A look at “A Navigator to Business Analysis”

Posted on 12/04/2016 by markjowen

A review of “A Navigator To Business Analysis”

I’m a Business Analyst, I’ve got my CBAP certification from the IIBA, and I’ve got a few scars. So when I saw that Sergey Korban had a new book out, I decided to give it a critical look.

What is it?

“A Navigator to Business Analysis” is the latest book from Sergey Korban (Aotea Studios).

In the words of the book itself:

This book is for everyone who wants to either start a business analysis career or would like to learn practical tips and tricks to get the job done in an effective way.

My “first glance” impressions

Did I read the book thoroughly when I first got it? No. I looked for clues to see how valuable this book would be for a Business Analyst,

I looked for clues to see how valuable this book would be or a Business Analyst. I scanned the Table of Contents, I looked at the headings, and I scanned through the diagrams.

Subject Matter Indicators

The title is “A Navigator To Business Analysis“. This is a good start. I have never seen the word “Navigator” used in this way before, but it told me to expect a lot of guidance.

Further in, I saw this quote

This was another sign that the author has a good idea what the purpose of their book is. They haven’t just vomited words on the paper and bundled it up.

Breadth of content

Consisting of 400 pages, the book is divided into three parts, each of which contains several modules.

The parts are:

Part 1 – “Business Analysis“,
Part 2 – “Beyond Business Analysis“, and
Part 3 – “Build Up Your Value“

An overview of the contents of “A Navigator to Business Analysis”

That gave me a good overview, and I was excited to see (yep – I’m a BA geek) the contents of the Beyond Business Analysis modules. It’s good to see these domains listed.

Flicking through each module, I scanned the titles, and the sub-titles, and looked at the diagrams. This was dangerous as I often found myself stopping because Sergey was covering material that I did want to get into more. My goal, at this stage, however, was to NOT read the content.

Charts and Diagrams

Sergey has filled “A Navigator to Business Analysis” with a lot of charts and diagrams that illustrate further what he has written.

Even on their own, these are incredibly valuable. (I suggest you check out the website for Aotea Studios where you can download several great BA related charts).

(Note – their change management chart was included in the book Project Management for Healthcare by David Shirley)

Practical Advise, Practical Tools, and Additional Reading

Scattered (generously) through the pages, Sergey has included: Practical Advice icons, Practical Tools icons, and Additional Reading icons.

When the Practical Advice icon is visible on a page, there is also accompanying text that relates to the contents of the page. As with the Charts and Diagrams, if this was the only text that you read on each page, you will learn a lot.

The Practical Tools icon can be seen on pages that contain a useful resource. This includes templates, matrixes, checklists, diagrams, etc. (As discussed above.)

The Additional Reading offers suggestions of material that will supplement the contents of the book.

Thought-provoking Quotes

At several spots through the book, Sergey has included quotes from various sources that are relevant to the content at that stage.

For example, in the section
“Business Analysis Lifecycle”:

I really liked these. They gave you that little boost of inspiration. (Some of these quotes were even from Aotea Studios).

Revision

Reading through the content and looking at the diagrams, in a book is one thing. Recalling what you have read is another.

At the end of each module, Sergey has included a Revision page. This usually includes a series of questions that prompt you to check whether you can recall what you’ve read.

This is something useful for both newbie BAs and seasoned BAs alike.

Actually making the effort to go through each question, and writing out a detailed answer, would either a) ensure that you truly understand what you have read, and b) you truly understand what you have read. (This works for everything, though,)

The Meat of the book (aka – the actual text)

The next step was to actually read what Sergey had written.

Writing Style

The text in “A Navigator to Business Analysis” was, generally, easy to read.

Sergey wrote in an efficient manner without “added fluff”. The opening paragraph would immediately answer the question the reader has – “what is this section, or module about?” The following paragraphs provided more details, often supported by (as mentioned) diagrams, or charts.

The only thing that made it a little bit difficult, for me, was that the typeface is entirely sans serif. (Although there appears to be no evidence that there is a difference between serif and sans serif typeface when it comes to readability.)

Valuable?

Did the material expand my understanding of Business Analysis? Yes.

The field of Business Analysis is something that is still trying to define itself. Sergey takes this into account. The topics in the book cover not only what are considered the “core skills” of a Business Analyst, but also expand upon this to show how, in reality, Business Analyst interacts, and works, with many other domains in an organisation.

