Blog - Business analysis training, online e-training courses, coaching and consulting

E-learning designed for you

Lessons from Confucious

You've probably heard the quote from the ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius:

I hear and I forget
I see and I remember
I do and I understand

We've built our 'Guides to Success' e-learning courses to allow you to hear, see and do.

This is obviously an excellent preparation for the BCS examination, should you choose to take it.

It will also help you in:

Applying your learning to your work situation
Succeeding in job interviews
Becoming a valued member of a business analysis team

Managing complexity

Divide and rule

The courses in the Guides to Success series are divided into modules that support the syllabus for the relevant BCS business analysis examination.

Each module contains a number of lessons.

The following section describes the structure of a lesson and how it will help you to succeed.

Video

The video gives a visual and audio summary of the main points of a lesson.

Where useful, there are animations to illustrate and explain particular aspects of the lesson.

Capiro Andromeda Articles Anatomy of a course

Text with images

The text generally provides more than a transcript of the video.

It can go into more detail where necessary and can cross-reference other lessons.

It's written in a style that supports scanning, that is, helping the reader to quickly scan the text whilst having their eye drawn to important words, phrases, and sentences.

The text might also include recommended additional reading and useful information that is not on the exam syllabus.

The video and text together make a great source for exam revision.

Online quiz

Quizzes check immediate understanding of the topics covered in the video and text.

This helps the reader to memorise important topics that could appear as exam questions.

Every lesson has a quiz with at least four questions.

You should repeat these questions until you get the correct answers instantly every time.

If you think about it, there are only so many questions that the real exam can draw from.

This means that if you cover enough practice questions you will dramatically increase your chances not just of passing this exam but passing well.

Additional practice

Some lessons include the following practice sessions.

Practical exercises

Practical exercises are based on a case study that contains a detailed scenario.

Case study questions will require you to create something, not just answer a multi choice question.

This will develop your understanding of particular topics and help you to apply what you have learned to work situations.

Although case study questions are not in the multi-choice style exam format, the extra knowledge you gain from doing them will help you to answer exam questions.

Interactive exercises

We are currently adding interactive exercises to our courses. We intend to accelerate this initiative during the year.

Interactive exercises involve you directly in taking actions to enhance your learning experience.

Interactive exercises employ a number of techniques that allow you to participate both physically and mentally in learning situations.

Guides to Success - Frequently asked questions

Click the FAQs button below to see the frequently asked questions. (Opens in new window)

Guides to Success - FAQs

Is e-learning the future until the pandemic is over?

Young lady with laptop sitting in front of blackboard. Is learning the future?

Is E-learning a temporary phenomenon?

Recently there has been a huge increase in interest surrounding e-learning. Training providers are rushing to convert their classroom material to e-learning formats.

The interest is obviously understandable whilst social distancing is or has been a feature of daily life. It also fits the bill when many organisations are supporting homeworking for their staff. But when this pandemic is over, won’t everyone be returning to real training?

Can e-learning ever be as good as classroom based learning?

Just think of the plus points for live training:

Immediate access to the trainer.
The trainer is an expert in their subject and has been trained in the best techniques to get their expertise into the minds of the learner.
Trainer can respond immediately to learners’ questions and body language
The classroom can be optimally designed and fully equipped with the latest presentation technology
Learners can meet other learners, establish contacts and extend their networks.
There is a fixed timetable so the trainer can ensure that all learning content is covered and all objectives are achieved.

Is what you just read always true?

Thinking back to training courses that you’ve attended, have you ever experienced any of the following?

A seemingly endless flow of ‘busy’ PowerPoint slides riddled with bullets?
Trainers reading from the slides or their notes?
Handouts consisting of nothing but a copy of the slides?
Too many attendees?
You got a seat in the back far corner and couldn’t get a clear view of the trainer’s screen?
Lecture delivery too fast or too slow?
Twiddling your thumbs whilst everyone waits for the slowest person to catch up with an exercise?
The room was too hot or too cold or too stuffy?

Trainer skill and knowledge

Still thinking back to training courses that you’ve been on,

Was every trainer really as knowledgeable as you would have expected and as engaging as you would have liked?
Did you have questions but by the time you’d worked out how to express them the class had moved on?
When you did ask a question, was it always answered it to your satisfaction?

