Business Analysis Approach

The Business Analysis Approach document describes how business analysis will be handled for a given project. It sets the stage at the beginning for the manner in which a project’s business analysis will be played out, and it provides broad descriptions that lay the foundation for further refining the necessary business analysis activities through subsequent tasks. The selected methodology may be highly plan-driven, such as Waterfall, or more change-driven, such as Agile. The Business Analysis Approach document may include a description of which organizational process assets will be utilized, and broad descriptions of team roles, project deliverables, and stakeholder communications. This document is developed through the Plan Business Analysis Approach task which is described in the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®).

BABOK® Knowledge Areas

The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) contains six knowledge areas of business analysis—Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring; Elicitation; Requirements Management and Communication; Enterprise Analysis; Requirements Analysis; and Solution Assessment and Validation.

Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring concerns deciding which business analysis activities are needed. This includes identifying the stakeholders.

Elicitation concerns obtaining requirements from the stakeholders.

Requirements Management and Communication deals with contradicting requirements and changes to requirements as well as communication to stakeholders.

Enterprise Analysis defines the business need and a solution scope.

Requirements Analysis is the progressive elaboration of requirements into something that can be implemented.

Solution Assessment and Validation determines which solution is best, identifies any modifications that need to be made to the solution, and an assessment of whether the solution meets the business needs.

Requirements

At the heart of business analysis is requirements. The business analyst will plan how to elicit them, elicit them, manage them, communicate them, analyze them, validate them, and verify them. But what exactly is a requirement? There is debate on how to exactly define them, but the BABOK® 2.0 defines a requirement as:

“(1) A condition or capability needed by a stakeholder to solve a problem or achieve an objective. (2) A condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a solution or solution component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification, or other formally imposed documents. A documented representation of a condition or capability as in (1) or (2).”

The BABOK uses four broad categories to describe requirement types: Business, Stakeholder, Solution, and Transition. Business requirements describe the goals or needs of the organization. Stakeholder requirements describe the needs of the stakeholders. Solution requirements describe the solution that meets the Business and Stakeholder requirements. Lastly, Transition requirements describe the needs arising from transitioning from what the organization currently has into the new solution.

Certified Business Analysis Professional

The Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP®) is one of the certifications for which TAPUniversity offers exam preparatory courses. The certification exam is primarily based on the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®). The BABOK is composed of six business analysis knowledge areas, business analyst competencies, and descriptions of common techniques. The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®) is the organization that both awards the CBAP and publishes the BABOK. Their website is http://www.theiiba.org. The IIBA endorses certain business analysis courses, and the organization with the approved course(s) is called an Endorsed Education Provider (EEP^TM). TAPUniversity has EEP status. The CBAP exam has 150 multiple-choice questions and candidates have three and a half hours to take the exam.

There are strict guidelines on who is eligible to take the CBAP exam, as it is meant for experienced business analysts. When applying for the exam, 7,500 hours (about 5 years) of business analysis work must be documented within the last ten years. For at least four of the six business analysis knowledge areas, 900 hours (about 6 months) of work experience must be documented. Additionally, candidates must have at least a high school education, 21 hours of professional development in the last four years, and two references.

More about earning the CBAP certification can be found in the official PDF handbook: http://www.theiiba.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Certification/Process/IIBA_CBAP_Handbook22Jun09.pdf.

CBAP and PMP Certification Exam Changes this Summer

The summer of 2009 brings changes to two certification exams for which TAPUniversity provides preparation. Both the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Project Management Professional (PMP®) exam and the International Institute of Business Analysis’s (IIBA) Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP®) have version changes this summer. As of July 1, the PMP exam is based on the fourth-edition PMBOK®. There will be no more exams given based on the third-edition PMBOK (not even re-takes for those who have failed the exam based on the third edition). The changes from the third-edition PMBOK to the fourth-edition PMBOK are minor. For example, most processes have been re-named and procurement processes have been merged, but this has no effect on the underlying concepts. Two new processes have been introduced—Collect Requirements and Identify Stakeholders—but they should be familiar concepts to most project managers.

The CBAP exam will be based on the BABOK® (Business Analysis Body of Knowledge) version 2.0 beginning August 1. The BABOK change from version 1.62 to version 2.0 has been dramatic. Information has been deleted, added, re-named, and re-arranged. The earlier version was basically an incomplete draft, and the current version is much better edited. If you plan on taking the 1.62 version exam, you only have 3 more weeks to do so.

CBAP Exam Changes

For Business Analysts studying for their CBAP (Certified Business Analyst Professional) certification, be aware that the exam will be changing. The current exam is based on the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®) version 1.6. The new version, BABOK 2.0 is being released on March 31st, 2009, according the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®) which is the organization that awards the CBAP. The exam will not change with the release of the new BABOK however, and the IIBA states that the current BABOK should be used to study for the exam. A date has not yet been provided for the exam change, but IIBA states that candidates will be “informed well in advance” of the test change date (http://www.theiiba.org). Here at TAPUniversity our online and in-person CBAP courses for those preparing for their exam are currently based on BABOK 1.6, as suggested by the IIBA, and we’ll change to using the BABOK 2.0 for our courses when recommended by the IIBA. If you are planning to take the exam in the future, simply be sure that you are studying from the correct version of the BABOK.