Tag: Training

Business Analysis | Role or Capability?

Written by Tiffany Wiley on March 31, 2022. Posted in Articles.

I love this question! It opens the door for so many different perspectives (which is key in our line of work). Before we answer this, let’s start with a story.

A recent employer pulled me aside after about 2 weeks on the job (as a contractor) and said “We’ve been told that we don’t need business analysts on this project. I’m curious what your thoughts are on this?” Despite my obvious hesitations with wanting to keep my job and income, I said “That’s probably right. However,…” and I went on to explain that while a person sitting in that role/title isn’t necessary, the function is. It is critical to have someone performing the business analysis activities to ensure a successful solution delivery – digging into and understanding the business and user needs, the problems they are facing, understanding the value that they are seeking, etc. Generally speaking, developers are busy developing, QA engineers are typically busy testing, etc., so someone needs to do it.

I do believe this open and honest discussion is a big reason why I was converted from contractor to permanent employee. They trusted me enough to ask the question and I trusted them enough with a thoughtful answer.

What is a Business Analyst and what do they do?

This is sort of a loaded question in my opinion. There are so many variations out there in the job world. Some people have the title of Business Analyst but don’t really perform typical “BA” activities (as outlined in IIBA knowledge areas). While some have different titles but are neck-deep in the strategy analysis, solution assessments, etc.

The IIBA Defines it as:

The Business Analyst is an agent of change. Business Analysis is a disciplined approach to introducing and managing change in organizations, whether they are for-profit businesses, governments, or non-profits.

The global community on Wikipedia defines it as:

A business analyst (BA) is a person who analyzes and documents the market environment, processes, or systems of businesses.

When talking to family and friends, I usually describe it as “I work with people and teams to understand what they need, want, and why. What problems they have and how they currently go about solving those problems. So that I can help define possible solutions. The solution could be new technology, a new process, new data reporting, organizational structure, etc.” While most of us know that there is a LOT more to it than this, that’s a decent elevator pitch to those who truly have a minimal-to-no understanding of the function.

Why is there so much confusion about BA’s? Let’s take a closer look:

Can you have the BA title but do something else?

Yes, you can. While there are market standards, companies are free to title jobs in any way that fits their organization. At times, these titles may not match with the wider job market. Because of this, there are situations where people do get the title of Business Analyst but aren’t performing the typical “business analysis” activities. This can create a lot of confusion and headache at time of job searching for both candidate and employer.

Can you perform BA duties and not have the BA title?

Also, yes. In many cases, people are performing Business Analysis activities while having other job titles – and some have no idea that what they’re doing is considered business analysis. For example:

Have you ever investigated potential tools to use for a project or need?
Have you ever helped your team/a team define problems they have with a current process?
Have you yourself identified problems with a current process and defined a new one that would address issues/gaps?
Have you help identify individuals that may be impacted by an upcoming change?
Have you helped to facilitate a brainstorming session?
Have you done a current-to-future state analysis?
Have you made a process flow to articulate how something is done?

Guess what…each of these are business analysis activities. And frankly speaking, most of us in a professional setting has performed these activities before. And in most cases, regularly!

So even if you don’t have a title of Business Analyst, you probably still have the experience!

Circling back to the original question: Role or Capability?

The answer is both – it can be a role and a capability.

While I believe having the business analysis capability is far more critical than a title, sometimes if feels good to be able to call yourself a business analyst as well.

Set your project up for success and make sure you have someone performing business analysis activities (even if you must call them something different)!

10 Sure Shot Ways to Prevent Failure in the ECBA Exam

Written by Ananya Pani on March 10, 2022. Posted in Articles.

With the adoption of digital transformation projects being one of the top goals for the companies, the demand for the business analysis career is booming. As a result, the demand for this profession is growing at a double-digit rate year on year.

Business analysts play a crucial role in facilitating digital transformation projects by designing systems aligned with business goals. They are also pivotal in implementing new business processes, removing inefficiencies from the existing processes, and reducing operational costs.

