Please take 15 minutes to take the new IIBA BA role delineation task survey. You do not need to be an IIBA member to take the survey.  Your responses will influence the BABOK V2.00 new exam questions and knowledge area question percentages. Let your voice be heard. For more information refer to this blog http://blog.theiiba.org/2008/11/babok-version-2-task-survey-your.html

For the survey, visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=lukLKiuUOHaC5LQ13WcB3w_3d_3d  

The deadline for survey completion is December 17, 2008. 

Many professions and roles within the IT industry have developed certification programs and getting "certified" has become a hiring criteria for many positions. Business Analysis certification has been needed by many organizations and managers which have not had a method of evaluating BAs and the quality of their knowledge and skills. Now that the industry is developing standards and certification programs are available, should you encourage your BAs to work towards certification? Certification takes time and money. Managers should be sure of their reasons for or against certifcation.

One reason to support and encourage certification is to recruit and retain high quality staff. Professionals want to work for organizations that support professional development. If your BAs are working towards certification, hiring new BAs will be easier because candidates will see your committment to the profession. BAs are more likely to stay with their current employer when they feel their work is being recognized.

Another important value of certification is the establishment of consistent best practices and use of industry standards. Having your BAs all certify means that they have a common understanding of the knowledge and skills of the profession and that they use a common language when planning their work. This consistency of process supports initiatives like CMMI.

A third advantage of certication is to raise the core competencies of individuals in your organization. Even if only a few of your BAs have enough experience to certify today, setting certification as a long term goal for all BAs encourages them to build their skill set and work towards higher performance standards.

We are seeing many BAs work towards certification on an individual basis because they see potential value for their personal career development. BA managers should also consider the value of supporting BA certification.

 It was great to see an organization embracing our profession and investing in our future!

Click here for the presentation: Implementing a Professional Development Framework

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

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.

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 IIBA has extended the application deadline for the Atlanta, Houston, and Minneapolis exams.  The new dates are:

• Atlanta – April 27, 2007
• Houston – May 7, 2007
• Minneapolis – May 7, 2007

B2T Tip

The application process may seem like a daunting task, but you can do it.  Break it down into small chunks and take it one step at a time.  The most challenging part will be documenting your work history.  Dedicate some uninterrupted time to try and tackle this task.  Don't go overboard with details.  Make sure to highlight the tasks you performed and the deliverables you created for each project.

Q & A

Question: What are the requirements to sit for the CBAP exam?

Answer:  You must have

• 5 years (7500 hrs) of business analysis work experience in the last ten years
• documented experience and expertise in at least four of the six knowledge areas of the BABOK
• a high school or equivalent education
• 21 hours of professional development in the last four years directly related to business analysis or the underlying fundamentals

Q: What information is required on the application?

A: There are six main categories on the application.

• Personal Information: Name, contact info, IIBA Member data
• Company Information: The name, size and primary business activity
• Work Experience: Project dates and description, contact information of someone who can verify the project and your work, organizational info, your total hours on the project, your total business analysis hours on the project, and a description of your business analysis activities (tasks and deliverables).
• Knowledge Area Expertise: Complete a task survey related for 4 of the 6 knowledge areas and underlying fundamentals covered in the BABOK.
• Education history
• Professional Development:  Information related to training meeting the necessary 21 hours of professional development. 

Q: How long does it take to complete the application?

A: Give yourself between 6 and 10 hrs to complete the application.  The number of projects you need to document is the key variable in the amount of time needed to complete the application.

Q: I am having a hard time finding contact information for a manager on a project.  What should I do?

A: You can list a project team member, project sponsor, or SME that can vouch for the project and your business analysis tasks and deliverables.

Q: Did the IIBA scrutinize the applicants?  Were any audited?

A: The application is a major part of your certification.  The IIBA ensures that qualified individuals sit for the exam.  I was asked to supply more information after I submitted my application.  I know of one person whose application was audited and the IIBA announced that some applicants were not approved for the first exam.

If you have any questions related to the IIBA CBAP exam application process please add a comment to this blog entry. 

There will be an entry covering each of the topics below:

• Application process
• Exam format 
• Exam preparation

I hope you find this set of blog entries useful in your pursuit of becoming the next CBAP.  I am sure you all have many questions.  Go ahead and ask by adding a comment to this blog. We'll start answering them in future blog entries.  We are here to help! 

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

Many training companies and universities offer certificate or certification programs for business analysis. They are primarily a way for the organization to recognize that an individual has completed a course of study. Similar to obtaining a degree in computer science and then completing a certification program in a particular programming language, these are both important, but they offer different levels of recognition. The degree proves that you satisfactorily completed a proven curriculum and demonstrated your knowledge through exams, case studies, and possibly a work-study program. A certification is an independent expert verification of your knowledge and possibly skills related to a narrower subject.

There are currently three types of certification programs in the market place for business analysts: certificate programs, certification programs, and the IIBA certification program. Let's start with the IIBA certification program. The IIBA is the industry organization that has defined the body of knowledge for the business analysis profession, BABOK. The IIBA's certification is an exam that measures your knowledge of the BABOK and would be extremely difficult to pass without business analysis experience. In order to sit for the exam, you must have a minimum of 5 years experience.

The other certificate and certification programs are administered by training companies and universities. Most of them are certificate programs that recognize you attended training and may have a small amount of testing related to the topics covered in class. B2T Training's certification program requires testing of business analysis topics and completion of portions of a requirements package. It is more of a performance-based certification, rather than a certificate of completion.

So which one do you need or which one is going to benefit you the most? It depends on why you want the certification and what you are going to do with it. Proof that you have attended business analysis training and/or have knowledge of the BABOK shows that you are aware of industry terminology and techniques. It will always be considered positively by employers and will make your transition into new environments easier. From an employer's perspective, evidence that a BA possess not only business analysis knowledge, but the ability to apply that knowledge in a day-to-day, real-world business analysis environment is invaluable. Consider your current situation and where you want to be in three or five years when making this decision. BAs may choose to earn multiple levels of recognition based on their personal needs.