Alignment with BABOK

About a year ago, the IIBA, published their latest edition of the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK). This is often seen as the defining work for Business Analysis work.

Books on Business Analysis should not just repeat, or rehash, what can be read elsewhere. That is, they shouldn’t just be the BABOK using different words.

And this is what impressed me with “The Navigator to Business Analysis”. It aligns with the latest BABOK, while expanding on it, and add insights that 33 years of experience as a BA has given Sergey.

Is there anything wrong with the book?.

While the book is a great resource for Business Analysts, there were two things that bothered me.

As already mentioned, the use of sans-serif font for everything made it, for me, a little difficult to read, (This is a personal thing.Others. might not have a problem with it.)

When reading a PDF, I always like to use the structured bookmarks. These are the ones that can be displayed on the left side of Adobe Reader (for example). They allow me to get an overview of the layout of the book, as well as easily navigating to a particular section. “A Navigator in Business Analysis” didn’t contain logical bookmarks.
(Sergey has told me that this is something that they are working on improving).

Would I recommend this book?

Yes. Most definitely.

I found the book to be extremely valuable. As I mentioned above, the Business Analysis profession is still being defined. “A Navigator to Business Analysis” gave me an excellent understanding of how it worked, how to work in it, and how it fitted into the “bigger picture”.

This book would have been very handy when I first started on my Business Analysis journey.

I recommend checking the book out. On the Aotea Studio website, you can download a sample. Have a look, and decide for yourself whether this book will be of value to you.

Useful Resources

“A Navigator to Business Analysis” information page (Sergey Korban)
Business Analyst course
Business Analysis Revised Edition (Malcolm Eva, Keith Hindle, Craig Rollason)
How to Start a BA Career (Laura Brandenburg)

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Unhappiness with IIBA Rebrand

Posted on 10/02/2016 by markjowen

IIBA Rebrand

The IIBA has been busy with forming strategic alliances with other Business Analysis knowledge providers and have been restructuring their certification.

While this IIBA Rebrand might make sense to the IIBA, there are concerns amongst its members.

Activity in the IIBA group in LinkedIn has revealed a variety of opinions about the effectiveness of IIBA.

David Olsen wrote a blog post titled “Why I Chose Not to Renew My IIBA Membership” and posted it in the IIBA group in LinkedIn.

This is my summary of the discussion.

David’s Reasons

David’s main concerns are:

The IIBA is too focused on members, and gaining new members, rather than on Business Analysis itself.
His main argument here is that the IIBA’s Body of Knowledge, the BABOK, should be free for everyone who wants to improve in Business Analysis.

The Recertification process.
A Business Analyst can earn more points for presenting, and watching webinars than they can from actually “doing” BA work.

The IIBA communicates poorly.
Often major announcements are made with little, or no, rationale given.
Examples include:
- IIBA’s 3-year strategy plan
- The new Global Strategic Alliances (see more on this here, here and here).
- The decision to rebrand the CBAP / CCBA certifications as part of a broader “Gold Standard” certification with levels.

These seem like valid concerns. Enough to make Dave want to not renew his membership.

The Reaction

So what happened when he posted this to the IIBA group on LinkedIn?

Well, before I go into that, I just want to mention what David wrote when he shared his blog post in the group:

I figured this was a place where I would probably get the most disagreement so I figured I would post a link here in case anyone wanted to chime in and maybe end up changing my mind (not that I expect any of you to care).

What followed showed that people actually did care.

I’m writing this 5 days after the original post, and there have been 80 comments made, and 119 people have indicated that they want to follow the discussion.

And in the comments you could that there were three groups:

those who 100% agreed with David’s concerns

those who did not agree with David’s concerns

and people who fitted in between – they agreed with some of David’s concerns, but also consider things from a pragmatic point of view.

Those who thought David was right

Those who thought that David was right can be grouped as follows:

Free the Knowledge

This group agreed that the BABOK should be available to the wider Business analysis community.

since they claim to be the “voice” of our profession, they should realize that whatever is developed at IIBA – publications, tools, methods, BoK, … it’s all collective property of the entire community. And community here means anyone who is working in this profession, irrespective of the membership.

– Rajul A.

Make BABOK and such other sources free for all – I feel very strongly about this. Let the whole of business analysis benefit from these.

