Business Analyst Blog

When I was in South Africa last fall, a systems engineer told me about an organization called INCOSE. I was not familiar with it but he told me that they had many of the same goals as the IIBA so I decided to take a look.

 Some information from their web site (http://www.incose.org/):

The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) is a not-for-profit membership organization founded to develop and disseminate the interdisciplinary principles and practices that enable the realization of successful systems.

Mission
Advance the state of the art and practice of systems engineering in industry, academia, and government by promoting interdisciplinary, scalable approaches to produce technologically appropriate solutions that meet societal needs.

This organization was founded in 1990 and has over 5000 members worldwide. They have numerous chapters, a body of knowledge and a certification program. I reviewed the body of knowledge (G2SEbok) and it contains many of the same topics as the BABOK.

So the question is "What is the difference between a BA and a Systems Engineer?"

A BA's understanding of how business stakeholders do their work is very critical to gathering the right requirements to meet their business goals. A BA, like a detective, investigates until he or she has uncovered the details about how the business operates: the good, the bad and the ugly. It's true we need to understand the business vision and high-level business goals but the BA also needs to elicit a detailed understanding of the business processes. If not, this leads to missed requirements, rework, increased costs, and unsatisfied stakeholders. Some BAs may have experience in the business area under analysis while others do not. Whether you start with lots of insights or are completely new to the industry, there are a variety of ways to gain this understanding. Depending on the situation some apply better than others:

• Existing documentation (document analysis)  
• Job shadowing/observation
• Facilitated requirements work sessions
• Interviews
• User task analysis or process walkthroughs
• Surveys
• Conference calls using collaboration tools
• Prototypes
• Focus groups

These along with some others are mentioned in the IIBA BABOK^TM. The better understanding a BA has about the essential business operations, the more effective he/she can be in assisting the business to create more cost-effective, time-saving, and powerful solutions.  Write and tell us about which techniques work best for you and why.

I am really excited about the proposed upcoming changes to the IIBAs BABOK. Kevin Brennan, VP of the Body of Knowledge has posted a diagram on his blog http://www.bainsight.com/ and on the new online community Catalyze http://www.mycatalyze.com/ so take a look. Three of the knowledge areas will be renamed and some of the content will be moved. I really like two of the proposed new names: Business Analysis Planning and Elicitation. I like Business Analysis Planning because we have been having trouble clarifying the differences between what a BA does during planning from what a Project Manager does during planning. This name makes it clear that the business analysis work must be planned. We are not trying to do the PM work, we need to plan our own work. I also like removing the word Requirements from the Elicitation chapter. The techniques that are discussed in this chapter can be used for more than just eliciting requirements. They can be used for design, for scoping, for brainstorming, etc.

The third major change is to separate the requirements planning and management topics. Planning becomes Business Analysis Planning as mentioned above. Requirements management gets combined with Requirements Communication. Although this combination is not as natural, these are two topic areas that are related and are small, so from a practical standpoint it makes sense for us to put them in the same chapter.

We would love to hear what BAs think about these ideas. Reply here or at the sites listed above with your thoughts.

Applying for the CBAP (IIBA BA certification) is a bit daunting. The application process requires that you show that you really do have more than 5 years business analysis experience. This is very important because we, as a profession, want the certification to be meaningful and strong. We know that simply memorizing a bunch of BA terms and techniques does not make a person a Business Analyst. It is our experience that makes us what we are.

So, be aware that the application itself is more important than the CBAP exam in determining your eligibility for certification. Below are some hints for developing an application that accurately describes your experience.

1. Be careful documenting your PM work. Although many of us have done PM work, that work does not count towards your BA experience. Be sure to describe planning activities that you have done as requirements planning, stakeholder analysis, scoping the area of study, or scoping the requirements elicitation process.

2. Be careful documenting your QA work. Although many of us have done QA work, that work does not count towards your BA experience. Be sure to describe testing activities that you have done as identifying test cases that assess business requirements met, tracing test cases back to business requirements, reviewing QA test plans, cases, scripts for adherence to business requirements, reviewing test results for adherence to business requirements.

