IIBA CBAP – Part 4 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 Thrived 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 four of the course. In introduction, you will get an overview of various Business Analyst Tasks and about the Business Analysis Core concept model. Within the context of requirement lifecycle Management knowledge area. You will learn in detail about the five Business Analyst tasks such as trace requirements, maintain requirements, prioritize requirements, assess requirements, changes and approve requirements. As for Baba Guide, participation of various stakeholders is part of all about individual tasks. However, to facilitate better understanding, this is covered as a separate session and.

2. Introduction to Requirements Life Cycle Management

Requirements lifecycle Management Knowledge Area describes the tasks that business analysts perform in order to manage and maintain requirements and design from inception to retirement. In this session, you will get overview of various business analysis tasks involved in Requirement Lifecycle Management Knowledge Area. End of this session, you would have understood the purpose of Requirement Lifecycle Management. The purpose of Requirement Lifecycle Management is to ensure that business stakeholder and solution requirements and designs are aligned to one another and that the solution implements them.

This task in Requirement Lifecycle Management describe establishing relationship between related requirements and designs and also in analyzing and gaining consensus on changes. The requirement Lifecycle begins with defining the business need as a requirement, continues through the solution development, and only ends when a solution and associated requirements are retired. So, requirement lifecycle does not end once a solution is implemented, rather, it continues throughout the life of a solution. This is the input output diagram for requirement lifecycle Management Knowledge area.

Inputs are information consumed or transformed to produce an output and are necessary for a task to begin. Inputs are generated by other business analysis 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 results produced by performing the task, and are labeled with the task number. These outputs may act as input to other business analysis tasks.

Please pause and study the input output diagram. Requirement Lifecycle Management Knowledge Area includes following tasks using trace requirement tasks, we can analyze and maintain the relationships between requirements, designs, solution components, ETCA. For impact analysis, coverage and allocation. Using Maintenance requirements tasks, we can ensure that requirements and designs are accurate and current throughout the lifecycle and facilitate reuse where appropriate.

Using prioritized requirement tasks, we can assess the value, urgency and risk associated with particular requirements and design to ensure that analysis and or delivery is done on most important ones. Using SS Requirement Changes task, we can evaluate new and changing stakeholder requirements to determine if they are within the scope of a change and need to be acted on. Using approved requirements tasks, we can work with stakeholders involved in the governance process to reach approval and agreement on requirements and design.

Now let’s try to understand the business analysis core concept model within the context of requirement lifecycle management knowledge area. The business analysis core concept model is a conceptual framework for business analysis. The Business Analysis Core Concept Model can be used to describe and communicate about business analysis using a common terminology. It is composed of six terms and 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 requirement lifecycle Management we need to manage how proposed changes to requirements and designs are evaluated during an initiative. 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 requirement life cycle management we need to trace, prioritize and maintain requirements to ensure that the need is met. The third concept is Solution and it signifies a specific way of satisfying one or more needs in a given context.

Solution also solves problems faced by stakeholders. Hence during requirement Lifecycle Management we need to trace requirements and designs to solution components to ensure that the solution satisfies the need. The fourth concept is Stakeholder and it represents a stakeholder group or individual stakeholder affected by the change and needs the solution. Hence, during requirement Lifecycle Management we need to work closely with key stakeholders to maintain understanding, agreement and approval of requirements and designs. The fifth concept is Value and it signifies the work importance or usefulness of something to a stakeholder.

Within a context, value can be potential gains or returns. Hence, during requirement lifecycle Management we need to maintain requirements for reuse to extend value beyond the current initiative. The 6th concept is Context and it signifies circumstances that influence the change. Hence, during requirement lifecycle Management we need to analyze the context to support tracing and prioritization activities. Please pause and go through the usage and application of each of the core concepts within the context of Requirement Lifecycle Management to recap.

Requirement Lifecycle Management Knowledge Area describes the task that business analysts perform in order to manage and maintain requirements and design from inception to retirement. In this session, you have just got an overview of various business analyst tasks and about the Business Analysis core concept model within the context of Requirement Lifecycle Management Knowledge area. In the next session, we will learn in detail about task to trace requirements.