Lana Woollgar is a Business Analyst at The Foschini Group and a recent delegate on our Business Analysis Practice course.
Lana had an epiphany on the Business Analysis Practice course - that the acronyms are not just 'buzzwords' anymore! She found that the focused and practical content helped her to see the value and application of techniques across the business analysis spectrum.
Lana found that she really enjoyed the Commercial Awareness course class approach and interaction amongst delegates, and that she's gotten great insight into how competing projects can be evaluated and a much better understanding of organisation culture.
Lana found that through the practical examples that solidify the concepts and theory shared on the Modelling Business Processes course the importance of documenting process and task measures, which are too often overlooked, hit home for her.
Lana thought that the Requirements Engineering course brought some very useful concepts together for her, and that she was able to gain a much better understanding of when to use a range of elicitation techniques and know how to apply them in various scenarios.
Here’s what Lana had to say about her training experience:
Tell us a bit about yourself, Lana.
I’ve been performing business analysis for over 10 years, and have been working at The Foschini Group in various positions for the past 15 years.
And for fun I love to belly dance!
Why did you choose to take the business analysis practice course?
Taking stock of where I was in my career, I needed a challenge to continue to grow my broader business analysis skills.
Obtaining this formal business analyst certificate is a goal I want to achieve - and one that I have now successfully completed!
Aside from the course learnings themselves, completing this course will give me Professional Development hours that count towards IIBA certification.
How will the course help you in your career?
Having the techniques to perform strategic analysis on the business areas and identify their issues will be invaluable to me on my projects.
It tied a lot of things together for me.
Knowing to frame and contextualise the internal business processes with the external organisational factors will definitely help me to solve a few challenges going forward.
Fundamentally, I’ve gained a much greater understanding of the suitability of a range of elicitation techniques — not only when to uses them, but also how to apply them in the various scenarios.
The course has given me a far better understanding of financial analysis, as far as organisational stability and project viability is concerned.
What was your biggest learning - did you have an AHA! Moment?
The acronyms are not just 'buzzwords' anymore! I can see the value and applications of the techniques.
The importance of documenting measures together with processes and tasks was my AHA! moment, as this is something that is often overlooked.
Learning the many ways to make the requirements document a whole lot better.
Getting sight into and understanding the range of alternative organisational cultures, to the ones I have experienced so far, was a very interesting topic.
What did you enjoy most about the BCMG training experience?
I really enjoyed the intimate class and the way ALL delegates are encouraged to participate.
I really enjoyed the way the course is presented, with the key concepts being interspersed by practical exercises.
Again, the class participation. I especially enjoy hearing and discussing the experiences and perspectives from the other members of the group.
The class interaction and feedback between delegates really contributes towards what makes this training so enjoyable.
What would you tell someone who is considering doing this course?
You'll really like the focused content and practical work that cements each section. I recommend it.
The practical examples and exercises really solidify the concepts and theory. It’s well worth it.
This course will bring many very useful concepts together for you.
This course will provide you with great insight into how projects can be evaluated for financial and organisational feasibility.
In the spirit of ‘keep growing’, what would you like to learn next?
I am on the path towards my International Diploma in Business Analysis - so next up is Commercial Awareness.
The acronyms are not just 'buzzwords' anymore! The focused and practical content helped me to see the value and application of techniques across the business analysis spectrum.
Last, but not least on The Business Analyst Bootcamp is Requirements Engineering.
This is my last qualifying module towards the International Diploma in Business Analysis. But, that said, I do have my eye on Benefits Management and Business Acceptance as I’ve not covered the whole business analyst spectrum!
Lana took the steps to go beyond the buzzwords and apply techniques in a way that adds real value in the strategic analysis of business. Are you ready to gear up? Download the Business Analysis Practice course brochure now.
