Januar y 2011

IIBA Monthly Newsletter

BA

Issue 1

What Requiring Minds Want to Know

This month: The Future of Business Analysis

IN THIS ISSUE:
The Future of IIBA: Making Predictions

page 4

Case Study The Membership Committees Global Membership Fee Project

page 12

Spreading the word about business analysis and IIBA to the global business community Gaining recognition for the role of the business analyst Collaborating with complementary professional associations

The Future of Business in the New Economy, Part 3: Value Analysis

Career resolutions for 2011

Happy New Year! As we welcome 2011, many of us see the brand new year as an opportunity for a new start. We look forward to the coming year, and make plans that will help us achieve our professional and personal goals. Kathleen Barret, President and CEO of International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) wanted to take this idea of planning for a new year a step further. She asked the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and Product Managers of key IIBA products and services to look three years into the future and discuss their vision for these initiatives. Be sure to read the article The Future of IIBA: Making Predictions on page 4. The first initiative IIBA launched in 2010 was the Global Membership Program. Now, the Membership Committee has written a case study demonstrating how the committee applied business analysis techniques to the implementation of this program. Read the article on page 12. On the certification front, the exam for the Certification of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA) designation launched on January 4. IIBA looks forward to congratulating the first CCBA recipients very soon. Is earning a certification on your list of career resolutions? See page 17 for more details. On page 14, be sure to read the transcript from the Being a BA Technical Excellence webinar. Rick Clare, IIBA Vice President, Chapters and a highly experienced BA and manager, discusses the benefits of the BA role, the differences between Project BAs and Strategic BAs, and why it is important to separate the BA and PM roles. If you have professional development goals on your resolution list, see page 16 for the upcoming January webinars. You can also view any webinars youve missed by visiting the Archived Webinars on the IIBA website.

page 13

Being a BA: Technical Excellence

page 14 page 15

Real words that work

Inside Sections:

Letter from the President IIBA Inside View Dashboard Monthly Poll

Business of Business Analysis Chapter News Professional Development Certification Update

Endorsed Education Providers Events Monthly Giveaway The Last Word

Letter from the President

The Future of Business Analysis

Its always great to get a fresh start at the beginning of a New Year, whether you believe in New Years resolutions or not. One approach is to look at everything a bit differently. In August, IIBA underwent a reorganization to better serve each of its key stakeholders or customer groups. Each member of the Executive Leadership Team (Dave Bieg, Kevin Brennan, Michael Gladstone and I) was assigned primary responsibility for one of the groups individual business analysts, employers of BAs, training vendors, tool vendors, and chapters. We were tasked with understanding their needs and identifying the products and services that would be most valuable to them. Because there are four of us, the groups and associated products were divided by our primary stakeholders into four categories. The first major customer stakeholder group is individual BAs, specifically our members. IIBA is a professional organization with its vision and mission to help drive the profession of business analysis globally. We do that through the identification and formalization of business analysis practices. An example is the Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge. We refer to this area as developing the professional. Our second major customer group is individuals who wish to become certified as qualified professional business analysts. IIBA now offers two business analysis certifications: the Certification of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA) and the Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP). We refer to this area as recognizing the professional. Next, we consider the employers of business analysts. We want to help them develop their BA programs and enable their BAs to become more successful in the role, for the benefit of their organizations. In this case, we talk about enabling the professional. The final group is comprised of those who support the successful execution and development of business analysis skills such as training vendors, software providers, and chapters. This group is supporting the professional. This month, as we consider our theme of The Future of Business Analysis, we asked the executive leadership team and product managers who are responsible for the products in each of these areas to discuss the future of their products. We asked why they are passionate about their products, where do they see the products headed in the next few years and how different will they be from today, what are the

biggest hurdles to achieving their vision and how can they ensure success. Be sure to read the article, The Future of IIBA: Making Predictions on page 4. I also participated in the exercise. My product incorporates all the other areasit is IIBA and the profession of business analysis. What makes me passionate is that I truly believe business analysis will be the capability that distinguishes the winners from the losers in the global marketplace. Business is about delivering products and services to customers. Business analysis is about identifying the change needed to more effectively deliver those products and services to meet customers needs. If there is no change, you dont need business analysis. But when there is changeand there is always changebusiness analysis makes sure it is the right change. The world is evolving rapidly and companies are constantly reacting to events happening all around them, generally addressing challenges incrementally, not stepping back and understanding the broader scope of events. To rise above the competition, companies will have to be more systematic about how they approach recognizing and addressing change. Business analysis is a critical capability to help companies understand what they need to do to remain competitive and succeed in their market space. When I think about the world of business analysis in three years time, I know that it will be substantially different. It will have evolved and be more widely adopted throughout that world. Partly, that is because I believe that companies that havent embraced business analysis will be struggling and failing. In organizations that are successful and thriving, business analysis will be widely adopted. Different organizations are at different levels of maturity, but I expect to see BAs holding strategic planning positions, and to be running portfolios and making key investment decisions. They will be the ones asking the tough questions of their business partners to help steer the business in the right direction. I expect that BAs will be essential to organizations, helping them implement the necessary day-to-day changes that will keep them moving forward. The biggest challenge to widespread adoption of business analysis is change fatigue and lack of awareness. Organizations know they have to continue to evolve to remain relevant but because of change fatigue, they often cling to old habits. Other organizations are so used to approaching problems a certain way, they dont know how to think differently. They dont recognize business analysis as a solution because they dont clearly understand their problem. IIBA needs to help organizations understand what business analysis is and how it can help improve their performance.

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Letter from the President

So how do we ensure success? Organizationally, we will put more effort into driving awareness of the business analyst role. We will continue to introduce new products to help expand the BA toolkit to help business analysts be more effective. And we will enhance our current infrastructure to ensure we have the tools in place to manage our business better, as well as provide the functionality to enable you, the BA, to manage your careerideas include customer specific portals with tools and capabilities for each of our key stakeholder groups.

