CBAP / CCBA Certified Business Analysis Study Guide

Susan Weese, Terri Wagner

• Publisher: Sybex
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781119248835
• eBook ISBN: 9781119248842
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Project Management
• Index: Business

The bestselling CBAP/CCBA study guide, updated for exam v3.0

The CBAP/CCBA Certified Business Analysis Study Guide, Second Edition offers 100% coverage of all exam objectives for the Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) and Certification of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA) exams offered by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). Detailed coverage encompasses all six knowledge areas defined by the Guide to Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK): Planning and Monitoring, Elicitation, Requirements Management and Communication, Enterprise Analysis, Requirements Analysis, and Solution Assessment and Validation, including expert guidance toward all underlying competencies. Real-world scenarios help you align your existing experience with the BABOK, and topic summaries, tips and tricks, practice questions, and objective-mapping give you a solid framework for success on the exam. You also gain access to the Sybex interactive learning environment, featuring review questions, electronic flashcards, and four practice exams to help you gauge your understanding and be fully prepared exam day.

As more and more organizations seek to streamline production models, the demand for qualified Business Analysts is growing. This guide provides a personalized study program to help you take your place among those certified in essential business analysis skills.

• Review the BABOK standards and best practices
• Master the core Business Analysis competencies
• Test your preparedness with focused review questions
• Access CBAP and CCBA practice exams, study tools, and more

As the liaison between the customer and the technical team, the Business Analyst is integral to ensuring that the solution satisfies the customer's needs. The BABOK standards codify best practices for this essential role, and the CBAP and CCBA certifications prove your ability to perform them effectively. The CBAP/CCBA Certified Business Analysis Study Guide, Second Edition provides thorough preparation customizable to your needs, to help you maximize your study time and ensure your success.

Chapter 1
Foundation Concepts

CBAP^®/CCBA™ EXAM TOPICS COVERED IN THIS CHAPTER

• 
  Describe business analysis and the role of the business analyst.
• 
  Explain the Business Analysis Core Concept Model (BACCM™).
• 
  Explore the six business analysis knowledge areas.
• 
  Recognize the basic contents, structure, and intent of the BABOK ^® Guide.
• 
  Define the BABOK ^® Guide requirements classification scheme.
• 
  Map business analysis activities to a generic project life cycle.
• 
  Understand the content and intent of the BABOK ^® Guide.

This chapter lays the foundation for navigating and understanding the content and intent of A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge^® (BABOK^® Guide). It is our high-level look at what it means to be a business analyst and how to successfully perform business analysis work. Business analysts can be found in all facets of an organization—projects, programs, strategic planning, operations, or other initiatives. Although the examples in this chapter use projects and the project life cycle to step through the discipline, remember that business analysts do not have to be members of a project team to do their jobs. They can work almost anywhere.

The set of generally accepted best practices defined by the BABOK^® Guide provides a business analysis framework defining areas of knowledge, associated activities and tasks, and the skills required to perform them. The scope of this standard covers pre-project activities, the full project life cycle, and the final product’s operational life.

What Is Business Analysis?

Let’s start with an example of how difficult it can be to do business analysis work when you are not certain where to begin. New business analysts start their careers in a number of ways. In the past, it was not uncommon for young software engineers to transition into the business side of an organization when their manager called them into their office, saying, “We are short-staffed, and I need you to figure out what the users need this new software application to do.” The fledging business analyst needed to discover who to talk to, what to ask, how to ask, and how to document the information that they discovered in a way that made sense to the development team and to the business. This was not an easy task the first time around!

In this situation, performing basic business analysis work took a lot longer than it seemed like it should. These unprepared rookie business analysts had great difficulty deciding exactly how to get started. There was no process in place to guide them and no one available to point them in the right direction. They found themselves longing to go back to their cubicles and just write some more code. Luckily, there is no need for business analysts to feel this way today. There are standards, books (like this one), websites, blogs, and tons of experienced folks out there to mentor and guide business analysts in getting the job done right.

Business analysis is the glue that holds successful organizations together. It is a distinct discipline focusing on identifying business needs, problems, and opportunities, and on determining the appropriate solutions to address them. The resulting projects and initiatives may focus on systems development, process improvement, organizational change, or some combination of the three. Business analysis touches all levels of an organization: strategic, tactical, and operational. Business analysts participate across the project and the product life cycles as they look at all aspects of an organization’s enterprise architecture, stakeholder needs, business processes, software, and hardware.

The set of generally accepted best practices defined by the BABOK^® Guide make this book an essential resource for every business analyst. You should take this basic business analysis framework and make it work for you and your projects. The areas of knowledge, associated activities and tasks, and the skills required to perform them will give you a valuable starting point for introducing, validating, or improving your business analysis processes throughout an organization. Even better, the scope of the BABOK^® Guide covers pre-project activities, the full project life cycle and the final solution’s operational life.

The BABOK^® Guide focuses on building underlying competencies that make for a successful business analyst on today’s projects and initiatives. The BABOK^® Guide defines business analysis as “the practice of enabling change in an enterprise by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders.” Put simply, a business analyst is defined as anyone performing these business analysis activities.

When looking at business analysis in an organization, you need to make sure that you know how the organization views its business analysts. First, what is the role of the business analyst? Second, what is the expected relationship between the business analyst and the project manager? And third, who are the stakeholders with whom the business analyst will be interacting along the way? We will look at each of these topics next.

The Business Analyst’s Role

The linchpin of successful business analysis is the business analyst performing the actual work. Their involvement in defining and validating solutions that address key business needs and goals is essential to both project and business success. According to the BABOK^® Guide, “a business analyst is any person who performs business analysis tasks described in ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors
• Introduction
• Assessment Test
• Answers to Assessment Test
• Chapter 1 Foundation Concepts
• Chapter 2 Controlled Start: Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring
• Chapter 3 Controlled Start: Strategy Analysis
• Chapter 4 Overarching Tasks: Requirements Life Cycle Management
• Chapter 5 Controlled Middle: Elicitation and Collaboration
• Chapter 6 Controlled Middle: Requirements Analysis and Design Definition
• Chapter 7 Controlled End: Solution Evaluation
• Chapter 8 Underlying Competencies
• Chapter 9 Five Perspectives on Business Analysis
• Appendix A Advice on Completing Your Exam Application
• Appendix B Knowledge Areas, Tasks, and Elements
• Appendix C Mapping Techniques, Stakeholders, and Deliverables to Knowledge Areas and Tasks
• Appendix D Summary of Business Analysis Techniques
• Appendix E Summary of Business Analysis Outputs
• Appendix F Answers to Review Questions
• Advert
• EULA