BCS Practitioner Certificate in Business Analysis Practice - Including Exam

• For people who already have a business analysis role and want to gain a deeper understanding of business analysis strategy and application
• Suitable for business analysts, business managers and members of their team, business change managers and project managers

Candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge, understanding and application of
Business Analysis Practice principles and techniques in the following areas:

1. The breadth of the role of a Business Analyst (BA), the value of the role to organisations
   and the skills required of a BA to support successful business change.
2. The processes and techniques of strategy analysis.
3. Investigation of an organisation’s business systems in order to uncover the problems
   and issues occurring within them.
4. The importance of, and techniques used within, stakeholder management and the need
   for analysing perspectives.
5. Conceptual modelling through the use of business activity models.
6. Recommendations for business improvements and how they may be identified through
   gap analysis between desired and current business models.
7. The role of a business case within the business change lifecycle, including the contents
   of a business case for the development and implementation of business changes.

Learning Objectives

1. Rationale for Business Analysis 5%
Candidates will be able to:
1.1 Explain the role of the BA throughout the stages of the business change lifecycle.
1.2 Understand the scope of the BA role within the context of the range of analysis
activities: strategic analysis and definition; business analysis; IT systems analysis.
1.3 Identify that there are three areas of competency for a BA: personal qualities,
business knowledge and professional techniques.

2. Understanding the Strategic Context 15%
Candidates will be able to:
2.1 Apply the MOST technique to analyse the internal environment of an organisation.
2.2 Apply the resource audit technique to analyse the internal environment of an
organisation.
2.3 Apply the PESTLE technique to analyse the external environment of an organisation.
2.4 Apply Porter’s Five Forces technique to analyse the external environment of an
organisation.
2.5 Explain the purpose of a SWOT analysis.
2.6 Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for a given scenario.
2.7 Define and explain the relationship between the following terms:
2.7.1 Critical Success Factor.
2.7.2 Key Performance Indicator.
2.7.3 Performance Target.
2.8 Define the elements of the balanced business scorecard and describe how it may be
used to identify critical success factors and key performance indicators.

3. Understanding the Current Situation 15%
Candidates will be able to:
3.1 Identify the generic stakeholder categories defined in the stakeholder wheel.
3.2 Identify relevant investigation techniques for a given scenario, including:
3.2.1 Interviews.
3.2.2 Workshops.
3.2.3 Observation.
3.2.4 Document analysis.
3.2.5 Scenario analysis.
3.2.6 Surveys or questionnaires.
3.3 Explain the rationale for taking a holistic view when investigating a business situation.
3.4 Interpret the business situation represented in: rich pictures; mind maps and fishbone
diagrams.

4. Stakeholder Analysis and Management 20%
Candidates will be able to:
4.1 In a given scenario, describe stakeholders in terms of their power/influence and level
of interest.
4.2 Select an appropriate stakeholder management strategy based on the position on the
Power/Interest Grid.
4.3 Apply the CATWOE technique to explore stakeholder business perspectives.
4.4 Explain different stakeholder business perspectives based on elements of CATWOE
to identify similarities and differences in their worldviews.

5. Analysing and Modelling Business Activities 25%
Candidates will be able to:
5.1 Explain the rationale for building conceptual models of a business situation.
5.2 Understand how to construct a conceptual business activity model, based on a given
scenario.
5.3 Show understanding of how the five types of high level activity within a business
activity model (and the dependencies between them) represent a stakeholder’s
business perspective.
5.4 Explain the role of the planning activities in determining performance targets for a
business system represented in the business activity model.
5.5 Explain the role of the enabling activities, in acquiring and replenishing resources for
a business system represented in the business activity model.
5.6 Explain the role of the doing activities in conducting the work of the transformation, as
defined in the stakeholder’s CATWOE.
5.7 Explain the role of monitoring and control activities, in regulating a business system
represented in the business activity model.
5.8 Explain the three types of business events:
5.8.1 External.
5.8.2 Internal.
5.8.3 Time based.
5.9 In a given business activity model, identify the business events that will be handled
by a particular business activity.
5.10 Explain the rationale for the consensus business activity model.

6. Identifying Potential Solutions 10%
Candidates will be able to:
6.1 In a given business scenario, distinguish between the different categories of business
rule:
6.1.1 External constraints.
6.1.2 Internal policies.
6.1.3 Internal procedures.
6.2 Describe the process for carrying out gap analysis, through comparison of the
conceptual business activity model and existing business situation.
6.3 Define the components of a new business model:
6.3.1 Process.
6.3.2 Organisation.
6.3.3 People.
6.3.4 Information.
6.3.5 Technology.

7. Building the Business Case 10%
Candidates will be able to:
7.1 Explain the rationale for the development of a business case.
7.2 Describe the contents of a business case, including:
7.2.1 Background description.
7.2.2 Options and their descriptions.
7.2.3 Costs, including:
7.2.3.1 Areas of cost.
7.2.3.2 Tangible and intangible costs.
7.2.3.3 Quantifying costs.
7.2.4 Benefits, including:
7.2.4.1 Areas of business benefit.
7.2.4.2 Tangible and intangible benefits.
7.2.4.3 Quantifying benefits.
7.2.5 Cost/benefit analysis using investment appraisal techniques.
7.2.6 Risks, including:
7.2.6.1 Areas of risk.
7.2.6.2 Types of risk.
7.2.6.3 Risk analysis.
7.2.7 Impacts.
7.2.8 Recommendations – the preferred option.
7.3 Interpret a scenario in order to identify the following:
7.3.1 Tangible and intangible costs.
7.3.2 Tangible and intangible benefits.
7.3.3 Risks.
7.3.4 Impacts.
7.4 Understand the rationale for the development of the financial case and the following
appraisal techniques:
7.4.1 Payback.
7.4.2 Discounted cash flow.
7.4.3 Internal rate of return.
7.5 Explain where a business case sits within the business change lifecycle and the
rationale for reviewing it at each stage.

There are no requirements, but candidates should have some practical experience of business analysis.

• Type Multiple choice
• Duration 60 minutes
• Supervised Yes
• Open Book No
• Pass Mark 26/4
• Calculators Calculators cannot be used during this examination.
• Delivery Digital or Paper based, depending on the course format