Creating a High-Impact Work Plan for Business Analysts

You Will Learn How To

Develop a work plan that successfully addresses the needs of a business analyst (BA)
Define the goals and deliverables of the initiative and develop the work charter
Organise, structure and schedule work using breakdown structures, network diagrams and bar charts
Adopt common and effective techniques to estimate task work and duration that reflect initiative uncertainty
Identify, analyse and manage risks that affect scheduling
Keep the work on track and manage key controls while meeting stakeholder expectations

Course Benefits

Whether starting from an initiative or entering a project after it has been established, business analysts must seamlessly integrate their work into the planning process. To do this successfully requires a well developed and executed work plan. In this course, you learn practical project management methods, tools and techniques to adapt a work plan to the needs of your initiative and its stakeholders.

Who Should Attend

Business analysts, those who perform the functions of a business analyst or those who may be required to contribute to or lead a project.

RealityPlus™

An evolving case study immerses you in an authentic project environment, providing practical experience in building a business analysis work plan. Activities include:

Developing a stakeholder communication plan
Creating well-defined work tasks
Calculating the critical path
Estimating tasks within appropriate tolerances
Securing resource commitments from stakeholders
Assessing and communicating risks
Communicating and presenting your work plan
Creating a personal action plan for future use

Course Content

The Role of the Business Analyst

Defining your role

Comparing the BABOK^® and PMBOK^® Guide frameworks
Pinpointing where you are in the process life cycle
Identifying that your work can be defined as a project
Establishing your relationship with the project manager

Making a commitment to the project

Gathering information to get started quickly
Determining the requirements for effective personal management

The Planning Process

Key steps of planning

Exploring the makeup of a solid BA plan
Creating the stakeholder communication system
Synchronising your plan with an overall project plan

Jump-starting the process

Formulating the right questions
Eliciting work constraints
Assessing impact on business

Influences on the planning process

Juggling the triple constraint
Development methodologies
Stakeholder concerns

Communicating effectively

Fostering relationships and trust
Discovering your communication style
Delivering your message for optimal results

Building the Work Plan

Initiating your work

Conducting stakeholder analysis
Determining objectives
Defining the scope of work
Creating a work charter for approval

Planning the tasks

Generating a task list
Developing the work and organisational breakdown structures
Listing task attributes and characteristics
Devising acceptance criteria

Constructing task dependencies

Identifying the critical path and calculating slack with network diagrams
Making resource and scheduling decisions using bar charts

Assigning resources

Assessing resource requirements
Utilising a responsibility assignment matrix

Outcomes of the planning process

Deriving the schedule using a Gantt chart
Calculating the budget

Creating Accurate Estimates

Estimating effort, duration and costs

What constitutes a good estimate?
Identifying standard estimating techniques

Key considerations that affect your estimates

Collaborating to encourage ownership of the estimate
Incorporating a WBS
Accounting for time/cost trade-offs

Managing Risks

Increasing the probability of success

Leveraging a Risk Analysis Questionnaire
Communicating the results

Analysing potential problems

Brainstorming adverse risks
Adding preventive and contingent actions into your plan

Mitigating risks

Identifying opportunities and threats
Conducting qualitative and quantitative analysis
Planning contingent actions

Executing the Plan

Managing stakeholder expectations

Controlling scope creep
Reporting progress

Addressing resistance to change

Recognising reasons behind resistance to change
Defusing resistance

Keeping your piece of the work on track

Resolving problems with a risk register
Identifying standard techniques for tracking time and money

Applying Lessons Learned for Future Work

Evaluating project objectives
Documenting methods for continued improvement

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