ISEB / Business Analyst Course

DAIR · 17 Sep 2012 at 13:35

Hi,

Have any of you taken up a Business Analysis?

If so, who did you do the course with and how much were you charged?

krooton · 17 Sep 2012 at 13:46

I just sort of picked it up over the past few years, no formal training, just lots of experience in analysing data, producing reports, and planning projects.

DAIR · 17 Sep 2012 at 13:59

krooton said:
I just sort of picked it up over the past few years, no formal training, just lots of experience in analysing data, producing reports, and planning projects.

I've been doing this sort of thing (within the workplace) for a number of years now. Just wondering whether taking up this course would be worth the time and money.

randomshenans · 17 Sep 2012 at 14:04

I've done an ESI course on BA & Agile PM. It was good, but no formal certification at the end of it. It was just formalising everything I do daily, but the agile was quite good as a comparison.

Skidder · 17 Sep 2012 at 14:05

What does the course cover? I have an MBA.

randomshenans · 17 Sep 2012 at 14:36

Currently filling in my PMP application form. Jeeeeeessssssssus that is the longest thing to document in the world.

RDM · 17 Sep 2012 at 14:38

Business analysts, systems analysts that can't program...

DAIR · 17 Sep 2012 at 14:40

QuickLink said:
I've done an ESI course on BA & Agile PM. It was good, but no formal certification at the end of it. It was just formalising everything I do daily, but the agile was quite good as a comparison.

Work put you on that course?

DAIR · 17 Sep 2012 at 14:43

RDM said:
Business analysts, systems analysts that can't program...

lol. I've always seen them as middle men... The people between the IT dept and general members of staff.

a lot of the roles I've been looking up make reference to ISEB. Pointless course or well worth it?!

krooton · 17 Sep 2012 at 14:48

DAIR said:
lol. I've always seen them as middle men... The people between the IT dept and general members of staff.

That's what I like about it, the business knows what end results it wants, but doesn't know how to get there, I help them make the design and high level design, then ensure that IT deliver it.

RDM · 17 Sep 2012 at 14:50

Isn't ISEB just the BCS board that does things like ITIL etc? I didnt think it was a specific exam in of itself? ITIL is more support than development I thought, Prince 2 and Six Sigma are possibly useful if you are looking at analysis and project management.

DAIR · 17 Sep 2012 at 14:59

krooton said:
That's what I like about it, the business knows what end results it wants, but doesn't know how to get there, I help them make the design and high level design, then ensure that IT deliver it.

I've always found speaking directly to the users or dept heads just as useful. My current role is IT analyst but often find myself doing (what I believe to be) the tasks of a business analyst

krooton · 17 Sep 2012 at 15:01

DAIR said:
I've always found speaking directly to the users or dept heads just as useful. My current role is IT analyst but often find myself doing (what I believe to be) the tasks of a business analyst

Yeah, it will vary from company to company, both my previous and current companies have heads of that have very little knowledge of systems, so I bridge that gap between business requirements and technical design.

randomshenans · 17 Sep 2012 at 15:02

DAIR said:
Work put you on that course?

Yep, ESI come and host some courses at our campus as we're pretty large so they said I should use a week of my time to do that instead of working. I obliged. Counts as classroom hours I needed to complete the PMP so I was all over that.

Ev0 · 17 Sep 2012 at 15:21

RDM said:
Isn't ISEB just the BCS board that does things like ITIL etc? I didnt think it was a specific exam in of itself? ITIL is more support than development I thought, Prince 2 and Six Sigma are possibly useful if you are looking at analysis and project management.

ISEB is/was the examinations arm of the BCS yes.

I've not done their BA course but have done the architecture ones which touch on the subject a little.

End of the day if jobs you want are asking for it and having would help you get those jobs then it's likely worth it.

randomshenans · 17 Sep 2012 at 15:30

I think anything that is going to be thrown at you, or that you can wangle is worth it, really.

Royal Fleet · 17 Sep 2012 at 15:44

A couple of my team have been looking at this. I think it comes down to your current role and profile. If you are looking to get into Business Analysis and have little experience, or rather little experience in an environment that has strong working practices, then this will give you a reasonable all round grounding.

Usually with my team, they have specific areas for development, as being a BA requires a wide gambit of skills, and we tend to focus on those.

DAIR · 18 Sep 2012 at 09:42

Royal Fleet said:
A couple of my team have been looking at this. I think it comes down to your current role and profile. If you are looking to get into Business Analysis and have little experience, or rather little experience in an environment that has strong working practices, then this will give you a reasonable all round grounding.

Usually with my team, they have specific areas for development, as being a BA requires a wide gambit of skills, and we tend to focus on those.

Would you say it was more of a project manager role? I'm just trying to understand what a BA would do apart from dictating how a business would work..

Anyone have any thoughts on Agile/SCRUM??

randomshenans · 18 Sep 2012 at 09:58

You will more than often find that you are the BA, PM, Technical resources on a project. I play this role more often than not. The BA will be the one to assess the "as is" state and then the "to-be" state of project and define the vision and scope.

Ensuring the project goes well and is delivered comes down to the project manager. How it is going to be done and get there is the system architect/technical resources job.

Really depends on your company. Also, agile and scrum are good for me where I work, as they're constantly moving the goal posts and you have to work in an agile manor, it's the industry as well but if yours is more standard PM, I'd go with that.