Obviously, there can be a big gap between the best and the ‘not so good’ in classroom training but how rare are the situations I’ve just described?

How much time do you actually get with the trainer?

The timetable for a 3 day course with exam on the last afternoon will typically look something like this:

Day one
- Administration, self introductions, and an overview of the course
  - Three quarters of a day for learning?
Day two
- Full day of training?
Day three
- Full morning of training?
- Time for a lecture just after lunch?
- Brief revision time?
- Exam starting at say 3.30?
- Course wrap up and course evaluation sheet
Overall
- About two and half days of actual training?

What about the ‘best’ classroom learning?

In the best classroom teaching you will have :

An inspiring and knowledgeable trainer, capable of making the trickiest topics seem easy
Great handouts with ‘long term’ value
Low number of fellow learners
Well-equipped, air-conditioned rooms with comfortable furniture
Well designed exercises and well run exercise sessions

Of course, even with the best classroom training, the time constraints are inevitable. Gone are the days when employers and self paying free lancers were prepared to pay for (and lose their staff for) a training course spread over a week, or even two weeks.

Can e-learning ever be as good as the best classroom teacher?

What is e-learning?

At its most basic, e-learning is training that’s delivered online, i.e. to a computer of some sort, desktop, tablet or smart phone. It’s learning delivered ‘in a box’. E-learning may come in many forms. For example:

Training is accessed on a training provider’s web site
Course are downloaded as apps on a smartphone
Courses are made available on a learning management system (LMS)
Attendees log in to a virtual classroom or Zoom session
Attendees request access to a webinar

…. Let’s consider two broad categories of e-learning:

Learner logs in to a training provider’s web site
Learners access a learning management system (LMS)

Training accessible from a website

With this option, a ‘training provider’ sets up their courses on a computer server and makes them accessible via a web site.

The learner always sees the latest version of the course.
Apart from any apps or documents that the learner is able to download from the provider’s web site, they don’t need to store anything on their own device.
Training via a web site can be the most economical option although prices vary widely. Some prices may be aimed at the corporate rather than at the private market
‘Training supermarkets’ such as Teachable, Udemy and Lynda provide a platform that make it easy for anyone to set up and sell a course.
Some of the content on YouTube and similar sites might be regarded as e-learning.

Just as with classroom training, there’s a big gap between the really good and the not so good.

Who uses this option?

This is typically the option for someone who is paying for their own training. Corporate’s can also find this an attractive option, perhaps minimising the amount of money and effort that they have to put into providing the training.

Training accessible from an LMS

A learning management system (LMS) supports the management and delivery of computer-based training courses. A so called, ‘SCORM compliant’ LMS allows a learner’s progress and test results to be tracked.

Who uses this option?

An LMS will typically be used by an organisation to provide training for their employees.

The organisation might install their own LMS or use one provided by a 3rd party.
An LMS can be an economical solution for an organisation, particularly one with large numbers of employees to train.
It can be very attractive for areas such as ‘compliance training’.

An organisation’s own staff or third party e-learning consultants can use specialist tools to develop training modules for the LMS.

Questions and responses

Isn’t e-learning just an online PowerPoint presentation?

The better e-learning courses are designed and produced by full-time professionals with specialist knowledge. There’s a large amount of evidence based information available on how to design e-learning courses that teach in an effective an captivating, even entertaining, manner. E-learning designers and producers can take advantage of many learning technologies. E-learning is increasingly becoming something of a ‘science’ or discipline as well as an art. The training provider and e-learning designers will typically seek to fully engage the learner in the course. To that end the course content can be delivered in a variety of imaginative and attention grabbing ways to stimulate the learner. For example:

Video including interactive video
Interactive situations, e.g. selecting items and then dragging and dropping them onto the correct place
Images, including ‘labelled images’, where images appear on ‘mousing over’ a label
Audio
Games (‘Gamification’)
Simulations
Scenarios in which the learner is routed through the course according to decisions that they make
Quizzes in various forms, relatively passive as well as fully interactive
….

The training provider can support the above can be backed up with:

Links to further online information
Downloadable PDFs for additional information, summaries and revision.