2. Think about our customers in everything we do.

Members, employers of BAs, Endorsed Education Provider (EEP) vendors, sponsors, chaptersyou are all the main reason IIBA exists. We need to think about what you need from us to ensure you enjoy being part of the organization. You need to be top of mind in everything we do.

3. Communicate the message about business analysis.

Getting the word out and letting people know the importance the BA role brings to organizations has always been on our to do list, but this year we are making it a top priority. We need to make sure our message is getting out there, that we are driving greater awareness for IIBA and the business analysis profession. I recommend that you think about what you want to accomplish in the New Year whether or not you believe in New Years resolutions. Start the year off with a planthink about what you want to achieve in your own career in 2011. Dont attempt to over plan or make too many resolutions because it may be too much and prevent you from taking action. Instead, apply your BA skills to your own career and figure out the one thing you need to do this year to achieve your goals as a BA. One of the most excitingand most overwhelming things about IIBA is that it is constantly growing, evolving and expanding. And as we face a brand new year, I look forward with great anticipation to what 2011 will bring. Happy New Year!

New Years Resolutions for IIBA

I believe in making New Years resolutions as a way to plan for changes in the coming year. Here are my resolutions for IIBA.

1. Operate more effectively in a virtual world.

Better communication is our number one New Years resolution. In case people dont know, IIBA is a virtual organization. For example, I am based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and Dave Bieg, Chief Operating Officer, is based in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States. Yet we work together on a daily basis. Being able to work virtually can be great but it has its drawbacks. We dont actually see each other during meetings and I cant walk down the hall to ask a question. Weve done some things amazingly well considering we operate virtually, but we often forget that reaching out to our colleagues needs to be more active. We now have about 20 paid staff (both employees and independent contractors) and are planning to add more in 2011. We need to feel were working together as a team, and as we find tools and techniques that help us work more effectively, we will share these with our members.

Kathleen Barret President and CEO Read Kathleens Blog

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IIBA Inside View

The Future of IIBA: Making Predictions

Developing the professional

The Future of IIBA Standards and Publications
By Kevin Brennan, CBAP, IIBA Vice President Professional Development and Communities Ive been involved with IIBA from almost the very beginning. In November 2003, when I first got involved as a volunteer, I had wanted to participate in the development of a business analysis body of knowledge. Why? Well, for a number of years I had been first teaching myself and later others about project management, and to learn that profession one of the key books I referred to was the PMBOK Guide. Its become almost trendy to complain about the PMBOK Guide, and while Id developed firm opinions on its virtues and flaws by teaching project management, I also recognized that it had done a lot to help build the project management profession. I was hoping to get involved in building business analysis in much the same way. One of the greatest difficulties business analysts face is that people dont understand what we do or why it matters, and many of us struggle to articulate the value we bring. The point of a body of knowledge is to help us build that common, shared understanding. We need a body of knowledge so that we can understand what all of us, IT systems analysts, business process analysts, business architects, consultants, and the many other sub-groups that make up the business analysis profession have in common. Without that understanding, we cant move on to see how we can work to make organizations more effective, to help them stop wasting billions of dollars every year on efforts that dont deliver value to stakeholders, and to really make a difference for people. Ultimately, thats what we do, after all. We solve problems. Thats what I did as a BA and its what I do today. The problems I most enjoy solving are the hard ones, the ones that nobody has a straightforward or easy solution to. But people dont recognize that problem solving is a skill. Its something you can learn and get better at, but rather than helping people to do that, most organizations simply end up reinventing solutions to problems that were solved long ago. They do that because there werent venues for them to easily find out what tools and methods already exist and have been proven effective, or what skills and competencies someone who works as a business analyst needs to have. Thats what the BABOK Guide isits a
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In keeping with the January theme of The Future of Business Analysis, we asked IIBA leadership and product managers to make predictions about the future of their IIBA products and services. In each article, they have answered the following questions:

1. What makes you passionate about your product? 2. What do you imagine your product will look like in
three yearshow will it differ from where it is today?

3. What do you think are the biggest hurdles in making

your vision a reality?

4. What would help to ensure your success?

Their answers have been divided into the four key IIBA stakeholder groups as follows:

Developing the professional

The Future of IIBA Standards and Publications by Kevin Brennan, CBAP, IIBA Vice President, Professional Development and Communities IIBA Business Analysis Competency Model by Angela Wick, CBAP, PMP, Chair, BA Competency Model Committee Career Path for BAs by Laura Brandenburg, Career Center Product Manager Emerging Technologies by Julian Sammy, IIBA Head of New Media

