Year
2023Credit points
10Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.Prerequisites
ITEC628 Business Process Modelling
Incompatible
ISYS638 Business Analysis
Teaching organisation
3 hours per week for twelve weeks or equivalent.Unit rationale, description and aim
Business Analysis (BA) is the practice of enabling change in an organisational context, by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders. It includes managing business stakeholders, undertaking process improvement, managing organisational design and strategic planning, which may or may not be supported by software systems.
This unit explores BA as a professional discipline and will address core skills such as enterprise analysis, requirements elicitation, managing the requirements lifecycle, identifying business benefits and verifying requirements models. The unit takes a strategic view of BA and focuses on the need to achieve strategic business goals through optimising the design of business processes and operational outcomes. As a result, particular emphasis is given to process and policy formulation, process modelling and verification, and the integration of the strategic and operational elements that constitute business capability.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:
LO1 - demonstrate an advanced understanding of the roles and responsibilities of a business analyst, business analysis standards, methods, and tools and how to apply them to ensure common goods. (GA4, GA5, GA8)
LO2 - utilise a systematic approach to problem solving and apply the knowledge you have acquired to analyse, synthesise and communicate information provided by people who interact with a business. (GA5, GA10)
LO3 - analyse stakeholder objectives and business requirements and investigate operational requirements, problems and opportunities to achieve effective business solutions through improvements in automated and non-automated components of new or changed processes. (GA5, GA8)
LO4 - create viable specifications and acceptance criteria in preparation for new or changed processes and organisation and formulate an approach to sharing organisational knowledge. (GA5, GA10)
Graduate attributes
GA4 - think critically and reflectively
GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession
GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information
GA10 - utilise information and communication and other relevant technologies effectively.
Content
Topics will include:
- Business analysis key concepts
- Strategic view of business analysis in organisations
- Elicitation and Collaboration in business analysis
- Business domain analysis and business design
- Agile and business analysis
- Non-functional/operational requirements and usability requirements
- Value mapping and traceability
- Quality assurance and testing in business analysis
- Change management and organisational redesign in business analysis
- Organisational adoption of business analysis
- Business analysis; practical tools and techniques
- Trends in business analysis
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
Mode: Attendance mode
Duration: 12-week semester or equivalent. Students should anticipate undertaking 150 hours of study for this unit, including class attendance, readings, exams, and assessment preparation.
Students will have access to all primary learning materials online through LEO, along with formative and summative assessments, all of which will be available online, to provide a learning experience beyond the classroom. While there are no formal classroom lectures for this unit, students will be required to attend weekly three-hour workshops, which will include lecture and specific tasks related to achievement of the unit learning outcomes.
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment tasks for this unit are designed for you to demonstrate your achievement of each learning outcomes. Marking will be in accordance with a rubric specifically developed to measure your level of achievement of the learning outcomes for each item of assessment. You will also be awarded a final grade which signifies your overall achievement in the unit.
In order to pass this unit, you are required to submit deliverables for each of the three assessments and achieve an overall mark of 50%.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes | Graduate Attributes |
|---|---|---|---|
Task1: Mid-semester Test The student will participate in a mid-Semester test during week 6. The aim of the test is to assess students’ knowledge on fundamentals of business analysis, domain analysis, stakeholder management and professional practice and their ability to apply acquired knowledge and skills to ensure common goods. | 30% | LO1 | GA4, GA5, GA8 |
Task2: Individual Project Work In this assessment, two case studies will be provided to enable students to undertake a realistic requirements analysis leading to mapping of value and plans for quality assurance testing and change management. The aim of the assessment is to assess how effectively they can conduct stakeholder analysis and create a plan for quality assurance testing and change management. | 30% | LO2, LO3 | GA5, GA8, GA10 |
Task 3: Individual Project on business process and change management plan implementation. In this assessment, students are required to conduct a project on a real world case study with the given company prospectus to identify the changes regarding its business process implementation over the pandemic and come up with an associated detailed change management plan together with the job assignment of BA(s). | 40% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 | GA4, GA5, GA8, GA10 |
Representative texts and references
Tillman FA & Cassone, DT 2016, The seven rules for building effective analytical models for decisions, HTX Inc, Sunrise Beach, MO.
Hathaway, T & Hathaway, A 2015, Business analysis defined, Create Space Publishing, San Francisco, CA.
International Institute of Business Analysis 2015, BABOK: a guide to the business analysis body of knowledge, 3rd edn, IIBA, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Leyton, R 2015, The agile business analyst, Leyton Publishing, Atlanta, GA.
Paul, D, Cadle, J & Yeates, D (eds) 2014, Business analysis, 3rd edn, BCS Learning, Swindon, England.
PMI 2015, Business analysis for practitioners: a practice guide, Project Management Institute Publishing, Newtown Square, PA.
Fleisher, CS & Bensoussan, BE 2015, Business and competitive analysis, 2nd edn, Pearson FT Press, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Cadle, J, Paul, D & Turner, P 2014, Business analysis techniques: 99 essential tools for success, 2nd edn, BCS Learning, Swindon, England.
Hass, K 2014, Breakthrough business analysis: implementing and sustaining a value-based practice, Management Concepts Press, Vienna, VA.
Blais, SP 2012, Business analysis: best practices for success, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.