3. Don't forget about usability work. Many of our organizations have just started using the word usability but most of us have been doing it for years. Whenever you have helped your team design a screen that is more intuitive for its users you are designing usability.

4. Don't be afraid of Enterprise Analysis. You have probably done more Enterprise Analysis than you realize. If you have discussed possible project ideas with your business stakeholders and helped them determine if the project was a good idea (feasibility, alignment with business goals and architecture), you have experience in Enterprise Analysis.

5. Don't detail descriptions of specific projects. Although fascinating to you and your project team, the IIBA application reviewers don't need to know details about the application that you worked on. Describe projects with short, clear names that an outside reviewer would understand. For example: instead of saying: "The DEFSSC project interfaced the INCC system with the EFT outlink." Say something like: "The project involved linking the existing customer purchase system with an outside credit card processing service."

6. Do give specific examples of the types of requirements that you have elicited, analyzed, documented, communicated, and helped to implement. This should be the core of your application. Example: I developed a detailed business model of the payroll processing area by: interviewing 10 business stakeholders; developing a workflow model including over 15 diagrams; presenting the workflow model to the stakeholders; revising the model based on feedback; and obtaining approval of the recommended workflow changes.

7. Do document all of the work you have done in the last 10 years. Showing more than the required 7500 hours allows for a few items to be rejected but your application to be accepted. Document everything that you can.

8. Do enjoy the writing! How often do you get to brag about your accomplishments? Don't dread the writing, enjoy it! Good Luck, Barb

B2T Training Tip

If you made it through the application process then you are half way home.  There is no need to get overly anxious about the exam.  But, since you are probably like me, you are still very anxious.  I hope the Q & A below helps relieve some of that anxiety.   

Q & A

Question: How many questions are on the exam and what is the format; multiple choice, true false, etc.?

Answer:  The exam consists of 150 questions and they are all multiple choice with four possible answers.  Only one answer is the correct answer and there are no multiple correct choices, i.e. one of the answers is not 'A and C.'

Q: How long are you given to take the exam?

A: You have 3.5 hours to complete the exam.  It took each of us at B2T Training between 2.5 and 3 hours to complete the exam.

Q: What version of the BABOK is the exam based on?

A: The exam is and will be based on version 1.6 of the BABOK until further notice.  As of 5/1/07 the IIBA does not plan on updating the exam until version 3.0 is released.

Q: Are all the questions taken directly from the content in the BABOK?

A: The short answer is no.  The test writers used the BABOK and the references listed in the BABOK to write the questions. 

Q: What question types were used?

A: The test writers used Bloom's Taxonomy as a basis to have varying levels of question difficulty. An overview of Bloom's Taxonomy can be found at http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/bloom.html.

Q: Were the questions tricky?

A: I would not say tricky, but a large percent of the questions had good distractors.  This means that two answers appeared to be correct.  You have to take your time reading each question to ensure you understand what the question is asking and that you select the best answer.

B2T Tip 

We created a CBAP study group to discuss the BABOK in our organization. Here's how we structured it and what we learned:

• Assign each Knowledge Area to one or two BAs - they will facilitate the session on their KA
• Schedule 1 1/2 hours per session
• Schedule dates/KAs ahead to give everyone time to prepare
• Require participants to read the Knowledge Area before the session
• Present BABOK tasks and ask for questions/issues
• Presenter(s) shares his or her experience with each task and technique

Since everyone in our group knows each other we are aware other's experiences. Our facilitators specifically pointed out ideas in the BABOK that were different than our experience.

Q & A

Q: What materials are used for the study group sessions?

A: We built PowerPoint slides with highlights of each task/technique. The Atlanta chapter has been sharing slides so we did not have to start from scratch. My advice is don't just copy text from the BABOK onto a slide. Paraphrase and summarize the concepts.

Q: How often should a study group meet?

A: Our group met every two weeks. The schedule should be geared towards when participants plan to take the exam.

Q: Is anyone "in charge?"