– Ronnel E.

One commenter pointed out an example of this – an online Business Analysts Guidebook, put together by the New York State Government

Fully support the comments on openness (The future is MOOCed)

See: Business Analysis Guidebook
(https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Business_Analysis_Guidebook)

– Gerrit B.

Cost and value of membership

There were many voices concerned with the cost of membership and the value of it.

The IIBA is not delivering value to me that justify to pay the member renewal amount

– Sergio L.C.

I strongly believe that the IIBA needs to do a better job on this front of demonstrating and communicating the value being added.

– Michael R.

I have never understood why you have to pay for a membership to IIBA and then be asked to pay for local membership as well. Why doesn’t this $110 cover local membership too?

– Angie P.

I am also disappointed by IIBA hence did not renewed my membership . If you are part of IIBA global community, by default You get access to local chapter. Unfortunately it didn’t happened

– Harsh S.

I started my BA career three years ago as a transition from being a Developer hoping I would get something out of membership. I’ve been rather disappointed with the membership in general. I just don’t feel like there’s much value added criteria to the membership in general.

– Thomas P.

I would be more satisfied with the membership fee if the IIBA were to publish a monthly peer-reviewed research journal on business analysis modeled on the Communications of the ACM or IEEE Software.

– Douglas K.

I’ve considered joining the IIBA, and taking the CBAP, for a few years. I was initially put off by their attitude as illustrated by your first point: all they seemed to be interested in was money.

– Ron H.

[Re-]certification

And, people weren’t happy with the certification, or recertification, process. (You can read more about the recertification requirements in the IIBA Recertification Handbook.)

As an IIBA member and a CBAP certificate holder i completely agree with your analysis, especially on the recertification process which is geared toward EEP courses rather than experience.

– Marius A.

I just renewed my certification last year and felt it was a nightmare trying to figure out what qualified and what didn’t. I couldn’t get credit for working and guiding my team on business analysis as their manager because the experience had to be something where I learned something. Well, let me tell you, there wasn’t a time that I didn’t learn from my co-workers something new and different based on their experience and viewpoint. Why is that not valuable?

– Angie P.

I started the process to get my certification but stopped before I wrote the test. I have been doing BA work long before the term was coined. I know what needs to be done, and how to do it. The problem with the test, like most, is that it is all memorization. It tests if you have memorized the BABOK, not if you can actually do the work. My resume and references show if I can do the work.

– Dean M.

This year I finally decided I was just going to sit down and finally attempt to get my certification but I admit I was having some reservations after reading about IIBA and was wondering if I was the only one.

– Michelle D.

Those who disagreed

While there were a lot of people in support of David’s concerns, there was also a small camp of people who did not agree. Either with what David had expressed,or with the comments that others had made.

As a volunteer who worked on both the BABOK and Competency Model I would like to clarify for the dialog here that myself and the other writers were not paid. We all gave of our time to these assets with no remuneration. We do this out of our passion for business analysis and a desire advance the profession.

– Angela W.

… I can only say I value my membership highly. It provides access to a wide range of information, tools, insights that have helped me take my career to the next level.

– Sheila B.

The BABOK is all about community input….In a nutshell, the Team uses various research studies, and multiple levels and layers of community feedback. All of it includes thousands of BAs around the globe. There are standard guidelines the development of a standard BoK as a community effort and IIBA does follow them. This is why it takes 5 years to create a new version. The Core Team of experts is there to make the trade off decisions on conflicting feedback from the community.

– Angela W.

I was also one of the volunteers on BABOK 3. I participated because I believe in the IIBA’s objectives in creating professional recognition of Business Analysts and wanted to share and develop my knowledge.

– Brian H.

I was a lead author on BABOK 2.0 and an expert reviewer on 3.0 I received nothing–absolutely nothing–for the hundreds of hours I put in. I did it for many reasons, among them because I believe in having consistency in what business analysis is and what the work entails, to have some say in shaping those things, and to work with colleagues whom I respect and like.

– Elizabeth L.

I believe and am passionate about the profession of business analysis and the IIBA is the only institution that I have found that validates everything I have worked towards well before the profession became a true profession. I do not believe the BABOK should be a truly open source product. The limiting and monitoring of its development ensures those who are truly qualified are assisting with the shaping of the profession. With that said, I also believe all performing the discipline should have a voice.

– Lora M.

