Business Analyst E-Book

MCAL™ BUSINESS ANALYSIS E-BOOK

Your quickest guide to learn what is business analysis, what an IT BA does and how to earn CCBA® / CBAP® certification

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Table of Contents

What is Business Analysis? 3 ....................................................................................

The BA Career “Opportunity” 4 ............................................................................

Business Analysis Levels 5 ........................................................................................

Strategic Business Analysis 5 ................................................................................

Tactical Business Analysis 5 ..................................................................................

Operational Business Analysis 5 ...........................................................................

Types of BAs 6 .........................................................................................................

Role & Responsibilities of an IT BA 7 ....................................................................

About IIBA® 8 ........................................................................................................

About BABOK® 9 ..................................................................................................

BABOK® Knowledge Areas 9 .............................................................................

Business Analysis Techniques 10 ..........................................................................

Skills needed to be a proficient BA 11 .....................................................................

Overview of CCBA® and CBAP® certifications 12 ..............................................

Benefits of CCBA® and CBAP® certifications 12 ..............................................

Eligibility Criteria 13 ............................................................................................

Certification Exam Format 14 .............................................................................

Certification Renewal 14 ......................................................................................

About MCAL 15.....................................................................................................

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What is Business Analysis?

The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) defines business analysis as follows:

Business Analysis is the set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to understand the structure, policies and operations of an organisation, and to recommend solutions that enable the organisation to achieve its goals.

Based on the definition we can observe that following are the key aspects regarding Business Analysis:

❖ Work as an informational bridge between internal and external stakeholders of a project

❖ Learn and understand how the client’s business operates including its environment, rules & regulations, analyse their problems / opportunities and

❖ Design and deliver solutions which will help the client solve those problems or make optimum use of the opportunities which ultimately help them achieve its goals

The “solution” can include software development / enhancement, process improvement or people change or a combination of these.


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The BA Career “Opportunity”

Business Analyst is one of the most exciting and attractive career options for IT or business side professionals.

It is a unique profile that lets an individual understand both the breadth and depth of the client’s business. Such exposure is nearly impossible to get in other roles such as Developers or QAs. Even Project Managers may be aware of only the breadth of the project, but they will not know all the details quite well.

This command over knowledge and relationships make BAs a very important and almost indispensable part of the team and organisation.

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Business Analysis Levels

Several individuals have to put in efforts to perform business analysis at various levels within an organization. These efforts can be broadly collated into following three levels:

Strategic Analysis Tactical Analysis Operational Analysis

The analysis performed here is at the enterprise level. Attempt is made to identify problems / challenges / opportunities that the entire organization faces and find suitable approaches to overcome those challenges or harness the opportunities.

The focus is on identifying and defining “need” of the organization. The overall effort includes top management of the organization and the results of the analysis and the solution may take few years to materialize. E.g. sensing opportunity for their products, a domestic organization (like Micromax) decides to sell their products globally and become amongst top 10 players in the world.

The initiatives started by an organization to achieve their strategic goals need to be converted into specific projects. Such projects need to be monitored closely and tweaked regularly as necessary. The market environment, competition and technology evolution needs to be analysed continuously so that the organization keeps moving in the right direction.

Few top management executives and a lot of middle management level people perform this analysis and make changes to the ongoing initiatives as necessary. The results of such analysis and the corresponding solutions may take effect within few quarters / months. E.g. an organization continuously takes feedback from the market and upgrades its services / products at least couple of time every year (like upgrades of car models launched periodically).

This is the daily analysis which needs to be done to execute the plans and achieve realistic results on the ground. People who are part of specific projects are usually responsible for such analysis. The results of such analysis are visible within few days. E.g. A bug is reported by a client in a product that your company has sold to them. The root cause is identified, an appropriate solution is designed, developed, tested and deployed to that client and may be to all the clients who use the same product.


