Pass IIBA CCBA Exam in First Attempt Easily

Introduction

1. About Enhanced IIBA Certifications

Different companies, different industries, and different geographies each have different ways of performing business analysis. The only thing that is common is the business analysis competencies that are needed to elicit and analyse requirements and define solutions. In this session, you will learn about the enhanced multilevel competency-based business analysis certification framework launched by IIBA in September 2016. By the end of this session, you will be able to decide which IIBA Business and certification are appropriate for you. Since September 2016, IIBA has launched a four-level enhanced certification framework. This enhanced certification framework is aligned to the latest practise analysis study. The Enhanced Certification Framework has expanded scope in terms of business analysis practise at all levels. In an organisation that is at operational level, at strategic level, or at traditional project level, this framework evaluates the competencies of business partners at multiple levels. Competencies are defined at each level and for each competency. Business allies need to have certain level of proficiency in terms of performance. This framework guides and prepares you for the next level as you gain more experience, knowledge, and competencies. However, there is no need to go from level one to two and from two to three. You can attempt any level if you meet the prerequisites for that level. As a result, this framework supports complete career progression from entry to retirement. IIBA has validated the Enhanced Certification Framework, competencies, proficiency levels, and exam questions by involving well over 300 volunteers from the global BA community at various stages of the work. Hence, this is truly a certification framework by business analysis for business analyst. With this background, let's understand the various competency-based certifications offered by IIBA. Level One is a new entry-level certificate introduced in the Enhanced Certification Framework. IIBA has named this level "Entry Certificate in Business Analysis," and the acronym is ECBA. This level recognises individuals entering the business analysis profession. The target audience includes students enrolling in business-analyst academic programs and new graduates from other disciplines who are learning and developing VA skills. The target audience also includes functional managers who manage business analysts and professionals with business or domain experience but no experience as business analysts and who want to transition or change careers into business analysis. This level does not have any prerequisites in terms of business analyst work experience. This level is good for you if you do not have B experience or are new to the profession. This level will only test applicants' knowledge and will lay the foundation for competency development in business analysis. Please note that this level does not require periodic recertification. The level two is Certification of Capability in Business Analysis or CCBA. This level recognises BA practitioners who are result-oriented and who actually perform the business analysis work. These individuals may or may not have an official title as business analysts, but they have the experience and skills to perform business analysis work. This level has prerequisites of two to three years of experience in business analysis. This level is suitable for individuals working at any level within an organisation, such as operational, strategic, or in projects. For example, a customer service officer may be involved in improving business processes at an operational level, a divisional manager may be involved in improving customer services at a strategic level, or a project team member may be working on business tasks and deliverables. This level is also suitable for project managers, testers, and quality assurance analysts who perform business work along with their primary responsibilities and have enough bars to qualify. This level will test applicants' knowledge as well as their experience in business analysis through a scenario-based exam. The situation-based questions are designed to test your competencies and ability to apply experience in a given situation to choose the best course of action. These are practical questions that will test what a BA performs on a daily basis to validate your business analysis experience. Please note that it is not necessary to go all the way from Level one to Levels 2 and 3. You can attempt any level if you meet the prerequisites for that level. Any level up to level three can be taken directly. An exam would be as per that level. Level three is a Certified Business Analyst Professional, or CBAP, which is a gold standard certification. This level recognises seasoned senior business analysts who look at the bigger picture to lead and guide business analysis, work at operational, strategic, or on projects of various sizes and complexities, and are responsible for delivering business value. This level has prerequisites of a minimum of five years' experience in business analysis. This level will test applicants' expertise in business analysis in the form of a case study-based exam. The case study-based exam questions will test your skills and ability to lead and guide business analysis work. The questions are designed to test the practical application of your experience and guidance in solving or addressing more complex and unstructured business challenges or opportunities. Level Four is the highest level of certification introduced in the certification framework. IIBA has named this level "Certified Business Analyst Thought Leader." and the acronym is Cbatl. This certification recognises BA professionals who are experts in the field of business analysis or our industry thought leaders and are involved in advancing the BA profession by giving back to the BA community and also contributing to the evaluation of the BA practice. This level has prerequisites of at least ten years of experience in business analysis. This level will not have any exams and will be based on an assessment of the applicant's overall experience and contribution to the BA community. We will not be discussing requirements for Level Four in this course. To recap this session, we have learned about the four-level enhanced certification framework launched by IIBA. This enhanced certification framework has an expanded scope in terms of business analysis practised at all levels in an organisation and evaluates the competencies of business analysis at multiple levels. This framework guides and prepares you for the next level as you gain more experience, knowledge, and competencies. This framework provides support for complete career progression from entry through to retirement. Please note that it is not necessary to go all the way from Level One to two and two to three. You can attempt any level if you meet the prerequisites for that level. Any level up to Level Three can be taken directly, and the exam will be as per that level. You're requested to visit the IIBA website, which is www.iiba.org, and check if there are any updates or changes.