Recognizing the professional

Certification by Michael Gladstone, CBAP, IIBA Vice President, Certification

Enabling the professional

Corporate Membership by Dave Bieg, IIBA Chief Operating Officer

Supporting the professional

Chapters by Rick Clare, IIBA Vice President, Chapters

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IIBA Inside View

description of what you have to know, and be able to do, in order to help business do business better. Like the profession itself, the BABOK Guide will continue to evolve. I think the team that built version2 did a fantastic job, but there are new ideas that we have to incorporate and areas of practice that we deliberately took out of the scope of that effort in order to ensure we could deliver. Now, as we come up to two years since it was released, were starting to see how we can improve it to bring in some of those concepts. Three years from now, I expect we will have completed that work and youll all be holding copies of version 3 in your hands (or reading it online, on your tablet computers or smart phones, or using the annotated version linked in to online communities to share additional resources with other BAs). Of course, version 3 will still be used as a reference book and as a textbook by many business analysts, and we will work to make the revised version easier to read and easier to use. That means looking at which sections may be confusing or difficult to understand and revisiting the text to see where we can add or edit material to make it clearer, as well as expanding on topics that need it. Well introduce concepts from new areas of practice, such as agile methods and enterprise business analysis. While we do that, its important to help people figure out which material is most useful to them, so well be providing guidance for applying the BABOK. The IIBA Business Analysis Competency Model is something you can take a look at to see the early stages of this work. Version 3 of that model, coming out in the near future, has competency profiles for a number of business analysis specializations. The BABOK Guide will support those directly in the next version. The BABOK Guide will also not be the only source of business analysis information provided by IIBA by that time. Were beginning to develop a number of Handbooks of Business Analysis which will provide specific guidance for professionals with a particular area of interest. The first of those handbooks, the Handbook of Enterprise Business Analysis, is actively under development and you can expect to hear a lot about it in 2011. Others will follow in the years to come. Some of the topics were looking to cover include a handbook for new business analysts, one for IT systems analysis, one for business process analysis, and possibly othersbut none of those are definitely on the schedule yet, and if you think theres something we should be covering, Id be happy to hear from you. My goal is for version 3 to remain concise and authoritative, and to ensure that the reputation for quality of the current version remains intact. We spent a lot of time with version2 working to ensure that the framework we developed wouldnt break when being amended to accommodate new methodologies (such as Scrum, Lean, BPM, and others). Where possible, were looking to work with other organizations to develop clean linkages with other bodies of knowledge and other standards, and were hoping to build those relationships with other groups in the years to come. For the record, our door is always open to any group that wants to collaborate with us on these efforts. And for those of you who responded to our call for volunteers earlier this year, thank you all very much. Laura Paton, who served as the Project Manager for the final year of development of version 2 as well as leading the development effort for the BABOK Learning Guide, has accepted the position of Chair of the BABOK Committee for version 3. Were currently working to interview candidates for the core team, and over the next month or two we plan to put the version 3 committee in place. If you volunteered for that team, thank you for your patience and well be in touch soon. To post a comment, visit the Community Network.

The Future of the IIBA Business Analysis Competency Model

By Angela Wick, CBAP, PMP, Chair, BA Competency Model Committee The IIBA Business Analysis Competency Model is bringing value to organizations and business analysis professionals around the globe, and this is just the beginning. The IIBA Competency Model was launched in February of 2010 with an aggressive schedule to release valuable content for organizations and business analysis professionals on what successful application of the business analysis role looks like. In the future we plan to continue to develop the model with tools and alternative formats as well as benchmarking data about the model. What makes me passionate about moving this agenda forward?

y Helping BA professionals develop satisfying careers

through competency development, career paths, and leadership development

y Helping BA professionals with more information on

what it takes to be successful in this career

y Helping BA professionals become more aware of the

opportunities to grow professionally in the industry

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IIBA Inside View

y Seeing the amazing response to the product via

discussions with organizations using the model and buying corporate licenses

The Career Center in 2014

By Laura Brandenburg, Career Center Product Manager

y Helping organizations, especially BA Managers,

C-level management and BA COEs, manage BA talent and develop strong BA practices. The demand for corporate licenses and assistance in adopting and implementing the model has been overwhelming

What is the Career Center?

The Career Center is an online website where employers of business analysts can post BA jobs and search for relevant candidates. Candidates can post their resume to the resume database, apply for jobs, and sign-up for alerts so they always know when new jobs are available within their local area. The Career Center is a profitable product for IIBA and generates revenue each quarter. When an employer designates their affiliate with a local Chapter, a portion of this revenue is shared with the appropriate IIBA Chapter as well.

y An amazing committee of authors and reviewers to

work with on this product

y Being part of the big picture and innovation in the BA

industry Within three years we would like the model to be an online tool in addition to the document. The online tool will enable BAs and organizations to proactively manage competency development. Individuals will use the tool to learn and explore their own competency development; organizations can use the online tool as part of an overall talent management process to develop competencies in their BA team. We would also like to use the data gathered from the online tool usage to develop benchmark data on the global community of BA competency development. Other current discussions taking place around the future of the Competency Model include: Printing the model and selling printed versions (like the BABOK Guide today), translating it into other languages, and providing more services for corporate license holders such as regular networking discussions around various uses of the model where corporate license holders can share experiences and learn from each other. The biggest hurdles to making this three year plan happen is funding to drive the technology and resources needed to implement the capabilities for online tools and benchmarking, cost of translations, printing, legal, graphic design, and editing costs. Currently the Competency Model has been a volunteer driven effort with very minimal expense outlay for graphic design and legal copyright protection expenses. To ensure our continued success with the model, we rely on continued membership growth to help provide funding, member feedback on the model and how the model provides value to you as a BA and to organizations. We also rely on member and public adherence to the product copyrights to ensure that our revenue generation plans for the model are able to be materialized and create revenue to continue to evolve the product. To post a comment, visit the Community Network.

What makes you passionate about your product?

Finding a business analyst job is a challenge that many within our profession face. I believe that by creating a space focused specifically on business analyst jobs for employers of business analysts can help make this a bit easier.

What do you imagine your product will look like in three years the vision you have for your product and how will it differ in three years time from where it is today?
First and foremost, the Career Center will be the premier place to find a business analyst. At any given time of year, well have hundreds of jobs across the world. Business analysts will be able to use this tool to focus their job search on relevant BA positions. As far as expanding the product itself, it really depends on funding, as there are so many initiatives sponsored by IIBA and this is just one of them. Setting aside these limitations for the present discussion, Id foresee the Career Center truly helping business analysts connect with potential employers and match job postings to candidate qualifications. We will be providing tools to help employers make smarter interview decisions and, eventually, mapping their job postings back to the problem they are trying to solve within their organization. We will also be providing tools helping candidates position their career experiences and competencies against open positions. In short, well help improve the communication between employers and candidates by making it more meaningful and helping translate where necessary.