Due to the strategic nature of this role and the earnings involved, more and more professionals are considering transitioning to this role as their next career move.

A quick way of learning the techniques and skills for becoming a business analyst is to get an internationally recognized certification like ECBA.

ECBA provides a firm understanding and a solid foundation for a business analysis career. It is the entry-level certification from IIBA aimed at professionals stepping into the BA domain.

This certification allows professionals many opportunities for career growth and skill development.

The ECBA course was designed to keep the needs of entry-level BAs in mind. The focus areas are- requirements analysis, modeling, and requirements life cycle management, with a lot of emphasis on modeling concepts tools and is well structured. The certification is based on BABoK version 3.0 of the IIBA.

While getting certified is a rewarding experience, there are many who do not succeed despite investing time, effort, and commitment to prepare.

This blog talks about the top reasons people fail in their ECBA exam and recommends strategies that can help avoid the failure traps.

Memorizing BABoK

Answering questions on the ECBA requires a proper understanding of the concepts in BABoK. In addition, the application of the tasks and techniques needs to be understood clearly. Though retaining concepts from BABoK is helpful, it is not advisable to memorize and write them during the exam.

Not understanding BABoK terminologies

ECBA exam is knowledge-based. For answering correctly, you’ll need to be familiar with the terminologies. IIBA exams use terms from BABoK that your organization may not commonly use. Familiarize yourself with the terms and how they relate to the terms used by your organization. Your performance in the exam can be hampered if you cannot correlate the knowledge from BABoK. The exam is based on content from BABoK and not specific organizational practices.

A BABoK glossary can help explain the different terms.

Not understanding the purpose of each task and the roles of various stakeholders
Not understanding the tasks’ purpose and stakeholder roles could make it hard to clear the ECBA exam questions. Therefore, focus on understanding BABoK terminologies and concepts and understanding stakeholder roles and responsibilities rather than memorizing them.
Unsure of the strength, limitations, and application of techniques

Since ECBA is aimed at freshers and newbies, their knowledge of the BA terms and techniques is at times limited. Being unsure about the strengths and application of the techniques can be a limiting factor while writing the exam.

So, while preparing for the exam, it is imperative to understand the purpose and application of the techniques.

Also, remember advanced techniques like diagrams or those with extensive financial calculations are unlikely to come for the ECBA exam.

Giving equal priority to each Knowledge Area

To prepare effectively, one needs to be aware of the ECBA exam pattern and the weightage given to each knowledge area as per the exam blueprint.

Therefore, it is best to prepare by giving weightage to areas by looking at the exam blueprint.

Most questions are expected to be single-sentence questions. The best areas to focus on would be understanding the purpose of tasks and techniques, definitions of role and requirements characteristics, etc. Any other questions like diagrams and calculations, advanced modeling concepts, advanced techniques are unlikely to appear.

Not knowing clever ways of answering the questions

The ECBA exam has many questions that can confuse the exam taker due to the words used in the questions. Care should be taken while answering questions that typically include words like not, never, certainly, always, only, etc. There can also be trick questions asking for ‘missing items’ or ‘the least likely option.’

There might be answers containing words that sound like BABoK terms but are not from BABoK.

Read the questions and options clearly. Then, choose the option that has BABOK terminology. These are made-up terms to confuse the exam taker; beware of those.

Deal with questions smartly and carefully. Don’t rush through them distracted by time constraints.

Not having proper infrastructure for the exam

Just like any other exam, it can be stressful to write the ECBA certification exam, especially for those professionals who might not have appeared for an exam for years.

The easiest part is to have the infrastructure ready to avoid stress building up due to its lack.

It is important to go through the infrastructure checklist and ensure that the mandated documents and resources like ID card, camera, clean room and table, computer (having admin access), uninterrupted power supply, an empty room without unnecessary items like headphones, etc., to name a few, are all available at the time of the exam

In an already tense situation, unwanted stress due to infrastructural issues should be avoided. For example, last-minute delays in starting the exam can cause unnecessary stress and lead to the exam going beyond one’s control.

