As a follow-up to my previous post about business analysis, I also wanted to mention that you can attend a business analysis boot camp. Now you don't need to shave your head like my nephew did when he joined the Marines, and the boot camp only lasts for four days, but they cover a lot of material during that time.
Here's a description of the boot camp, offered by ASPE:
COURSE 2425 | 4-DAY SESSION
Business Analyst Boot Camp Full-Spectrum Business Analyst Training and Skills Development
Learn how to:
* Bridge the expectations gap between business stakeholders and technology solution providers
* Enhance business analysis techniques to reduce project cost
Implement practical methods for understanding user requirements
* Improve your requirements elicitation, development and documentation
* Understand and describe the business environment in which a project exists
* Explore proven tactics for managing project scope
* Focus on discovering root causes, not just symptoms
* Gain tools and techniques for developing more precise requirements
* Practice state-of-the-art business and system modeling techniques
* Organize and categorize project requirements
* Quickly identify accurate use cases for new or enhanced business systems
* Produce high-quality, readable use case documentation
* Avoid common use case traps and pitfalls
* Overcome real-world challenges that confront today’s Business Analysts
ASPE also offered this description of how wonderful business analysts are:
Business Analysts provide an essential function by assessing and analyzing the business environment, defining the scope of business problems, capturing project requirements, designing high-value solution approaches, and ensuring that the defined scope meets the customer's needs, goals, objectives, and expectations. This practical workshop will provide participants with fundamental analysis tools and techniques, including methods to understand the business environment, define a problem using a systematic approach, and influence and inform project stakeholders at all levels. You will gain pragmatic solutions to sustain stakeholder engagement throughout the project lifecycle, including questioning, listening, business need identification, problem solving, presentation, validation, and acceptance of the effective solution.
Of course, I'm sure that every ASPE course says that the attendees provide an essential function...
