Establishing and Maintaining a Business Analyst Center of Excellence (BACOE) Course BA104; 3 Days, Instructor-led Course Description Master the creation, implementation and management of the Business Analyst Center of Excellence using industry-proven best practices. This course is for companies looking to further advance their Business Analyst and Requirements Engineering capabilities. This is a hands-on, interactive workshop full of engaging, fun and quality infused exercises developed by some of the best course designers in the business. Each exercise is designed to reinforce learned skills and ensure they are mastered to your fullest potential. Course Objectives Save time and money on your projects while improving quality and customer satisfaction. How an effective Business Analyst Center of Excellence impacts the bottom line of an organization. Look at an industry leading, best-practice Business Analyst Center of Excellence and receive numerous creative tips and tricks for implementing one. Market and sell the benefits of the Business Analyst Center of Excellence and Requirements Engineering within your organization. Create Business Analyst 'All-Stars' who are highly motivated to consistently deliver success on projects at all times. Identify the different roles and skill sets needed to effectively create and sustain an effective BACOE. Identify training needs for each Business Analyst so they stay in tune with industry best practices and continuously improve their skill set. Improve your project's Return on Investment, and be able to prove it. Effectively manage organizational change. It's not easy. We'll give you tricks to do it better than ever. Effectively manage stakeholder expectations. Keep them as happy as possible, as much as possible. No more misunderstandings or surprises. Establish mechanisms for ongoing process improvement, and how to build lessons learned into the BACOE. Learn the difference between a Project Management Office and a Business Analyst Center of Excellence. Understand who does what and who's responsible for what. Create best practice templates that get the job done without unnecessary overhead. Create templates that are scalable and easily understood. Create best practice checklists that aid your Business Analyst All-Stars to make sure everything is completed and nothing is missed. Learn how and when to engage your business customers so they are brought in at the right time on projects, and at the right level of detail.
Coach and mentor your business customers so they thoroughly understand their role on every project, every time. Effectively identify and manage requirements risks. Consistently improve requirements quality. Create requirements that are traceable. No more comments like, "That's not what I thought we were getting," or, "Who told you to build it that way?" Create requirements that are testable. Now you can quantitatively know what to test and what the expected results should be. Perform root cause analysis. Solve the 'real problem' and solve it permanently. Measure the success of the Business Analyst Center of Excellence. Prove its value, year after year. Learn from instructors that are the best of the best, with proven instructional techniques that have earned them an average 9 out of 10 on student evaluations for almost 10 years Learn tactical, proven best practice techniques that can be implemented right away, and have fun while doing it. Leave class with one week, one month, three month, and one year action plans for implementing a Business Analyst Center of Excellence in your organization! Audience Executives Directors and Managers Program Managers Project Managers Business Analysts Senior Business Analysts Process Analysts Team Leaders, Business Users or Customers Business Liaisons Business Relationship Managers Product Managers/Owners Systems Analysts Test Analysts Functional Analysts Business Systems Analysts Quality Assurance Professionals Course Outline Business Analyst Center Of Excellence (BACOE) What Is It? A. What is a BACOE? 1. Business and Technology alignment Enterprise Planning Program Planning Business relationship management 2. Structure People Process Templates Checklists
3. Process Improvement Mentoring Training Support Ongoing process improvement 4. Quality Assurance Quality inspections Quality controls B. BACOE vs. PMO (Project Management Office) 1. Similarities 2. Differences 3. Interdependencies Benefits of a Business Analyst Center of Excellence (BACOE) A. Consistency in Requirements Engineering 1. Process 2. Templates 3. Checklists B. Repeatable Processes 1. Efficient process 2. Effective process 3. Ongoing process improvement C. Improved Performance 1. Of the Business Analyst 2. Of the Project Manager 3. Of the Project Team 4. Of the Business 5. Of the Organization D. Save Time, Reduce Costs, Improve Quality 1. More realistic schedule estimates 2. More realistic cost estimates 3. Higher level of quality 4. Improved stakeholder satisfaction 5. Improved morale 6. Higher quality work force 7. More projects completed annually 8. Project aligned with corporate goals and strategies E. Sell the Value of Business Analysis to Your Organization 1. Why requirements engineering is critical to project success 2. Why a great Business Analyst could be your new best friend 3. Why a project should progress only when the most critical requirements are clearly understood Establishing a Business Analyst Center of Excellence (BACOE) A. Roles 1. BACOE Management 2. Senior Business Analyst 3. Business Analyst 4. Process Analyst
5. Documentation Specialist B. Create Common Processes 1. Requirements Development Processes Requirements Elicitation Requirements Analysis Requirements Specification Creation Requirements Validation 2. Requirements Management Processes Requirements Change Management Requirements Traceability Requirements Tracking C. Create Common Templates 1. Requirements Traceability Matrix 2. Requirements Change Request Form 3. Requirements Responsibility chart (RACI) 4. Requirements gathering tools D. Create Checklists 1. What is required 2. What is recommended E. Create Standards 1. Requirements gathering strategy High Level Mid level Detail 2. Use of KRAC 3. Use of SMART 4. Traceability 5. Requirement Types 6. Other standards F. Create Communication Strategy 1. Identify who needs what information 2. Identify when information is needed 3. Identify appropriate formats G. Create Coaching (Mentoring) Strategy 1. Identify coaching candidates 2. Identify coaching requirements Communication skills and styles Problem solving skills Facilitation skills Questioning skills Documentation skills Working with people Managing stakeholder expectations The right way to say no Working with difficult customers Requirements tools Requirements processes 3. Identify mentoring process
H. Create Training Strategy 1. Identify training requirements 2. Identify goals of training 3. Identify source for training 4. Create training schedule I. Create Requirements Engineering Process Improvement Plan 1. Identify methods for ongoing process improvement J. Create Metrics for measuring success and Return on Investment 1. Determine metrics for Return on Investment (ROI) Time Cost Quality 2. Establish benchmarks 3. Determine measurement strategy 4. Determine timeline to measure ROI Implementing a Business Analyst Center of Excellence (BACOE) A. Establish target start date 1. Consider operational calendar 2. Consider holiday schedules B. Establish Organizational Structure 1. Identify Leadership Team 2. Map available skill sets to required roles 3. Create or update job descriptions 4. Create Organization Structure 5. Identify training requirements 6. Complete training C. Communicate to the Organization 1. Identify affected areas 2. Schedule appropriate communication mechanisms 3. Distribute information and answer questions D. Implement the BACOE rollout strategy 1. Change management Understand the impact to the organization Establishing 'Change Agents' Manage Stakeholder Expectations Open communication 2. Mentoring and support Ongoing lessons learned Becoming the 'Emotionless Business Analyst' Create Business Analyst 'All Stars' 3. Problem solving Issues Questions Root cause analysis 4. Commitment to ongoing process improvement Workgroups Rollout changes
Requirements Risk Management A. Planning for Requirements Risk Management B. Identifying Requirement Risks C. Establishing Requirements Risk Probability and Impact D. Creating Risk Response Plans Requirements Quality Assurance A. Planning for Requirement Quality Management 1. Confirm standards 2. Develop Quality Checklists 3. Determine frequency of Quality checks B. Managing Requirements Quality 1. Validate process 2. Validate templates 3. Validate checklists Measuring Success of a Business Analyst Center of Excellence (BACOE) A. Gather metrics B. Compare to benchmarks C. Report on progress Conclusion A. Summarize important concepts B. Next steps for you C. Contact us D. Evaluation E. Thank you