2. Business Analysis & the BA Professional

Business analysis is a broad profession in which business analysts work on different types of initiatives and use different competencies, knowledge, and skills. In this session, you will understand what business analysis is and the role of a business analyst. By the end of this session, you would be ready to understand the purpose and structure of the BABOK Guide. You might have heard the only change is constant." This applies to business as well. An organisation's business environment is constantly undergoing change with respect to customer demands, competition, new marketing channels, evolving technology, etc. These changes in the business environment lead to the identification of business needs. Changing business needs compel organisations to acquire capabilities that are required to carry out business. Required capabilities can be new or improved business processes, systems, etc. So business analysis is required to fully understand the ongoing changes in the business environment, define requirements and designs, and develop solutions to meet the changing business needs and deliver value. BABOK Guide version three defines business analysis as the practise of enabling change in an enterprise by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders. Business analysis enables an enterprise to articulate needs and to design and describe solutions that can deliver value. Business analysis is performed on a variety of initiatives within an enterprise. Initiatives may be strategic, operational, or tactical. For example, a strategic initiative could be to improve customer satisfaction. Operational initiatives could be to improve customer service-specific business processes, while technical initiatives could be a project to implement a business process management system. With this background, let's understand the role of a business analyst. A business analyst is the one who collaborates with various stakeholders and understands the business's needs in terms of problems or goals. Business analysts analyse the current state in terms of assets, business processes, enabling systems, etc. Business has defined its future state in terms of two business processes, enabling systems, etc. to meet the business's needs. A business analyst is also involved in defining the change strategy to transition from the current to the future state. Whenever stakeholders convey their desire, it is the responsibility of a business analyst to elicit the actual needs of stakeholders and determine the underlying issues and causes. Business analysis further defines solution requirements and designs to meet business and stakeholder needs. The business analyst is also involved in analysing the performance of the existing solutions and identifying ways of improving their performance to increase value. A business analyst is responsible for discovering, analyzing, synthesizing, and communicating business analysis information. BABOK Guide, Version 3, defines a business analyst as any person who performs the business analysis tasks described in the BABOK Guide, no matter their job title or organisational role. Other common job titles for people who perform business analysis include business architect, business systems analyst, management consultant, process analyst, product owner, et cetera. To recap. Business analyst analysis is required to fully understand ongoing changes in the business context. define requirements and designs. and create solutions to meet changing business needs while adding value A business analyst is any person who performs the business analysis task described in the BABOK Guide, no matter their job title or organisational role. They understand enterprise problems and goals. analyses needs and solutions. Devices. Strategies. Drives. Change and facilitate stakeholder collaboration in the next session, where we will learn about the purpose and structure of the BABOK Guide.

