Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis

The Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis examination helps in developing in fundamental knowledge required for a business analysis function. You will able to acquire skills, roles and competencies demanded as well as strategic analysis, process modeling, business system, and business case development.

Target Audience

The Foundation Certificate is designed for people who want to understand business analysis, support change, and improve business processes.
Suitable for business analysts, business managers, and members of their team, business change managers, and project managers.

Skills Acquired

You will develop knowledge and skills mentioned below, which will help you grow in your career:

The role and competencies of a Business Analyst
Investigation techniques, including interviews, observations, workshops and prototyping
How to categorise, analyse and manage stakeholders
How to model business processes
Making a business and financial case and assessing feasibility
How to establish, document and model requirements

Exam Details

The Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis examination is a 60 minutes examination. There is no prerequisite required for the examination. However, you will required to achieve 65% and above to pass the examination. The total number of questions are 40. Also, this examination will cost you £192 (£160 + VAT).

Exam Registration

To register for the examination, follow the steps mentioned below:

Create an account on Pearson VUE. If you already have an account on Pearson VUE, then login to the account.
Select Proctored Exams and enter the exam name, Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis
Follow the prompts to register and make the payment.
Once the registration is completed you will receive a confirmation mail.

Course Outline

What is Business Analysis (2.5%)

The origins of business analysis
The development of business analysis
- The impact of outsourcing
- The competitive advantage of using IT
- Successful business change
- The importance of the business analyst
- Business analysts as internal consultants
The scope of business analysis work
- The range of analysis activities
- Strategic analysis and definition
- IT systems analysis
- Business analysis
Taking a holistic approach
The role and responsibilities of a business analyst
- Definition of the business analyst role
- Further aspects of the business analyst role

The Competencies of a Business Analyst (2.5%)

Personal qualities
Business knowledge
Professional techniques
The development of competencies

Strategy Analysis (7.5%)

The context for strategy
The definition of strategy (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2008)
Strategy development
External environment analysis
- PESTLE analysis
- Porter’s five forces model
Internal environment analysis
- MOST analysis
- Resource Audit
- Boston Box
SWOT analysis
Executing strategy
- The McKinsey 7-S model
- The Balanced Business Scorecard
- Critical Success Factors and Key Performance Indicators.

The Business Analysis Process Model (5%)

An approach to problem-solving
Stages of the business analysis process model
- Investigate the situation
- Consider the perspectives
- Analyse the needs
- Evaluate the options
- Define the requirements
Objectives of the process model stages
Procedure for each process model stage
Techniques used within each process model stage.

Investigation techniques (15%)

Interviews
- Advantages and disadvantages of interviewing
- Preparing for interviewing
- Conducting the interview
- Following up the interview
Observation
- Advantages and disadvantages of observation
- Formal observation
- Protocol analysis
- Shadowing
- Ethnographic studies
5.3 Workshops
- Advantages and disadvantages of workshops
- Preparing for the workshop
- Facilitating the workshop
- Techniques
- Following the workshop
Scenarios
- Advantages and disadvantages of scenarios
- Process for developing scenarios
- Documenting scenarios
Prototyping
- Advantages and disadvantages of prototyping
Quantitative approaches
- Surveys or Questionnaires
- Special Purpose Records
- Activity Sampling
- Document Analysis
Documenting the current situation
- Rich Pictures
- Mind Maps

Stakeholder Analysis and Management (10%)

Stakeholder categories and identification
- Customers
- Partners
- Suppliers
- Competitors
- Regulators
- Owners
- Employees
- Managers
Analysing stakeholders
- The Power/Interest Grid
Stakeholder management strategies
- No or low interest and no or low power (or influence)
- Some or high interest but no or low power (or influence)
- No or low to high interest but some power (or influence)
- No or low interest but high power (or influence)
- Some interest and high power (or influence)
- High interest and high power (or influence)
Managing stakeholders
- Stakeholder plan/assessment
Understanding stakeholder perspectives
- Soft Systems Methodology
- Analysing the perspectives
- CATWOE
Business activity models
- Creating a business activity model
- Types of activities – Plan, Enable, Do, Monitor, Control
- Developing a consensus model

Modelling Business Processes (10%)

