was a conference room layout as opposed to the usual classroom layout which meant some people were having their own meetings at the back!

This as opposed to that!

Course Overview:
Systems Development Essentials provides Business Analysts with a good grounding in systems investigation and quality assurance - the underpinning of successful systems development. The course examines the fundamental differences between object-oriented and structured systems development and differentiates between generic lifecycle types, methods and approaches. Key areas such as designing test cases for the requirements, identifying different architectures for system development solutions and how CASE tools can be used to support the method selected are explored.
Holders of the ISEB Certificate in Systems Development Essentials should be able to:
-Identify the tasks and disciplines required for systems development and implementation.
-Investigate a system
-Interpret business requirements and produce systems requirements
-Quality assure the systems requirements documentation
-Design test cases for the requirements
-Describe the commonly-used development lifecycles defined in the syllabus.
-Describe in detail one methodology that embraces one (or more) of these lifecycles
-Describe the structure and activities of this methodology
-Describe, interpret and quality assure the key models that the selected methodology uses for defining the process, static and event perspectives of the system
-Make effective use of different methods of interpersonal communications.
-Quality assure the systems requirements documentation
-Identify different architectures for systems development solutions
-Conduct a system review
-Explain how CASE tools might be used to support the method

We discussed agile methods and using DSDM and SCRUM as examples.
Some useful reading I did before the course were:
http://martinfowler.com/articles/newMethodology.html
andhttp://www.softhouse.se/Uploades/Scrum_eng_webb.pdf gives a good overview of the popular method Scrum
http://www.dsdm.org/ lets you download an old version of the dsdm manual
and there are loads of articles here:http://agilealliance.org/articles . I also read a bit on UML even though it was covered last week in the Requirements course.

ISEB Certificate in Systems Development Essentials
Course Syllabus
1. Roles in systems development
o The purpose, objectives and tasks of systems development
o Roles and actors in systems development
o Technical and interpersonal skills of the analysts
o The emergence of skills frameworks (SFIA+)
o The Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)
2. Systems architecture
o Enterprise, systems and infrastructure levels of architecture
o The Zachman Framework
o Inputs at an enterprise level (EAP)
o Inputs at system and infrastructure level
o Components of an EAP methodology
3. Development approaches
o Bespoke development
o Commercial off the shelf (COTS) software package solutions
o Configuring and customising COTS software package solutions
o Component-based systems development
o Service-based systems development
4. Systems development lifecycles
o Waterfall model
o V model
o Incremental model
o Spiral model
o Advantages and disadvantages of each approach
o Selection of an appropriate approach
5. Methodologies
o Traditional and structured approaches
o Agile Development / Rapid Application Development / eXtreme Programming
o The Unified Process (UP) and the Unified Modeling Language (UML)
o Models of the UML
o Interpretation of
o Use case diagram
o Use case description
o Class diagram
o Sequence diagram
o Phases of the Unified Process
o Workflows of the Unified Process
6. Systems Investigation
o Fact finding approaches:
o Workshops
o Prototyping
o Interviewing
o Questionnaires
o Scenario analysis
o Other approaches
o Functional requirements definition
o Non-functional requirements definition
o Documenting requirements
o Human aspects of systems investigation and introducing change
7. Systems design, implementation and maintenance
o Aspects of the production environment
o Design principles and constraints (legal, ethical, financial)
o The tasks of implementation
o Sign off and hand over
o Post-implementation reviews
o Different types of maintenance
8. Quality Assurance
o Definitions of software quality
o The V model
o Requirements-driven testing
o Static Testing: types of walkthrough and inspection
o Post-project reviews
o Service Level Agreements
9. CASE and CAST tools
o Features of Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) and Computer Aided Software Testing (CAST) tools
o Life-cycle coverage
o Requirements traceability
o Advantages and disadvantages

Also, this video on Youtube "SCRUM in Under 10 Minutes "by Hamid of http://www.axosoft.com/ helped me a great deal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5k7a9YEoUI

ISEB Certificate in Requirements Engineering... Done!!