It is not the IIBA’s responsibility to alone do the things you’ve mentioned. We as members have a responsibility there too. If we want greater transparency we should define and demand it. If we want to grow the community we should put forward the opportunity and help make it happen.

– Christopher H.

As far as I am concerned, the business analysis profession is leaps and bounds better than it was 12 years.

– Jeffrey D.

While I have been frustrated with IIBA for many things over the years, we are better for having them around.

* The organization is opaque, but we are better with them than without. No other alternative for BAs is as attractive to me.
* The BABOK, whatever my personal quibbles, serves its purpose of defining the scope of the jobs involved, standardizing the profession, and growing professionals skills.
* As someone who contributes by writing, speaking, and sometimes chapter involvement, I love these things! It helps push us forward.

– Jeffrey D.

Jeffrey also shared a link to “To Stay Relevant, Professional Associations Must Rebrand“

One suggestion is to become involved in your local chapter. Join the leadership team. Contribute to the program.

– Rebecca S.

One positive found was access to their online library.

– Rupkamal T.

I want to throw a thought in about your comment David, ‘The IIBA is Too Member-Focused’. I would be disappointed if they were not member focused. There is a lot of good information on the IIBA website for members such as the online library for example…

– Bryan W.

Those who had a pragmatic viewpoint

As I mentioned at the beginning, there were also those commenters who might have agreed with some of David’s comments, they looked at things pragmatically.

In some ways I agree with you. But in the end charity doesn’t help sustain, forget about growing. If an organization were to grow, commercial aspect is necessary.

– Rahul A.

This is a difficult one. The CBAP is the gold standard for BA certifications, but the IIBA brings me absolutely no added value. BABOK v3 came from volunteers, not the IIBA.

– Michael B.

David, thank you very much for this article. It has prompted a great discussion and after all that is what Business Analysis is about. Challenging status quo with discussions. I happen to agree with you on a few points. Make BABOK and such other sources free for all – I feel very strongly about this. Let the whole of business analysis benefit from these. Change re-certification to also recognize the value of professional experience (including management of business analysts). However I believe there is still a place for a membership. A membership to me would mean regular news letters, access to the online library, even a better deal in some training opportunities. These are all direct value a membership can provide.

– Ronnel E.

IIBA’s response

Although there were several commenters who were involved directly with the IIBA, the were two “official” responses from the IIBA.

David, Thank you very much for your feedback. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss your views further. If you are available for further discussion, please contact Kathleen Hutton, our EVP, Chapters and Member Services at [email protected] Thank you.

– Kristina Fixter

Thank you for your feedback as it is valuable to our ongoing evolution as a Member driven organization. I have provided additional insights on this important conversation. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/value-iiba-membership-kathleen-hutton?published=t

– Kathleen Hutton

Kathlyn goes further into the strategic plan of the IIBA, as well as given more detail on some of the current activities of the IIBA aligned with the strategic plan.

In conclusion

What is have shown above is just a sampling of the comments made with regards David’s post.

As you can see, there are a lot of valid comments that support the issues that David mentioned. And, there are a lot of great input from the other side of the argument.

I’m glad that the IIBA got involved. I’m not sure if David has taken this further with them. Hopefully we will hear more soon.

What did strike me was one of the comments made:

Lots of inputs, criticisms, suggestions… Some cosmetic actions… Silence on key issues… complacency… Noise fads… Silence prevails… I hope this discussion doesn’t take this route.

My sentiments exactly. Are they yours?

Is Business Analysis Certification worthwhile?

Posted on 05/01/2016 by markjowen

Photo by Martin Fisch

Is it worth while getting certified in Business Analysis? In this post, I highlight some key comments made on this subject in a LinkedIn discussion.

Is Business Certification worthwhile?

There is a perennial discussion about the value of certification.

In the realm of Business Analysis, you can get certified by the IIBA, the BCS, the PMI, the IREB. All certifications have their own flavour and value. For me, the value of a certification is in showing me what I could be, and not what I was. (Here are some more of my thoughts on it).

With regards to the value of certification, Paul Loney, an interesting chap with a beard, an incredible breadth of experience in Business Analysis, and a call-it-as-he-sees-it attitude made an excellent comment in a LinkedIn discussion.

Setting the Scene

To set the scene – Esta Lessing had written a post titled “What every Business Analyst should know about certification paths, Business Analysis training courses and ultimately your career.”

