IndigoCube has launched a portfolio of 18 workshops aimed at helping business analysts fully internalise knowledge learned during training by using it in reallife work situations under guidance of an expert.
The workshops typically take place at client premises, and are designed as intensive consulting-like interventions to apply new learning to actual projects.

“We have been looking for ways to make learning stick, and thus to maximise the return on investment for both business analysts and companies. The challenge is that people learn concepts and techniques in a training situation but can find it hard to put them into practice, perhaps because a particular project is especially complex,” says Robin Grace, principal consultant at IndigoCube.

“These sessions are designed to help participants work through a specific problem on an actual project with a trainer, and so turn learning into competency.”

The workshops are designed by B2T Training, a global leader in business analysis training, and take place over a full or half day. IndigoCube is B2T Training’s exclusive South African partner.

The catalogue of workshops includes:

Ask the right questions
* Breaking requirements down into core components;
* Defining project objectives;
* Writing excellent requirements;
* Analysing your current business processes;
* Finding and analysing data;
* Being agile on your project;
* Project recovery, get back on track; and
* Project requirements discovery.

Grace says that business analysts are under increasing pressure to improve performance in today’s fast-moving and competitive economy, in which speed to market is becoming a key success factor. In particular, the emergence of agile techniques to drive greater team collaboration is prompting business analysts (and other team members) to adopt new behaviour. Training helps them to acquire the necessary new skills, but the challenge is to ensure that what has been learned changes work patterns.

“These workshops are set to play a big role in reinforcing what has been learned in training. They will help business analysts apply new skills in the workplace, so ensuring that new skills become standard practice,” concludes Grace.