Business & Professional Excellence
Business Analysis and Structured Problem Solving
A five-day programme on the discipline that precedes every good decision: defining the problem precisely, analysing rather than transcribing requirements, mapping how work actually flows, appraising options against stated criteria, and presenting a recommendation that invites challenge and survives it.
The business challenge
Why organisations commission this programme
Solutions are routinely selected before problems are defined. Requirements are collected as stated preferences rather than analysed needs, processes are documented as they are described rather than as they operate, and recommendations arrive at decision forums without an evidence trail. Decisions are then taken on advocacy, and revisited later at greater cost.
Solutions are selected before problems are defined, requirements are collected rather than analysed, and recommendations reach decision-makers without an evidence trail.
Who it is for
Participants
- Audience
- Business analysts, process owners, project team members, improvement staff and professional specialists
- Recommended cohort
- 12 to 20 participants
- Prerequisites
- Involvement in analysis, improvement, project or advisory work. No formal analysis qualification assumed.
Outcomes
What participants will be able to do
- Define a problem precisely, separating symptom, cause and constraint.
- Elicit, analyse and validate requirements rather than transcribing stated preferences.
- Map and analyse processes to locate handovers, controls, waste and failure points.
- Structure an options appraisal with criteria, evidence and stated assumptions.
- Present a recommendation to a decision-maker in a form that invites challenge and survives it.
Learning objectives
- Establish precise problem definition as the starting point of analysis.
- Build requirements analysis capability beyond elicitation and transcription.
- Develop process mapping and analysis that locates handovers, controls and failure points.
- Raise the structure, evidence base and defensibility of recommendations put to decision-makers.
Indicative content
Programme structure
Content is confirmed during design and adapted to your context.
Day 1
Problem definition, scoping, root-cause analysis and hypothesis-led investigation; baseline assessment.
- Problem definition and scoping
- Symptom, cause and constraint
- Root cause analysis
- Hypothesis-led investigation; baseline assessment
Day 2
Requirements: elicitation techniques, analysis, prioritisation, documentation and validation.
- Elicitation techniques
- Requirements analysis and prioritisation
- Documentation standards
- Validation with stakeholders
Day 3
Process mapping and analysis, data gathering, control points and improvement identification.
- Process mapping
- Handover, control and waste analysis
- Data gathering
- Improvement identification
Day 4
Options appraisal, business case structure, assumption testing and evidence standards.
- Options appraisal
- Evaluation criteria
- Business case structure
- Assumption testing and evidence standards
Day 5
Recommendation and presentation practice to a simulated decision forum, with assessment.
- Structuring a recommendation
- Presentation to a decision forum
- Handling challenge
- Assessment
Delivery and customisation
Configured around your organisation
- Typical duration
- Five days
- Formats
- Classroom or blended
- Language
- English by default. Other languages subject to facilitator availability and materials translation, agreed during design.
How it can be tailored
- A real client problem as the running case, with sponsor consent.
- Client documentation standards and business case templates.
- The format and expectations of the client's own decision forums.
- Process mapping notation aligned to any existing organisational standard.
- Depth of requirements content adjusted for business analysis specialists versus general professional populations.
Methods
- A real client problem used as the running case, with sponsor consent, carried from definition to recommendation.
- Elicitation practice with stakeholders played in role, including vague and contradictory requirements.
- Process mapping conducted on an actual process, with the map validated against how the work is really done.
- Final presentation to a simulated decision forum that tests evidence and assumptions.
Materials, assessment and completion
Materials
- Participant workbook containing session content, frameworks, exercises and space for applied work.
- Client-contextualised case material and scenario packs used during the programme.
- Job aids, checklists and templates designed for use in the role after the programme.
- Assessment instruments and the marking criteria applied to them.
- Individual action plan template and a manager briefing note.
- Problem definition template, requirements standard, process mapping notation guide and an options appraisal template.
Reinforcement
- Individual action plans agreed during the programme and shared with line managers where the client permits.
- Manager briefing material setting out what was taught and what should be reinforced in the role.
- Toolkits and templates issued in editable form for continued use.
- Follow-up session at 30, 60 or 90 days where commissioned, reviewing action-plan progress and obstacles.
- Review of a participant's live analysis work at 60 days against the standards taught, where commissioned.
Completion
- Attendance at no less than 80 per cent of scheduled contact time, recorded daily and reconciled against the registered cohort.
- Participation in the assessed practical components of the programme.
- Submission of the assessed work product and the individual action plan.
- Achievement of the assessment threshold where the client sets one; where no threshold is set, results are reported without a pass or fail determination.
Participants who meet the completion criteria receive a Knull certificate of completion recording the programme, dates, duration, content covered and, where assessed, the assessment outcome. Knull does not award accredited or regulated qualifications and does not hold third-party training accreditation. Attendance and assessment records are retained under the engagement terms and provided to the client with the completion report.
| Component | Weighting | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline and post assessment | 25% | Knowledge and analytical judgement instrument administered before and after, reported as learning gain. |
| Analysis pack | 45% | Problem statement, requirements analysis, process analysis, options appraisal and recommendation, marked against a rubric. |
| Forum presentation | 20% | Structure, evidence use, statement of assumptions and limitations, and handling of challenge. |
| Individual action plan | 10% | Specificity and realism of committed changes to the participant's own analytical practice. |
Next step
Make it fit your organisation
Dates, cohort, format and fees are agreed in a proposal once scope is defined. To register interest in a closed cohort, use a corporate booking request — Knull reviews every request; it is not a confirmed reservation.
Related
You may also consider
Strategic Leadership for Senior Managers
A five-day intensive for senior managers accountable for delivering a strategy they did not author, in conditions they do not fully control. The programme works on three things: converting strategy into a small number of executable priorities, deciding well with incomplete information, and holding people through the period in which a change is correct but not yet popular.
Management Essentials for New and Developing Managers
A five-day foundation for people who have recently become managers, commonly delivered as two blocks so that participants can apply the first block before returning. It covers the transition from doing to managing, operational control, performance conversations and the routines that make a team function.
Project Management Practitioner Programme
A five-day practitioner programme that builds a consistent working method across the project population: scope that survives a gate review, a schedule with real logic, RAID operated as a discipline rather than a register, change control that makes scope movement visible, and reporting a sponsor can act on.
Discuss this programme for your organisation
Tell us about your priorities, capability gaps or business challenges. We'll help identify an appropriate next step.