Are e-learning courses fixed length?

Courses may or may not be fixed length but the important point is that with e-learning the learner can be in control. Obviously if the e-learning is being provided by a person’s employer there are still likely to be some time constraints. In general the learner can:

Select days of the week and times of day that suits them and their work and lifestyle
Repeat lessons as often as required
Do the exercises and check the answers at their own pace
Repeat the exercise as often as needed
Take an associated exam when ready; exams are expensive and so are resits

What about health and safety issues?

It is certainly true that prolonged sitting and use of a computer can have undesirable side effects. But this is also true of many classroom courses, for example, when learning a programming language or an office application. There is now a lot of advice available online concerning health and safety for people working for extended periods on a computer in their own home. Important health and safety concerns and recommendations include:

Take frequent breaks and regular exercise such as walking
Use a desk of appropriate height
Use seating that can be adjusted, recline and provide lumbar support
Look away, ideally into the distance, at frequent intervals to avoid eyestrain
If an audio transcript is provided, listen to that rather than looking at a computer.

Ergonomically sophisticated furniture can be very expensive. On the other hand, did you find that all the above guidelines were followed in classrooms that you have experienced? Did all training venues provide expensive seating?

Can the feeling of isolation be an issue for e-learners?

Many providers of e-learning employ a number of techniques to get over the problem of isolation.

Virtual classrooms
Forums, Slack groups, Zoom sessions, and private Facebook groups for course members
Providing a means for direct correspondence with a live trainer
Member only forums

Do people find motivation difficult to sustain in an e-learning course?

This can be challenge, particularly if the training extends over a number of days or weeks. There are plenty of guidelines available to get over this hurdle.

Have a preferred place for your study.
- Not many of us have a study equipped like the office of a senior executive in a large company, but consider that all you need to study is a computer, tablet or a smart phone and perhaps a (paper) notepad and pen
- You can make any space your own
  - If you have family members, get them to respect it • You can of course study when it suits you o But for most people it’s probably a good idea to have a fixed time when they do their serious study o Try to get family members to respect your preferred time
  - Try other study places by way of a change, for example,
    - listening to audio whilst walking or travelling, or whilst other members of your household are watching the television.

What if the learner gets stuck?

Most people will probably get stuck at least once in a course. It’s important that the e-learning provider offers ways to get over this. For example,

Include a member only contact form
Permit direct correspondence with a live trainer, e.g. by phone, Zoom, Slack or similar
Assign a trainer to a learner
Introduce live webinar style sessions

Can e-training be tailored to an individual learner?

E-learning can reflect multiple learning styles in a way that is generally not possible for standard classroom based teaching. This is demonstrated with the examples I have already given. Freedom from many of the usual time constraints makes it easier to offer learners a variety of approaches. The learner can start, pause, replay, take a break and end their session whenever they like. They are in control. – Their place – Their pace.

Why e-learning?

Aside from taking advantage of the fact that many people have been working at home anyway is there any compelling reason to choose e-learning over standard classroom training? Is it horses for courses? Are there any downsides? Let’s examine these one by one.

Advantages of e-learning

Some obvious advantages are:

Travel: Cost and time
Price: This is typically lower than for classroom based training
Flexibility and convenience
Accessible from anywhere, more or less
Fitting learning to individual work and lifestyles
Supports multiple styles of learning
Easily repeatable
Interactive training styles keep the learning directly involved

What about disadvantages?

I’ve already mentioned some possible challenges to effective learning, for example,

Risk of isolation
Difficulties with motivation
Finding a suitable place to do the training
…..

Some people just prefer to have a live trainer and be in a classroom where they can interact in person with fellow learners. Some learning tasks are better suited to live training. I would not want to be operated on by a surgeon whose medical training had consisted only of online e-learning courses. Similarly, I would not want to fly with a pilot whose flying experience consisted only of time in a flight simulator. So how about combining e-learning with classroom based learning?

