communication skills training course outline

Soft Skills Training Overview

Soft skills, sometimes referred to as “professional skills”, are the essential enablers of business analysis - independent of technical or industry specific skills and knowledge.

Soft skills are extremely valuable to any organization - and are often in short supply.

Stakeholders at every level of the organization rely on thorough, objective, accurate business analysis and the resulting business requirements and supporting business cases for decisions regarding changes in business processes and business systems.

A standardized consistently applied best-practice approach for the elicitation of requirements, the application of critical thinking to analysis and development and communication of effective business cases is essential to decision making. Unfortunately, sub-optimal decisions and missed (or misaligned) opportunities are far too frequent.

Soft Skills for business and I.T. Professionals results in better, faster business and IT decisions – with increased agility that balances the allocation of time, budget, talent and risk among alternatives and with competing opportunities and priorities.

Inteq’s Soft Skills training provides business and IT professionals with the elicitation, critical thinking, decision making, business case and communication skills, techniques and methods to engage stakeholders at all levels across the enterprise.

The concepts and content of this course is based on years of best practices gleaned from thousands of business analysis interactions across the spectrum of industries and subject matter domains across the commercial and public sectors. It’s your roadmap for developing enterprise-level professional skills.

Why are soft skills so valuable?

Business is increasingly complex, rapidly changing and chaotic. Getting "buy in" and support from a wide range of stakeholders is critical.
Organizations are lean. No one seems to know "the business" - only pieces.
Access to knowledgeable subject matter experts is increasingly difficult.
Projects often span multiple business areas with different, sometimes conflicting, business practices – often resulting in an endless chain of references to "someone who knows".
Business is fast paced. Everyone needs a solution “now”!
There never seems to be enough time to get it right. However, there is little tolerance for getting it wrong.

Inteq's Soft Skills is a highly interactive high-energy training program. It’s specifically designed to enable you and your organization to succeed in today's rapidly changing, complex chaotic business environment.

Inteq's Soft Skills training course has emerged as the gold standard for professional-level business analysis training - and is simply the most effective soft skills training available in the industry.

Inteq's Soft Skills training is more than education; it's transformation - for the participants, project teams and their organizations.

That’s why over 300,000 business and IT professionals worldwide choose Inteq's business analysis training courses - Including Inteq's Soft Skills training course.

Introduction and Foundation

Business analysis from an enterprise 360° perspective
Defining customer and business value
Business change drivers
Agile business analysis
What is a business case?

Framework for Business Analysis

Business functions, processes and work activities
Business requirements vs. business systems requirements
Stakeholder and SME analysis
Business value drivers and constraint
The 5 essential business analysis questions

Analyzing Business Problems & Opportunities

Analysis from an agile perspective
Goals vs. strategies vs. tactics
Measurement, metrics and indicators
Gap & Root Cause Analysis | Scenario Analysis | Risk Analysis | Cost Analysis

Developing Business Cases

Business case format and components
Anchoring business cases with user stories
Iterative evolution of business cases
Validating and refining business cases
Grooming the case backlog
Presenting business cases

Eliciting Business Knowledge

Deep versus superficial analysis
Sources of business knowledge
Essential facilitation skills

Essential Professional Skills

Managing difficult personalities and situations
Teams and team building
Communication skills
Active Listening skills

Case Study – Developing a Business Case

Participants analyze a business problem, identifying alternative solutions and develop a business case in connection with a real world business process decision that impacts people, systems and workflows. This case study provides an invaluable template that participants can leverage in their organization.

Practical Guidance

Establishing and maintaining credibility
Trending topics
Take-home templates
Getting started

Who Should Attend?

Business Analysts, Systems Analysts, Data Modelers and Data Analysts, Project Managers, Business and IT Professionals, Subject Matter Experts and anyone in involved in elicitation, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, business cases, communicating business requirements and business decisions or leading change.

Prerequisites:

None. Inteq's Soft Skills training provides a comprehensive approach to elicitation, critical thinking, decision making, business cases and communication regardless of background or experience.

Soft Skills for Business Analysts is an excellent companion and seamlessly integrates with any of our business analysis courses including Business Systems Analysis, Agile Business Analysis, Business Process Modeling, Business Process Management, Logical Data Modeling and Change Management.

Learning Options:

Anytime eLearning™: Anytime | Anywhere | Any Device | Self-Paced

Onsite Training: Onsite at your locations worldwide or via our live virtual classroom | Contact us for details.

Course Length:

The course is designed for two full days of training. However, Anytime eLearning™ participants can learn at their own pace and on their own schedule.

Participants can go back and review the material at their own pace and time schedule to reinforce and further internalize the concepts.

Anytime eLearning™ participants have 45-days to complete the course and most participants typically complete the training over 1-3 weeks.

What’s included?

In addition to the world-class training, participants also receive a comprehensive course workbook - which is yours to keep, supplemental materials, a personalized Certificate of Completion and CEU (continuing education unit) credits.

Clearly define business problems and related opportunities
Proven techniques for discovering and mining deep business knowledge
Facilitation and elicitation techniques that enable you to fully engage subject matter experts
Critical thinking skills to clearly define and rapidly resolve business questions
Develop, validate and clearly communicate effective business cases
Navigate the political and cultural roadblocks that impede high quality analysis
Respond rather that react to problems
Proven techniques for generating and evaluating ideas
Rapidly make effective critical decisions
… and much more

Soft Skills Training Course

Providing multiple options for your professional development

Soft Skills Training Overview

Why are soft skills so valuable?

Soft Skills Training Course Outline

Participants Receive

Key Skills & Techniques that You Will Learn:

What is the Next Step?

Some of Our Clients

GSA and DOD Schedules

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