3. Structure of the BABOK Guide

Business analysis is a broad profession in which business analysts work on different types of initiatives and use different competencies, knowledge, and skills. In this session, you will understand what business analysis is and learn about the role of a business analyst. By the end of this session, you would be ready to understand the purpose and structure of the BABOK Guide. You might have heard the saying that only change is constant. This applies to business as well. An organisation's business environment is constantly undergoing change with respect to customer demands, competition, new marketing channels, evolving technology, etc. These changes in the business environment lead to the identification of business needs. Changing business needs compel organisations to acquire capabilities that are required to carry out business. Required capabilities can be new or improved business processes, systems, etc. So business analysis is required to fully understand the ongoing changes in the business environment, define requirements, and design and develop solutions to meet the changing business needs and deliver value. BABOK Guide version three defines business analysis as the practise of enabling change in an enterprise by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders. Business analysis enables an enterprise to articulate needs and to design and describe solutions that can deliver value. Business analysis is performed on a variety of initiatives within an enterprise. Initiatives may be strategic, operational, or tactical. For example, a strategic initiative could be to improve customer satisfaction. Operational initiatives could be to improve customer service-specific business processes, while technical initiatives could be a project to implement a business process management system. With this background, let's understand the role of a business analyst. Business analysts are the ones who collaborate with various stakeholders and understand the business needs in terms of problems or goals. Business analysts analyse the current state in terms of assets, business processes, enabling systems, etc. Business defines its future state in terms of business processes, enabling systems, etc. to meet the business's needs. A business analyst is also involved in defining the change strategy to transition from the current to the future state. Whenever stakeholders convey their desires, it is the responsibility of a business analyst to elicit the actual needs of stakeholders and determine the underlying issues and causes. Business analysis further defines solution requirements and designs to meet business and stakeholder needs. The business analyst is also involved in analysing the performance of the existing solutions and identifying ways of improving their performance to increase value. A business analyst is responsible for discovering, analyzing, synthesizing, and communicating business analysis information. BABOK Guide version three defines a business analyst as any person who performs the business analysis tasks described in the BABOK Guide, no matter the job title or organisational role. Other common job titles for people who perform business analysis include business architect, business systems analyst, management consultant, process analyst, product owner, et cetera. To recap. Business analyst analysis is required to fully understand ongoing changes in the business context. define requirements and designs. and create solutions to meet changing business needs while adding value A business analyst is any person who performs the business analysis task described in the BABOK Guide, no matter their job title or organisational role A business analyst understands enterprise problems and goals. analyses needs and solutions. Devices. Strategies. drives change and facilitates stakeholder collaboration, the next session will learn about the purpose and structure of the BABOK Guide.

4. About IIBA Eligibility Requirements and Exam Blueprint

The primary purpose of the BABOK Guide is to define the profession of business analysis and provide a set of commonly accepted practices. In this session, you will get an overview of the purpose and structure of the BABOK Guide. By the end of this session, you will be ready to learn the key concepts in business analysis. BA Bach stands for business analysis. body of knowledge. The BABOK Guide comprises two parts. The first part is the core content, and the second part is the extended content. The core content of BABOK Guide Version Three is composed of 30 business analysts organised into six knowledge areas. The extended content of the BABOK Guide consists of business analysis, key concepts, underlying competencies, techniques, and perspectives. The core content of The BABOK Guide provides a common framework that describes business analyst tasks. Business analysis tasks are performed to properly analyse the change and evaluate the necessity for a change in practice. The business analyst tasks are tailored depending on the type of initiative. A Business Analyst task is a piece of work that may be performed formally or informally as part of business analysis. These tasks are grouped into knowledge areas, and the business analyst may perform this task from various knowledge areas sequentially, iteratively, or simultaneously. The BABOK Guide does not recommend a processor or an order in which tasks are performed. Tasks may be performed in any order, as long as all necessary inputs are available. As we have understood, the core content of BABOK Guide consists of 30 business tasks, which are grouped into six knowledge areas. Now let's try to understand the purpose of each of the knowledge areas. It's okay if you find it difficult to understand these concepts on the first try. You will eventually understand them once you finish the whole course. The first knowledge area is Business Analysis, Planning, and Monitoring, and it describes the tasks that must be performed to plan the overall business analysis approach. They govern all other knowledge areas' business tasks and organise and coordinate the efforts of business analysts and stakeholders. The second knowledge area is Elicitation and Collaboration, and it describes the tasks that must be performed to carry out elicitation, communication, and collaboration with stakeholders. The third knowledge area is the requirement Lifecycle Management, and it describes a task that must be performed to prioritize, trace, maintain, approve, and manage changes to requirements and designs. The fourth knowledge area is Strategy Analysis, and it describes a task that must be performed to identify the business need, assess current state capabilities, define future state capabilities to meet the identified business needs, and define a change strategy to transition from current state to the desired future state. The fifth knowledge area is Requirements, Analysis, and Design Definition, and it describes the task that must be performed to structure, organize, specify, model, verify, and validate requirements and designs, identify solution options, estimate the potential value of each solution option, and recommend the best solution. The sixth knowledge area is solution evaluation, and it describes a task that must be performed to measure and assess the performance of an existing solution, assess the limitations of the solution and the limitations of an enterprise, and recommend actions such as improving, enhancing, or replacing the solution to increase value. The extended content of the BABOK Guide consists of business analyst key concepts that define the key terms needed to understand the concepts and ideas within the BABOK Guide's underlying competencies. Describe the knowledge, skills, behavior, characteristics, and personal qualities that would help in performing the business analyst work. Techniques described in the BABOK Guide are the most commonly practised business analysis techniques that help with performing better business tasks. Please note that these are not a complete set of techniques used in business analysis. In practice, we can tailor and use multiple alternative techniques in conjunction with other techniques to accomplish a task. A perspective provides an overview of the ways to use various business analysis tasks and techniques depending on the context of the initiative. To summarize, these perspectives do not represent all of the possible perspectives from which business analysis practises and initiatives can be conducted. The primary purpose of The BABOK Guide is to define the profession of business analysis and provide a set of commonly accepted practices. It helps to define the skills necessary to effectively perform business or other work. BABOK Guide comprises of two parts. The first part is the core content, which is composed of 30 business analyst tasks that are organised into six knowledge areas. We have also learned that our guide provides a common framework that describes business tasks that are performed to properly analyse the change or evaluate the necessity for a change. The second part is the extended content that is composed of business analysis concepts, underlying competencies, techniques, and perspectives. So, now that you understand the structure of the BABOK Guide and the various knowledge areas, you are ready to learn about the IIBA eligibility requirements and exam blueprint, which will be covered in the next session.

