We get asked this question a lot so we decided to give you some advice in an article.

To get more tips on which qualifications to choose and where to start make sure you download our business analysis guide – click here to download.

BCS Foundation in Business Analysis

The course objectives are to give the learner a complete overview of business analysis and learn useful tools and techniques.

The learning is done by understanding the theory and then answer multiple-choice questions to get the right answer.

The foundation in the title convinces a lot of professionals to start their training with this course. This is not however mandatory. The BCS qualifications are modular which means you can take them in any order and work your way towards the higher level qualification, the BCS Business Analysis certificate.

The course is heavy in theoretical concepts so if you are new to business analysis you will learn a lot. We use mind maps to show how everything relates and make it easy for you to remember the theory for the exam. You will also practice for your exam using our online exam simulation environment.

The exam is a one-hour closed-book examination consisting of 40 multiple-choice questions. The pass mark is 26/40.

To find out more about this course – click here 

BCS Business Analysis Practice

This course objective is to learn to apply business analysis techniques to understand the business objectives, analyse project issues, investigate stakeholders perspectives and identify potential business solutions.

This is the type of work you are expected to do before you move on to eliciting requirements. It is a critical part and if not done your time will be wasted on implementing the wrong solution to the wrong business problem. And the wrong solution can have a negative impact on your organisation!

The learning is done by applying the theory to real-world case studies and discussing this in groups and with a very experienced trainer.

The BCS Business Analysis Practice (BAP) is one of the mandatory modules if you want to achieve the BCS Business Analysis Diploma certificate. This means the knowledge you gain on this course is essential to business analysts.

Compared to BCS Foundation in Business Analysis it is also a more hands-on, practical course. You will apply the theory to real-world case studies then discuss solutions in groups and with a very experienced trainer. You will clearly understand how the concepts apply to the real world.

Because this is a more practical course, we recommend you start your training with this course.

The good thing about doing the course with us is that when you leave the course you will know exactly the preparation and analysis you need to do before moving on to eliciting requirements. Also, you will know how to make sure that the project stakeholders are on board so they don’t jeopardise your project

There’s nothing more wasteful and frustrating than putting a lot of effort into eliciting requirements for change initiatives that the stakeholders don’t want and reject.

The exam for this course is an open book exam based on a case study. It is very similar to the ones we will discuss in class so the chances you will pass are very high. We have a 95% pass rate on this course.

To find out more about this course – click here

Which one of the two to choose then?

If you like to first get an understanding of theory and then move to practical work then start with the BCS Foundation in Business Analysis. If you like to learn by doing then start with the BCS Business Analysis Practice. Most delegates do both as they want to achieve the higher qualification, the BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis.

To get more tips on which qualifications to choose and where to start make sure you download our business analysis guide – click here to download.