The Essentials of Business Analyst- 6 PDUs

Define what a business analyst does by applying knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to identify problems, analyze markets, elicit and manage requirements, and measure value across projects, programs, and portfolios.

Examine the distinct yet overlapping roles of business analysts and project managers, where analysts identify problems and opportunities and define requirements, and project managers turn those needs into delivered solutions.

Defines requirements as conditions or capabilities needed to meet a business need, outlines four types: business, stakeholder, solution, and transition requirements, and explains elicitation for gathering them.

Understand the product life cycle from conception to withdrawal, and how business analysts shape requirements and market insights across multiple projects, while project managers deliver the product.

learn how business value is quantified through tangible and intangible benefits, and how a business analyst uses research to justify investment and drive project approvals.

Explore the six process groups and 35 processes outlined in the PMI guide to business analysis, and learn how knowledge areas like needs assessment and stakeholder engagement drive results.

Explore the six knowledge areas of business analysis through a Samsung phone scenario, covering needs assessment, stakeholder engagement, elicitation, analysis, traceability, and solution evaluation to align requirements with business goals.

Investigate needs assessment within business analysis to identify problems or opportunities, define the current and future state, and outline a roadmap, business case, and project charters.

Identify problems or opportunities within the organization by analyzing processes, market opportunities, and competitors; use benchmarking, interviews, market analysis, and prototyping to define business needs.

Assess the current state by analyzing the present environment and internal and external factors affecting inventory management, then use elicitation, process flow, and swot analysis to guide the future state.

Determine the future state by closing gaps between current capabilities and the desired outcomes, identifying changes to processes and capabilities, and using capability tables and elicitation techniques to map goals.

Facilitate the development of a product roadmap by mapping features and delivery order, using workshops, versioning, and story mapping of user stories to deliver value in agile projects.

Collaborate with sponsors and stakeholders to develop project, portfolio or program charters and obtain approval to authorize planning and execution, linking the business case to charter objectives, scope, and requirements.

Identify stakeholders, analyze engagement needs, trace requirements, and plan and manage engagement and communication to support transition to the future state while assessing business analysis performance.

Identify stakeholders—people, groups, or organizations affected by the area under analysis—and build a stakeholder register to ensure the right involvement in business analysis activities.

Identify stakeholders and assess their attitude, interest, and influence to plan engagement. Apply tools like job analysis, personas, and a RACI model, then update the stakeholder register and communication approaches.

Craft a practical stakeholder engagement plan by analyzing stakeholder roles, power, and interests, and tailor communication methods across the product life cycle using elicitation techniques and retrospectives.

Create a business analysis plan outlining how to elicit, trace, verify, and validate requirements, assign roles, and estimate activities with a work breakdown structure and Delphi techniques.

Monitor and control business analysis activities to ensure stakeholder engagement and communication align with the plan, assess performance, and drive root cause, opportunity, and variance analysis for continuous BA improvement.

Learn how elicitation drives business analysis by planning, preparing, eliciting, and verifying information to uncover needs, current states, and future opportunities.

Determine the elicitation approach by planning elicitation activities, sequencing stakeholder involvement techniques, and selecting methods such as interviews, focus groups, workshops, and prototyping systems to gather information efficiently.

Prepare for elicitation by coordinating resources and scheduling materials, then conduct elicitation through workshops, interviews, and focus groups, and finally confirm elicitation results with stakeholders to define requirements.

Explore the analysis phase by applying nine processes—from determining the analysis approach to verify and validate requirements—and learn to create and analyze models, prioritize requirements, and assess product design options.

Plan the analysis approach by outlining what to analyze and identifying useful models. Define how to verify and prioritize requirements and product information to guide the other eight processes.

Select and create analysis models to test requirements against designs, using mocks, prototypes, user interface flows, use case diagrams, system interface tables, and feature models to ensure accurate, complete requirements.

Select and elaborate 30 of 50 elicited requirements, refining and documenting product information for stakeholder use and feeding project, program, or portfolio charters.

Define acceptance criteria by identifying evidence of completion, writing a definition of done for each requirement, and detailing user stories and tests to verify finished solutions.

Verify requirements assess quality and performance of built solutions, ensuring defects are addressed. Validate requirements confirm stakeholder needs and business objectives through walkthroughs and traceability matrices.

Prioritize requirements and product information by assessing stakeholder value, aligning with agile planning, and updating a prioritized backlog via story mapping, traceability, and kanban boards.

Identify and analyze product risks by examining assumptions and uncertainties that affect requirements and outcomes, use risk registers and SWOT analysis, and consider product backlog insights to guide proactive responses.

Evaluate and compare product design options to meet inventory software requirements, drawing on competitive analysis and focus groups to assess feasibility, costs, risk, and deliver informed recommendations.

Learn how to trace requirements from gathering to production by defining a traceability monitoring approach, mapping relationships and dependencies, selecting and approving requirements, and managing changes.

Plan the traceability and monitoring approach to trace requirements from gathering to production using a traceability matrix, and apply lessons learned from retrospectives.

Establish relationships and dependencies among requirements, map mandatory dependencies, use traceability matrix, feature model, and story mapping to order work and ensure value aligns with customer expectations while monitoring scope.

Select and approve requirements by aligning stakeholder input with feasible priorities, using prioritization schemes, workshops, and voting to shape the product backlog and iterations.

Learn to review and manage changes to requirements and product information, assess value and impact, and use change control to recommend updates in agile and predictive projects.

Evaluate the solution performance, determine the evaluation approach, evaluate acceptance results, address defects, and obtain solution acceptance for releases.

Evaluate the solution performance to confirm the new inventory system delivers the intended business value, reduces time to find inventory, and is supported by cost benefit analysis and stakeholder interviews.

Define the solution evaluation approach in planning, identifying what, how, and by whom to measure performance indicators and metrics. Use metrics like 20% faster inventory retrieval to guide monitoring.

Evaluate acceptance results against criteria, address defects, and decide on releases or fixes. Prioritize changes, perform root cause analysis, and apply traceability to close gaps.

Facilitate the decision to release a partial or full solution into production by transferring risks, known issues, and workarounds to operations, ensuring a clear transition from development to stakeholders.

Get a high-level view of the 35 business analyst processes and how they support project managers and programs, aligned with Capm exam prep.