Every time I present the first chapter of the BABOK, I introduce it with a disclaimer: "I know you may not find the information in the BABOK identical to your work place environment, but for the purpose of the CBAP test, it's imperative that you learn the information in the BABOK as is." If you have ever considered taking the PMP test, you know that this disclaimer applies as well. But, let's forget about the BABOK for a second. I am turning to you to find out the types of requirements you have worked with.
The BABOK describes 6 requirement types:
Business Requirements: High level statement of goals, objectives or need of the enterprise
User Requirements: Statements of needs of a particular stakeholder or class of stakeholders
Functional Requirements: Behavior and information that the solution will manage
Quality of Service Requirements: Condition that describe environmental condition under which the solution must remain effective or qualities that the system must have
Assumptions and Constraints: Identify aspects of the problem domain that are not functional requirements of a solution, and will limit or impact the design of the solution
Implementation Requirements: Capabilities that the solution must have in order to facilitate transition from the current state to the desired future state
After discussing the topic of requirement types with different Business Analyst around the world, it seems to me that many of you write requirements that are not listed above. I am curious to know what other types of requirements BA are gathering and how the requirements are defined. Let's see if someone is going to come up with a type of requirement I have never heard of :)
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Executive at work...
So often when we think of folks in Executive positions who do great things, we think of dry, humorless or square people. Yes, not all of them are like that but many can be. Well After reading an article "Not about Business Analysis. About a Business Analyst" by Julian Sammy, Chief Architect for IIBA, it gave me a different perspective on this executive team. I see life, humanity and they seem more personable. I enjoyed it.. hope you do too...
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
BABOK
I am getting ready to start a study group for the CBAP exam and I sent participants email about the schedule and ground rules. One of our ground rule is to read the section that we are going to cover in advance. I am thinking,... we are all set. Wrong!!! I assumed that everyone knows what the BABOK is and where to get one. Shame on me!
IIBA released a book called The "Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge". This book is the "sum of knowledge within the profession of Business Analysis and reflects what is considered currently accepted practice." It contains a lot of information about the Business Analysis field. If you are not sure what a BA does, you should pick up the BABOK and read it.
It is broken down into 6 knowledge area + BA fundamentals
- Enterpise Analysis
- Requirement Planning & Management
- Requirement Elicitation
- Requirement Analysis and Documentation
- Requirement Communication
- Solution Assessment and Valitation
Each of these knowledge areas are broken down by activities, tasks and techniques that the BA does or should be doing to add value to their organization.
In order to get a copy, you can click on the links above. You should be able to get a free copy if you are a member of IIBA.
Membership fee is only $95 per year. It's really a bargain compared to PMI, TAG and other organizations out there.
With IIBA membership, you get:
So if you are interested in advancing your career as a Business Analyst, take the time to get you a copy of the BABOK and read it!
IIBA released a book called The "Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge". This book is the "sum of knowledge within the profession of Business Analysis and reflects what is considered currently accepted practice." It contains a lot of information about the Business Analysis field. If you are not sure what a BA does, you should pick up the BABOK and read it.
It is broken down into 6 knowledge area + BA fundamentals
- Enterpise Analysis
- Requirement Planning & Management
- Requirement Elicitation
- Requirement Analysis and Documentation
- Requirement Communication
- Solution Assessment and Valitation
Each of these knowledge areas are broken down by activities, tasks and techniques that the BA does or should be doing to add value to their organization.
In order to get a copy, you can click on the links above. You should be able to get a free copy if you are a member of IIBA.
Membership fee is only $95 per year. It's really a bargain compared to PMI, TAG and other organizations out there.
With IIBA membership, you get:
- Discounted Fee for the Certified Business Analysis Professional™ (CBAP®) exam
- Access to IIBA Members-only content, including job postings
- Early access to changes to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK®)
- Personal Use of the Membership Logo and Trademark as a "Member of the International Institute of Business Analysis”
- Eligibility to join a local IIBA Chapter
- Access to fellow IIBA Members on community networks such as Catalyze and LinkedIn
- Networking opportunities with other Business Analysis professionals
- Opportunity to influence and contribute to the profession and service of Business Analysis
- Access to Endorsed Education Providers (EEPTM) so members may improve their skills
- Access to forums for sharing your expertise, expressing your professional opinion, and building a reputation within the industry
- Access to the IIBA Webinar Series featuring a range of Professional Development topics
So if you are interested in advancing your career as a Business Analyst, take the time to get you a copy of the BABOK and read it!
