Business process analysis is a method that organizations use to understand the step-by-step inner workings of every process involved in how they conduct business. The practice is not a set-and-forget task: process analysts need to consistently evaluate every process to uncover opportunities for continuous improvement. That’s why business process analysis has emerged as a make-or-break business skill of 2021. Looking for ways to bolster your process analysis expertise? Check out these five training courses that will transform you into an indispensable asset within your organization.
Coursera: Business Analysis & Process Management Tutorial
New to process analysis? Start with the basics. In this free 2-hour guided video tutorial from Coursera, you’ll learn how to define the objectives of your business processes and how to evaluate their effectiveness. It’s a beginner-friendly course meant to guide you through the foundations of building solid business processes. You’ll also learn how to leverage tech tools like Lucidchart to help model each step in a straightforward way you can share with all stakeholders.
Cost: Free 2-hour video session
Sign up for this tutorial previous attendees have called “great for beginners” and “easy to comprehend.”
Udemy: Process Flowcharts & Process Mapping – The Beginner’s Guide
Often, when we’re faced with a business obstacle, we’re only feeling the symptoms. In this best-selling course, you’ll learn how to use process mapping to dig into the underlying causes behind the biggest problems draining your organization.
Instructor Jeremy Aschenbrenner will show you how to create clean, easy-to-understand process flowcharts and maps. The 3.5-hour on-demand video series includes scores of downloadable resources and articles, plus quizzes along the way to make sure your skill set is up to snuff. Have questions? The fee also includes 1-on-1 support so you can get expert answers.
Once you’ve polished off the beginner’s course, dive into the Advanced Guide. Here you’ll diver deeper into process symbols, how to map more complex processes, and how to make them simple for all stakeholders to understand. You can pay $99.99 for each individual course, or spring for the $29.99 per month for access to 5,000+ Udemy courses. If your newfound expertise is the envy of your coworkers, consider a Udemy for Business plan with tailored pricing for training 5 or more people.
Cost: $99.99, or included with a $29.99/month unlimited Udemy membership
Register for the course students have highly reviewed as “delivering everything it should perfectly clearly. I went from knowing nothing about making flowcharts to feeling very comfortable with them.”
Udemy: BPMN for Business Analysts
Nailed the basics? Zbigniew Misiak instructs another bestseller from Udemy, “BPMN for Business Analysts.” Over this 5-hour course, you’ll master advanced Business Process Management Notation like pools, swim lanes, events, and symbols. Misiak notes that even the most experienced process modelers still stumble when it comes to crafting crystal clear diagrams, so this course is more than academia. You’ll practice using real world mini-projects to make sure your process maps ace cross-department communication. Misiak has earned a stellar 4.5 star rating from 2,500+ students, so you know this one is a must-see.
Cost: $79.99, or included with a $29.99/month unlimited Udemy membership
Access the class that reviewers rank as a perfect in-depth dive into BPMN: “boundary events, event based gateways and ad hoc processes were exactly what I needed to understand and were perfectly explained.”
LinkedIn Learning: Business Analysis Foundations—Business Process Modeling
Instructor Haydn Thomas promises to show students how to design processes that not only get the job done, but meet desired business outcomes. Plus, he’ll teach you top-notch tips for learning how the process fits into the overall organizational workflow. The numbers don’t lie: he’s racked up thousands of raving reviews. You’ll learn how to:
- Create a Context Diagram
- Create a Functional Flow Diagram
- Create a Cross-Functional Flow Diagram
- Create a Flowchart Diagram
LinkedIn Learning offers tons of bonus features to support your quest, like a Q&A where you can exchange questions with other learners, transcripts of each session, and a pack of handouts and worksheets. The course is also eligible for Continuing Education credits through top industry councils like the Project Management Institute and the International Institute of Business Analysis. Once you’ve completed the course, you’ll receive a certification badge you can proudly display on your LinkedIn profile.
Cost: Try it out for free, or if you’re a LinkedIn aficionado with a Premium account, your membership already includes full access to their 16,000 courses.
Start this course today and join the ranks of the 175,000+ students he’s transformed into competent process analysis practitioners.
The University of Texas at Austin: Business Process Management and Modeling
Prefer the traditional live university setting? The University of Texas at Austin serves up intensive online programming for professionals and corporations through their TEXAS Extended Campus. In this two-week online course, experienced software developer and business analyst Marsha Hughes will teach you how to understand, analyze, and improve your organizational processes. You’ll learn the various techniques for mapping the ins-and-outs of each process, how to perform a gap analysis, how to determine the ROI for various business process improvements, and more.
Hughes recommends this course for project managers, executives, or even programmers interested in bolstering their contribution to process planning. If you miss this summer session starting on August 3rd, check out their full catalog of courses offered year round.
Cost: $795 for a 4-session, 2-week course
Enroll in this course for the career-changing process training you’ve been searching for.
So what are you waiting for? These five courses will help you level up your business process analysis skill set and help your organization combat operational challenges 2021 has in store.