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Types of BAs

Professionals performing Strategic Business Analysis

Management Consultants, Enterprise Architects, Business Architects

Professionals performing Tactical Business Analysis

Technology Consultants, Process Consultants, Product Consultants, Technology Architects, Solution Architects, Subject Matter Experts, Project Managers, Lead Business Analysts, Pre-sales Business

Analysts

Professionals performing Operational Business Analysis

IT Business Analysts, Business System Analysts, Quality Analysts, Tech Leads


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Role & Responsibilities of an IT BA

Indian IT industry is well known world over for its technological strength. We are an outsourced software development industry. A lot of projects happening in MNCs and Indian IT companies are for clients based in US and Europe.

Due to this fact, majority of the business analysis work done in India happens at Tactical & Operational level and it is majorly in IT Software Delivery projects and a little bit for Process Improvement projects.

Following are the typical responsibilities of IT (Software Delivery or Process Improvement) BA:

❖ Perform As-Is & To-Be Process Analysis & Modelling ❖ Analysis of current technology / market environment ❖ Understanding Client’s pain points / opportunities ❖ Eliciting & documenting Business Requirements & Stakeholder Requirements ❖ Eliciting, analysing & modelling Solution Requirements ❖ Developing requirement documents like BRD, SRS, FRD, Use Cases, User Stories, UI Prototypes, Training

& User manuals ❖ Helping Development team design suitable solution to address client’s requirements ❖ Assisting QA team in ensuring that the solution is of good Quality ❖ Implementing the solution for the client by training their staff ❖ Post production support


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About IIBA®International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®) is an independent non-profit professional association serving the growing field of business analysis.

For individuals working in a broad range of roles – business analysis, systems analysis, requirements analysis or management, project management, consulting, process improvement and more – IIBA® can help you do your job better and enhance your professional life.

As a professional association, IIBA assists business analysts by:

❖ Defining standards for business analysis through the creation of A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK® Guide), a summary of the knowledge within the BA profession, reflecting current generally accepted practices.

❖ Identifying the skills necessary to be effective in the business analyst role. ❖ Recognizing business analysis professionals through the Certification of Competency in Business Analysis™ (CCBA®)

and Certified Business Analysis Professional™ (CBAP®) certifications.


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About BABOK®A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK® Guide) serves as the repository of knowledge gathered from Business Analysis practitioners across the globe. The BABOK® Guide captures the commonly adopted practices by the global BA community. It lists the portfolio of skills that a professional should acquire to become a proficient BA. It also lists and describes various Business Analysis tools and techniques that any professional BA should be aware of so as to use them at appropriate occasions within their assignments.

IIBA makes sure that the BABOK® Guide continues to reflect the latest BA trends. This is achieved by regularly updating the BABOK® Guide to make it up-to-date with what’s happening in the industry.

BABOK® Knowledge Areas

The BABOK Guide (v2.0) contains following 6 Knowledge Areas. “Knowledge Areas” define what a practitioner of business analysis needs to understand and the tasks a practitioner must be able to perform.

❖ Business Analysis Planning & Monitoring ❖ Enterprise Analysis ❖ Requirements Elicitation ❖ Requirements Analysis ❖ Requirements Management & Communication ❖ Solution Assessment & Validation

These 6 Knowledge Areas cover overall 32 different tasks that a BA should know about and perform in his project.


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Business Analysis TechniquesThe BABOK Guide (v2.0) describes 34 different techniques that a BA can use to perform the BA tasks. Some techniques are generic in nature and thus they can be used to perform different BA tasks, while few techniques are specific to a BA task.

Few examples of the techniques are benchmarking, brainstorming, data modelling, interviews, prototyping, root cause analysis, SWOT analysis, User Stories, etc.


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Skills needed to be a proficient BA

The BABOK Guide lists following categories as the key skills needed by an individual if he / she want to become a proficient Business Analyst:

❖ Analytical thinking and problem solving o Creative Thinking, Decision Making, Problem Solving, Visual

Thinking, etc.

❖ Behavioural Characteristics o Ethics, Ownership, Trustworthiness, Time Management, etc.