A hybrid plan – Mixing e-learning with live training

To meet all the training needs of an employee, a hybrid training plan is needed, mixing e-learning with live training. The relative proportions of e-learning and classroom learning will vary according to the situation. Elearning will be an increasingly viable and popular option in the foreseeable future. But live training, in a classroom or other appropriate environment, will continue to be in demand, again, for the foreseeable future. E-learning can be the ideal choice in many situation, for example:

Preparing for multi-choice exams
Compliance and standards training
Learning the theory of something – Even things like sales skills
Certain types of ‘Just in time’ training

Thanks to simulations and scenarios, e-learning can also be applicable to learning certain types of skills: for example, handling management situations, sales skills, counselling and so on. Classroom learning can be the ideal choice for many practical skills where immediate feedback on a physical activity is required. As well as surgery and flying, this will include skills such as giving presentations and interviewing. A classroom does not always need to be a physical building. Virtual classrooms with live trainers are now very sophisted and offer great flexibility. This is a third ingredient in the training cocktail. A training plan needs to include both e-learning and live training, playing to the strengths of each.

Capiro and e-learning

The team at Capiro have been involved with training for over twenty years. We have been developing e-learning courses for about five years. We specialise in business analysis. We specialise in business analysis and are currently developing a series of online courses to support people wishing to self study and take online exams for the BCS ( British Computer Society), certificates in business analysis leading to the BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis. We call this series, Guides to Success.

What is a use case? – Free training for BAs

About the course

‘What is a use case?’ is a mini course in our new series, ‘Free training for business analysts’.

The course describes what use cases are in the context of business activities.

It then describes an agile style team approach to capturing requirements with use cases, and, still using the team approach, how to take use cases forward to software development and testing.

Access the course

What is a use case? – Click to view

Create a business analysis centre of excellence

Getting started

This article considers things to consider when you create a business analysis centre of excellence.You may also like to view the article, ‘What is a business analysis centre of excellence?’

This article takes you through the items on the diagram.

BACoE-Framework

Governance and Management in Business Analysis

Effective governance and management is central to the development of a business analysis centre of excellence.

Business analysts should be familiar with:

Governance frameworks such as Val IT and Cobit
Principles of portfolio, programme and project management
Principles of risk management, business case production and benefits realisation

Planning the Business Analysis Centre of Excellence

Create a vision and high level goals for the centre based on support for the organisation’s strategic objectives
Create qualified, quantified and prioritised objectives as landmarks on the plan for the iterative development of the centre
Integrate the plan with current and proposed change initiatives and IT interventions

Techniques for Business Analysis

Relevant techniques for business analysis include:

Process improvement
Business data analysis
Business rules management
Business case production and benefits management
Risk analysis
Communication skills

Projects – Business Analyst Participation

Project participation overlaps with all the other areas in the above model of a business analysis centre of excellence.

Each of the areas our model will be refined on the basis of project experience.

Change – Role of the Business Analyst

Change management is at the heart of a business analysis centre of excellence. It overlaps all the other areas in our model.

Business Analysis Relationships

Relationships include the structure of the business analysis organisation as well as its relationship to other organisation units within IT, the business units and with external suppliers.

Relationships with business units may be orchestrated though the IT Director / CIO
As well as relationships with operational business units, ensure that there are effective relationships in place with Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Sales and Marketing
Vital relationships with IT include IT strategy, Testing, Architecture and Design, Programming, Release Management, Programme and project Management, Technical Infrastructure and Support

What is a business analysis centre of excellence?

Boost business agility with Three + One

Business agility

Business agility is the ability to rapidly but safely change in response to or in anticipation of changes in the external environment.

Potential drivers for change are summarised in the acronym, ‘PESTLE’.

Political
Economic
Social
Technological
Legal
Environmental

Business agility is becoming increasingly important in a world where the rate of change and the competition for customers and resources is accelerating.

The agile business analyst is an agent of change. As such, they can help the business to respond to change in a timely and advantageous manner.

A framework for managing change

Framework for an enterprise architecture

An enterprise architecture is, among other things, a tool that can help to map business change to technical responses and technical advances to business opportunities.

Simplified view of Zachman architecture — Zachman architecture – Simplified view

The accompanying diagram, based on Zachman’s framework for an enterprise architecture, highlights six concerns or aspects (my words, not Zachman’s) of an organisation that can be described, modelled and specified at various levels of abstraction, from idea to reality.