Here is a must-follow e-book for tips on Dos and Don’ts of the IIBA online exam.

Do’s & Don’ts of IIBA Online Exam

Poor time management

Another mistake first-timers make is spending too much time per question. Unfortunately, there are a lot of cases where people are unable to complete the exam due to a lack of time. The exam requires 50 multiple-choice questions need to be answered in one hour. So, one doesn’t have the luxury of time in completing the exam.

Time management is an absolute key parameter in acing the ECBA exam. Avoid taking breaks during the 1-hour exam as the clock does not stop for you.

Spending more time on one question

Some questions are more time-consuming than others. Be conscious of the time spent on each question. Divide your allotted time in such a way that you have about 10 minutes towards the end to review the answers. If a question takes more time, it’s wise to mark it for review, move on and get back to it later. Devise a time management strategy that best suits you and helps maximize your time during the exam.

Not having the right resources for preparation
ECBA exams, like other competitive exams, have a blueprint or pattern. Not doing enough actual exams like simulators and model questions will make it challenging to face the exam confidently. Proper preparation resources, practice tests, and ECBA exam simulators are needed to pass the exam.

The ECBA Certification Training Course will give you the resources necessary to prepare for certification. In addition, this will help you to determine the best study method for you. Grab a copy of our best-selling eBook- 200 IIBA Exam Mock Questions with IIBA Exam Info utilized by 1000s of BA professionals to ace their IIBA exam.

How To Create The Best Business Analyst Resume

Written by Emily Henry on November 18, 2021. Posted in Articles.

A strong resume is important no matter what role you’re going for, but it’s especially important if you’re going for a business analyst position. It’s a competitive field, and you need to stand out and show the hiring team just why you’re the best fit for the job. That starts with the resume, so let’s see how you can create an excellent resume that will grab their attention.

Tailor Your Resumes

This sounds very obvious, but when you’re sending out resumes to multiple companies, it’s so easy to let them get bland and try to cover all bases. Each time you send a resume to a potential employer, you need to be writing something that’s just focused on them.

Focus on the skills that you can bring to that particular employer. As a business analyst, you can show them how you translate the business’ data into solutions that improve the way they perform. As you’re skilled at breaking down large data into small parts, that’s perfect for creating a resume.

Format The Resume Correctly

This is something that all resume writers need to keep in mind. Your writing may show that you’re the perfect person for the job, but if you can’t format correctly, then recruiters won’t take a second look at the resume itself.

A good resume has be clean and easily readable. A recruiter will be scanning your resume, looking for the points that make you a good fit for the job. You need to make it easy for them to find them. Ensure you’re using plenty of white space, and use italics, bold and upper case where appropriate to attract the eye.

Create A Business Analyst Summary

At the very top of your resume, it’s a good idea to create a business analyst summary. This summary will give the person reading it a quick overview of who you are and what you can bring to the job. It’s the first thing they’ll read, so it has to grab them right away.

What should go in the summary? It can be a number of different things, but remember that it does need to be kept short and to the point. You can cover things like your qualifications, achievements, and experience to name a few.

To start writing the summary, look at the job posting again. This will give you several keywords which you can use in the summary to ensure your resume gets picked out. Use this and your background to create the meat of the summary.

A good summary should only be one or two sentences long, so every word will count. Ensure you write it in an active voice, to make it more compelling to the reader.

Here’s an example of how your summary could look:

Experienced business analyst with five years in improving e-commerce profitability by 60%. Seeking opportunities to use analytic skills to improve efficiency and create customer driven solutions at MarketingX.

As you can see, it’s very short and to the point. It uses quantitative data to show how the writer improved profitability at their current role. Keep this in mind when working on your summary.

Create A Resume Objective

Sometimes, an objective is better than a summary. For example, if you’re a recent graduate, are switching careers, or switching from another industry, then this will be what you’ll use on your resume.

