Establishing and Maintaining a Business Analyst Center of Excellence (BACOE)

This two-day course is for companies looking to further advance their Business Analyst and Requirements Engineering capabilities.

Many companies today are realizing the benefits of a streamlined and efficient Requirements Engineering process. Project problems have plagued companies worldwide for decades. Many projects are over budget, behind schedule and implemented with poor quality. As companies struggle to figure out why, many have discovered a consistent trend: Projects struggle or fail because of poorly defined and misunderstood requirements. As companies continue to improve their project delivery processes, many are focusing on improving Requirements Engineering activities and adding more Business Analysts.

Business Analysis Centers of Excellence are emerging as a vital strategic asset to implement and manage best practices within an organization to elicit, analyze, validate and document requirements. With the number of Business Analysts increasing, so is the potential for inconsistency and poor requirements quality. Companies might be faced with questions such as: How can Requirements Engineering be streamlined and implemented consistently? How will Business Analysts be coached, trained, and mentored? How will Business Analysts know which process to follow and which templates to use? How will executive management know that the increased focus on Requirements Engineering is having the positive effect on project delivery they were hoping for? The answer to all of these questions is the same: The Business Analyst Center of Excellence. The creation of a BACOE is an indication that the organization is ready for a higher level of requirements engineering maturity, which will overall decrease the risk of projects that end up over budget, behind schedule and are of poor quality. Please join us to learn more!

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. YOU WILL NOT BE BORED!

25 Immediate Benefits of Participating in this Workshop:

1. Save time and money on your projects while improving quality and customer satisfaction.
2. How an effective Business Analyst Center of Excellence impacts the bottom line of an organization.
3. Look at an industry leading, best-practice Business Analyst Center of Excellence and receive numerous creative tips and tricks for implementing one.
4. Market and sell the benefits of the Business Analyst Center of Excellence and Requirements Engineering within your organization.
5. Create Business Analyst 'All-Stars' who are highly motivated to consistently deliver success on projects at all times.
6. Identify the different roles and skill sets needed to effectively create and sustain an effective BACOE.
7. Identify training needs for each Business Analyst so they stay in tune with industry best practices and continuously improve their skill set.
8. Improve your project's Return on Investment, and be able to prove it.
9. Effectively manage organizational change. It's not easy. We'll give you tricks to do it better than ever.
10. Effectively manage stakeholder expectations. Keep them as happy as possible, as much as possible. No more misunderstandings or surprises.
11. Establish mechanisms for ongoing process improvement, and how to build lessons learned into the BACOE.
12. 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.
13. Create best practice templates that get the job done without unnecessary overhead. Create templates that are scalable and easily understood.
14. Create best practice checklists that aid your Business Analyst All-Stars to make sure everything is completed and nothing is missed.
15. 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.
16. Coach and mentor your business customers so they thoroughly understand their role on every project, every time.
17. Effectively identify and manage requirements risks.
18. Consistently improve requirements quality.
19. 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?"
20. Create requirements that are testable. Now you can quantitatively know what to test and what the expected results should be.
21. Perform root cause analysis. Solve the 'real problem' and solve it permanently.
22. Measure the success of the Business Analyst Center of Excellence. Prove its value, year after year.
23. 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
24. Learn tactical, proven best practice techniques that can be implemented right away, and have fun while doing it.
25. 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!