The dividing line between the top and bottom three rows was not taken from the Zachman model, but reflects a possibly arbitrary and personal division between:

Rows that are populated with artifacts created mainly by business oriented roles such as business analyst and business architect.
Rows that are populated with artifacts created mainly by more technical roles such as solution architect, designer, systems integrator and developer. This is why, in the accompanying diagram, we refer to the lower three rows as ‘technical views’. We accept that not everyone would make such a classification.

The intent of the following paragraphs is not to describe the Zachman framework in detail; he does a great job of doing that himself. See Zachman framework and The rows – what are they?

The intent is to highlight aspects and views (perspectives) that are immediately relevant to the work of typical business analyst or business architect. And the intent is also to show how the analyst can use the Zachman model to help their organisation achieve greater business agility.

The columns of the Zachman model

The six ‘concerns’, referred to above, are shown as the column headings of the grid. Collectively, these concerns describe a ‘system’.

The business analyst needs to understand an enterprise in terms of these six concerns . The analyst should understand the concerns in the own right and in terms of their relationships with each of the other concerns.

We can consider the columns as areas where the business analyst needs to demonstrate their capability.

The rows of the Zachman model

For each of these concerns, we have six views or ‘perspectives’ these are the rows of the grid.

Going ‘down’ the rows takes us from idea, at the top, to reality, at the bottom. Going from row to row effects a series of ‘transformations’ of the original idea, progressively turning that idea into reality.

The top three rows show business oriented views:

Identification and naming of relevant aspects (Contextual view).
Descriptions and business (conceptual) models of the aspects; (Conceptual view).
Logical models of the aspects (Logical view).

The artifacts (or artefacts) that populate these top three rows are typically created by people with role titles such as business analyst or business architect. These artifacts are abstractions of the real world.

The abstractions, or representations, created by the business analysts and architects are turned into reality in a further series of three ‘transformations’ by people with roles such as solution architect and developer. These are the bottom three rows of the grid.

The bottom three rows are populated with technically oriented models and other artifacts. These describe the ‘technical systems’ and tools that support the business systems.

The final transformation (the ‘bottom’ row) creates (instantiates) the thing itself, i.e. the organisation or enterprise.

Zachman not a methodology or a decomposition

Zachman insists that his model is not a methodology. However, organisations can create methodologies that reflect an understanding of the model.

Zachman also insists that the rows do not show increasing levels of detail. However, the models and other artifacts associated with each row will probably demonstrate additional details as each successive row gets closer to the real thing. If using the Unified Modeling Language (UML), for example, the models in the lower rows will feature additional icons and ‘adornments’.

Deriving an architecture and methodology from Zachman

In building the enterprise architecture itself, and in creating methodologies that reflect the Zachman model, it can be useful to think in terms of additional levels of detail.

The layered approach supports understanding by hiding complexity from any stakeholder that doesn’t need to see it.

By understanding each column as an entity and as a contributor to a system, and by being aware of how each layer is supported by the layer below it, we will be better able to propose and manage changes to an organisation’s systems efficiently and effectively. We need to do this in order to continuously support strategic objectives and realise game changing opportunities in rapidly changing business environments.

In other words, we have a tool to boost our business agility.

Three plus One

We will focus on 3+1 areas of capability that are critical to successful business analysis and business agility:

1. Business processes – The HOW on Zachman

2. Business data – The WHAT on Zachman

3. Business rules – Impact all columns on Zachman

Plus

People (Inter-personal) skills – Relates to the WHO in Zachman

In a related article, we also describe, ‘Agile business analysis‘.

Business Processes (The ‘How’ on Zachman)

Organisations must continually improve their ability to align themselves and their processes with the changing external environment and to rapidly adapt their responses to business events. This is a major factor in the achievement of business agility.

Many, if not most, of an organisation’s processes provide routine support. But some, perhaps a critical minority, are strategically important and deliver the value created by the organisation. Crucially, the goals of these processes directly support the goals of the organisation.

Business Data (The ‘What’ on Zachman)

Process transparency is key to boosting business agility. Data is key to achieving that transparency.