This objective will explain where you are now, and where you hope to be in the future. Again, it only needs to be a couple of sentences long, so you’ll need to get everything you want in that small space. A resume objective can look like this:

Senior product manager with 6 years of experience looking to move to business analyst position at MarketingX. Proven track record of improving sales performance up to 60%, using big data.

Here, see that you’re still focusing on what you can bring to the company, rather than what you want yourself.

Focus On The Employer

When creating your resume, make sure that you’re focusing on the employer and their needs. Remember that they’re looking for someone that can fulfil a specific need within their company. It’s your job to show you can fit that role, and give them what they’re looking for.

As mentioned above, you’ll need to use the job posting, with the key words in it, to write your resume. Research the company too, to see who they are and what they do. Will your skills bring more to them and help them grow? Make sure they know that.

Describe Your Business Analyst Experience

You have to show the employer what experience you have, and how it relates to the position that you’re trying to fill. The best way to do this is to break it all down and turn it into something that’s easy to understand.

Don’t use jargon, as not all recruiters will be as familiar with business analyst lexicon as you are. When listing duties you’ve had in the past, make sure you show how it’s applicable to the role you’re applying for. Again, you need to focus on the employer, rather than yourself.

With these tips, you’ll be able to put together a business analyst resume that wows recruiters, and gets them to pick up the phone and call you. Use this guide to craft your resume now, and make sure that you can get the job you have your eye on.

Emily Henry is a professional writer for OX Essays and Boom Essays. She’s an expert on resumes and resume writing. She’s also a tutor with Paper Fellows.

Mentoring and coaching newly hired BAs in an agile organization

Written by Claudio Nardi on October 13, 2021. Posted in Articles.

As an experienced Business Analyst in a fast-moving company with an extremely complex technology stack, I am often faced with the challenge to transform a new hire into an effective analyst. She will initially find it very hard to successfully navigate and benefit the organization. That gets even more complicated because in modern organizations we rarely have the opportunity to consolidate and clearly document our processes, tools, and software applications.

I am going to share my experience in arranging a lean yet effective mentoring program.

Problem statement: what’s the best way to bring a newly hired Business Analyst up to speed in the most efficient way?

The answer I elaborated on overtime was through mentoring and coaching. I believe that you need guidance and feedback to be able to gain complex core and technical skills as those required of a Business Analyst.

Mentoring is aimed at improving someone else skill sets

My objective was to conceive a full-fledged mentoring plan. I wanted this process to be generic and reusable. At the same time, it would not have to interfere with my other work commitments. As a first step, I drew a list of projects that I was or had been working on recently as these would most likely make up the new hire’s work background for a while. For each of them, I noted down the main concepts she would have to retain, as a sort of Acceptance Criteria.

I did the same with tools and techniques, and these were especially focused on the Agile software development process.

Getting to know the main stakeholders, teams, and their responsibilities was to be also part of our mentoring activities. These would give the new hire a sort of system view of our company, especially of the technology platform.

I estimated the time needed to go through those and give her the basic information. Hence, I built a rough timeline of my mentoring sessions and tried to stick with it. Our sessions usually lasted one hour and were held early in the morning, so as to avoid being interrupted by other colleagues.

The result was a win-win situation: the new hire would feel more at ease with each class and soon started to contribute to her development team. I also improved my teaching and collaborative learning skills.

Coaching helps you achieve your goals

It is common knowledge that skills acquisition is only possible through practice and real learning does not occur unless you apply what you’ve studied to real-life problems.

Putting my early extreme programming skills at work, I introduced the concept of pair analysis in our mentoring program.

Whenever I had an analysis activity at hand (in fact, that was all days the entire day) we would sit together with the new hire and try to understand the requirements, share some assumptions, note the open points, contact the relevant stakeholders, take part in some meetings together, document and evaluate our solution options, etc.