I know you all must think I am on a roll, doing all these courses back to back! This I must say was an intense yet fantastic Course. This is the core of Business Analysis. A BA is useless if they have no knowledge of the skills that this course teaches. I did the course on the 18th-19th April 2009 in Central London.

Course Overview:
Requirements Engineering provides Business Analysts with a good grounding in a range of techniques for revealing, analysing and documenting business and system requirements. The course examines a range of elicitation techniques and how to record user requirements for an information system. Key areas such as prioritising requirements, resolving conflicting requirements and linking project objectives and requirements to the Business Case are also covered.
Holders of the Certificate in Requirements Engineering should be able to:
-Act as effective members of a team involved in eliciting and recording user requirements for an information system.
-Recognise the nature of the requirements and the knowledge type to which they belong, and to select and use an appropriate elicitation technique.
-Be familiar with a range of elicitation techniques and know how to apply them effectively.
-Record and prioritise requirements, and be able to recognize and help resolve conflicting requirements.
-Link project objectives/requirements to the Business Case.
-Be aware of what CASE support exists for Requirements Engineering

...I have decided to do my exams on the same day as the exams for the Agile course as they were unbelievably related, Use-cases and all! Below is the Course Syllabus.

ISEB Certificate in Requirements Engineering
Course Syllabus
1. The role of the analyst
o The role and competencies of an analyst
o Developing analyst competencies
2. The requirements engineering process
o The importance of requirements engineering
o A framework for requirements engineering
o Characteristics of requirements engineering
3. Actors and viewpoints
o Stakeholders in business analysis projects
o Roles and responsibilities in the requirements engineering process
o Context diagrams and stakeholders
4. Project initiation
o The importance of the project initiation stage
o The project initiation document
5. Facilitated workshops
o The use of workshops to elicit, analyse and negotiate requirements
o Structure of a facilitated workshop
o Workshop roles
o Facilitation skills
o Stimulating creative thinking
6. Fact-finding Interviewing
o Structure of a fact-finding interview
o Questioning techniques
o Documenting interviews
7. Documenting requirements
o General business requirements
o Functional and non-functional requirements
o Technical requirements
o The requirements catalogue
o Interpreting class diagrams
o Scoping systems and documenting requirements with use cases
8. Other requirements elicitation techniques
o Observation and ethnographic studies
o Activity sampling
o Document and data source analysis
o Questionnaires
o Choosing the appropriate technique/s
9. Analysing requirements
o Examining the requirements catalogue
o Prioritising requirements (MoSCoW)
o Checking for ambiguity and lack of clarity
o Testability of requirements.
10. Scenarios and prototyping
o The use of scenarios to explore requirements
o Use case descriptions as a method of documenting scenarios
o The use of prototyping to explore requirements
o Types of prototyping (throwaway, evolutionary etc.)
o The dangers and difficulties of prototyping; managing prototyping exercises
11. Requirements management
o Change and version control of requirements
o Requirements traceability
o The use of CASE tools in requirements engineering
12. Validating requirements
o Validation techniques
o Quality control in requirements engineering
13. Requirements and systems development
o Development lifecycles
o The link between requirements and systems development
o Post-implementation review

ISEB Certificate in Organisational Context... Done!!

I was able to snap up the last available space on the OC course on the 28th-29th March 2009. I am very glad that I did. Still, I predict that this course will be the hardest of the lot. OMG!!! i refuse to believe that BAs do that much accounting and all them financial stuff. I couldn't be presented with more cash-flow, balanced, and expenditure sheets. I fell ill just sitting there! I tell you!!! One of the already working BA there said he never does this kind of thing at work, he says there is always a financial/accounts person in the project team. Oh well, its done now and I passed!!

Course Overview:
Organisational Context provides Business Analysts with a good grounding in the basics of business. The course examines various types of businesses and their management structures. Key areas such as Financial and Management accounting, Budgeting and Legal issues are also covered.
Holders of the ISEB Certificate in Organisational Context should be able to:
-Describe the range and type of business organisations in the UK.
-Describe the advantages and disadvantages of a range of management structures operated within organisations.
-Demonstrate an understanding of the work carried out by key functions found within organisations.
-Explain legislative issues affecting information systems.
-Understand the range of activities carried out by financial and management accountants.
-Apply investment appraisal, costing and cash flow forecasting techniques

I did enjoy the course, the case studies and hearing the other delegates experiences relating to the subject but I must admit, this one took the biscuit!