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IIBA Inside View

At a high level, wed bring a bit of the structure of the BABOK Guide and the Competency Model into the Career Center so it can be leveraged in the job search process of our candidates and the hiring process of our employers. Another big need we would have solved would be support for the contractor or consultant market. Many of the best business analysts I know do not identify with the profession and are not looking at job boards for their next opportunities. They hold titles like management consultant. Does IIBA have a place in helping connect consultants and big business problems? Maybe, and if so, the Career Center could evolve to support this. trouble overruling IT security paranoia). Quality will be good enough to allow multinational teams to interact in useful ways.

y Main Uses: elicitation sessions, review sessions,

interviews, status reporting

y Benefits: Big improvement over conference calls in

terms of effective communication, at much lower cost (VoIP).

y Gotcha: Video conferencing will take time to get used

to: latency on the line is very disruptive, and camera position is distracting. This tool is most useful when combined with other real-time collaboration tools.

What do you think are the biggest hurdles in making your vision a reality?
Funding is a big one, as is the availability of volunteers to make it work. While todays Career Center was designed to be self-sustaining (not much time is needed from IIBA or the volunteers to keep it going), the expanded solution would require ongoing support. But more than funding, the above vision would represent a disruption to the standard hiring process in place today within many organizations. It might just not make sense for us to be on the cutting edge here, but instead wait until there are some models to follow and implement. Our job search engine provider is doing a good job of implementing new features to stay up-to-date with the latest job board trends, so it might make more sense for us to follow their lead and implement the most appropriate features to the BA job market as they become available. To post a comment, visit the Community Network.

Real-time Collaboration Tools

Video conferencing allows BAs to interact with distant stakeholders in a much richer way than previously possible. Chat and collaborative document editing tools enhance the productivity of virtual teamswhen training is provided. Distant stakeholders are engaged in discussion and invention through shared whiteboards, Wave (now an Apache project), real-time document editing, chat, and other tools. They like seeing their words appear in the document instantly.

y Main Uses: elicitation sessions, review sessions,

interviews, status reporting, requirement documents, BA plans

y Benefits: Cycle time for edits and approvals can be

reduced by engaging stakeholders in developing, refining and approving requirements: they can make updates to requirements themselves (with appropriate controls) on an ongoing basis.

Emerging Technologies: Three Years Hence

By Julian Sammy, IIBA Head of New Media What will your job look like at the end of 2013? What tools will you use to be more effective and efficient as a BA? I expect to see four major categories of emerging technologies begin to make inroads into big business by then: video conferencing, real-time collaboration tools, requirement interpretation and execution engines, and business analysis planning tools.

y Gotcha: These represent significant changes in

established workflows. If participants are assumed to be competent in the toolsor able to pick it up on their ownthe tools will not be adopted (best case) or will impede communication and progress (worst case). Real-time documentation is ugly and difficult. Most people cannot listen, interpret and analyse all at once; adding typing to the mix is often a typo-laden disaster. BAs will need virtuoso-level typing skills, with a low number of errors.

Requirement Interpretation and Execution Engines

As process and rules engines become more common, hardcoded requirements will move into business-controlled systems. In many cases, a BA will be able to configure a solution that (in 2000 or 2005) would have required coding.

Video Conferencing
Many companies will give many staff access to videoconferencing services like Skype or Windows Live Messenger. Larger organizations may use intranet-only tools like Microsoft Messenger (when the business has

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IIBA Inside View

y Main Uses: Projects that would have been IT heavy a

few years ago are now completely in the control of the Business, with little input from IT and relatively little impact to the IT infrastructure.

Recognizing the professional

The Future of IIBA Certification
By Michael Gladstone, CBAP, Vice President, Certification While working as a business analyst, I spent considerable time searching out a professional certification that would recognize me for the professional that I saw myself as. Upon learning about and getting involved with IIBA, I immediately jumped at the opportunity to chair the Certification volunteer committee, delivering the Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) designation. In the subsequent three years, awareness of and demand for the CBAP designation grew, and the number of CBAP recipients approached 1000 by the start of 2010. However, the most common comments heard from the BA community were I want to be certified, but dont have enough BA experience to apply for the CBAP certification or We want to have our BA staff certified, but they dont meet the requirements for the CBAP designation. So, in late 2010, IIBA responded by introducing the new Certification of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA) professional certification. The CCBA designation is a professional certification in the same ways as the CBAP designation is. In addition to education and training requirements, it has a requirement for a significant amount of BA professional experience: about two to three years worth. With two to three years of experience performing BA work (as defined by the BABOK Guide), individuals will have developed the skills, experience, and expertise to apply themselves to a wide range of projects and tasks. By providing an opportunity for professional certification at this stage of their BA careers, IIBA is recognizing the significant investment candidates have made in their BA careers, and is encouraging them to continue. We expect the CCBA designation to become the global standard professional certification for business analysis practitioners. BA career paths vary widely, and many such paths lead out of performing business analysis activities on a day-to-day basis. As such, it is only those who truly devote their careers to business analysis that are able to eventually meet the BA professional work experience requirements of the CBAP designation, making such individuals the elite, senior members of the BA community.
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y Benefits: Time-to-market and time-to-implement

changes to business operations can be drastically reduced. IT costs are also much lower.

y Gotcha: Enterprise business analysis, including a solid,

well-defined and well-governed architecture (with process, technology, data, organization, and more) is desperately important, and often missing. Parts of the business can change significant aspects of their capability in a few days or weeks; all too often these changes conflict with the needs of other business units, or with the purpose of the business itself.

BA Planning and Monitoring Tools

BA tool vendors have begun to understand that eliciting and managing requirements is not enough: successful BAs develop approaches to their work, plan their activities, and integrate these into project plans. They also monitor their progress against the plan, and adjust appropriately. New BA planning tools have interfaces to MS Project and major BA tool packages, to connect the work BAs do to the outputs of that work.

y Main Uses: BAs use these tools to describe the effort,

cost and risk associated with developing requirements. On the plus side, this is a great way to build support and get resources for the work BAs do. On the minus side, its a great way to deflect blame instead of seeking value and success.

y Benefits: Better integration of BA activities into

project plans improves the solutions delivered by those projects. General awareness of the work BAs need to do increases. Low value activities are easier to avoid; high value work is easier to focus on.

y Gotcha: BAs must learn to plan their work at several

levels for the tools to be effective. Developing a BA approach and then a plan may still be seen as wasteful by some PMs and business partners; in many cases it is a lack of BA experience and competence in Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring activities that limits the value realized by good planning. To post a comment, visit the Community Network.

