Business Analysis for IT Professionals

I.INTRODUCTION

Business analysis is the discipline of identifying business needs and determining solutions to
business problems. Solutions often include a systems development component, but may also
consist of process improvement, organizational change or strategic planning and policy
development. The person who carries out this task is called a business analyst (BA).Business
analysts of an organization are responsible for analyzing the workings of an organization along
with the design of business methods being used and creating a bridge between management,
front line employees and customer needs. It is the analyst's jobs to understand client and
market requirements and devise solutions. Before taking any project the business analyst has to
analyze the business process of a client or customer and provide a business solution in terms of
project or product. The role of Business Analyst is vital in IT industry in getting project from
various domains and making it functional through project team. To execute the project
according to the client’s requirement, the Business analyst need to gather and manage the
requirement with help of IT tools. These IT tools give better representation of client’s functional
and non-functional requirements to project team. More over the change in requirements at
various stages of project can also be tracked using such Business Analysis tools.

II.COURSE STRUCTURE

The course structure and objectives focus on a business analyst work and the way an
organization manages the requirements of clients with the help of IT tool.

Business Analysis
Basic Structure Tentative Contents
Business Analyst Who, What, Why? Skills of
1 Introduction Business Analyst
Knowledge areas of Business Analysis
2 System Development life Cycle
Enterprise Analysis Business architecture, Feasibility studies,
3 Project scope
What are Requirements, The Characteristics
of Requirements, The Requirement Process,
The Requirement Process, Planning & Planning & Managing Requirements,
Management Requirement Risk Management
4
Business Requirements, Business
Requirements Vs System Requirements,
Types of Requirements, Project
Requirements, User Requirements,Non
Functional Requirements, Categorizing
Elicitation of Business Requirements requirements based on availability,
5 Principles for collecting good Requirements,
 Techniques for collecting Requirements etc.
Requirement Analysis,CategoriesProject
Requirements, The project
requirements,Measurable,Achievable,Project
Background,Customer and Market
Needs,Stakeholders,Client and the
Customer,Users,Product Scope,Risk,Cost,
Performance Requirements, Operational
Analysis of Requirements Requirements, Maintainability Requirements
6
Writing the Specification, Rules to write
Good Requirements, Common Problems,
USE OF TERMS, Requirement Structure
and Grammar, Functional Requirement
Specifications, Project Requirements
Specification of Requirements Template
7
Techniques for Verification, Traceability
Matrix, Importance of traceability matrix,
How to create a traceability Matrix
8 Verification of Requirements
Taking any industry type students needs to
gather requirements, manage the
requirements and write up a business
9 Project work requirement document.

III. SCOPE OF BUSINESS ANALYSIS

The scope of Business analysis course lies in the fact that an analyst in a business is expected
to analyze and critique the various business functions including finance, marketing, IT etc to
improve the productivity and efficiency of an establishment. A professional in this position also
helps the company to optimize its day to day operations and evaluate the structure of its
business.

The industry vertical that can be studied are

1. IT industry
2. Production based company
3. Telecom industry
4. Electronics based industry
5. Financial companies
6. Advertise based company
Etc.
IV.COURSE OBJECTIVES

• Understand the concepts and scope of Business Analyst working in IT industry as well
as other industry.
• Use of IT tools in requirement gathering, requiremet management and process design
for project.
• Use IT tools to manage requirements of various industry verticals to generate project

V.INTENDED OUTCOMES FROM THE COURSE

After successful completion of this course the student should be able to serve as Business
Analyst, Product Analyst, System Analyst and Process Analyst.

VI-IT TOOLS used in the COURSE

1. Process Design and Manage-MS-Visio (Microsoft)

2. Requirement gathering and Managing-RequisitePro (IBM) or EnterpriseArchitect (SPARX

System) or AnalystPro (Goda Software)
 Fixed Income Markets & Derivatives

Learning outcome

The students are expected to acquire an applied and advanced knowledge in fixed income
markets and their derivatives.

Course Content

Introduction to fixed income markets

Fixed income instruments

Government, Corporate and Municipal Bonds

Bond mathematics – price-yield relationships – yield curve analysis – Zero coupon yield curve
and its applications

Trading and regulation in fixed income markets

Structure of Global and Indian fixed income markets

Fixed income derivatives – Risk management using fixed income derivatives – spreadsheet
applications for fixed income securities

Related courses Global Capital Markets, Quantitative Finance

 Strategic Cost Management
Course Description

This course extends the perspective of cost management/analysis from a primary focus on
tactical short-run/micro concerns to an emphasis on strategic long-run/macro issues. The linkage
between cost management/analysis and strategy is facilitated by utilizing three powerful strategic
management tools: value chain analysis, strategic positioning analysis, and cost driver analysis.
Supported by these as well as by other financial and non-financial tools, cost
management/analysis evolves into Strategic Cost Management (SCM). SCM exists to support
decision-makers as they develop, communicate, implement, evaluate and modify organizational
strategy.

