IT Business Relationship Manager Course & Examination

This three-day course will prepare you for the exam leading to the IT Business Relationship Manager (IT-BRM®) Certification.

In today’s high-tech digital world, businesses are experiencing an unprecedented rate of change. At the centre of it all is IT. Within IT, Business Relationship Management processes and the specific role of the Business Relationship Manager (BRM) play a critical role in achieving successful business results.

Course Overview

There is no doubt that the key role of the BRM is becoming increasingly vital as business units come to depend more on technology to drive business value. The need to have a designated role to ensure strong communication between IT and other departments has never been greater. But to be effective, BRMs must possess a deep understanding of an organisation’s business processes, goals and objectives. Acting as an intermediary between IT and other departments, a BRM plays a big part in reducing business and IT barriers within an organisation.

The IT Business Relationship Manager Certification course has been designed to give you the key teachings needed to be a highly effective BRM. It is presented in a systematic fashion and is based on customer feedback along with our own vast expertise, focusing on core principles of Business Relationship Management. The course delivers hands-on, interactive activities to help you:

• Establish, build and maintain the relationship between IT as a service provider and internal business stakeholders
• Identify business value and ensure that both IT and stakeholders understand the requirements to meet strategic goals
• Identify business partner needs and requirements and ensure that the service provider can meet these needs as business needs change or evolve over time
• Assist the business in understanding, measuring and leveraging the value of a service

There are three major differentiating components that run throughout the course.

The iBRM Framework - You will be introduced to the Integrated Business Relationship Management Framework (iBRMF) made up of five lifecycle phases: 

• Business & IT Strategy
• Customer Engagement
• Plan, Build, Test & Deploy
• Operational Excellence
• Continual Improvement 

Actionable BRM Maturity Model - You will be encouraged to assess and identify the maturity levels for both your role AND the organisation in each of the iBRM Framework phases – that’s a total of 10 measurement points. The course then recommends actions that can be taken at each measurement point for advancement through to the next maturity level. 

Practical Hands-On Activities - Throughout the course you will be introduced to practical hands-on activities specially designed to build upon what you’re learning and help you apply the new techniques and practices back at work. 

Additionally, this course is organised and structured with an intuitively relatable flow where each topic in each module logically relates to the next, making it easy to follow and build upon.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the purpose, objectives and challenges of implanting a BRM practice
• Understand the IT Business Relationship Organizational Model to discover how to form a true partnership between the service provider and business units
• Understand the Integrated Business Relationship Management Framework (iBRMF) and critical skills, tools, business and operational metrics for each phase
• Understand how to increase business relationship maturity based on where you are today and how the BRM role matures as the BRM practice becomes more entrenched in the organisation’s DNA
• Understand the value of BRM planning and creation tools such as voice of customer (VoC), critical to quality (CTQ), the Kano model, value stream mapping, SIPOC, Gemba walk, capability roadmapping and gathering business requirements
• Learn how to perform a value-based project assessment
• Understand the role of the IT Business Relationship Manager in Organisational Change Management

Who should attend

• Individuals involved in strategic development, marketing, business analysis, business case development, planning transition, or business process design
• A BRM can come from a range of IT-focused backgrounds such as senior project managers, senior IT service portfolio managers, business analysts, or anyone who has managed an IT service provider organisation
• Anyone interested in maximising business value (Business Relationship Managers or those in similar roles, Quality Managers and Service Level Managers)

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Exam & Certification

This course prepares participants for the exam leading to the IT Business Relationship Manager (IT-BRM®) Certification granted by Professional Designations:

• Exam is 1 hour; 40 multiple-choice; closed book
• You will receive an exam voucher for the web-based exam, to be scheduled after the course
• A passing mark of 65% is required to receive your certificate
• After completion of this course, you may apply for self-directed learning PDUs through PMI. Certificate of attendance is available upon request.

Course Material & Inclusions

This course comes with access to our e-materials. Material for this course will be provided as downloadable soft-copy files that can be viewed on a variety of devices. Attendees may print a hard copy of the files in whatever format best meets their needs.

Our virtual instructor-led classes include a $25 lunch voucher for each day (value of $75 for this 3-day course), this means you can get your lunch organised whether you do it from home or the office. The voucher is provided via email on the first morning of the course.  

IT Business Relationship Manager (IT-BRM®) online exam voucher plus a complimentary exam re-sit if you miss out on passing your certification the first time. 

A digital badge you can share with your network of your course achievement will be provided via email upon passing your certification exam. 

SFIA Skills and Industry Accreditation

This course enables participants to develop their knowledge and proficiency in the following Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA®) professional skills:

• RLMT: Stakeholder relationship management
• FEAS: Feasibility assessment
• POMG: Portfolio management
• BENM: Benefits management
• REQM: Requirements definition and management
• CIPM: Organisational change management
• URCH: User research

This list gives the core SFIA skills covered by the course. Elements relevant to other SFIA skills may also be included to a lesser depth. Proficiency in a SFIA skill is measured by performance assessment and is achieved through actual substantial use of that skill in a real-world situation over some time. In course assignments and exercises undertaken through a course can demonstrate elements of the relevant skills which can then be further developed back in the workplace.  Acquiring new skills and building on existing skills, ideally occurs within the context of an agreed development plan for each person that ensures that their personal circumstances, strengths and development needs are met.