A typical exercise was for her to write the User Stories for the requirements we had elicited together and then to explain them to the development team. Initially, she was charged with relatively simple problems, and as her skillset started to improve, I asked her to take on more challenging requests.

In terms of core competencies, I told her to prepare and facilitate lessons learned sessions with the development team. Every time she would have to change the format of the session and to follow up on the action items. Facilitating group discussions in the comfort of your team enhance your self-confidence and is an excellent way to improve your interactions and communication skills.

Personal development is always of paramount importance for a Business Analyst and even more so for a junior one. My advice span from books to read, to other training material or courses I had attended myself. Sometimes we would both listen to the same free webinar and discuss what we had learned afterward.

Key Performance Indicators

We were also able to establish some key indicators to assess how our mentoring and coaching process was performing. They were also used for other analysts joining our organization afterward.

The ones we selected are below:

The time needed to bring the new hire up to speed (number of weeks)
The complexity of the problems the new hire would be able to autonomously manage after a given amount of time. That assessment would be repeated at different points in time, e.g. 3, 6, 12 months.

Mission Impossible: BYO Mentor

Written by Lawrence Dong on July 15, 2021. Posted in Articles.

What is mentoring

Mentoring in Europe has existed as early as Ancient Greece. The word’s origin comes from Mentor, son of Alcimus in Homer’s Odyssey. Mentorship is the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. Mentors have hands-on experience that their mentees can learn from, so that the mentees can gain proficiency. [1] Mentoring is like a professional relationship similar to an apprenticeship but without command and control.

Why mentoring is important

The IT industry is a fast-moving industry and it is extremely important for IT/project services professionals to keep their skills up to date. Technologies of today and tomorrow will always require you to learn new things. Regardless of what you want to learn, you want to know the best way to begin and a reliable way to track to completion. This is where mentoring can add value to your own process – it will give your learning process more certainty by providing trust, advice, support, and discipline. My own experience proved the benefits of mentoring. I have had 3 mentors. The first one advised me to widen up my eyes in terms of career path, rather than adhering to the shallow and limiting views of IT occupations. The second fast-tracked my learning of a new skill set. The third gave me a different lens to see sustainable productivity. They all played a very vital role in my career development and I truly appreciate their help and effort.
To give back to the community, I have also become a mentor through 3 different not-for-profit organizations in Australia. Thanks to their careful mentor-mentee matching processes, I have been able to advise my mentees with my stories of success and lessons, so that they feel well informed in critical decision making.

BYO Mentor

Traditional mentorship requires 2 people to be involved: the mentor and the mentee. Due to different reasons, connecting yourself with a mentor may not be suitable for you. If that’s your situation, don’t give up: think bold: BYO Mentor (Be Your Own Mentor).
Is BYO Mentor a mission impossible? Absolutely not!
Actually, you know yourself better than anyone else. You have trust in yourself and you surely will support yourself. All you need is some methodology on structured advice, plus discipline.
Let’s find the answer together by looking at a real example of BYO Mentor lifecycle.

BYO Mentoring Discipline:

Be familiar with the concept of SMART goals prior to this session.
Allocate 60 mins (of uninterrupted time) for this session.

You need to know what you want to achieve by setting your goals. Your goal may be as simple as to master a new skill or understand new knowledge, which is straightforward, or as complex as to advance your career, e.g., by being appointed to a different position.

Session 1 – Goal Setting

BYO Mentoring Advice: Big or small, you’d better follow the rule of thumb by writing down your goals in a SMART way.

The acronym SMART means your goal is:

Specific (Concisely state the expected outcomes)
Measurable (Make it both quantifiable and verifiable)
Achievable (Make it challenging but realistic or state if it is aspirational)
Relevant (Make it relevant to your long term objectives)
Time-bound (Be clear about the timeframe that it should be achieved by)

SMART goal example:

For a Business Analyst professional: I want to pass the IIBA CBAP exam by 30th November 2021.
By following the above guideline, you should be able to get your own SMART goal. If you come up with more than one goal that’s fine, you just need to prioritize them and focus on the first one first.