Hide

Business Analysis Key Concepts

1. Business Analysis Key Concepts

The business analyst's key concepts provide a foundation and understanding for all concepts and ideas within the guide. In this session, you will learn about the IIBA Business Analyse Concept Model key terms used in the BABOK Guide: requirements, classification, schema, stakeholders, and requirements and designs. By the end of this session, you would be ready to learn the underlying competencies, knowledge areas, and respective business tasks of the BABOK guide. Let's try to understand. IIBA's business analysis core concept model The business analysis core concept model is a conceptual framework for business analysis. It is composed of six terms, and each of these terms is considered to be a core concept. The six core concepts are change, need, solution, stakeholder, value, and context. Each core concept is defined by the other five core concepts and cannot be fully understood until all the concepts are understood. A business and core concept model can be used to describe and communicate about business analysis. Using our common terminology for each knowledge area, we can evaluate the relationships among the six core concepts and effectively perform various business analyst tasks. The first concept is change, and it signifies the act of transformation in response to a need. Changes occur within context. Changes can lead to an enhancement or degradation of the solutions. Changes can also cause needs. The second concept is needed, and it signifies a problem or opportunity to be addressed. Needs are due to changes in a given context. needs can cause changes. Needs can also motivate stakeholders to act. The third concept is "solutions," and it signifies a specific way of satisfying one or more needs in a given context. solution is applicable in a given context. solution also resolves problems faced by stakeholders. The fourth concept is "stakeholders," which signifies a group or individual affected by the change and needs. The solution's stakeholders have an interest in change and can influence or impact the change. The fifth concept is value, which signifies the worth, importance, usefulness, etc. of something to a stakeholder within a context. Value can be potential gains, improvements, or realised returns. Value can be tangible, that is, financially measurable or quantifiable. Value can also be intangible or qualitative—that is, it cannot be quantified. Value is delivered by addressing the underlying needs of the stakeholders. The 6th concept is context, which signifies the circumstances that influence the change. Context is also influenced by change and provides understanding of the change. In the BABOK Guide, the meaning of and relationship between concepts are further refined as they apply to each knowledge area. Please pause and understand the core concepts of the business analysis model. Now let's understand the meaning of various terms used in the BABOK Guide. The BABOK Guide defines business analysis as the practise of enabling change in an enterprise by defining needs and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders. Business Analysis Information refers to the broad and diverse set of information at various levels of detail that a business analyst analyzes, transforms, and reports, such as requirements, design, solution options, solution scope, et cetera. A design is a usable representation of a solution. A design is a solution blueprint that shows solution components and the relationships between them. An enterprise is a system of one or more organisations and the solutions they use. Enterprise boundaries are defined relative to the change and are not constrained by the boundaries of an organisation or organisation unit. So an enterprise may logically include any number of organizations, such as business or government organizations. An organisation consists of a group of people that work towards a common goal and objectives. Organizations have a clearly defined boundary and operate on a continuous basis. A plan is a proposal for doing or achieving something. A plan describes events, dependencies, expected sequence, schedule, outcomes, resources needed, and the stakeholders involved. A requirement is a usable representation of a need. Requirement focus on understanding the potential value that could be delivered if a requirement is fulfilled. Risk is the effect of uncertain events on the value delivered by change, initiative, or solution for the enterprise. Business analysts collaborate with other stakeholders to identify, assess, and prioritise risk and recommend appropriate actions. Now let's try to understand the requirement classification schema. In terms of the BABOK Guide, the IIAB BABOK Guide categorises requirements as business. requirements, stakeholder requirements, solution Requirements and Transition Requirements Business requirements define an enterprise's needs in terms of a problem or opportunity, as well as their statement of goals, objectives, and outcomes that explain why a change has been identified and apply to the entire enterprise. Stakeholder Requirements describe the needs of stakeholders that must be met in order to achieve the business requirements. They serve as a bridge between business and solution requirements. Solution requirements describe the capabilities and qualities of a solution that meet stakeholder Stakeholder