Friday, January 23, 2009
To PM or Not to PM – An Analysts Dilemma
I was going along, minding my own Business Analyst business, when it happened. One day, I looked up, and for all intents and purposes, I was managing a project. When I looked back on it, I could see that it started out slowly. ‘So and so, has another priority project. Can you attend these weekly meetings?’ We need a project schedule. The stakeholders started calling me for PM-type things. The developers wanted to meet with me about the estimates. Pretty soon, I was the BA wearing the PM hat. This is not territory I would have ever pursued. In fact, it is territory I purposely avoided. I never felt that I had the PM personality. I was always content to make sure that the show was running smoothly. I definitely did not want to be the one who ran the show. Reality check: It’s not the first time that it has happened in the history of the BA and it won’t be the last.
There will be times as BA’s that for whatever reason we will be tasked with running a project. This will not change, but there are a few things that I found that have helped me in these situations. The most important thing to do is don’t be afraid to ask for help. Although you may be perfectly capable of running a project, there are going to be aspects of the task that you have no clue about. Find an experienced Project Manager that you can use as a sounding board and seek advice from and utilize them.
Don’t be afraid to take issues up the chain of command. I had a situation with a team member who was, let’s say, less than cooperative. I don’t do well with personnel issues. I’ve become better with experience, but this situation tested me. I had to make sure that those above me were aware of the situation. I made sure to keep notes of what was going on, and give regular status of the situations to the higher-ups. When the situation got out of hand, I deferred to my Manager to handle it. You have to be careful to not let unexpected situations distract you. Do what you can. For those things that are out of your realm of responsibility, pass them on to those who need to handle them.
Finally, take it as a learning experience. The first time that I was pushed out of my comfort zone and into a management role, I was reluctant. I had my own prejudices about the task and more than a little self-doubt. But, I learned from it, and now can do it with no problem. Just think of it as one more undocumented feature of the Business Analyst role.
There will be times as BA’s that for whatever reason we will be tasked with running a project. This will not change, but there are a few things that I found that have helped me in these situations. The most important thing to do is don’t be afraid to ask for help. Although you may be perfectly capable of running a project, there are going to be aspects of the task that you have no clue about. Find an experienced Project Manager that you can use as a sounding board and seek advice from and utilize them.
Don’t be afraid to take issues up the chain of command. I had a situation with a team member who was, let’s say, less than cooperative. I don’t do well with personnel issues. I’ve become better with experience, but this situation tested me. I had to make sure that those above me were aware of the situation. I made sure to keep notes of what was going on, and give regular status of the situations to the higher-ups. When the situation got out of hand, I deferred to my Manager to handle it. You have to be careful to not let unexpected situations distract you. Do what you can. For those things that are out of your realm of responsibility, pass them on to those who need to handle them.
Finally, take it as a learning experience. The first time that I was pushed out of my comfort zone and into a management role, I was reluctant. I had my own prejudices about the task and more than a little self-doubt. But, I learned from it, and now can do it with no problem. Just think of it as one more undocumented feature of the Business Analyst role.
Why do web sites like Facebook thrive?
With more than 150 million active users, Facebook has become one of the most visited and most used website out there. It started out as another lame social network that students could join and waste their time by checking up on their friends. Today, everyone is on it. And by everyone, I mean even my parents are on it. Can you imagine? Age doesn’t define who joins and 
networks. Businesses are strongly pushing to have some presence on the site and other entrepreneurs are looking for the next best applet to attract those users.
I mean, Facebook is the way to go.
But why did they do so well? Why hasn’t Myspace or other social networks like Hi5 gained the same kind of the popularity? Facebook unlike others has features that make users come back for more. They also take the time to listen to their users and take them seriously by quickly implementing what the users say they need.
Great Features
The goal of any social network is to connect people and provide them with a way to communicate. Myspace does that! Hi5 does the same thing! But Facebook does it as better. The difference between Facebook and the others is found in some of its features.
With Facebook the user doesn’t have to go look at what happened while they weren’t there. Facebook brings news to the users in their own realm.
Features such as alerts let the user know when their friend tags them in a picture or left them a wall message. Then you have news feed and live feed that give you a snippet of what friends are doing… etc. The key is to play on people’s desire to talk about themselves and to be in everyone’s business.