A: Yes. One person must be the coordinator. He or she makes sure that facilitators are ready for each session, reserves the conference room or conference bridge, and monitors the meeting time.

Q: Who decides how topics are covered?

A: We just started at the beginning of the BABOK and went through sequentially. Don't forget Chapter 1 - it has important foundational information.

Let us know if you have any questions about starting your own study group.

The Atlanta IIBA Chapter meeting this week focused on Enterprise Analysis, specifically business cases. Pamela Robinson of Financial Voyages (http://www.teamfv.com/), gave a great presentation on business case development. Her organization has developed a Business Case Development Framework to help organizations improve their business case development process. It was great to hear another successful professional talk about business cases in the same way that we do.

Pamela listed several characteristics of a business case. These characteristics were good reminders for those of us writing business cases, whether for large projects or small. One of the most important characteristics is the description of why the business case was developed.  In other words, what triggered or caused us to write the business case. Just as in everything that BAs do, the WHY is always critical. Not only do we need to articulate why the change should be made, we need to build a case for why the change should be made now.

She also reminded us that business cases are time sensitive.  A minute after a business case is finished, a factor in the environment can change and make the business case obsolete. This is why it is important that we work to get a go/no go decision as soon as possible after the case is developed. It also reminds us that we should not get too bogged down into detailed requirements. The business case is high level, detailed requirements will be gathered once the project is approved and initiated. The author of the business case is also a salesperson. We need to sell the idea to our decision makers but clearly describe the benefits and convince them that time is of the essence!

 Pamela's presentation will be posted on the Atlanta IIBA web site http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/iibaatlanta

The January meeting of the Atlanta IIBA was excellent. We had about 40 attendees and a great presentation. The presenter was Ryan English from SpiDynamics http://www.spidynamics.com/

Ryan spoke about web application security vulnerabilities and pointed out that requirements documents should always include security requirements. These requirements are part of the category called Quality of Service requirements in the BABOK™. Ryan quoted a couple of interesting statistics: 64% of developers are not confident in their ability to write secure applications and 70% of security violations are in the application level. I believe both of these statistics can be improved with more awareness and training. As BAs we should ask our developers if they are familiar with the most common security risks. We should encourage them to get training and learn more about how they can prevent common vulnerabilities. We should encourage our managers to send developers to training. And we need to educate ourselves about the risks and how we can prevent them by writing excellent requirements. We don't need to be experts on security risks, many of us work for large organizations which have a security officer in the IT division. If you have access to an internal resource like this, take him out to lunch!!  Read the white papers that are available on SpiDynamics web page. Search the web for information about security for your industry. With an experienced BA, a little knowledge goes a long way. We don't need to become security experts because we know how to ask good questions and interview the people who have the knowledge. We just need to be aware of the issues.

Be sure to check the IIBA web site, for the dates and locations of the 2007 IIBA Certification exams.  With locations in four countries on three continents in 12 different cities many BAs will have the opportunity to certify in the coming year.

 http://www.theiiba.org/content.asp?ContentId=558

If you are interested in taking the exam, I recommend that you start working on your application soon. The application is a critical step in the certification process because it is where you detail your BA work experience. It may take some time for you to describe your experience and get your references. You can apply even if you don't know which test date/location is best for you.

You will see that most of the exams are scheduled to coordinate with a BA conference. It is amazing how many BA conferences are planned.  2006 has been a great year for business analysis. 2007 promises to be even more exciting. Happy New Year to all.

Well, the results are in and 15 of us can now refer to ourselves as CBAPs!! Certified Business Analysis Professionals through the IIBA. I am proud to say that three of us here at B2T are in this first group: Jonathan "Kupe" Kupersmith, Kevin Quilliams, and myself, Barbara Carkenord. We are also proud to have one of our B2T certified students in the group: Stephanie Griffiths. Congratulations to all!

Now that the first group of people are through the process the IIBA will be spending next year streamlining the process. Thanks to all of the volunteers at the IIBA who worked so hard to make this happen.