IBCS® Certified Analyst

As an expert in your field, you have processed important and accurate data. Yet it takes much more to present this data successfully to management or customers.

Focus here must be on your message because recipients will only be able to understand you if you really say what must be said. Management reports require clear notation, as is the case with maps or sheets of music.

Certified program for certification IBCS® Certified Analyst. 

Program duration:
The program consists of two workshops, three days.

Objectives:
The main objective is presenting universal design standards for reports and presentations that will help participants report and present more effectively – with numerous before-and-after examples taken from actual practice. Find out why large corporations including SAP and PHILIPS have successfully standardized their reporting with the SUCCESS formula of the International Business Communication Standards (IBCS®).

Conditions:
The attendance fee includes training materials, lunch and refreshments during breaks. Number of places on this workshop is limited.

Program:

Introduction: The basics of business communication

• Management reports: Reports should have something interesting to report
• Presentations: The PowerPoint culture must be questioned
• The SUCCESS formula of the International Business Communication Standards (IBCS®)

SAY: Convey a message

• Focus on the message
• Detect, explain, or suggest
• Substantiate message

STRUCTURE: Organize content

• Use homogeneous, non-overlapping and exhaustive elements
• Build hierarchical structures
• Show logical structure

EXPRESS: Choose proper visualization

• Use correct chart type
• Add comparisons and variances
• Explain causes

EXPRESS: Choose proper visualization (contd.)

• Replace inappropriate chart types

SIMPLIFY: Avoid clutter

• Avoid noise
• Avoid redundancies

CONDENSE: Increase information density

• Utilize space
• Add data, elements, and objects

CHECK: Ensure visual integrity

• Avoid manipulated elements
• Use the same scales

UNIFY: Apply semantic notation

• Unify terminology
• Unify visualization

Summary

• Practical application
• Next steps

End of training

Introduction

• Summary of the one-day ‘IBCS® with SUCCESS’ training
• Objective and overview of the two workshop days

Convey a message (SAY)

• Elaboration of rules for building storylines, using appropriate wording, and highlighting messages
• Individual exercise on wording

Organize content (STRUCTURE)

• Elaboration of rules for consistent, mutually exclusive, and collectively exhaustive structuring
• Group exercise on the improvement of poorly structured text

Choose proper visualization (EXPRESS)

• Elaboration of rules for the proper choice of chart and table types
• Group exercise with case studies

Avoid clutter (SIMPLIFY)

• Elaboration of rules for a cleaner layout
• Individual exercises on removing clutter from charts and tables

Increase information density (CONDENSE)

• Elaboration of rules for adding data and elements to charts and tables as well as objects to screens and pages
• Group exercise with case studies

End of day 1
 

Ensure visual integrity (CHECK)

• Elaboration of rules for avoiding misperceptions, in particular wrong scaling
• Discussion on proper scaling for typical practical challenges

Apply semantic notation (UNIFY)

• Elaboration of rules for a consistent semantic notation
• Exercise: Collaborative design of an IBCS® compliant chart

Development of a corporate notation manual

• Elaboration of the necessity and the contents of a corporate notation manual
• Example: The HICHERT+FAISST IBCS® Notation Manual

Case studies

• Group exercises: Design of report pages supporting given messages
• Presentation of the results

Enabling corporate adoption of the IBCS® Standards

• Elaboration of the requirements for corporate adoption
• Summary and outlook

End of workshop