I know Mark Zuckerberg is a genius for implementing those ideas but I don’t think he woke up one day with dreamed up requirements to build those features.
Requirements from Users
Facebook, like many websites out there allows for their users to provide feedback on things that work and things that don’t work (which usually outnumbers those things that do work, by the way). I remember when Facebook came up with the ‘Status’ feature, which let users write about what was going on in their lives. Great idea, but this feature was limited and would only allow for users to complete the sentence “User is…”. So you couldn’t write any sentence that didn’t use the verb “to be”. Some users took it upon themselves to provide feedback either directly to Facebook or by creating a coalition using the group feature. They sent Facebook the message that it would be better to allow more than one verb to be used while updating status.
Turn around time to produce
It wasn’t long before Facebook turned this feature around. They still show the “User is…” but the verb can be edited. Now the user can write “User loves banana” if he wants. I am sure this little change could have taken 10 months to build using methodologies that I am not going to mention. But they didn't make it a 10 months project because they knew the users thought it was important so they made it their priority. Crucial, little decision can make or break a web site.
The last important thing is the ability to develop a feature as quickly as possible in order to keep your users coming. In order to thrive in a world where if you want to gain popularity you have to satisfy the population (what a concept), listening to and getting your requirements from the users is very important. The voice of the users will help you build features. It’s not always a matter of creativity. Developing listening skills to hear what is needed could mean life or death for a web site.
networks. Businesses are strongly pushing to have some presence on the site and other entrepreneurs are looking for the next best applet to attract those users.I mean, Facebook is the way to go.
But why did they do so well? Why hasn’t Myspace or other social networks like Hi5 gained the same kind of the popularity? Facebook unlike others has features that make users come back for more. They also take the time to listen to their users and take them seriously by quickly implementing what the users say they need.
Great Features
The goal of any social network is to connect people and provide them with a way to communicate. Myspace does that! Hi5 does the same thing! But Facebook does it as better. The difference between Facebook and the others is found in some of its features.
With Facebook the user doesn’t have to go look at what happened while they weren’t there. Facebook brings news to the users in their own realm.
Features such as alerts let the user know when their friend tags them in a picture or left them a wall message. Then you have news feed and live feed that give you a snippet of what friends are doing… etc. The key is to play on people’s desire to talk about themselves and to be in everyone’s business.
I know Mark Zuckerberg is a genius for implementing those ideas but I don’t think he woke up one day with dreamed up requirements to build those features.
Requirements from Users
Facebook, like many websites out there allows for their users to provide feedback on things that work and things that don’t work (which usually outnumbers those things that do work, by the way). I remember when Facebook came up with the ‘Status’ feature, which let users write about what was going on in their lives. Great idea, but this feature was limited and would only allow for users to complete the sentence “User is…”. So you couldn’t write any sentence that didn’t use the verb “to be”. Some users took it upon themselves to provide feedback either directly to Facebook or by creating a coalition using the group feature. They sent Facebook the message that it would be better to allow more than one verb to be used while updating status.
Turn around time to produce
It wasn’t long before Facebook turned this feature around. They still show the “User is…” but the verb can be edited. Now the user can write “User loves banana” if he wants. I am sure this little change could have taken 10 months to build using methodologies that I am not going to mention. But they didn't make it a 10 months project because they knew the users thought it was important so they made it their priority. Crucial, little decision can make or break a web site.
The last important thing is the ability to develop a feature as quickly as possible in order to keep your users coming. In order to thrive in a world where if you want to gain popularity you have to satisfy the population (what a concept), listening to and getting your requirements from the users is very important. The voice of the users will help you build features. It’s not always a matter of creativity. Developing listening skills to hear what is needed could mean life or death for a web site.
The Business Analyst is Not a Catch All
The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) defines the term Business Analyst: "A business analyst works as a liaison among stakeholders in order to elicit, analyze, communicate and validate requirements for changes to business processes, policies and information systems. The business analyst understands business problems and opportunities in the context of the requirements and recommends solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals." But what is this trend that we are hearing about lately of “hybrid” BA? It seems that a lot of corporations have tossed the true definition of a BA and created their own hybrid – part project manager, part marketing analyst, part developer, part reporting analyst, part administrative assistant. This trend is unfortunate. The companies don’t get the true benefit of using a Business Analyst, and the BA doesn’t get to develop nor use his skills to the fullest. How do we reverse this trend and strengthen the value of the Business Analyst in the corporate world. I think it comes down to three important things: 1. Build the BA brand, 2. Educate yourself, 3. Add Value.
