Benefits Management and Business Acceptance

Who is this course for?

Business analysts, customer journey managers, project managers, business change managers and anyone involved in managing business benefits and facilitating their delivery. Benefits Management and Business Acceptance is also a Specialist Practitioner module on the BCS (ISEB) International Diploma in Business Analysis.

About the course

Understand how business benefits are managed and learn how to facilitate their delivery. Our course on Benefits Management and Business Acceptance explains, step-by-step, how systems are tested for business acceptance. Topics covered include user acceptance testing; test design and planning and delivery of business benefits.

The course explains the theoretical concepts, using realistic, practical case studies to reinforce your learning. You will gain experience in applying benefits management and business acceptance techniques.
Presented to you by one of the expert training consultants pictured below. Each member of our Benefits Management and Business Acceptance training team brings substantial experience of benefits management, benefits realisation and business acceptance to the programme.

Learning objectives

Upon the completion of this workshop, candidates will be able to:

Benefits Management
•    Describe the contents of a business case. 
•    Explain the importance of the alignment between the business strategy and the business case. 
•    Describe and apply categories of benefits. 
•    Describe the roles involved within benefits management. 
•    Develop a benefits dependency network. 
•    Undertake an investment appraisal. 
•    Describe the benefits management process.

Business Acceptance Testing 
•    Define a framework for effective business acceptance testing. 
•    Develop appropriate acceptance testing test specifications. 

How is the course structured?

To give you more of an idea of what you’ll learn and how the course will help you, here’s a quick guide.

Day 1

• Rationale for benefits management and business acceptance.
• The drivers for business change.
• The business case.
• Making the financial case.
• Benefits management and planning.

Day 2

• Testing for business acceptance.
• Test design techniques.

Day 3

• Test planning, monitoring and control.
• Benefits management.
• Implementing business changes.
• Delivering business benefits.

Course manual

For virtual courses a printed copy of the latest edition of the comprehensive course manual will be sent to your home address in good time for the start of your course. Our delegates tell us that having access to a physical document is beneficial as both a reference document and for taking notes during the course. In addition, a link will be emailed to you to enable you to access an electronic copy of the same comprehensive manual for convenient future reference.

Is there an exam?

Yes. During this three day course you’ll receive all the training you need to prepare for the BCS Benefits Management and Business Acceptance certificate examination. Through a given business scenario, this open-book exam puts your knowledge of benefits, management, business acceptance testing and benefits realisation to the test. A pass means you’re another step closer to achieving the BCS International Diploma in Business Analysis – the de facto certification for practicing business analysts. One last thing; this course also enables you to develop SFIA skills BENM, level 5.

For delegates attending a virtual or eLearning course, the exam will be a written, scenario based exam and may be taken at one of our classroom locations in London or Thame. The pass mark is 25/50. Please contact us for further details, available dates and to make a booking.

What’s next?

If this course is part of your BCS Diploma in Business Analysis programme you have a choice of further modules which include the core BA Diploma modules, Business Analysis Practice and Requirements Engineering. Candidates who have already completed Benefits Management and Business Acceptance also need to pass one of the Foundation Specialisms; in Business Analysis, IS Project Management, Business Change or Systems Development. The structure of the certification is shown here.

Benefits Management and Business Acceptance (a three-day course)
Course Content
Rationale for benefits management and business acceptance

• Lifecycle for business change.
• The role and importance of benefits management.
• The role and importance of business acceptance.

Drivers for business change

• The business change lifecycle.
• Internal and external drivers.
• CSFs and KPIs.
• Value propositions and the value chain.
• Options for business change.

The business case

• Structure and content of the business case.
• Categories of business benefit.
• Measuring benefits.
• Quantifying benefits.

Making the financial case

• Identifying and quantifying costs.
• Investment Appraisal:
  • Payback.
  • Discounted cash flow/Net present value.
  • Internal rate of return.

Planning for benefits management

• Benefit owners.
• The benefits plan.
• Benefit profiles.
• The benefits dependency framework.

User acceptance testing – testing for business acceptance

• Business acceptance in the ‘V’ model.
• Principles and vocabulary of testing.
• Testing roles and responsibilities.
• The test process.
• Functional and non-functional testing.
• Test documentation.

Test design techniques

• Activity diagrams.
• Decision tables.
• Decision trees.
• State machine diagrams.

Test planning, monitoring and control

• Progress monitoring and control.
• Incident management.
• Confirmation testing.

Benefits management reviews

• Gateways – scheduled and unscheduled reviews.
• Assessing the impact of change.

Implementing business changes

• Impact on people and evolving attitudes to change.
• Planning the implementation.
• Implementation strategies.
• Training/learning approaches.
• Lewin’s model of change.

Delivering business benefits

• Embedding business changes.
• Lifecycle for benefits management.
• Project and benefits reviews.
• Disaggregating benefits.
• Fragmentation of benefits.
• Identifying and evaluating further benefits.

Updated: September 2024