She published it, and also posted a link to the article in a Business Analysis group on LinkedIn.

And then the discussion started…

Value

If you are in the world of Business Analysis, you might be aware that recently there has been a bit of a shake-up with regard certification. (You can read more about it here, here, & here)

So now it looks like Business Analysis certification is becoming diluted. There is a certain confusion about what is what. And what was interesting in the discussion was there was hardly a mention about which certification was the best. It was more about whether certification itself was necessary.

James Shield made a few pertinent remarks:

I hope certification doesn’t become a ‘tax’ on the profession in that it must be obtained

… undertaking a BA certification is by no means the only path to self-development …

And he makes a good point.

This was amplified by Paul (who I mentioned above)

As I’ve coached, mentored, and supervised entry-level and junior BAs over the years I have always concentrated on their THINKING capability as being a preeminent professional asset to develop. And following on from that their people AWARENESS in every way.

My goal was that they should have the resilience and adaptability to virtually be dropped into any BA scenario and hit the ground running. No panicking. Quick assessment of what they did and did not know. Ability to establish trust and rapport. Reach out to SMEs. Ability to abstract and normalise information from real-world scenarios. Hold high-level viewpoints in-hand with detailed dives, and juggle these granularities. Attention to detail. Ability to question (Why, why, why?). Get into the mind of others. Seek effective communication through visualisation. Be pragmatic. Sense of humour!

This is what you want to work with. This is who you’ll gladly have a pint with after work!

As you read, James and Paul’s opinion is that being a good BA is actually more than just having a piece of paper with your name on it, along with the name of a particular certification body.

And – is Business Analysis certification worth it?

There are those who are certified that feel that it is definitely worthwhile. Currently, I hold CBAB certification from the IIBA, and I found the process of getting it valuable.

However, when I read Paul and James comments I found myself nodding. They make some valid points.

SECRET! – Leo Hitchcock has written a very interesting book in which he discusses the value of industry certification. I will be blogging about this soon.

Best Approach

The best idea is to explore, yourself, what the true value of certification will offer.

A lot of people fall victim to the “if you don’t have the certification, then you can’t get a job” syndrome. However, the same is also true for the other extreme. There are those who are certification

However, the same is also true for the other extreme. There are those who are certification junkies and feel the need to just get the certification so that they can add letters to the end of their name. Which one are you?

What are your thoughts? Is certification valuable? Do you agree with Paul, or James (or me)?

Let me know in the comments

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More info on the IIBA Strategic Alliance

Posted on 27/09/2015 by markjowen

In a few recent posts (“The IIBA is teaming up…what does this mean to you?” and “Is the new IIBA alliance a trustworthy one?“) I discussed the IIBA Strategic Alliance that the IIBA has formed.

I see now, that the IIBA, itself, has published information on the rationale behind these alliances.along with the key outcomes.

Essentially, they describe what we already expected – that there is definitely a benefit to these partnerships. (See below for the link to their page).

One alliance that caused considerable discussion was the one with Sparx. There was concern that partnering with a commercial company would lead to a bias to this one vendor.

It’s interesting to read that one of the key outcomes (of the alliance with Sparx) is

“The potential integration of BABOK^® Guide v3 with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect (EA)“.

I’m curious what this will mean. What do you think?

Here’s the link to the IIBA page: http://www.iiba.org/mou/backgrounder.aspx

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Is the new IIBA alliance a trustworthy one?

Posted on 27/08/2015 by markjowen

The IIBA has formed a strategic alliance, (as described in my previous post).

In that post, I looked at how each partner could enrich the IIBA offering. The partners are:

BCS The Chartered Institute for IT,
BRM Institute,
IREB, and
Sparx Systems Pty Ltd.

After submitting the above-mentioned post to some BA groups on LinkedIn, I got some great responses.

Ones that made me stop and think about the alliance.

Each member of the alliance has in-depth knowledge of specific areas that are covered at a higher, and broader, level by the IIBA. And this will add value.

However, one of the partners, Sparx, is actually a vendor. And this is where the concern is…

Here’s some of the comments that have been made…

I thinks it’s odd and perhaps a conflict of interest for a standards/certification organization to align itself with a particular vendor…no matter how good they are.