What do I mean by building the BA brand? Well, get involved with the IIBA. If you’re not already a member, attend a meeting. This is the best way to find out what’s going on in the world of Business Analysis. You can meet BA’s from other organizations and get to hear speakers discuss issues and trends in the world of Business Analysis.
Educating yourself constantly is important. BA’s are depended upon to know not only the latest tools of the trade, but also be familiar with the latest technology. You may also want to consider taking the Certified Business Analysis Professional exam (CBAP). Look for opportunities to hone your craft.
Finally, take those tools, tips and tricks and look for ways to apply them at your company. For example, you may be working at an organization that doesn’t know the value of creating process flows (yes, Virginia, they do exist). You could use this as an opportunity to educate your company about the importance of using the tools in the BA toolkit.
Although Business Analysts are becoming more and more utilized, it is important that we educate the corporate community on how the BA role can be an asset. This will help keep show those who don’t know that the BA role is an important one in their company’s life cycle.
What do I mean by building the BA brand? Well, get involved with the IIBA. If you’re not already a member, attend a meeting. This is the best way to find out what’s going on in the world of Business Analysis. You can meet BA’s from other organizations and get to hear speakers discuss issues and trends in the world of Business Analysis.
Educating yourself constantly is important. BA’s are depended upon to know not only the latest tools of the trade, but also be familiar with the latest technology. You may also want to consider taking the Certified Business Analysis Professional exam (CBAP). Look for opportunities to hone your craft.
Finally, take those tools, tips and tricks and look for ways to apply them at your company. For example, you may be working at an organization that doesn’t know the value of creating process flows (yes, Virginia, they do exist). You could use this as an opportunity to educate your company about the importance of using the tools in the BA toolkit.
Although Business Analysts are becoming more and more utilized, it is important that we educate the corporate community on how the BA role can be an asset. This will help keep show those who don’t know that the BA role is an important one in their company’s life cycle.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Would my Business Analyst Experts please stand up...
Before you read further, I wanted to share with you a wonderful blog that I just read and that inspired me. The blog is about fears of blogging and Havi Brooks made some good points about the self imposed fears of being an "expert" prior to expressing ourselves. This Article was posted on Project Shrink; which is another great source for project management and business analysis articles. I don't know about you, but I can relate to the points that Havi Brooks made in her blog. In our industry, It's hard to put yourself out there knowing how the minds ofsome great Business Analysts work. We (I mean us Business Analyst) ... we have a desire to dig into things, analyze every little aspect of a statement and deduct things based on our analysis. So my fear of sharing was that my experience could be irrelevant to others. Even though I am CBAP certified, I often felt that I couldn't contribute to the business analysis field. I thought, I have to have write a book or may be acquire a little more experience or may be work in a perfect organization that does things according to the BABOK in order to share with others. But after reading this blog, I have another perspective about writing and sharing my knowledge. If you get the same revelation as me, I need you to raise your hand and contact me. I want to make this blog more interactive. I want to get more than one voice on my blog. And I welcome your "expertise". I put "expertise" in quotes because I believe that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"; meaning my definition of expertise can be different than your definition of expertise. My definition of an expert is a person who knows something I don't know. And if you haven't lived my life and read the books I've read then you may know something I don't know. And if you think you know it well enough to share with others, then you are an expert. So shoot me an email or message me on facebook if you think you are ready to share your knowledge, experience or even your life as a Business Analyst with others.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Where has Linda Been
If you have not heard from me for a while is because I was on maternity leave. We have a little boy now in our lives and things have changed much. The thing that has changed the most is my perspective on life, my goals and my direction. During my leave, I decided to work some more on my company. As you know for sometime now, I have had a desire to help business analyst around the world to pass the IIBA certification and become CBAP. To ensure that this could be a lucrative opportunity, I ran a survey to find out if people were interested in the IIBA exam. I collected responses from 200 participants who were very much intersted in the certification even though 24.3% of this group did not know that IIBA existed.