ISEB Certificate in Organisational Context
Course Syllabus
1. Law and Government
o Criminal and civil law
o The legislative process in the UK
2. Business organisations
o Public sector organisations
o Private sector organisations
o Not-for-profit organisations
o Start-up organisations
o Business drivers
3. Organisational structures
o Departmental
o Project
o Matrix
4. Functional areas
o Functional divisions within organisations
o Sales and marketing
o Production/service delivery
o HR
o IT
o The finance function - the role of finance and the use and interpretation of the balance sheet and profit and loss account
5. Management accounting
o Investment appraisal
o Budgeting
o Cash flow forecasts
o Costing approaches
6. Costing
o Fixed and variable costs
o Absorption and marginal costing
o Standard costing
7. Financial reporting and analysis
o Profit and loss account
o Balance sheet
o Financial ratios
8. Legislation
o Anti-discrimination
o Software contracts and liability
o Intellectual property rights
o Data protection, privacy and freedom of information
o Internet issues
o Computer misuse

ISEB Certificate in Business Analysis Essentials... "Done!!"

I eventually got round to booking for the Business Analysis Essentials Course for the weekend of the 21-22 March 2009 in Central London with Metadata Training. I got there quite early, rearing to get on with it. I had read the recommended Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 12, and 13 of the Business Analysis Book by Don Yeates and Debra Paul; I was saturated. I felt the need to be so ready as a friend had told me that 50% of the student on the course would already be working as BAs hence she felt intimidated at her own course. I got there and realised she was right, I didn't think that it was possible for anyone to become a BA without any formal qualifications e.g. ISEB. Guess I was wrong. Chatting with the more knowledgeable and experienced of the Contemporaries, I gathered that they all had different paths to landing a role as a BA. Some of them started off as office clerks with no degree, some as University Graduates in a Business related course and others just swapped seats within their Company. This gave me faith!


BCS insists that all holders of the ISEB BSD Certificate in Business Analysis Essentials should be able to:
-Demonstrate an understanding of business strategy and strategic analysis techniques.
-Act as effective members of a team investigating an organization’s business systems with a view to recommending business improvements.
-Apply techniques in order to analyse and model business systems.
-Understand how recommendations for business improvement may be identified.
-Assist in the production of a rigorous business case covering the development and implementation of business changes.
-Identify how business requirements may be supported by IT systems.

...After the course, I think I can do all of these, I just need the right situation to show myself first! The course was awesome, every section in the notes required us to carry out a related case study, it was what I would call "Picture Knowledge". We worked in groups and at the end of each section, all the groups compared their work and without voting, the winners were obvious each time. I especially enjoyed the drawing exercises like Rich-Pictures, BAM, etc.

ISEB Certificate in Business Analysis Essentials
Course Syllabus
1. Business analysis rationale
-What is a business system
-The place of business analysis
-Business analysis versus systems analysis
-Approaches to business analysis
2. Strategic analysis in context
-Understanding the organisation's strengths and weaknesses
-External analysis - PESTLE
-Internal analysis - Resource Audit
-Building a comprehensive SWOT analysis
3. A project approach to business analysis
-Business analysis studies as projects
-Terms of reference and project initiation
-Assuring business benefit
4. Understanding the situation/issues
-Types of business 'problem'
-Rich pictures
-Defining the problem
-Review of investigation techniques
5. Business perspectives
-Business perspective - introduction
-Defining the perspective - CATWOE
6. Analysing and modelling the business activities
-Modelling business activities
-Five types of business activity
-Modelling multiple perspectives
-Decomposing activities
-Validating the business activity model
-End-to-end process maps
7. Creative problem solving
-Barriers to creativity
-Brainstorming
-Stimulating creative thinking
8. Identifying potential solutions
-Exploring the gap between the current and desired situation
-Areas for business improvement (structure, processes, people)
-Holistic approach to business solutions
-Discussion of business change programmes
9. Making the business case
-Contents of a business case
-Options
-Costs and benefits
-Impacts and risks
-Payback and discounted cash flow
-Presenting the business case
10. Course summary and review
-Review of concepts and approaches covered

Who is a Business Analyst?