The essential data of the organisation are the concepts on which the organisation is built. Such concepts include Customer, Supplier, Product or Service, and the various artefacts associated with business transactions such as orders, payments and receipts.

The ‘conceptual view’ (row 2) of the Zachman framework contains models of the (data) concepts.

As well as the concepts themselves, it is vital to understand the associations between the concepts; these are captured as business rules.

Business Rules (The ‘Why’ on Zachman)

Also key to boosting business agility is mastery of the business rules.

Business rules must be visible and be owned by the business. As with processes, rules must be continually aligned with the changing external environment. Rules are incorporated into the processes and the data.

People (Inter-personal) Skills

Business analysis is a people oriented job. Business analysts enjoy working with people, with all the attendant challenges.

Obviously, to do the job of business analyst, a person needs empathy. They need to be able to listen. Those ‘skills’ are perhaps a part of a person’s nature. But there are many skills that can be learned. We refer to such skills as ‘people skills’ or ‘interpersonal skills’.

Essentially, people skills are to do with communication. We may also refer to people skills as communication skills.

Specific people skills include:

Making presentations
Facilitation
Chairing meetings
Interviewing
Negotiation
Report writing
Team leading and leadership

The business analyst can also usefully learn some of the skills of the sales and marketing team, e.g.

Understanding the difference between features and benefits
Understanding people’s ‘pain points’
Achieving a win – win situation
Motivation

Implementing Three Plus One

A great way of implementing 3 + 1 is through the creation of a business analysis centre of excellence.

See also this post on 14 steps to business agility.

Video – ‘Basics of data modelling – Part 1’

Introduction.

This video introduces the basics of data modelling. Data modelling is fundamental to creating a business level data architecture.

Duration: 8 minutes. See also, ‘Summary of the video content’, below.

Summary of the video content.

The video is based on a scenario concerning insurance policies and the customers who buy them.

The business view is of course highly simplified; we are trying to explain data modelling, not the business of insurance.

Two classes are identified, Customer and Policy. These represent actual customers and policies.

A class is a sort of blue print that defines the company’s concepts such as their concept of a customer and a policy. The concept identifies the attributes, or data items, for each concept.

The concept of a customer includes attributes such as:

Customer name.
Status.
Post code.

The concept of a policy includes attributes such as:

Policy number.
Policy type.
Purchase date.
Price.

Data modelling at the business level is sometimes described as concept modelling. The model itself is described as a conceptual model.

There is an association between the two classes which is labelled, ‘owns’. I.E., ‘One customer owns or more policies’.

The associations capture business rules, such as the rule that to be a customer of this company, it is necessary to have purchased at least one policy.

Another business rule states that a policy must be owned by at least one customer but may be owned by many customers.

Notes on the model.

These notes refer to terms in the Zachman framework such as the distinction between the conceptual and the logical views.

As mentioned, the video describes a conceptual business level model, not a ‘normalised’ logical model. A logical level data model shows such adornments such as ‘foreign keys’.

This introductory video does not describe how to resolve the so called ‘many to many’ associations. This is often more relevant to the logical level view. Arguably the logical level is more relevant to the solution architect than the business analyst or architect, although of course the same person may take on all of these roles.

The notation used in the video is a simple form of UML.

Many analysts consider that UML is too technical and complex to be used for business modelling. This is not correct if UML is used appropriately.

In common with most modelling notations, UML comprises mainly rectangles and lines. It also has other, so called, ‘adornments‘.

UML refers to artefacts such as attributes and various graphic devices as ‘adornments’. It provides a range of adornments relevant to different stages of a projects, e.g. requirements discovery, design, implementation, etc.

Use only adornments that are relevant to a particular stage. And obviously, only use adornments that you and your stakeholders understand. Just because something is available in the UML, it doesn’t have to be used.

We provide an overview of data modelling in our e-training course, ‘Introduction to business change’.

Online training for business analysts – Video overview

We have released two online training course in a series for business analysts who wish to self study for recognised qualifications.

The series is called, Guide to Success.

The courses published so far are:

Introduction to Modelling Business Processes. This supports syllabi 3.3 and 5.0 for the BCS Certificate in Modelling Business Processes.
Introduction to Business Change. This supports the syllabus for the BCS Foundation Certificate in Business Change.

