A List of Free Business Analyst Training Online

Last Modified: January 2018

You don’t need to break the bank to become a business analyst. There are lots of free training materials online to get you started. So, if you’re just starting out on your business analyst career, looking for materials to improve your practice or looking for a career change, here is a list of courses/training materials that can help you get your feet wet. This post is mostly for your information, and the courses have not been arranged in any particular order of preference. Feel free to check them out:

1. Smart BA – hosts a variety of Business Analysis Training Materials. The modules cover process modelling, functional analysis, data modelling and lots more.

2. Bridging the Gap – Laura Brandenburg holds a free 8-lesson email course for business analysts. The course basically focuses on what the business analyst role is about, the skills/certifications you may want to explore and useful materials you may need to get your BA career started. For paid options, see Business Analysis Training & Toolkits.

3. Business Analysis Experts - This site offers free business analysis training in the form of KnowledgeKnuggets, which are 5-9 minute videos designed to teach one BA topic. There are approximately 44 Knuggets to choose from. Topics covered include an overview of business analysis and business analysis techniques.

4. Open CourseWare – University of California offers a free course under the Business and Management category known as the Fundamentals of Business Analysis. It’s targeted at both newbies and experts and provides an overview of business analysis functions with course topics ranging from requirements, modelling, enterprise analysis to quality management and testing.

5. Business Analyst Mentor also offers a free course titled, The Insider’s Guide to Core Techniques for Successful Business Analysis. The main objective of the course is to provide an overview of BA best practices, use case modelling, prototyping and other relevant topics.

6. The Professional Training Academy offers a free course titled, The Art of Defining Complex Problems via BA skills club. This course explains how to define a complex problem to avoid solving the wrong problem. It covers the use of techniques such as Journey Mapping, Observation, Interviews and other useful techniques that can be applied to solving business problems. Tests, interactive videos and course materials are provided with this course.

7. The Enfocus Solutions YouTube Channel offers free training for Business Analysts through its short but engaging videos on requirements engineering and process improvement, all adapted from the eLearning courses at Process Impact.

8. See Coursera: A List of Courses For Business Analysts for more courses you can sign up for at minimal cost. In some cases, courses are offered for free.

9. See edX: A List of Free Training Courses For Business Analysts  and edX: A New List of Free Training Courses For Business Analysts for more options.

10. For courses related to improving your domain knowledge or commercial awareness, see how to Improve Your Domain Knowledge With This List Of Courses.

11. If you are in search of free Continuing Development Units (CDUs) for recertification, see A List of Free Business Analysis Webinars.

12. If you're looking to become a Business Process Analyst, explore Business Process Management: What Every Business Process Analyst Should Know, offered by Business Analyst Learnings. This course offers a solid foundation of business process analysis and contains details of the key principles and concepts of Business Process Management (BPM). It is presented in an easy-to-digest format as a 5-day email course that can be consumed while on the go. Sign up for the course by "Paying what you want" (or nothing at all) and you will also get a free download of:

  • Business Process Definition Template

  • Business Process Definition Guide/Infographic

In addition to these:

UPDATE: If you click on a link that does not take you directly to a course, try searching online for it by its name.

Do you know of any other free BA training materials/courses online? Do share by leaving a comment below.