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Courses >
Business Administration > Introduction to Business Analysis
 Give yourself an employment advantage by developing analytical skills that are consistently in high demand. This course will teach you powerful quantitative methods that will have you making better, more informed, and more effective business decisions. The days of making critical business decisions by instinct or coin toss are long gone. If you are planning a career in business, you cannot afford to miss this course!
This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Frank David.
 Frank David has been teaching business analysis for more than 10 years at the college and university level. He holds a Master of Commerce, a Master of Engineering, and has completed PhD-level work in Operations Research and Management Science. He has held senior managerial positions in industry and the Department of Defense, has served over 300 organizations as a management consultant, and is co-author of "The Constant-Sum Approach to Business Success."
To purchase this course, click the Enroll Now button below:
Requirements:
Proficiency with basic algebra, Internet access, e-mail, and the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser.
Syllabus:
All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.
| Week One |
| Wednesday - Lesson 01 |
Decision-making is one of the most important aspects of business. So, we'll start things off by exploring a variety of analytical approaches you can use for making business decisions. We'll also look at the basic steps involved in problem solving.
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| Friday - Lesson 02 |
This lesson will help you understand the probability of events. We'll talk about basic probability concepts and how you assign probabilities to experimental outcomes. You'll find out how to apply probability concepts to business situations.
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| Week Two |
| Wednesday - Lesson 03 |
In today’s lesson, we'll delve into the concepts of mean and standard deviation and how they're used in business. We'll also go over survey analysis, the various steps involved in doing a survey, and the most common errors that people make.
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| Friday - Lesson 04 |
Today's lesson is all about the use of probability in decision-making. We'll explore an analytical approach called Decision Analysis. You'll learn how to structure a problem so that when you decide how to deal with it, you know what result to expect. We'll talk about using an optimistic, conservative, and an in-between approach in making decisions. Finally, we'll examine the concept of Expected Value.
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| Week Three |
| Wednesday - Lesson 05 |
What if the decision you want to make isn't the most sensible one from a financial perspective? There are times when you need to base the worth of a decision on its value to you. An example of this would be deciding to buy a lottery ticket. Sometimes it's appropriate to make business decisions this way. In today's lesson, we'll talk about this approach and where the different decisions can lead.
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| Friday - Lesson 06 |
All businesses need to forecast sales and expenses. And the forecasts need to be accurate. In this lesson, we'll cover forecasting as it's done in business analysis. You'll learn about the two types of forecasting: qualitative and quantitative.
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| Week Four |
| Wednesday - Lesson 07 |
In today's lesson, you'll discover modeling, which is the application of mathematical constructs to decision making. We'll explore simple, intermediate, and complex types of models and discuss the two approaches to model development: reductionist and holistic.
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| Friday - Lesson 08 |
Today is about how models are developed within a business organization. We'll talk about what needs to be done and who needs to do it in order to make the modeling effort a success. We'll explore the respective roles of the analyst (modeler) and the client for whom the model is being developed.
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| Week Five |
| Wednesday - Lesson 09 |
The most widely used type of business analysis is financial analysis. This probably doesn't surprise you too much since the point of any business is to make a profit. Today, we'll look at financial analysis and how it differs from accounting. We'll discuss cost estimating, and various types of business costs. You'll get familiar with the concepts of break-even analysis and benefit/cost analysis, both of which play a vital role in business analysis.
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| Friday - Lesson 10 |
The techniques of PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) and CPM (Critical Path Method) have proven to be extremely valuable to project managers. In today's lesson, I'll explain the basics of PERT/CPM and how to utilize these techniques in your work. You'll meet a simple technique called a Gantt chart, which works quite well for planning a simple project with a relatively small number of tasks.
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| Week Six |
| Wednesday - Lesson 11 |
Risk is a part of any business situation, which makes it something you need to consider when you do business analysis. Simulation is an excellent method of performing risk analysis. So today we'll cover step-by-step procedures for creating and using a simulation model.
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| Friday - Lesson 12 |
In this, our final lesson, we'll look at computer-based information systems. This includes such areas as Decision Support Systems, Optimization Analysis, and Knowledge-Based Systems. You'll learn what each of these areas constitutes, and I'll show you many business applications of each.
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To purchase this course, click the Enroll Now button below:
Student Reviews:
"After taking this course, I have a much better idea of what people learn in an MBA program. I can make a better decision about whether I should apply for business school."
"I found the course most informative and beneficial to me. I came away with answers to questions I have had for a long time with regard to Business Statistical and Modeling analysis."
"I have enjoyed this class; very informative. The class gave me the opportunity to see another side of the business world and see all that analysts do to come up with solutions."
"I have no background in business analysis, and this course provided a basic foundation. If I decided to pursue business analysis in more depth, I will at least have been exposed to important concepts and definitions. I will actually be able to apply some of the material directly in my job. Thank you."
"I personally consider this course very useful for any person but especially for people with a technical background."
"The class was very beneficial for me. The lessons were easy to understand and met my educational desires and needs. I am wanting to pursue a career in business and this class definitely gave me more knowledge. I would recommend this class to anyone and Frank David was very good in going through the lessons and answering questions we had and not confusing me. Excellent Class!"
"The course was relevant and useful in my current position - and enabled me to use the information learned during the course to make real world decisions."
"The instructor was thorough, had interesting real world and relevant examples and one could not help but gain some valuable and helpful knowledge."
"This course is very usefull to any individual in making business decisions. I also decided to continue my study of Management Science."
"This course provided some valuable information that I can use on a daily basis. The instructor's writing style is very easy to comprehend and follow. Thanks for a great experience."
To purchase this course, click the Enroll Now button below:
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