How likely will it be that IIBA will host webinars with other competing products now that they are in alliance with one vendor? Probably not very likely. So rather than expose members to a collection of tools, foster competition and recommend “best of breed” products, this alliance does exactly the opposite.

I saw the announcement and was vaguely uneasy about the implications, primarily my squeamishly about IIBA becoming commercialised – maybe i’m being too naive?

So, there is some concern that an alliance with a vendor might not be a good thing.

In the discussion Alain Arsenault, Senior Officer, Corporate and Business Development at IIBA, offered the following:

In 2014, IIBA leadership and Board of Directors revised the organization vision and defined a new direction for IIBA. A 3-years strategic plan was established to support this new model along with a new core purpose to “unite a community of professionals to create better business outcomes”.

The new vision focuses on collaboration, engagement and value creation while continuing to support and advance the practice, discipline and profession of Business Analysis.

The newly announced alliances support this new paradigm. Our goal is to broaden our engagements and enable the Business Analysis ecosystem to flourish and provide greater value and connectivity to our members, the broader BA community and business stakeholders.

Our engagements are not exclusive and we welcome and will continue to foster similar alliances of collaboration with other associations and organizations.

You’ll see that Alain mentions “value creation”, and providing “greater value”. And as mentioned, Sparx do offer a depth of resources and knowledge that is of great value to a BA.

But that last sentence is also a bit of a concern…”our engagements are not exclusive” and “we … will continue to foster similar alliances of collaboration with other associations and organizations.” IREB, BCS and BRMI are all “associations, or organizations”, but how does Sparx fit in there?

Personally, I feel that the IIBA does have our best interests at heart…But the concerns that I mentioned above are also bothering me.

Unfortunately, I’m unable to predict, with any certainty, what is going to happen here…so I‘m just going to wait and see. (IIBA – we are all watching.)

What about you? What are your thoughts? Do you think that the IIBA’s alliance with vendors is one that we should be concerned about? Let me know in the comments below.

Why are the CBAP exam questions so friggin tricky?

Posted on 22/04/2015 by markjowen

CBAP Exam Questions

“Aargghhh!!” I hear as several Accelerated CBAP course participants tackle some sample CBAP questions. “Why are these questions worded so confusingly?”

I glance over my spectacles and smile. I was asking the same questions not too long ago. It seems that it’s all because of some guy called Bloom.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Mr Bloom, once upon a time, worked out that you could classify learning objectives as being cognitive, affective or psychomotor. And he created a taxonomy – which is just another way of saying “grouping”.

(Read more about Bloom’s Taxonomy here.)

Exam creators (and this includes the IIBA), the world around, love to use Mr Blooms taxonomy when they devise exam questions.

They especially like using the “cognitive” grouping, which contains six different levels…

Cognitive Levels

1. Knowledge – these are pretty straight-forward questions. Simple beasts, they have only one goal – to test your ability to know specific facts and recall information that you have learned.

E.g.: Which type of requirement typically describes high-level organizational needs?
A. Business
B. Stakeholder
C. Functional
D. Transition

Caution: Even though these appear relatively harmless, it does require coordinated use of a variety of neural structures.

2. Comprehension – These questions want to check how good you are at understanding facts and ideas by organizing, comparing, and interpreting

E.g.: What type of requirements contains the environmental conditions of the solution?
A. Transition requirements
B. Stakeholder requirements
C. Business requirements
D. Solution requirements

Caution: the same as for the Knowledge questions.

3. Application – questions of this nature want you to use your knowledge to solve problems.

E,g.: Transition requirements are typically prepared after which requirements document is completed?
A. Solution requirements
B. Stakeholder requirements
C. Business requirements
D. System requirements

Caution: These can sometimes mistaken for the slightly less harmless “knowledge question”. However, stay alert, and don’t be fooled.

4. Analysis – these beauties want you to recognize patterns and seek hidden meanings in the information you are provided.

E.g.: To capture the process of provisioning a circuit, the business analyst observed an ordering supervisor for half a day. The resulting information could then be incorporated into all of the following types of requirements EXCEPT:
A. Transition requirements
B. Solution requirements
C. Stakeholder requirements
D. Functional requirements

Caution: these can be tricky little buggers. Make sure you read these questions carefully. They can sometimes throw you by including NOT or EXCEPT, as in the example above.

5. Synthesis – although sounding impressive, the synthesis question just wants to see if you can relate facts, and draw conclusions.

