Learn about Business Analyst Certifications – Which one is right for you?

Posted on September 16, 2020

A professional qualification is a significant investment in your career and it is important to have a clear understanding of what is available so you can make the right decision.

We are reviewing in this post all the qualifications available, who are they for, and what you will learn.

 

BCS Business Analysis Diploma Certification

The most popular qualification for business analysts is the BCS Diploma in Business Analysis. The qualification is accredited by the BCS, the Charted Institute for IT.

Who is it for?

The BCS Business analysis diploma is aimed at all professionals who want to develop business analysis skills. It will suit all professionals who want to work in roles that help organisations deliver change initiatives to achieve business goals. If your work involves talking to stakeholders or clients to gather requirements, needs, and issues to deliver solutions for them then you need business analysis skills.

From the delegates that attend our courses, 40% are completely new to business analysis and the rest have some experience.

There are no pre-requirements to achieving the BCS Diploma in Business Analysis.

What will you learn?

At the end of the programme you would be able to:

  • Use investigation techniques to uncover and analyse business needs
  • Manage & engage stakeholders to uncover issues early in a project and deliver solutions that meet business goals and objective
  • Develop & analyse process models to identify business improvements 
  • Learn to use gap analysis to compare current and future situations
  • Deliver and manage acceptance testing to ensure needs are met 
  • Develop business cases for change – identifying options, benefits, costs, risks, and impacts
  • Develop a toolkit of BA tools and techniques and learn how and when to use them in your role

The qualification will help you :

  • prove to employers and stakeholders that you understand the best practices as recommended by the industry
  • learn the business analyst language
  • add structure to your role
  • develop confidence in your knowledge and skills
  • gain a toolkit of tools and techniques to successfully perform business analysis

How do you achieve the BCS Business Analysis Diploma?

The BCS diploma in business analysis consists of one foundation and three practitioner qualifications followed by an oral exam. Each qualification stands alone and, in various combinations, leads to the International BCS Diploma in Business Analysis.

We are listing here the courses that you need to take if you want to achieve the BCS Diploma in Business Analysis.

1. Mandatory Modules

BCS Business Analysis Practice

BCS Requirements Engineering

2. Optional Modules

Practitioner Optional: BCS Modelling Business Processes  or BCS Agile Systems Development Essentials

Foundation Optional: BCS Foundation in Business Change  or  BCS Organisational Behaviour  or BCS Foundation in Business Analysis

3. Oral Exam

BCS Oral Exam Preparation

Click here to find out more about the diploma

You can book all the courses you need for the BCS Diploma as a bundle and save money – click to find out more

Which optional courses to choose as part of the diploma?

Two courses that are part of the BCS Business Analysis Diploma Bundle are optional: one practitioner and one foundation.

Practitioner Optional

BCS Modelling Business Processes (the most popular option)

    • Learn to apply practical process modeling techniques that can help to improve your business processes.

BCS Agile Systems Development Essentials

    • Learn a solid grounding in systems investigation and quality assurance – the underpinning of successful systems development.

Foundation Optional

BCS Foundation in Business Change

    • Learn the principles, process, and roles involved in business change.
    • Learn techniques used to identify business improvements.
    • Learn to manage the classification, review, and realisation of benefits.

BCS Foundation in Commercial Awareness

    • Develop your understanding of business finance and organisational behaviour to deliver effective business change.
    • Understand external and internal impacts for successful organisational evaluation.

BCS Foundation in Business Analysis

    • Learn a broad overview of the tools and techniques available to deliver business change initiatives.
    • Understand how to identify and evaluate options for improving your business.

What past delegates new to business analysis say after achieving the BCS Diploma in Business Analysis?

“I studied four modules with Metadata as part of the BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis. I’m new to the field of BA so I was apprehensive about diving in at the deep end, especially as I planned on doing the more intensive weekend courses. There’s a lot of content to get through including plenty of new terminologies, techniques, and concepts. However, the entire experience was an absolute pleasure. The content delivery by the Metadata trainers was fantastic and, together with an extremely professional and responsive support team. I got through it all and passed the BCS interview on the first attempt. Highly recommended!”, Matthew, past delegate, submitted on reviews.co.uk

IIBA Certifications

The other popular certification for business analysts is the CBAP qualification developed and accredited by IITBA, the International Institute for Business Analysis.

This qualification is based on the BABOK standard and it represents a very structured approach to business analysis that fits well with teams and organisations who want to have a clearly defined business analysis process and standard to follow.

In contrast, the BCS Diploma in Business Analysis offers more flexibility and you can choose optional modules to fit with your career direction or role.

You need to prove you have 5 years of business analyst experience to take the CBAP exam.

Click to find out more

 

Download the Business Analysis Certifications Guide

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