Session 2 – Gap Analysis

BYO Mentoring Discipline:

Session 2 should start no later than 2 weeks after session 1 completion.
Determine the reliable industrial/official source of information, prior to the session.
Allocate 60 mins for this session, in the following sequence:
a. 40 mins for Future State Analysis
b. 10 mins for Current State Analysis
c. 10 mins for Gap Identification

Future State Analysis:
Once you have specified your goal, do your own research on what it takes to achieve your goal.
BYO Mentoring Advice: Analyse industrial/official sources.
Want to become a Senior Business Analyst? Download 10 Position Descriptions from jobs websites. Want to pass the IIBA CBAP exam? Go to the IIBA website to understand the detailed process of certification. Put your research outcome into an Excel spreadsheet in the “future state” tab.

Current State Analysis:
Equally important, make sure you do a reality check on where you are at now.
BYO Mentoring Advice: Align your current state analysis to the future state analysis.
Have you got some of the essential experience for your dream job already? Have you met the eligibility criteria for your preferred exam? Put everything in the same Excel spreadsheet to the “current state” tab.

Gaps Identification:
Now that there is the “future state” (your goal) and the “current state” (what you already have), you are ready to identify the gaps.
BYO Mentoring Advice: Compare your future state v.s. current state, and work out the gaps.
Example: To Pass the IIBA CBAP Exam

Future State analysis:
o Meet Exam Eligibility Criteria
o BABOK Knowledge Study
o Prepare for the Exam
o Take and Pass the Exam
Current State analysis:
o (✔) Met Exam Eligibility Criteria
Gaps Identification:
o (X) Study BABOK Knowledge
o (X) Prepare for the Exam
o (X) Take and Pass the Exam

Session 3 – Action Plan

BYO Mentoring Discipline:

Session 3 should start no later than 2 weeks after session 2 completion.
Allocate 60 mins for this session, in the following sequence:
a. 30 mins for Action Options Generation
b. 15 mins for Options Comparison
c. 15 mins for Decision Making and Due Date

With the gap analysis done, you are on track to create a customized action plan, which takes your availability and circumstances into account.

Action Options Generation:
Refer back to your gap analysis outcomes. Each gap identified should lead to relevant action options.
BYO Mentoring Advice: Action options can be generated by analyzing the industrial/official sources. Action options must add direct value to bridging the gaps you identified.
Example:

Gap: “Study BABOK Knowledge”
Action Options generated:
o Join an IIBA Chapter hosted BABOK Study Group
o Register a commercial education provider’s training course

Options Comparison:
Simply list the advantages and disadvantages of each action option. Bullet points will be sufficient.
BYO Mentoring Advice: If you don’t know how to compare action options, start with cost, time, and frequency.
Example:

Decision Making & Due Date:
Decide which action option you will go on with, and assign a challenging but realistic due date.

BYO Mentoring Advice: When choosing from different action options, as long as you pick a good option, that’s fine. There is no need to navigate to the very best option, as this will consume too much time.
Example:

If you prefer weekdays: choose “IIBA BABOK Study Group”. Join the next available group.
If you prefer the weekend: choose “Training Course”. Enroll in the next available course.

Session 4: Ongoing Inspection

You need to inspect your progress and track it to completion.
BYO Mentoring Discipline:

Remind yourself of your actions on a weekly basis
a. Send delayed email to yourself
b. Set up calendar appointments
c. Ask your family or friend to check your progress

A lot of email tools/apps can support delayed emails. Send yourself delayed emails targeting key milestones in line with your action plan. Plus, you can add calendar appointments to remind yourself of key dates. If these are not enough, ask another person for help.

Continuous Improvement
Mentoring or BYO Mentor are meant for our continuous improvement. If you want to be a better self. Do something now. Remember If your circumstances changed, consider participating in a human-led mentoring program.