❖ Business Knowledge o Business Acumen, Industry Knowledge, Organization Knowledge,

Methodology Knowledge, etc.

❖ Communication Skills o Verbal, Non-verbal, Written Communication, etc.

❖ Interaction Skills o Facilitation, Leadership, Negotiation, etc.

❖ Tools and Technology o Office tools, Productive Improvement Tools, Communication &

Collaboration


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Overview of CCBA® and CBAP® certifications

IIBA® conducts two separate certification exams – CCBA® (Certification of Competency in Business Analysis™) and CBAP® (Certified Business Analysis Professional™). Both the exams test the Business Analysis knowledge of an aspirant. Both these certifications are in high demand and help certified individuals to stand apart from the crowd.

While both the exams are for practising BAs, CCBA is meant for BA beginners while CBAP is for BA experts.

Benefits of CCBA® and CBAP® certifications

There are many reasons how certified professionals have benefited. Following are few important ones: ❖ Differentiation from the masses ❖ Increased self confidence ❖ Knowledge about our standing within the industry ❖ Improved performance ❖ Elevated standing within the organization ❖ Scope to build personal brand beyond the organization ❖ Better jobs


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Eligibility Criteria

Criteria CBAP® CCBA®

BA Experience Required 7500 Hours in past 10 years 3750 Hours in past 7 years

Knowledge Area Experience Min. 4 KAs with 900 hours each 2 KAs with 900 hours each or 4 KAs with 500 hours each

Education Required High school & above High school & above

Average Professional Experience (based on our research)

5+ years as a full time BA 3+ years as a full time BA

Professional Development Units 21 PDUs Required 21 PDUs Required

Professional References 2 references needed 2 references needed

Eligibility Application Fee $125 $125

Exam Fee $450(Nonmember), $325(Member) $450(Nonmember), $325(Member)

One of the reasons why CCBA® / CBAP® continue to rule the BA certification market is their stringent eligibility criteria and the judicious review of each application.

Following table describes the eligibility criteria.


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Certification Exam Format

Knowledge Area Weightage

Business Analysis Planning & Monitoring 20%

Enterprise Analysis 15%

Requirements Elicitation 14%

Requirements Analysis 20%

Requirements Management & Communication 16%

Solution Assessment & Validation 15%

The exam consists of 150 questions. The duration of the exam is 3.5 hours. Each question has four answer options and only one answer can be chosen.

Both CCBA® and CBAP® follow the same format mentioned above. The exam is conducted in online mode. This is the weightage of different Knowledge Areas within both the exams.

Certification Renewal

Both the certificates are valid for 3 years from the date of certification. After 3 years, either the individual has to reappear for the exam or he can collect CDUs (Continuous Development Units) each year, submit them to IIBA and keep the certificate valid for a year.


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About MCAL

MCAL™ is the leading high-end Training and Consulting Company in South Asia having expertise in the areas like Business Analysis, Big Data, Requirement Engineering, Data Analytics, IT Service Management, Project Management, and Leadership Development. We are helping professionals from most of the fortune 500 companies present in India.

In the last 5 years, we have trained more than 10,000 professionals with 97% Excellent and Good feedbacks and helped many organizations to achieve accelerated growth.

Our exceptional track record and innovative approach make us one of most liked Training Partners, from Individuals to MNCs. We are associated with the Global bodies like IIBA®- Canada, TUV®-Germany, IREB® - Germany and ITIL® - UK.

IIBA®, the IIBA® logo, BABOK® and Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® are registered trademarks owned by International Institute of Business Analysis. CBAP® is a registered certification mark owned by International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). This certification mark is used with the express permission of International Institute of Business Analysis. CCBA® is a registered certification mark owned by International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). This certification mark is used with the express permission of International Institute of Business Analysis. Certified Business Analysis Professional, EEP and the EEP logo are trademarks owned by International Institute of Business Analysis.


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Business Analyst E-Book

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