E.g.: After reviewing the existing process to approve a new cell phone order, Ginger realized that the senior manager is not always available to manually approve the purchase. She documented the capabilities that facilitate a faster ordering approval process relative to the existing situation. She felt that the existing process was inefficient and that it needed to be changed. What would be an appropriate way for Ginger to express the cause of the current cell phone ordering delays?
A. Blame the manual process for the inefficiencies
B. State all of the facts in a neutral manner
C. Express opinions on how to fix the process
D. Insist that approvers adhere to strict deadlines

Caution: These nasty little things like to confuse you by adding throwing lots of information at you which actually isn’t relevant. Don’t let this scare you, or distract you. Take a deep breath and focus…

6. Evaluation – A slightly less aggressive question, these expect you to make judgements about the value of ideas or materials.

E.g.: To document why your project was initiated, it is appropriate to include the:
A. Business case
B. Project mandate
C. Solution approach
D. Business goals

Caution: As with the other questions. Approach these carefully. No sudden movements (or guesses).

The 6 Types of IIBA Exam Questions Infographic

A larger version (800px x 2000px) of the file is available. Click here, if you want to download it. (A new page will open).

Specific Question Types

Yamo goes further to list several specific question types:

Question Type	Description
Activities contributing to a KA	Descriptions of various tasks or activities in the tasks to identify a knowledge area.
Task Application Scenarios	Real-world scenarios for how a task could be applied.
Outputs of Tasks	Either direct description or an indirect mention of the output of a task.
Inputs of Tasks	Usage of inputs referred with the names as-is or description of the inputs.
Stakeholders Involved/Invited	Scenarios to identify which stakeholder need to be involved or is involved.
Role of a Stakeholder	What is the role of the stakeholder in a given activity as applicable to a given task?
Purpose of a Task	Why is a given task performed?
Outside of BABOK / General Knowledge	General knowledge that you are expected to know as a business analyst. (These include Maslow, Tuckman’s model of group development, Motivation Theory, etc)
Real-World Application Scenarios	Application scenarios where a real project scenario will be illustrated and a question from any aspect of the task or KA couldbe asked.
Techniques Usage Consideration	Implied from the “Usage considerations” of a technique.
Techniques–Best Technique For	Best technique for a given scenario (with indirect reference to a task).
Techniques–Elements	Key considerations for a technique. Implied from the “Elements” section of a technique.
Requirements Attributes-Related	Questions related to broadly used requirements attributes.
Skills Recognition in Underlying Competencies	Scenarios or examples given to identify which competency a BA is exhibiting or is lacking.
Definition / Glossary	Direct or indirect reference to definitions of terms in the glossary.
Requirements State	Questions related to state of requirements.
Techniques in Tasks	Which techniques would be used – direct or indirect through a real- world scenario with indirect mention of the task.
Exclusion type questions	Usually a misleading question if not read carefully and often characterized by NOT identifying the negative of what is being described in the question.
The Next Step	What should happen next in analysis – could be answered by applying experience and using the inputs/outputs that flow between tasks.
Knowledge Analysis – Tricky questions, – Confusing / misleading answer choices	Questions requiring careful reading .and analysis of the facts to arrive at the correct answer; Misleading answer choices or closely worded answer choices
Elements of Task	Question related to key facets of a task directly asked or indirectly by the use of a real world scenario.

So…now you know…that’s why the CBAP questions are so friggin tricky.

Many thanks to Yamo and to the “CBAP/CCBA Certified Business Analysis
Study Guide” (for the question examples used above).

Recommended Reading
(Important Disclosure)

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Unhappiness with IIBA Rebrand

Is Business Analysis Certification worthwhile?

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Notes from the IIBA Dutch Annual Conference

More info on the IIBA Strategic Alliance

CBAP certification as a destination

What’s your idea of what the IIBA BOK is?

Posted on 20/03/2015 by markjowen

What is the IIBA BOK?

After my last post, a lengthy discussion started in LinkedIn regarding what the IIBA BABOK is.

One commenter – Magnus Stensson – posted a superb comment…

I think there are, roughly speaking, three different groups of interpreters when it comes to BOK’s, be it BABOK, PMBOK, etc.