This video concerns the course, ‘Introduction to Modelling Business Processes’.

Requirements – What’s the problem?

The definition of requirements in terms of solving problems and satisfying objectives, originally specified by the IEEE, is now widely used.

It is referenced by both the IIBA and the BCS international Diploma in Business Analysis. It is the definition that we often refer to at Capiro.

In this article for the IREB Requirements Engineering newsletter. September 2017, the authors examine this definition and some of its implications.

The IEEE definition of a requirement is probably not perfect – What is? But it does highlight that solutions cannot be defined in a vacuum – they need context. That context is the problem that needs to be solved or the objective that needs to be realised; problems stand in the way of the achievement of objectives.

The article emphasises the importance of looking at the big picture. Problems and objectives (goals) tend to be related to other problems and objectives. Proposed solutions will each demonstrate varying degrees of support for the achievement of corporate (strategic) objectives. Stakeholders will have differing opinions as to what constitutes a problem, a goal or a solution. Any one solution will have implications in terms of risks, costs, benefits, stakeholder support, implementation challenges and operational characteristics.

The authors invite comments on their article.

Please note that the IREB newsletter is free and that you can sign up with IREB to receive it regularly.

The business agility manifesto

The subject of business agility has been gaining increasing traction over the last few years.

Ever since the presentation of the agile manifesto, which was primarily related to computer programming, the word agile is appearing in ever greater number of contexts. As Bertrand Meyer, in his book, ‘Agile, the Good, the Hype and the Ugly’, asks, “Who wants to say they are not agile?” And as many consultants, trainers and authors can confirm, use of the ‘A’ word is great for driving sales.

Business agility goes beyond software development. It concerns, among other things, the ability of an organisation to continuously and safely adapt itself to changing environments and customer expectations and demands. However, as with agile itself, there are many opinions as to exactly what business agility is. And now we have the Business Agility Manifesto. It offers a checklist to see if your organisation has business agility.

Its authors are Roger Burlton, Ronald Ross and John Zachman. All very well known in their own spheres of business processes, business rules and business architecture respectively. Along with business data, these aspects are critical to achieving business agility. We focus on them, for instance in our Three+One approach.

The authors describe the manifesto as a pathway forward – Into the ‘Knowledge Age’.

Will it trend? See what you think.

Lessons from Confucious

Managing complexity

Divide and rule

Video

Text with images

Online quiz

Additional practice

Practical exercises

Interactive exercises

Guides to Success - Frequently asked questions

Is E-learning a temporary phenomenon?

Can e-learning ever be as good as classroom based learning?

Is what you just read always true?

Trainer skill and knowledge

How much time do you actually get with the trainer?

Day one

Day two

Day three

Overall

What about the ‘best’ classroom learning?

Can e-learning ever be as good as the best classroom teacher?

What is e-learning?

Training accessible from a website

Who uses this option?

Training accessible from an LMS

Who uses this option?

Questions and responses

Isn’t e-learning just an online PowerPoint presentation?

Are e-learning courses fixed length?

What about health and safety issues?

Can the feeling of isolation be an issue for e-learners?

Do people find motivation difficult to sustain in an e-learning course?

What if the learner gets stuck?

Can e-training be tailored to an individual learner?

Why e-learning?

Advantages of e-learning

What about disadvantages?

A hybrid plan – Mixing e-learning with live training

Capiro and e-learning

About the course

Access the course

Getting started

Governance and Management in Business Analysis

Planning the Business Analysis Centre of Excellence

Techniques for Business Analysis

Projects – Business Analyst Participation

Change – Role of the Business Analyst

Business Analysis Relationships

Business agility

A framework for managing change

Framework for an enterprise architecture

The columns of the Zachman model

The rows of the Zachman model

Zachman not a methodology or a decomposition

Deriving an architecture and methodology from Zachman

Three plus One

Plus

Business Processes (The ‘How’ on Zachman)

Business Data (The ‘What’ on Zachman)

Business Rules (The ‘Why’ on Zachman)

People (Inter-personal) Skills

Implementing Three Plus One

Introduction.

Summary of the video content.

Notes on the model.

Guide to Success training – Features and Benefits

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