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It will certainly take some time for CCBA to become industry standard, and for CBAP to be recognized as the worldwide, elite designation for BA professionals. The main hurdle is the typical catch-22 with professional designations: candidates wont apply for the designation unless it is in demand from employers and clients, and employers and clients wont seek it unless they witness value from recruiting certified individuals and developing their own staff. But, this is one area where IIBA is making significant investment, by:

1. Their existing members were receiving value from their

member benefits and as such they hoped to expand membership to more BAs in their organization so they too could receive value. A corporate membership program made sense to them.

2. Some of the existing member benefits included

individual use licenses to IIBA products and they hoped a corporate membership would offer enterprise-wide license agreements of those products. The BABOK Guide and Competency Model are good examples.

y Ensuring wide BA community awareness of the new

CCBA designation before its launch, and reinforcing awareness of the CBAP designation.

3. They hoped to develop a mutually beneficial

relationship with IIBA. The thought being were better together if we partner together to advance the BA profession. These themes are at the heart of the program. We also decided we required:

y Engaging with our certified individuals and helping

them showcase their value and engage others.

y Leveraging our corporate members, and showing

them that not only should they be looking to recruit certified BAs, but that they should also be using CCBA/CBAP certification as a tool in the training and professional development of their BA staff. With quick uptake of the CCBA designation and continued success of the CBAP designation, certification for BA practitioners will soon be expected, and both individuals and employers/clients will be looking to IIBA for that certification. To post a comment, visit the Community Network.

1. A low barrier to entry into the program, 2. Flexibility so organizations could decide based on their
maturity level and needs which products made the most sense for them to acquire, and,

3. Significant discounts on those products and services.

Over the past year IIBA has spoken to approximately 250 organizations about Corporate Membership and have more than 50 organizations in the program today. Many more are building their business cases to join the program in 2011 too. Corporate Membership is an evolving program that will be influenced by how the existing products and services change over time as well as new products and services that will be included in the program as these are developed and rolled-out by IIBA. For example, IIBA recently rolled out the CCBA certification which was immediately included as a benefit to our corporate members. Nevertheless, we are already receiving inquiries for Special Interest Groups where corporate members can share advances, lessons learned as well as learn from the experiences of other corporate members. This is an area where IIBA can provide the means and facilitation for these groups to grow and prosper and create a community of Corporate Members whose goal is to advance the profession in their organizations. I can also see this group collaborating on global BA practices so that the IIBA standards are accepted by the global BA community. Likewise as the use of the IIBA Competency Model grows in the community we hope corporate members will share non-attributable data with IIBA. This will show IIBA how the model is being utilized in organizations and outcomes will enable IIBA to produce benchmarking reports that will
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Enabling the professional

The Future of IIBA Corporate Membership
By Dave Bieg, IIBA Chief Operating Officer Wow! is a common comment I hear from corporations considering a Corporate Membership with IIBA, and that comment is never a surprise. Once an organization becomes aware of all the products and services included in the IIBA Corporate Membership program, and the discounts extended on those products and services, they realize the value the program offers. First organizations should understand the fundamentals behind the corporate membership program. IIBA approached a number of corporations less than two years ago to ask them what they liked about IIBA and if they might be interested in a corporate membership program. The common themes we received were:

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be relevant to our community. IIBA intends to make these reports available to our corporate members who have licensed the competency model for no additional cost. BA Career Paths is a new initiative where IIBA sees benefits for our corporate members. While the CCBA and CBAP certifications are key milestones in the BA Career Path today, we know we are at the tip of the iceberg in terms of defining a thorough BA career path that would include various entry points into the path as well as demonstrating that a new college graduate can make their entire career as a BA! Finally, IIBA sees our corporate member community as playing a critical role in the advancement of the BA standards IIBA intends to implement in the foreseeable future! To achieve this vision IIBA needs to continue to grow Corporate Memberships so we can fund our research and provide the products and services our corporate members require to advance the profession in their organizations. Likewise, we need our corporate members to stay engaged with us over time. IIBA understands our members are very busy achieving their organizational goals so we need to determine how to best work together to achieve our mutually beneficial goals. Those partnerships and relationships are critical success factors for this program. To post a comment, visit the Community Network. solved in 15 minutes, and I also know that the resolution is not always what everybody wants. I am very proud of the structure that the Chapters volunteers have put together, however, especially when you contrast it with the support that is provided by most large professional organizations (essentially none!). IIBA currently provides chapter support through the following means:

y Regional Forums Six IIBA regions exist throughout

the world, staffed by hard-working volunteers eager to help any of their chapters. All the chapters have to do is show up at a regional meeting and ask.

y Chapter Re-launches A number of chapters, having

experienced problems with growth, decided to relaunch. Chapter volunteers at all levels helped them with this.

y Growth Committee This collection of senior Chapter

BAs from around the world continually outputs kits on subjects such as sponsorship and study groups.

y Development Committee Having built a process

to guide a newly chartered chapter through its first year of life, this committee assists with the chapters business plan and arranges for a mentor/coach.

y Start-up Committee This group guides new

chapters through the process of receiving their charter.

y Ad-hoc Assistance Almost all of the Chapters

volunteers, including myself, receive emails from many places asking questions and seeking guidance. To understand the future direction of Chapters, it is necessary to divide the work into two areaschanging and improving the Chapter support structure, and changing the way that chapters work on a much deeper level. The first of these is easier to understand, but the second exists mostly in the form of ideas and concepts, and it is going to take a lot of work by a lot of people to move these ideas forward. Fortunately, I have access to some of the best people in the world! Our support structure is constantly improving. Over the past year, we have located and put into place some excellent leaders in the Regional Forums, and we are going to leverage those leaders as we make the regions even stronger. We are also going to change the focus and purpose of two of the primary committees. Development is going to be re-branded as the On-boarding Committee, and it will continue to streamline its task of guiding chapters through the first critical period of life. The hand-over will happen once the business plan exists, and the Growth Committee, re-named as the Mentoring Committee, will provide a mentor from its ranks to the chapter, someone who will stay in place as long as is
www.theiiba.org

