IIBA CBAP – Part 3 Introduction

1. Introduction

Welcome to the IIBA business certification course. This course is based on IIBA Baboc Guide Version Three and provides a well structured approach to help you prepare for various levels of certifications such as CBAP, CCBA and ECBA. Launched by IIBA in September 2016, this course is for all levels that is beginner to advance level and hence suitable for students, new graduates as well as experienced business analysts who would like to undergo self paced learning without spending hundreds of dollars. Briefly about myself. I am Thrivith Patel.

I have over 15 years of experience in business analysis and consulting. I have extensive experience working in business and projects for clients from different geographies such as USA, UK, Europe, Middle East, Japan and India. I have worked in multiple domains such as insurance, banking, landing, media and sports. I am certified business analysts professional by International Institute of Business Analysis since March 2012.

The purpose of this course is to learn key Business Analyst concepts and specific business analysis tasks described in IIBA Baboc Guide Version three. With this training, you will be able to align your Business Analyst knowledge and or experience with concepts of IIBA Babog Guide. The objective of this course is to prepare for globally recognized Iibcap or CCBA certification or for ECBA Certificate exam.

Now, let’s briefly understand coverage for the whole course. The whole course is divided into seven parts. In part one, you will understand about various Business Analyst certifications offered by IIBA about Business Analyst key concepts and underlying competencies. In part two, you will learn about the business analysis, planning and monitoring knowledge area and associated business analysis tasks. Similarly, in rest of the parts you will learn in detail about business tasks from various knowledge areas such as elicitation and collaboration requirements, lifecycle management strategy analysis requirements, analysis and design, definition and solution evaluation.

Further, in part seven, you will also be able to understand the steps involved in making the IIb application and appearing for the IIb exam. Now, let’s understand the coverage in detail for this part three of the course. In introduction, you will get an overview of various Business Analyst Tasks and about the Business Analyst core concept model. Within the context of illustration and collaboration, you will learn in detail about the five Business Analyst tasks such as prepare for illicitation conduct, elicitation, confirm elicitation results, communicate business information and manage stakeholder collaboration. As per Baba Guide, participation of various stakeholders is part of all above individual tasks. However, to facilitate better understanding, this is covered as a separate session.

2. Introduction to Elicitation and Collaboration

Elicitation and Collaboration Knowledge Area describes a task performed to obtain information and communicate with stakeholders to confirm the results. In this session, you will get an overview of various businesses and tasks involved in Alicia and Collaboration Knowledge Area. By the end of this session, you would have understood the purpose of Elicitation and Collaboration. Eliciting requirements and design is a key task and involves drawing forth or bringing out information and reach agreement on the mutual understanding of the information. It involves discovering requirements and designs by talking with stakeholders, researching or experimenting.

Collaboration is the act of two or more people working together towards a common goal. Elicitation and collaboration can be planned activities such as workshops and surveys that can be structured and organized in advance. Aliciation and Collaboration can also be unplanned activities that can happen without notice, such as last minute or Justintime Collaboration or conversations. However, information collected with unplanned activities may require deeper exploration through a planned activity. Please note that Elicitation and Collaboration is not a phase or an isolated activity. Rather, it is an ongoing activity and can be performed while carrying out any task from other knowledge areas. This is the input output diagram for elastician and collaboration knowledge area. Inputs are the information consumed or transformed to produce an output and are necessary for a task to begin.

Inputs are generated by other business life tasks or are generated outside the scope of business analysis. The inputs labeled with the task number are outputs of those specific tasks, while inputs that are generated outside the scope of business analysis are marked as external. Outputs, are the result produced by performing the task and are labeled with the task number. These output may act as inputs to other business analysts tasks. Please pause and study the input output diagram. Elicitation and Collaboration Knowledge Area includes following tasks using Prepare for Elicitation task, we can understand the scope of illustration activity, select appropriate techniques, and plan for appropriate resources.

Using Conduct Laicization task, we can understand stakeholder needs and identify potential solutions. This may involve direct interaction with stakeholders, doing research or running experiments. Using Confirm Elicitation Result Task, we can check the information gathered during an elicitation session for accuracy and consistency with other information. Using Communicate Business Analysis Information Tasks, we can provide stakeholders with the information they need and at the time they need it, the information is presented in a useful form using the right terminology and concepts to ensure shared understanding.

Using managed Stakeholder collaboration tasks, we can work with stakeholders to engage them in overall business analysis process and ensure strong, positive and trust based relationship with stakeholders. Now let’s try to understand business analysis core concept model within the context of allstation and collaboration knowledge area The Business Analyst core concept model is a conceptual framework for business analysis. The Business and Core Concept Model can be used to describe and communicate about business analysis using a common terminology. It is composed of six terms. Each of this term 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 other five core concepts and cannot be fully understood until all the concepts are understood. The first concept is change and it signifies the act of transformation in response to a business need. As business environment evolves, changes occur within a context and can lead to enhancement or degradation of the solutions. Hence during allocation and collaboration we need to use variety of elicitation techniques to fully understand the change and determine the types and extent of allocation and collaboration. The second concept is need and it signifies a problem or opportunity to be addressed. Needs are due to changes in a given context and can also cause changes. Hence during alication collaboration we need to elicit, confirm and communicate needs and supporting business analysis information as elicitation is iterative and incremental, the understanding of needs may evolve over time. The third concept is Solution and it signifies a specific way of satisfying one or more needs in a given context. Solution also solve problems faced by stakeholders. Hence during illustration and collaboration we need to elicit, confirm and communicate required or desired functionalities of the proposed solutions.

The fourth concept is Stakeholder and it represents a stakeholder group or individual stakeholder affected by the chain and needs the solution. Hence, during allocation and collaboration we need to manage collaboration with the stakeholders who participate in business analyst work. All stakeholders may participate in different roles and at different times during a change. The fifth concept is Value and it signifies the worth, importance or usefulness of something to a stakeholder. Within a context, value can be potential gains or returns.

Hence during illicitation and collaboration we need to collaborate with stakeholders to assess, confirm and communicate the relative value of allocation results. The 6th concept is Context and it signifies the circumstances that influence the change. Hence, during illustration collaboration we need to apply a variety of Aliciation techniques to identify business analyst information about the context that may affect the change.

Please pause and go through the usage and application of each of the core concepts within the context of illustration and collaboration to recap illustration and collaboration knowledge area, describe the tasks performed to obtain information and communicate with stakeholders to confirm the results. In this session you have just got an overview of various business analysts tasks and about the business and as core concept model within the context of all station and collaboration knowledge area. In the next session we will learn in detail about tasks to prepare for all station.