Presentation Skills (newly updated)

Whether we like it or not, and many of us do not like it, the ability to plan, develop and deliver an effective presentation is a key skill in today's business world.

This free learning course looks at planning presentations, developing presentations, speaker's notes, presentation aids, delivering the presentation and the team presentation.

Updated in 2024, this course now includes useful tips and techniques for creating and delivering online presentations on platforms such as Zoom and Teams.

Introducing the BA Service Framework

Thinking about and delivering business analysis as a service, helps to establish and communicate the core value proposition offered by a business analysis team. In our latest free-learning package we provide a practical introduction to this topic. The BA service framework is clearly defined and there's plenty of useful commentary on its application

BA Role in the Systems Development Lifecycle

This free learning course is for anyone who wants to gain a deeper understanding of the role that the BA plays within the systems development lifecycle and how they contribute to systems development projects.

Develop your understanding of what the SDLC does and why it’s important; appreciate the pros and cons of linear (for example Waterfall) and iterative (for example Agile) lifecycles. Explore what Agile is, and why it has become the predominant model for systems development.

Effective Leadership

Delivering Business Analysis: The BA Service Handbook (Debra Paul and Christina Lovelock) explores the issues associated with leading a business area such as a BA Service. BA leaders have extensive responsibilities that include promoting business analysis work, developing business analysts and clarifying the BA Service offering. This free learning course looks at aspects required for effective leadership of the BA Service.

Managing Customer Expectations

Expectations can cause disconnects in many business situations. The most frequent and obvious are those where we are in a customer/supplier relationship.

This free learning course from AssistKD covers categories of expectation, sources of expectation and a process for managing expectations (discover, analyse, manage, monitor).

Introduction to Agile Systems Development

This free learning course looks at the emergence of empirical approaches to address the problems experienced when using more traditional, ‘defined’ approaches to develop software.

The course introduces the Agile Manifesto and then explains the principles underlying Agile and the key features that characterise Agile approaches. It then goes on to look at Agile and business culture, inverting the iron triangle, Agile as empirical process and the generic Agile systems development lifecycle. 

Written Communication

Written communication continues to be an important skill to master in the 21st century and takes many forms. This free learning course from AssistKD covers the pros and cons of written communication, the communication process and the barriers to communication, issues to address in written communication, a process for written communication, types of written communication, assessing readability (the 'fog index') and email (perils and pitfalls). 

Team Working

An effective team can bring huge benefits to an organisation, but it is rare that this happens naturally; there is usually a need for good team management and design. 

This free learning course from AssistKD covers groups and teams, team roles, team development, and finally management and team building. 

Facilitation Skills

Facilitation skills are essential for ensuring that meetings, workshops and seminars are effective and to ease the path towards decisions and consensus.

This free learning course looks at why we need facilitation skills, the elements of successful facilitation, how to prepare and plan for a facilitated event, workshop techniques and the benefits of effective facilitation.

Creative Problem Solving

All professionals need strong interpersonal skills as they are a fundamental requirement in any business environment. The importance of these skills cannot be overstated in today's business world particularly in the light of current economic conditions.

This free learning course introduces the concept of creative problem solving, a invaluable skill in the modern business environment. It looks at identifying and overcoming barriers to creativity, the creative problem solving process and provides idea generation techniques.

Introduction to BPMN 2.0

Written by AssistKD's Julian Cox, this course is perfect for anyone who has ever drawn a business process diagram and wishes to use BPMN 2.0 syntax to help them in the production of such diagrams.

This free learning course introduces BPMN, explains why it has been increasingly adopted by organisations around the world, before showing how a subset of it's syntax can be employed to redraw process flow diagrams.