Supporting the professional

The Future of Chapters in IIBA
By Rick Clare, Vice President Chapters This month, as part of a wider theme, Kathleen has asked all the product managers to write an article on the future of their area. As I manage the chapters for IIBA (with a lot of help!), I thought it best to address this theme by giving you some insight into the direction that I think IIBA Chapters will take in the future. To begin with, a good understanding of where we are now will help. The individual chapters themselves are doing well overall, with the expected mix of huge superstars and smaller, struggling groups. The support structure to assist the chapters as they grow is also in pretty good shape, and a lot of the credit for that is due to Kitty Hass, who has left the Chapters arena to focus on her role with the IIBA Board of Directors. I know that not every problem gets

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IIBA Inside View

needed. The Mentoring Committee will also continue its task of creating and supporting kits. These changes will take place over the first part of 2011. The work of changing the way chapters exist in the world really started as we prepared for the conference and the special chapters event at its end. One of the presentation areas dealt with different chapter models, and this information was provided during that morning, and also in an earlier article in this newsletter. I will quickly summarize those ideas for context here: For whatever reasons, various chapters operate at different levels of success and power. This is reality. It is obvious that a large, vital chapter with a lot of things going for it should be dealt with differently than a smaller, quieter chapter. What is needed is a series of points that will help us determine the level at which the chapter operates, and also to provide guidance for chapters who are seeking to up their game. Some of the ideas that have been put forward are here:

y Size How many members does the chapter actually

have? (not its mailing list!)

y Classic Model most chapters are like this y Country Model some of our largest, most successful
chapters represent entire countries

y Events How often does the chapter meet? y Attendance How much of the chapter membership
shows up for events?

y Branch a smaller chapter associated with a larger

one

y Professional Development What is the chapter

doing to push its members forward?

y Country Branch A variant of the branch chapter

associated with a primary country chapter

y Dues Does the chapter charge dues? y Conference Is the chapter powerful enough to
arrange a local conference?

y Virtual a chapter where no one ever meets

physically

y Corporate a chapter existing entirely inside a large

company

y Study Groups Is the chapter running study groups?

How many has it run?

y Light a smaller, possibly unchartered group y Profit an unusual and controversial idea, concerning
a possible revenue generating group During a series of very exciting off-line meetings and discussions that happened during and after the conference, it became clear that these ideas, while valuable, would not sufficiently cover the changes that we will need in the future. We need to support the growth pattern that IIBA is currently experiencing, and also the projected growth that it will experience in the future. What will be needed, in addition to the concept of style (the models), is the concept of rank. We have many chapters out there, and every one of them is unique. Some are large and vital, and some are small and sleepy. There are many reasons for this disparity the nature of the chapter leaders (this is for each chapter to control if you are not happy, change it!), the state of business analysis in the area, the local economic situation, the local culture, etc.

y Sponsorship How many sponsors does the chapter

have and at what levels?

y Branches Is the chapter strong enough to generate

its own branches?

y Representation What percentage of BAs in the area

are chapter members? These are just some examples of the sort of thing we are thinking about. To put this into play, a lot of thinking is going to have to happen, and to enable that, Steve Erlank (Deputy Director, Europe and Africa Region) and myself are going to issue a white paper during the year entitled Chapters - A New Paradigm. A committee is being assembled (by invitation) and each of those committee members will contact many stakeholders, to bring as much information and opinion into this effort as possible. The results of this effort will benefit IIBA greatly, as a structure is put into place to support chapters into the future. The paper will also, I believe, serve as a focal point of thought on professional organizations and their chapters in general. No matter how things go and what patterns emerge in the future, I want you to understand how proud I am to be associated with IIBA, its members, the chapters out there, and with each of the volunteers whose input has enriched my life. Thank you all, and I am looking forward to another excellent year! To post a comment, visit the Community Network.
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IIBA Inside View

Case Study The Membership Committees Global Membership Fee Project

By Maureen Winston, Volunteer, IIBA Membership Committee
Editors Note: In early 2010 International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) implemented the Global Membership Program. In this case study, the Membership Committee details how they applied business analysis techniques to successfully implement this program.

Committee was not familiar with current membership processing and business rules (current state). In both cases the Committee needed to have a better understanding in order to move forward in the Project. With that in mind and since Committee members are also practicing business analysts, the Committee took an organized approach using tasks and techniques outlined in the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK Guide).

Analysis Approach
The Committee followed these steps:

1. After reviewing the business case, the Committee met

with Kathleen Barret, IIBA CEO and Project Sponsor to gain a better understanding of the Business vision and problem that the initiative was addressing. We also received clarification on Stakeholder classes and other areas that would be impacted with the project implementation. To read more on these topics, see the BABOK Guide v2.0: Enterprise Analysis: Defining Business Needs 5.1 though to Business Case 5.5 Business Analysis Planning & Monitoring: Identifying Stakeholders 2.2 To read the entire article or to post a comment, visit the Community Network.

Introduction / Background
Since its inception, IIBA offered a single global membership fee for all its members, regardless of their country. The IIBA Senior Leadership Team felt that this was affecting the growth of the organization in countries with lower purchasing and earning power.

The Opportunity
The Senior Leadership Team decided to introduce three levels of annual global IIBA membership fees based on the concept of the World Banks Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and their published countries list. PPP recognizes that it costs more for individuals living in some countries to acquire the same basket of goods than if they were living in other countries. It also means the $95 USD annual membership fee for some countries was high relative to other expenses and cost of living. Furthermore, PPP equalizes the purchase power of different currencies in their countries for a given basket of goods, taking into account relative cost of living and inflation rates of different countries. With the idea to incorporate different fee levels into their Membership offering, the Senior Leadership Team asked the Membership Committee to create high level business requirements. These requirements would then be handed over to IT Systems for development of detailed system uses cases and other requirements.