In 2007 while studying for the CBAP exam, I started putting together a dummied down CBAP study guide. I have yet to release this study guide. 2008 was a dead year for me. This year however, I am going to pick back up my project. I am going to release my CBAP study guide as well as some courses to help those who are ready to sit for the CBAP exam this year.
After running a CBAP prep webinar for the Atlanta IIBA Chapter and other face to face study groups, I am ready to focus on this full time. I want to make it manageable for others to study for the test. It's easy to procrastinate or give up when the task at hand seems overwhelming. I have been there before. Taking the CBAP without guidance or any type of materials to help me study for it (beside our wonderful BABOK), it felt hopeless. I volunteered to start the study groups in Atlanta to help me stay focussed and have some accountability to taking the test. Luckily for me, it worked. I had wished that there was a guide, a course or anything that would help me understand the test and know how to go about studying for it.
Unfortunately, there were none. So I started developing some for others.
If you are planning take the CBAP exam this year, complete my survey and you will be the first to know when I release my materials.
You won't have to wait too long.... and you will pass your cbap exam....
In 2007 while studying for the CBAP exam, I started putting together a dummied down CBAP study guide. I have yet to release this study guide. 2008 was a dead year for me. This year however, I am going to pick back up my project. I am going to release my CBAP study guide as well as some courses to help those who are ready to sit for the CBAP exam this year.
After running a CBAP prep webinar for the Atlanta IIBA Chapter and other face to face study groups, I am ready to focus on this full time. I want to make it manageable for others to study for the test. It's easy to procrastinate or give up when the task at hand seems overwhelming. I have been there before. Taking the CBAP without guidance or any type of materials to help me study for it (beside our wonderful BABOK), it felt hopeless. I volunteered to start the study groups in Atlanta to help me stay focussed and have some accountability to taking the test. Luckily for me, it worked. I had wished that there was a guide, a course or anything that would help me understand the test and know how to go about studying for it.
Unfortunately, there were none. So I started developing some for others.
If you are planning take the CBAP exam this year, complete my survey and you will be the first to know when I release my materials.
You won't have to wait too long.... and you will pass your cbap exam....
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
What is the Zachman Framework?
If you are fairly new the business analysis world or if you have been in it for a while, you have heard and been puzzled by the zachman framework. This framework is described in the BABOK(TM) by IIBA as one of the techniques to create and maintain the business architecture (of the activity of the Enterprise Analysis Knowledge Area).
The Zachman framework was developed by John Zachman in 1987. When designing this framework,
John made our jobs as BA much easier. The BA job is to liase between different groups or players during the SDLC. In order to effectively do this, the BA must understand what everyone has to bring to the table. Not only does the Zachman Framework helps frame an enterprise architecture, but it can also helps bring out the different components needed to successfully go through the development process. It a cheat sheet of stakeholder's perspectives. It is composed of 6 rows and 6 columns. The rows represent the different stakeholders and the columns represent the areas of perspectives.
The stakeholder representes in the rows are:
1. Planner: This stakeholder is responsible for definining the enterprise direction, purpose and boundaries.
2. Business Owner: This stakeholder is responsible for definining the business structure, processes, and how it is organized.
3. Architect: This stakeholder takes what the business owner has defined and further refine them into actionable functions
4. Designer: Once the architect defines functions, the designer looks at what and how technology will be used to support those functions.
5. Builder: The builder is the one who makes things happen. At this level, the information captured is very detailed. They use technology to build the necessary tools to support the functions using the technology selected by the designers
6. Working Systems: Here we look at integration and the needs of the system.
The perspectives captured in the Zachman are:
1. Data (What): deals with things that are important to the enterprise
2. Activities (How): is concerned with what the enterprise does to support itself
3. Locations (Where): is the geographic distribution of enterprise's activities, assets... etc
4. People (Who): deals with people involved in the business and new initiatives
5. Time (When): captures all aspect of time such as: business events, triggers, schedules... etc
6. Motivation (Why): translation of business goals and strategies into smaller actions
This approach gives those in IT a view into the business and vice versa. It also guides the type of deliverable needed from each stakeholder in order to fulfil the strategy of the business.
The Zachman Framework isn't the only framework that organizes enterprise information. To get a better understanding of the Zachman and other existing framework, MITRE is putting together a Enterprise Analysis Body of Knowledge that defines, explains, and compares different frameworks.
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