Requirements. They provide an appropriate level of detail to allow for development and implementation of the solution. Solution requirements are divided into functional requirements and non-functional Functional Requirements. Functional requirements describe the capabilities that a solution must have in terms of behaviour and information that it will manage. Functional requirements specify what a system should do. Nonfunctional requirements are also known as quality of service requirements. They describe the environmental conditions under which a solution must remain effective or qualities that a solution must have in order to ensure stakeholder satisfaction. Non-functional requirements specify what a solution should be. They typically specify usability, reliability, performance, and supportability requirements. Transition requirements describe the capabilities needed to facilitate the transition from the current state to the future. State transition requirements are temporary and are not needed once the change is complete. the specific requirements for data consumption, version, training, business continuity, et cetera. Please pause to understand the requirement classification schema. Now let's try to understand what we mean by a stakeholder. A stakeholder is an individual or a group that business is likely to interact with directly or indirectly. Each business on the staff includes a list of stakeholders who are likely to participate in the execution of that task or get affected by it. IIAB's above guide provides a unique list of stakeholders with the following roles The Business Analyst is a stakeholder in all business activities and is responsible and accountable for the execution of these activities. A customer uses products or services produced by the enterprise. A domain subject matter expert is any individual with in-depth business domain or process knowledge relevant to the business needs or solution scope, and users are the individuals who directly interact with or use a solution or participate in a business process. An implementation subject matter expert is any individual who has specialised knowledge regarding the implementation of one or more solution components. The most common roles in this are solution architect, developer, database administrator, usability analyst, trainer, etc. Operational support is responsible for the day-to-day management and maintenance of a system or product. A project manager is responsible for managing the work required to deliver a solution while balancing the project scope, budget, schedule, resources, quality, and risk. Regulators are the government and regulatory bodies and auditors responsible for the definition and enforcement of standards using legislation, corporate governance standards, audit standards, etc. Sponsors are responsible for initiating and authorising the business analysis work, controlling the budget, solution scope, and development of a solution. Supplies are from external vendors and consultants that provide products or services to the organization. Testers verify that the solution meets the requirement defined by the business analyst and also ensure that the solution meets applicable quality standards. We have understood various types of requirements as per the guide. Now let's understand what we mean by design in the context of business analysis. Stakeholders may present a need. A business analyst describes the need as a requirement or design. The distinction between requirements and design is not always clear. The same techniques are used to elicit, model, and analyse both requirements and designs. Requirements are focused on the need, while designs are focused on the solution. For example, stakeholders may need to resolve customer queries, and one of the requirements may be to record and assess a customer transaction history. And its design can be a screen, mockup, or prototype showing specific data fields. So a requirement leads to a design, which in turn may drive the discovery and analysis of more requirements, which again are used to define more detailed designs. The business analyst may handle requirements and design for other stakeholders who may further elaborate on the design. It is a business analyst who must review the final design to ensure that it aligns with the requirements to recap. IAP's Business Analyst Concept Model can be used to describe and communicate about business analysis using common terminology. It is composed of six terms, and each of these terms is considered to be a core concept. The six core concepts are change, need, solution, stakeholder, value, and context. We have learned the meaning of various terms used in the bubble guide, such as designs, enterprise, organization, plan, requirement, risk, etc. We also learned from the IIAB BABOK Guide that requirements are classified as business requirements, stakeholder requirements, solution requirements, and transition requirements. We have also understood the roles of various stakeholders such as the sponsor domain, subject matter expert, implementation team, project manager, tester, etc. With whom business interacts to elicit requirements, assumptions, or constraints Finally, we have understood the distinction between requirements and design and learned that requirements are focused on the need while designs are focused on the solution. In the next session, we learn about the underlying competencies.

Hide