Target Audience
The course is aimed at business systems analysts, developers, business users, team leaders and project managers who need a grounding in Business Systems Analysis.
Pre-requisites
Those attending should have some basic knowledge of the information systems development process and information technology.
Course Objectives
Business Analysis is about understanding business requirements so that information systems will meet business needs.
The course is built on the premise that system development should be business driven rather than led by technology.
The course covers both the traditional structured approach to analysis and Rapid Applications Development.
On completion of this course the student will be able to:
- Identify and analyse business requirements
- Model business processes
- Plan and conduct a fact finding exercise
- Conduct a cost/benefit analysis
- Plan and deliver a presentation
Course Environment
The course is practical and interactive using a mixture of lectures, discussions and case study exercises.
Using a real-life scenario, teams will investigate a current system, determine its strengths and weaknesses, identify new system requirements,
model the system using data flow diagrams, analyse the costs and benefits of alternative solutions, develop a proposal for a new system and present their findings to management.
Course Details
- Introduction to Systems Analysis
- The impact of Information Technology
- Information System Components
- Understanding the Business
- business profile, business model, company type –production, service, brick-and-mortar, dot com
- Impact of the Internet
- B2C, B2B, web-based development
- How business uses Information systems
- Enterprise computing, transaction processing, business support, knowledge management, user productivity
- Information System Users and their Needs
- Systems Development Tools and Techniques
- Systems Development Methods
- Structured Analysis, O-O analysis, JAD, RAD, others
- Systems Development Lifecycle
- Systems planning, analysis, design, implementation, operation and support, development guidelines
- Information Technology Department
- Systems Analyst position
- Responsibilities, required skills
- Analysing the Business Case
- Strategic planning – IT systems development
- Overview, from plans to results, business example, changing role of IT
- Information Systems Projects
- Reasons for, factors affecting (internal and external), project management tools
- Evaluation of Systems Requests
- Overview of feasibility
- Operational, technical, economic, schedule
- Setting priorities
- Factors affecting, discretionary and non-discretionary projects
- Preliminary Investigation Overview
- Interaction with management and users, planning, understand problem or opportunity, define project scope and constraints, fact-finding, evaluate feasibility, estimate project development time and costs, present to management
- Requirements Modelling
- Systems Analysis Phase Overview
- Joint Application Development
- Rapid Application Development
- Modelling Tools
- CASE, Functional Decomposition Diagrams, Unified Modelling Language
- System Requirements Checklist
- Outputs, inputs, processes, performance, controls
- Future growth, costs and benefits
- Scalability, total cost of ownership
- Fact-finding
- Interviews, document review, questionnaires, sampling, research, observation
- Documentation
- Enterprise Modelling
- Entity Relationship Diagrams
- Context Diagrams
- Data Flow Diagrams
- Levelling, balancing
- Data Dictionary
- Process Description Tools
- Modular Design, Structured English, Decision Tables, Decision Trees
- Logical vs Physical Models
- Development Strategies
- Web-based software trends
- Software Outsourcing Options
- In-house Software Development Options
- Cost-Benefit Analysis
- Software Acquisition Example
- Systems Requirement Document
- System Design guidelines
- Prototyping
- Financial Analysis
- Cost Classifications
- Benefit Classifications
- Payback Analysis
- Return on Investment Analysis
- Present Value Analysis
- Communication
- Written communications
- Style, readability, emails, memos, letters, reports
- Oral communications
- Defining audiences, objectives, organising presentations, preparing visual aids
Course Format
Additional material is also provided for individual study, covering project management tools.
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