2026 Cohort: Intro to Business Analysis, with Sienna Howlett-Wagner and Staci Cotter

Sienna Howlett-Wagner and Staci Cotter

Sienna is an F&SCM Industry Delivery Consultant & TechFluent Board Treasurer

Staci is a Senior Project Manager at WinfoSoft

Introduction to Business Analysis

In this session, we will review the discipline of business analysis. We will discuss the career for Business Analysts and introduce you the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), its standards and Certifications. You will learn the various types of Requirements that Business Analysts are required to understand and work with. And, finally, you will become familiar with the typical Business Analysis process expected to be followed by all BAs in the technology space – Scrum. Finally, we will complete an exercise in this course to help solidify everything we’ve learned.

Upon completion of this session, the participant will be able to:

• Understand the role a Business Analyst fulfills on the Project Team and responsibilities for Project Alignment
• Articulate the career pathways within the Microsoft Industry that align with BA associated skills
• Identify and properly align appropriate process mapping to the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) approach defined for the project
• Properly curate a Communication Plan to distill Requirements into User Stories through the selected project SDLC using the appropriate ceremonies
• Identify and leverage the appropriate toolset to support Communication, Risk Management, Issue Tracking and Traceability of the Project

Exercise / Lab: Barista Process Flow