1. Those who see them for what they are. A collection of current best practices, tools, tips, methods, vocabulary, etc.. grouped into somewhat logical sections called knowledge areas. The reader can get tips and inspiration while choosing how to apply the information in there to suit the environment they are working in. This group has the best use of the BOK as they adapt it to reality and use it to enhance their knowledge and practical ability in the area.

2. Those who, because it is not prescriptive and describes everything in a How to manner, see it as fluffy, too theoretical and incomprehensible, and thus unusable. They are the ones who grumble about it being too theoretical and not useable in the real world.

3. The BOK evangelists who see it as the bible of all things in the area, They seek to apply all knowledge areas and techniques to all projects regardless of scope, creating massive documentation and inefficiency. Everything is referred to against the BOK. “We must do transition requirements as the BOK says so”. “we need these models because BABOk says so”,.. etc. (unfortunately I’ve worked with these people….) . This group refuses to adapt the BOK to suit the situation and end up destroying its reputation because their co-workers, who haven’t read it, see it as a theoretical source of impracticality.

He summed it up nicely.

Further to that, his parting shot was…

The views in discussions like this one reflect which group people subscribe to.. 🙂

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Posted on 18/03/2015 by markjowen

This post has been updated to include further detail on the way the BABOK presents information.

One of the main comments I heard today, at an Accelerated CBAP course, was “this is all fine, but in the real world things are different“.

The message was that what IIBA’s Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK) presented with regards Knowlegde Areas (KAs), and Tasks, didn’t actually align with what happened in projects.

Continue reading →

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CBAP certification as a destination

Posted on 05/01/2015 by markjowen

CBAP Certification – Arriving at my destination

After a lifetime of progressive career moves, I started, two years ago, on a serious journey towards attaining CBAP certification from the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA).

At the end of 2014 I sat and passed the exam.

The Story og getting there …

It’s been an awesome adventure. There have been struggles and achievements. I’ve had to fight off ogres that wanted to prevent me reaching my goal. (Most of these were in my head). I have met many wonderful, eclectic, people along the way, and have been supported (both morally, and physically) by many heroes and heroines that have been there for me.

I’ve had to fight off ogres that wanted to prevent me reaching my goal.

And I have learnt a lot. Studying the IIBA’s BABOK (Business Analysis Body of Knowledge), has allowed me to formalise the skills and knowledge that are invaluable for a Business Analyst.

And while I thought that achieving that right to vaunt that I had achieved CBAP status would be the pinnacle of my journey – the very goal that I was striving for, it turns out that it isn’t.
Everything described in the BABOK was, for me, enlightening. Every sentence written in this tome of knowledge is valuable. As I read, and re-read each paragraph, and viewed each diagram, I felt an enriching of my comprehension. As if my brain started working at new levels….

However, the more I read, the more I realised that the BABOK was merely providing an extremely good high-level map of the BA world. One with signposts to areas that needed further exploring.

CBAP isn’t my destination…

… It’s merely a stop along the way

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Posted on 17/02/2014 by markjowen

IIBA Competition – The Project Management Institute recently indicated that they were bring out their own BA certification.

Life was good …

Just over a year ago I made the move to formalise my Business Analysis skills and capabilities.

To do this I turned to one of the globally recognised associations that support and promote the discipline of Business Analysis – the International Institute of Business Analysis (known as the IIBA).

The IIBA have been in existence since 2003 and have created the BABOK (Business Analysis Body of Knowledge).

This incorporates current business analysis knowledge, into a framework with associated activities, tasks and techniques.

I have found the BABOK a wonderful tool. It has provided some structure and formality to BA activities that I have been undertaking for years (without knowing that they were BA activities.)

Alongside the IIBA, there exists BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. BCS also offers BA certification. I have not been involved with BCS, but I believe that their offering is also very good. (I’m not going to get into a “this one is better than that one” discussion here).

And a search on the Internet will return several offers for BA training and certification.

IIBA Competition – Enter the threat

Now – there also exists an association for the professional Project Manager – the Project Manager institute, or PMI. This exists to provide best practices, and certifications for project managers. This is something that is worthy of a future blog post, but from what I can see, Business Analysts and Project Managers have different focuses in projects. They are interchangeable.

Taking into account the alternatives to the IIBA, it surprised me when I received an email from the Acting President of the IIBA stating that the PMI were planning on introducing a certification for business analysis within a project environment and that the IIBA “do not take PMI’s entry into this market lightly“.

(You can read the email here).