Student Learning Objectives/Outcomes

There are three course themes:

1. Developing new ways of looking at familiar problems and concepts – an SCM look at such
familiar issues as product line profitability, make/buy or new product introduction.

2. Introducing some relatively new and/or interesting topics/tools in cost analysis that facilitate
SCM, to include but not limited to:

Activity Based Management/Budgeting SCM for Line of Business Evaluation

Economic Value to the Customer SCM for Product/Channel Decisions

Life Cycle Costing SCM for Sourcing Decisions

Strategic Cost Drivers Measuring and Managing Capacity

Strategy and Management Accounting Value Chain Analysis

Quality Cost Measurement/Management Target Costing

Environmental Cost Measurement/Management

3. This course is designed for students who plan to pursue careers as management consultants,
as internal consultants or as business managers. Regardless of the career path selected, all
students will benefit from exposure to the unique perspective of contemporary practitioners.
 Microfinance Management

Course Brief
The microfinance sector has also grown impressively in India. There were 76.6 million
microfinance accounts in the country as of March, 2009; while the total microfinance sector
loans outstanding were Rs 35,900 crore. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has identified the
growth of microfinance sector as an important avenue through which the broader national goal
of making a broad range of financial services accessible to increasing proportion of the
population, usually referred to as financial inclusion goal, can be reached. The RBI considers
lending by banks to the microfinance sector as part of their priority sector lending requirements.

Market demand for microfinance services is estimated at more than US$300 billion, while
market supply is just US$4 billion. Despite the important and catalytic role played by the
international donor community in promoting microfinance, it has invested only $1.2 billion in the
sector and allocates an incremental $800 million to US$1 billion per year in new financing.
Domestic financing represents the primary source of financing for microfinance. To date, neither
international nor domestic financing has been sufficient to meet demand. If microfinance
institutions are to close the significant supply-demand gap, vast external resources will need to
be tapped. In the long-term, only the financial markets have the resources readily available to
allow for optimal growth. The huge success of IPO of SKS Microfinance in India is a testimony
to this. This has induced many microfinance companies to approach the markets for raising their
resources and make them more transparent to the economy and public at large.

In view of the exponential growth in Microfinance Sector in India, there is a need for well
groomed professionals to lead the industry. A well designed course on Microfinance
Management would go a long way in attracting interested students in this area and further
contribute for establishing a niche position for our Institute in the comity of best Institutes in this
field.

This Course – Microfinance Management addresses all the said needs of the Industry and has
been designed by experts with abundant experience and academic background. The course
starts by introducing a managerial perspective on an understanding of factors of financial needs
of the poor, the economic opportunities of the poor, experiences of poverty initiatives in India.
The course explains the conceptual frame of microfinance. It offers a deeper understanding of
the fundamentals and principles of microfinance apart from providing the characteristics of
microfinance clients. Aside from the appreciation of various microfinance methodologies, the
course also tackles traditional and innovative microfinance products and services – loans,
savings, micro-insurance and remittances.

Further, it aims to familiarize with the concepts of SHG mechanism, global experiences in
microfinance, and more particularly the Indian experiences, funding of microfinance in India,
supportive environment for commercial microfinance in India, etc. It provides the students
abundant knowledge as to how to start an MFI, how to manage an MFI, Evaluation of an MFI,
Rating of MFI and other related aspects of MFI management. The course enables the student to
understand the innovative approaches in development of microfinance Products, Etc. The
financial product design and development unit uses market-based or demand-led approaches.
The financial product design and development framework outlines research methodologies
using participatory rapid appraisal techniques to determine the needs of the market; assess
institutional readiness for product development; and assess competitive advantage of product
prototypes. The course extends the whole process of product design and development that
involves assembling the product development team, design process, product costing and
pricing, pilot testing, product launch and commercialization.

Microfinance management course provides the students with adequate knowledge about
Enterprise Risk management in MFIs. Delinquency is one of the major challenges that
microfinance institutions face. The course enables the students to understand delinquency by
tracing its causes and costs. It offers various perspectives on delinquency from the vantage
point of the borrowers and the microfinance institution. Students will also be trained on how to
measure delinquency using international standards. The course will also present research
results of the most common delinquency problems that MFIs face, and how successful MFIs
have addressed these problems. The course undoubtedly creates awareness about the
importance of Sustainable Development Issues in Microfinance. The course will end with a
discussion on challenges, issues, trends and future opportunities in the microfinance industry.