BUSINESS ANALYSIS AND

FINANCIAL POLICY
UPSA – LEVEL 300
Mr. Charles Barnor, Mr. Danaa
Nantogmah and Mr. K. Fosu-Boateng

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 Week 1
Introduction to Business Analysis and
Financial Policy
• INTRODUCTION Week 1
• BUSINESS STRATEGY ANALYSIS Week 2&3
• INVESTIGATION TECHNIQUES Week 4-5
• CONSIDER PERSPECTIVES Week 6
• ANALYSE NEEDS Week 7
• CASE STUDY PRESENTATIONS Week 8
• INTERIM ASSESSMENTS Week 9
• EVALUATE OPTIONS Week 10
• CORPORATE FINANCIAL POLICY DECISIONS Week 11
• DEFINE REQUIREMENTS Week 12
• REVISION Week 13

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 Topic 1
Introduction to Business Analysis and
Financial Policy
• The rationale for business analysis
• The development of business analysis
• The scope of business analysis
• The responsibilities of a business analyst
• The Business Analysis Maturity Model
• The competencies of a business analyst

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 Introduction

• Business analysis is the set of task and techniques use to

work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to
understand the structure, policies and operations of an
organization, and recommend solutions that will enable an
organization to achieve its goals (International institute of
business analysis, 2008).

• The development of business analysis as a professional

discipline has extended the role and responsibilities of the
business analyst (BA). Business analysts investigate ideas
and problems, formulate options for a way forward and
produce business cases setting out their conclusions and
recommendations.

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 The development of business analysis
Business analysts have responsibility for the following areas:

• Identifying the tactical options that will address a given situation

and will support the delivery of the business strategy

• Defining the tactics that will enable the organization to achieve its
strategy

• Supporting the implementation and operation of those tactics

• Redefining the tactics after implementation to take account of

business changes and to ensure continuing alignment with business
objectives

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 Setting the scene: scope of the Business Analyst role
There is a chain of reasoning that leads from the statement of a problem to the implementation of solutions…

…involving up to 10 groups of people…

Owners
defines measures of success and $targets
…Business Analysts confirm & document $Money!

Sponsors
establish a Programme that delivers the strategy
…Business Analysts document Programme TOR
and help build the Business Case
Strategists
determine the strategy to hit the targets
…Business Analysts help do market research, create strategy, challenge &
document
Programme Managers
Institute Projects that implement the programme
…Business Analysts document the Project TOR

Project Stakeholders
…Business Analysts specify requirements for
Projects (in the Business Model)
Solution Builders
build solution
…Business Analysts protect requirements & document compromises
Project managers
Implement solution
…Business Analysts help with
-Process and data migration
-Cutover planning
-Rollout
Design Analysts
design solution that satisfies the requirements
…Business Analysts write functional specifications, protect
requirements & document compromises
Solution Builders & Business
test solution
…Business Analysts ensure tested against requirements
Users
Accept solution
…Business Analysts help with
-$MEASURING $BENEFITS $REALISATION

POST-IMPLEMENTATION
Business Analysts feed back to the Owner how well their 6
measure of success has been achieved
 Chain Of Reasoning: Stakeholders Stakeholders

Drivers Drivers Drivers Drivers

Objectives Objectives Objectives Objectives Objectives

Change Change Change Change Change

Requirements Requirements Requirements Requirements Requirements

Change Requirements must be assumed to be wrong until they are proved to be right

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Fundamental Components of Business Analysis

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 All the Links in the Chain Of Reasoning
Description

The problems / opportunities that

the business face
Driver

Addressed as
measured by

The measures and targets that business

will enable us to declare the
change project has been Objective
successful
Delivered by

Definitions of what changes are required

that will affect the measures of success Change
(objectives) sufficiently for the business Requirement
to be declared successful
Enforces

What rules must be implemented

by the changes specified in the Business Rule
requirements

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Business Analysis

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 Business Analysis
• Purpose:
– Identify where the business stands
in relation to rivals, etc.
– Collect and use data to inform business decision
making
– Identify strengths and weaknesses
in the business
– Use information to inform strategic planning

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 Business Analysis
• Method:
• Collection of data
from a range of sources:
• Market research
• Past sales data
• Market growth data
• Specialist analyst data
• Secondary data, e.g. Mintel

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Data

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 Analysis
• Range of methods used to analyse data:
• Trends
– Growth rates
– Nominal
– Average
• Mean
• Median
• Mode
– Variance
• Standard deviation
• Range
– Time series analysis
– Scatter graphs
• Correlation

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 Trends
• Looking for patterns
in data collections
• Frequency and reliability of trends
• Impact of external factors, e.g. seasonal
variation, random events, cyclical trends

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 Averages
• Averages are a measure of central tendency –
the most likely or common item in a data
series
• Calculated through 3 measures:
– Mean
– Median
– Mode

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 Averages
• Mean = Sum of items
in the series/number of items

X = Σx
x
• Median = middle number
in a data series – 0.5 (n+1)
• Mode = the most frequently occurring value in a data
series

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 Variance
• Averages have limitations – measures of data spread
used to assess width
• Range – difference between
the highest and the lowest value
• Standard Deviation – used to measure the variance
of the data set from the mean – can highlight
how reliable the mean is as being representative of
the data set

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The Standard Deviation

Σ (xi – x )2
S=
n

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 Correlation
• The degree to which there is
a relationship between two
or more random variables
• The closer the relationship the higher the
degree of correlation
• Perfect correlation would be
where r = 1

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 Time-Series Analysis
• Used to analyse movements
of a variable over a time period – usually years,
quarters, months, etc.
• Importance of assessing the:
– Trend
– Seasonality
– Key moments
– Magnitude

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 Presentation
• Graphs
• Charts
• Tables
• Index numbers – Method of showing average changes in
large amounts of data
– Laspeyres – Uses a base period weighting measurement
– Paasche – Uses a current price weighting measurement

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Forecasting

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 Qualitative
• Focus groups - a group of individuals selected and assembled
by researchers to discuss and comment on, from personal experience, a topic, issue or
product
• User groups – similar to focus groups but consisting of those
who have experience in the use of a product, system, service, etc.
• Panel surveys – repeated measurements from the same sample
of people over a period of time
• Delphi method – calls on the expertise and insights of a panel of experts to help with
forecasting – seen as being more reliable than data analysis only
– Could be drawn together from around the world as there is no need to have
people together at the same time
• In-house judgements – Use the expertise and judgements of those involved in the
business in aiding and making judgements

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 Quantitative
• Makes use of all the statistical data collected by the firm
and by other firms/organisations to help inform decision
making
– Surveys
– Sales data
– Impact on sales
• Primary data – collected by the firm themselves
• Data collected by others and used by the firm, e.g. Office
of National Statistics (ONS), Gallup, Mori, Mintel

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 Forecasting
• Advantages and disadvantages:
• Data from several years can give accurate guides to
future performance
• Statistical techniques can make
the data informative and useful
• All depends on the quality of the data and the
accuracy of the techniques used to analyse the data

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 • Q& A

• THANK YOU

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