BCS Foundation Certificate in Business Change

Managing Organisational Change

Manage Change with latest tools and techniques
Learn the basics of organisational change and its principals
Know the different types of change
Acquire, Deploy and Ensure successful change solutions in your organisation

Change is a never-ending phenomenon and when it occurs in an organisation it might disturb the work environment. To counter this it is necessary to manage change in the organisation. The top management feels that if the element of change is not managed, it can have adverse effects on the organisation. The BCS Foundation Certificate in Business Change provides the aspirants such a type of knowledge. It also upgrades their skills such that they can manage the organisational change. At Pentagon Training, we provide the delegates with the course to help them progress further in their careers.

Who should take this course

The BCS Foundation Certificate in Business Change provides an entry qualification for anyone wishing to understand the process and techniques used in delivering business change. The course would be generally taken up by Project and System Managers.

Prerequisites

There are no formal entry requirements for this course although attendance at an accredited course is strongly recommended.

What Will You Learn

During the course the delegates will learn about the following concepts:

Business and IS strategy
Business improvement definition
Business change design and implementation
Benefits management and realisation

Key Learning Points

Exam Prepration Tips

Tutor Support

Courseware

Course Overview

The BCS Foundation Certificate in Business Change (one of the courses in the Business Analysis Training) delivers a complete view of the business change lifecycle and the activities, techniques and models used when carrying out business change work. Much of the focus is on the use of Information Technology (IT) to enable business change. Today without taking IT into the framework it would become difficult to achieve maximum benefits from the change. The BCS Foundation Certificate in Business Change will be awarded to those candidates who are capable of demonstrating knowledge and understanding of the principles, approaches and techniques used to conduct business change activities.

Business Change Principles
- The distinction between IT projects, pure business change projects and the IT-enabled business change projects
- The distinction between IT as a driver and IT as an enabler
- The degrees of business change
- The distinction between improving business operations and improving business information
- IT as a core competence and the implications for the outsourcing business model
- The business change lifecycle
- The stages in the business change lifecycle
- The identification, analysis and management of stakeholders
- The business, project and external stakeholders
- The roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders:
  - Sponsor/Senior Responsible Officer
  - Business Analyst Programme Manager
  - Project Manager
  - Business Change Manager
  - Business Actor
  - Developer
Business and IT Alignment

Aligning the organisation with the External Environment, the Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategy and Tactics, and the Enterprise Architecture
The external and internal business environments for organisations
- The importance of understanding external environment influences
- The importance of analysing the internal organisational capability
- The importance of understanding culture
Organisational Cultures
National Cultures
The implications of culture for business change projects
Corporate and IT Governance and the relevance to benefits management and risk management
Elements of an Enterprise Architecture

Business Improvement Definition
- Investigating the business situation: rationale and techniques
- Holistic approach and systems thinking
- Gap analysis: purpose and approach
- Business requirements elicitation and analysis
- The contents of the business case
  - Options
  - Costs
  - Benefits
  - Risks
  - Impacts
  - Decisions
- Stakeholder responsibilities and the business case
- The business case lifecycle
- Programme definition
  - The change programme
  - The relationship between programmes and projects
  - The role of the programme office
Business Change Design
- Aspects of organisational change
  - The organisation structure: boundaries and relationships
  - Organisation performance measurement
- Aspects of people change
  - Defining roles and jobs
  - Defining required skills and competencies
  - Managing performance of individuals
  - Communications planning
- Aspects of process change
  - The distinction between the functional and process views
  - The elements of a business process
  - ‘As is’ and ‘To be’ business processes
  - Modelling tasks
  - Improving business processes
- Information analysis and modelling
  - Information management modelling
  - Levels and types of information
  - Information modelling and the representation of business rules
- Aspects of information technology
  - Systems development lifecycles: bespoke and off the shelf software solutions
  - Architecture and service management concerns
Business Change Implementation
- Planning the acquisition, deployment and acceptance
- Acquiring the solution
  - Pros and cons of bespoke deployment
  - Pros and cons of off the shelf software solutions
  - Business acceptance testing
- Deploying the solution
  - Roles required to deploy business change
  - Approaches to deploying business change
  - The change process – unfreeze, transition, refreeze
- Ensuring acceptance
  - Emotional impact of changes
  - The learning cycle
  - Analysing the forces that assist and resist change
- Reviewing the change
  - Purpose of post-implementation review
  - The distinction between PIR and benefits review
Benefits Management and Realisation
- Benefits management in the business change lifecycle
- Classifying benefits
- Investment appraisal techniques
- Benefits and the Balanced Business Scorecard, CSFs and KPIs
- Roles and responsibilities in benefits management
- The purpose, conduct and outcomes of a benefits review
- Benefits realisation: significance and challenges

Foundation in Business Change

BCS provides extra time to the candidates in case of some disability or if they have a native language different from the language of the exam.If the examination is taken in a language that is not the candidate’s native / official language then they are entitled to 25% extra time. If the examination is taken in a language that is not the candidate’s native / official language then they are entitled to use their own paper language dictionary (whose purpose is translation between the examination language and another national language) during the examination. Electronic versions of dictionaries will not be allowed into the examination room.

About Reading

Located in Berkshire, Reading is a large and historically significant town. It was an important center of trade as well as religion in the medieval period. The Reading Abbey, still has its 12th century abbey gateway and significant ruins intact. Due to the English Civil War the town was damaged severely, causing a significant loss in trade. Reading also played an important role in the Revolution of 1688. It is where the revolution's only significant military action was took place. The Great Western Railway , the brewing business, baking and seed growing all happened in 19th century. Now,Reading boasts of being a major commercial centre, that involves information technology and insurance. Reading has, despite its nearness to London, a net inward traveler flow.

Reading came up as a settlement way back in the 8th century. It had become the largest town in Berkshire by 1525 and had a population of around 5000 in the early 17th Century. It was in the 18th century that major iron works in the town came up and the city saw the growth of the brewing business for which Reading is known till date. It was in the 19th century that Reading saw the growth of manufacturing business also.

Economy

Reading is a vital commercial centre in the Thames Valley and Southern England. It is home to the headquarters of many British companies and UK offices of foreign multinationals. It is also a major retail centre. Daily Reading has an inflow of 30,000 commuters as compared to 24,000 departures. Large companies such as Microsoft and Oracle have their headquarters in Reading. Other businesses in Reading are Prudential, PepsiCo and Wrigley. In 2007, an independent poll placed Reading 16th in a league table of best performing retail centres in the UK.

Culture

Reading is known for its Reading Beer Festival which was first held in 1994 and is now known to be one of the largest beer festivals in the UK. It takes place at King's Meadow for the five days immediately preceding the May Day bank holiday every year. Reading Pride also takes place at Reading, an annual LGBTA festival in Kings Meadow.

Museums

The Museum of Reading contains galleries that showcase the history of Reading . The museum is also home to the excavations of Calleva Atrebatum. It also houses a full-size replica of the Bayeux Tapestry, an art collection, and galleries relating to Huntley and Palmers.

Located in East Reading, The Museum of English Rural Life,is dedicated to the changing face of rural England. It also has collections of public value. It is not only owned but also managed by the University of Reading. The Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology, the Cole Musum of Zoology and the Harris Botanic Gardens are also under the same management. All these museums can be found on the university's Whiteknights Campus.

There is also a small Riverside Museum at Blake's Lock which tells one about Reading's two rivers, the Thames and the Kennet. The Museum of Berkshire Aviation houses a collection of aircraft and other aviation accessories.