Watch IIBA Webinars Online

Did you know you can view past IIBA webinars online? Visit the IIBA website and click on the Archive of Member Webinars or Archive of Public Webinars. All IIBA webinars are archived and posted to our website within five business days of the event. If you werent able to attend, or want to review a topic of particular interest, just visit the IIBA website.
www.theiiba.org

The Challenge
The Membership Committee was not familiar with the World Bank and its PPP concepts and had to gain a better understanding on it before proceeding. As well, the

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Business of Business Analysis

The Future of Business in the New Economy

Part 3: Value Analysis
By Julian Sammy, IIBA Head of New Media

beyond money and scarcity, to include value and abundance. This Abundant Business Case refocuses the organization on generating and delivering value to customers and getting customers to deliver value to the organization. Money plays a key role, but is not the bottom line.

Giving and Receiving Value

This example takes the form of a thought experiment with four scenarios related to a simple transaction. In each scenario you will be asked a question. Please take a moment to record your answer in each case; at each stage, your answer is very likely to change, and in ways that may surprise you. Remember, these are not riddles or trick questions; answer them based on the information at hand, and presuming that you cant do anything fancy like cutting up the muffins.

In Parts 1 and 2, we established the strange and powerful relationship humans have with scarcity, value, abundance and worthlessness. We defined different kinds of value features, characteristics and experiencesand how they are exchanged in familial and contractual contexts. We finished by looking at four ways that some value can be safely converted into money. In this part, we discuss ways that organizations can use this knowledge to make better decisions about investing limited resources. We start with an illustrative example, exploring a single, simple transactiona very simplistic Value Network Analysis. This example will lead to a discussion of the relative nature of value, and the very narrow measure we call money. Finally, we will discuss ways you can use this information to guide your business. This was intended to be a three part series, with this being the final part. During the writing of part two and the research for part three, it became clear that this is actually a four part series. Ultimatelyin part 4we look at ways to integrate these principles into organizational funding and resource allocation decisions. This will extend the traditional business case

Scenario 1: Customer Testimonial

You are a baker. You ask three of your best customers to record a short testimonial about your store and products, in exchange for a dozen muffins. They agree. A few minutes later, you have some nice material for your website, and they have a box of 12 muffins to split between them.

Question
How should the customers divide up the muffins to be as fair as possible? Remember, you have to answer based on the information availableyou dont know what kinds of muffins they are, how big they are, etc.

Discussion
Almost everyone agrees that each customer should take four muffins. This is related to fair ways to divide a cake, such as You cut, I choose. To read the entire article, visit the Community Network. Footnote references are contained in the full version of the document found on the Community Network.

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Business of Business Analysis

Being a BA Technical Excellence Webinar

Presented by Rick Clare, OCP, PMP, CBAP, and Vice President of Chapters, IIBA

and ask the users what they want a system to do, and then you write it down. Then you tell them they will see it in six months. And in six months when things dont work you blame the user. That is why you get them to sign the user sign-off document which is a mechanism to pass the blame onto them when things dont go well. Elicitation is an entirely different action. It is collaboration and detective work. You work together to figure the requirements out between the two of you. This is a mistake we make: we assume the users know what they want. They dont know what the requirements are because they cant know, any more then you can at that stage of the project. That is why youan expert in communicationwill sit down and work together to come up with the requirements. That is the first part requirements are hard. The BA brings that skill set to the company and the BA will solve that problem.

Hosted by Julian Sammy, Head of New Media, IIBA June 29, 2010
This is the transcript to one of the questions asked of Rick Clare (VP Chapters and a very experienced BA and BA manger) in the Being a BA Technical Excellence webinar from June 29, 2010. You can find the complete audio of this webinar by clicking on the webinars link at http://theIIBA.org/PD.

Question: Can you list the two biggest benefits an organization would reap by identifying business analysis work and the BA role? Answer: The first one is segregating the requirements from Project Managers. There really are two kinds of BA: one is a Project BA, and that is really what you are asking about, but the concept of strategic BA is a vital one as well. Someone in the company acting at a very high level is preparing business cases, feasibility studies, managing business enterprise and architecture; these are strategic BAs, and are quite often people that are operating at VP level. Many companies have people doing this kind of work but may not realize that they are business analysts. Project BAs if you talk to any project manager, especially in the absence of a BA, and ask them what is their pain point the answer is the requirements, and there are two reasons for that. The first is requirements are hard. They just are, and we have made so many mistakes over the years in how requirements are handled. I will give you an example the use of the word gather, as opposed to elicit. Elicitation is a very different thing than gathering. Gathering is when you walk into a room

The second part is the PM having to handle the requirementsevery PM that I have spoken with reports the same thing. It never seems to work out that well without a BA. First off, in almost every case the schedule suffers. What goes on is whatever I plan as a PM, when I put on my BA hat it doesnt work out as well. There is a reason for that. There is kind of a built in conflict between the two roles. The PMs loyalties are to the Executive Sponsor and their job is to make their project come in on time and on budget. The BAs loyalty is to the customer, and their job is to get it right. Now think about those two opposing viewpoints. First I want to state that of course PMs are about getting it right and many BAs understand the importance of scheduling, and meeting deadlines. I am trying to say that they are not 100% opposite. What I will say though, is thatespecially when the two roles are in the same headyou start going crazy because you are in opposition with yourself. It is very important to meet the deadline, but the deadline isnt as important because we have to make sure we get the requirements down properly. If the same person is doing both roles then there is a problem. This is the second benefit to making sure you bring a BA into a project: to relieve the PM from this conflict. Having two separate people who can now discuss things, and come up with legitimate solutions that we both meet at the same time these are the immediate advantages to project BAs. To watch the entire webinar visit http://theIIBA.org/PD under Archived webinars for members only. To post a comment, visit the Community Network.