“The term Business Analyst (BA) is used to describe a person who practices the discipline of business analysis (the set of tasks, knowledge, and techniques required to identify business needs and determine solutions to business problems). A business analyst or "BA" is responsible for analyzing the business needs of clients to help identify business problems and propose solutions. Within the systems development life cycle domain (the process of creating or altering systems, and the models and methodologies that people use to develop these systems. The concept generally refers to computer or information systems), the business analyst typically performs a liaison function between the business side of an enterprise and the providers of services to the enterprise. Common alternative titles are business analyst, systems analyst, and functional analyst, although some organizations may differentiate between these titles and corresponding responsibilities.” [Wikipedia]


Model of the Systems Development Life Cycle


And a more simplified definition...
“A business analyst is an information technology worker who improves the efficiency and productivity of business operations. The business analyst achieves this by closely analyzing the business processes in an organization for inefficiencies.” [Kingsley Tagbo]

Roles and Responsibilities of a Business Analyst
Acting as a liaison between the software development team and the business team.Writing feasibility studies, project briefs, cost analysis, testing schedules and user manuals for new business processes.Analyzing business processes to identify problems and implementing solutions that improve the business process.Communicating and presenting technical solutions for business problems to business stakeholders and owners.Documenting or explaining complex business operations to software developers.

Skills and Requirements for a Business Analyst
In some organizations, the business analyst works with a team of computer programmers and does not need to master computer programming.
In other organizations, the line separating the business analyst and the computer programmer is fuzzy, therefore the business analyst must know how to code. In cases like this a beginner or entry-level mastery of computer programming is all that is needed.
Generally, a basic computer expertise in computer programming will help a business analyst perform their work better. To gain this basic expertise in computer programming, an aspiring business analyst should have a solid understanding of SQL, data analysis, reporting, UML, Visual Basic programming, Microsoft Office Automation and a few other software packages. Just bear in mind that this varies from organization to organization.
The ability to work in a team and to coordinate among people is also a skill that the business analyst needs to cultivate. Good writing skills and communication skills are also helpful in this career.

Comparing Computer Programmer Careers To Business Analyst Careers
1. Technology Skills: Computer programmers spend the majority of their time writing code while business analysts spend a minor amount of time writing code.
2. People Skills: Business analysts invest a lot of time interacting with business users a lot, so they need good communication and relationship skills. Computer programmers tend to invest most of their time working on software that will be used by people. So communication and relationship skills are secondary to technical skills for software developers.
3. Entry level requirements: Business analysis positions tend to have lower entry level requirements than computer programming positions. Business analysis positions tend to pay lower than computer programming positions as well.

ISEB Diploma in Business Analysis

I have found an excellent and dare I say very affordable place to go for my Diploma. Its a company called Metadata Training run by Dr Mike Goodland the co-author of the old SSADM book.
The Business Analysis Diploma consists of 3 core modules, 1 of 3 optional modules and 1 oral exam. I have decided to go for:
-Business Analysis Essentials
-Requirements Engineering
-Organisational Context
-Systems Development Essentials - Agile
and the Oral Exam.

Science Background

I have spent the last 5years studying to be a Scientist, Pharmaceutical Scientist to be specific and now I want to be a Business Analyst.I graduated from university in 2006 with a 2.1 in Pharmaceutical Science and went back for more dose. As an extremely determined person, i believe i went back to do a masters simply because I did not get the first class that I wanted in my first degree, basically, to prove a point! And i did, I finished my Masters with a Distinction in Pharmaceutics! Yay! Yet I was not satisfied.Working as a Lab Assistant for a couple of years while at Uni and after got me convinced that I did not belong to the science world. I started to find it quite monotonous and non-challenging. The resultant was a career change and what other career but Business Analysis.... I've been converted!