Why us?

Metadata Training has been delivering training in business analysis, systems development, agile and project management for over 25 years.

We work with JP Morgan, Thomson Reuters, Vodafone, Reed Elsevier and other global companies to develop their staff to deliver more business value. Through us, thousands of professionals have gained professional certifications from accredited bodies.

Our knowledgeable and highly experienced lecturers deliver quality training services to companies and individuals all over the world at competitive prices.

We believe in training that improves performance and efficiency. Our training is monitored and consistently improved through feedback from our delegates. We make sure that you get the best training.

More than 70% of our delegates have done more than one course with us. A very high percentage of delegates come to us through recommendations.

Our customers love us for being flexible, professional, approachable and easy to work with.

If you want to know more, read below or call us on 020 7272 3726.

Metadata Ltd was formed in 1988 by Mike Goodland and Vanessa Young, both previously civil servants at CCTA – responsible for coordination and governance of all UK government computing. There they had developed a passion for business analysis working together as part of the team that developed the Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method (SSADM) and later went on to develop Prince and Prince 2.

After leaving CCTA, Mike became a lecturer at Kingston University where he taught business systems analysis and IT project management. Many business opportunities for part-time consultancy and training work led to the formation of Metadata Ltd. At that time, “metadata” was not a commonly used term. However much of our work concentrated on systematising information structures and producing data models – effectively data-about-data or metadata – hence our name.

Throughout the nineties and noughties Metadata was essentially a part-time training consultancy. SSADM had become a standard for most UK software development projects and was widely taught in all universities. Mike’s two books on SSADM had become standard texts selling in excess of 40,000 copies. Certification schemes develop for SSADM and later for Prince2 had become standards for IT practitioners.

Metadata developed training courses for many other organisations based on Mike’s book. (Among them, Debra Paul, now MD AssistKD and author of several popular books on business analysis, selected our training course for one of the largest UK software development consultancies.) We ran distance learning SSADM courses with weekend face-to-face training that were very popular with contractors. With increasing privatisation of government computing CCTA withdrew support for SSADM so its use and popularity began to decline. Metadata continued to support a few large organisations with training and consultancy.

Around 2006 we saw the emergence of business analysis, taking many ideas from systems analysis and management thinking, as a new discipline and job role. BA certification schemes were developed by the BCS/ISEB and Metadata became an accredited training provider. Initially, Mike worked with a few old associates providing weekend courses on a part-time basis – these proved very successful with many contractors. By 2012 this had built up into a serious business enabling Mike to leave Kingston University, and  Metadata to buy and fit-out its own training centre, theAgile.Space. He was then able to recruit a great team of freelance trainers with considerable practical business analysis and agile experience. Throughout the years Mike has worked with and developed considerable knowledge of project management and agile practices. Now this area of our business is growing rapidly.

We work with big, small, start-up companies to develop their staff skills in business analysis and agile. We’ve worked with major clients like government departments (HM Treasury and Land Registry), Logica, BT, Prudential and Cable and Wireless. Our students have achieved high success rates in the BCS(formerly ISEB) and APMG examinations. Metadata training materials are very highly regarded, particularly the case studies which have been formulated from a combination of extensive real world experience and academic rigour.

Case Study – Cable and Wireless Business Analysis Diploma

Cable & Wireless is one of the world’s leading international communications companies. As part of their commitment to development and training for their people, Cable & Wireless asked Metadata to propose a programme of training to enable their Business Analysts to achieve the highly valued ISEB Business Analysis Diploma. A key objective was to minimise the impact on their business so we designed a series of one day courses to run every fortnight on Mondays. The training programme ran for over six months and by the end, the Business Analysts had achieved a 100% success rate in the BCS( formerly ISEB ) certificate exams.

Case Study – BT Effective Communications Workshop

BT plc is a global leader in provision of communications solutions and services. Its activities include networked IT services, local, national and international telecommunications services, and higher-value broadband and internet products and services. In conjunction with the College of Public Speaking, we have run ‘Effective Communication Workshops’ for members of BT’s elite talent pool. Feedback from the group has been very positive and BT has commissioned further courses.