Organisational context
- Functional view of an organisation
An alternative view of an organisation
The organisational view of business processes
Value propositions
Process models
- Business events
- Developing the business process model
Analysing the as-is process model
Improving business processes (to-be business process)
- Business rules
- Simplify the process
- Remove bottlenecks
- Change the sequence of tasks
- Redefine process boundary
- Automate the processing
- Redesign the process

Defining the solution (5%)

Gap analysis
- Identifying areas of concern
- Framework for gap analysis (elements of POPIT model)
- Formulating options
Introduction to Business Architecture
Definition of Business Architecture
Business Architecture techniques
- Definition of a capability model
- Definition of a value stream

Making a Business and Financial Case (10%)

The business case in the project lifecycle
Identifying options
Assessing project feasibility
- Business feasibility
- Technical feasibility
- Financial feasibility
Structure of a business case
- Contents of a business case
- Categories of costs and benefits
- Impact assessment
- Risk assessment
Investment appraisal
- Payback
- Discounted cash flow and Internal rate of return

Establishing the Requirements (7.5%)

A framework for requirements engineering
Actors in requirements engineering
- The business representatives
- The project team
Requirements analysis
- Requirements filters
- SMART requirements
Requirements validation

Documenting and Managing Requirements (7.5%)

The requirements document
- Structure
- Content of the requirements document
The requirements catalogue
- Types of requirements; general, technical, functional and non-functional
- Hierarchy of requirements
- Documenting a requirement
Managing requirements
- Elements of requirements management

Modelling Requirements (7.5%)

Modelling system functions
- Use case diagrams
Modelling system data
- Entity Relationship Diagrams
  - Entities, attributes and relationships
  - Types of relationships
- Class Models
  - Objects and classes
  - Attributes
  - Associations

Delivering the Requirements (5%)

Delivering the solution
Context
Lifecycles
- The waterfall lifecycle
- The ‘V’ model lifecycle
- Incremental lifecycle
- Iterative systems development lifecycle

Delivering the Business Solution (5%)

BA role in the business change lifecycle
Design stage
- Information and Technology
  - Design
  - Development
  - Testing
Implementation stage
- SARAH model
Realisation stage
- Contents of the benefits plan

For more information, click on Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis FAQ.

Exam Policies

BCS provides exam policies to support the candidates by providing every detail related to the certification program. On this page, the candidates will get information about after the exam or before exam procedures. This includes the exam retaking process, rules to be followed during the exam time, and other information about the exams and its testing centers.

Preparatory Guide for Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis

Every right direction is the very essence of this Preparatory Guide. Also, we will assure you that after you’re done with the preparation, you’ll feel confident in yourself. Let’s start:

Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis preparatory guide

Refer the Exam Guide

It is important to know the exam objectives of the Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis examination. After you’ve gone through the basic exam details. It’s time to hit the exam guide. But before that let’s have a look at the exam objectives:

What is Business Analysis (2.5%)
The Competencies of a Business Analyst (2.5%)
Strategy Analysis (7.5%)
The Business Analysis Process Model (5%)
Investigation techniques (15%)
Stakeholder Analysis and Management (10%)
Modeling Business Processes (10%)
Defining the solution (5%)
Making a Business and Financial Case (10%)
Establishing the Requirements (7.5%)

Learning Resources

There are plenty of courses and trainings available related to Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis examination. To begin with, BCS offers training which will help you in your preparation. The Classroom course is of 3 days. You can find more information at the official website.

Reference Books

It is important to practice from right study material. To ease out your preparation, we have curated a list of books for your reference:

Bcs Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis: Questions and Answers (Easy Guide) by Austin Vern Songer
BCS Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis (FCBA) Updated Examination Questions

Join a Community

Online forums and study groups are a great way to prepare for the certification exam. Therefore, feel free to get in touch with other candidates through study forums or online groups to ask a question related to the topic you’re having difficulty with.

However, it’s not something you have to join. It’s just something very subjective. Not to mention, these online groups help you stay equated with the other people who are also walking through the same path as yours. Moreover, you can also ask a question related to the topic you’re having difficulty with.

Practice Test

This final step will give the candidate the exact insight of the topics in which they’re lacking. So, make sure you’re going through sample tests after you have gone through the entire syllabus. Most importantly, all the practice tests are designed to encounter the real exam environment around you. However, practice papers can be from various sources. Above all, remember the more you test yourself the better you’re going to become. Start your preparation now!