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Chapter News

Chapter Spotlight Italy

By Prassede Colombo, PMP, IIBA Italy Chapter President The IIBA Italy Chapter was founded in 2008. In the beginning we were only a very small group, but today we have grown to 22 members. Last year with the economic crisis it was difficult for us as a chapter. We received some interest in the business analysis profession and IIBA but we had no results. It was not possible to find a sponsor, but we participated in an event organized by PMI Chapters and the Event Training Organization in order to talk about IIBA and business analysis. We also had the opportunity to talk about IIBA and the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK Guide) at the SDA Bocconi University during the Master Classes. The main issues our chapter has had to deal with include: y How to find channels to explain the IIBA mission and vision because IIBA was not known in Italy. y The economic crisiscompanies were shocked and were not open to new investments or training. y The IIBA membership fee. At the end of 2009 and the start of 2010 we received more interest in business analysis, IIBA and the Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) Certification. We started to receive requests for information through the IIBA Italy Chapter website.

We began the following initiatives: y Creation of a study group for the CBAP certification. The first group started in March 2010 and finished in July. This was a good way to get subscriptions to the Chapter and to create a network with specialists. We have had good feedback. y Evening events. We have organized evening events to focus on specific areas of the BABOK Guide, and how to apply the tools and techniques to a company. There was good participation at the first of these events on June 15 during which we covered Enterprise Analysis the BABOK Guide Ericsson application. Another meeting was hosted in October/November which involved IIBA members and companies to cooperate in the organization. y Participation in events with other associations and organizations. November 10-11 BA &PM Forum, IIR, BABOK Guide presentation November 19 PMO Observatory PMI-NIC Business Needs and PMO December 10 Standard Versus Standard vs. Standard An International view PMI-NIC The main issues our chapter is currently facing include finding Sponsors to get support for the creation of a Centre of Competency, Survey, BABOK Guide translation in Italian, events, workshops and projects, and increasing membership To read the entire article or to post a comment,visit the Community Network.

Professional Development

Real words that work

By Patricia Davies, President, Patricia Davies Communications BABOK 8.4 stresses that BAs need to show in their written communications an understanding of which idioms and terms will be readily understood by the audience. In our continuing series on how BAs can self-assess their own writing, below are more hints and tips on the minefields of idioms and terms.

boosts the stock price, except I havent got a clue what a snacking daypart is. Confusion equals doubt, and I am a little worried this daypart thing isnt going to help my retirement fund.

Guideline:
Industry terminology is useful when you are communicating with your colleagues but confusing to people outside your field. If you arent absolutely certain your readers will understand a particular word or phrase, dont use it.

Fix:
After a little research I learned that a snacking daypart is the time of day when North Americans buy snacks, traditionally from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Tims goal? To grow revenue during the traditional snack times of late afternoon and late evening. Sounds like a good plan.
www.theiiba.org

1. Jargon juggling
In its 2009 annual report, Tim Hortons happily informed me, a shareholder, about its 2010-2013 Strategic Plan. The companys first goal is to grow afternoon and evening snacking dayparts. Im all for this leap forward if it

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Professional Development

2. Aim to express, not impress

What do these terms (quoted from clippings in my huh? file) have in common?

y Effect an extinguishment y Re-engage with the learning environment y Anti-freeloader shampoo

They are all examples of good, clear English terms that someone has puffed up beyond recognition. Readers are left baffled and irritated that they have to fight their way through the verbiage to find the hidden meaning.

is the founder of the Agile Modeling (AM), Agile Data (AD), Agile Unified Process (AUP), and Enterprise Unified Process (EUP) methodologies and creator of the Agile Scaling Model (ASM). Scott is the (co-)author of 19 books, including Refactoring Databases, Agile Modeling, Agile Database Techniques, The Object Primer 3rd Edition, and The Enterprise Unified Process. Scott is a senior contributing editor with Dr. Dobbs Journal. His personal home page is http:// www.ibm.com/software/rational/leadership/thought/ scottambler.html and his Agility@Scale blog is www.ibm. com/developerworks/blogs/page/ambler. This webinar is for IIBA members only. Register now.

Guideline:
Be kind to your readers. If theres a perfectly simple and straightforward expression, use it. When you make people work too hard to understand your point, you will lose them. Worse, they will laugh at your need to impress.

Being a BA Series Technical Excellence

Presented by Tom Karasmanis Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. EST (UTC/GMT -4 hours) Tom is the Chief Architect of IIBA, and a very experienced BA. Over the last 25 years he has worked at all organizational levels and in various roles including project business analysis, strategic work, managing teams of BAs and more. This webinar is open to IIBA members. Register now.

Fix:
y Put out a fire y Go back to school y Flea shampoo
To post a comment, visit the Community Network.

IIBA Webinar Series

Being a BA Your Career
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. EST (UTC/GMT -4 hours) Presented by Laura Brandenburg Laura is the author of the eBook How to Start a BA Career and an active blogger at Bridging-the-Gap.com. She is the IIBA Career Center Product Manager, and a practicing BA consultant. This webinar is for members only. Register now.

Effective Communication
Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. EST (UTC/GMT -4 hours) Join us on the first Tuesday of each month to hear our panel of communications experts communicate effectively, whether speaking, writing or using technology to bridge distance. Effective Writing: Patricia Davies is an award-winning writer who has provided writing, editing, consulting and training services to major corporations, non-profit agencies and government ministries for the past 20 years. Effective Speaking: Halina St. James got into her share of scrapes in more than 20 years as a producer and reporter for CBC, Newsworld and CTV. She has developed a breakthrough technique, which she calls Talkitout. Effective Virtual Tools: Julian Sammy has a passion for the intersection of technology, behaviour and information. He is developing a science-based approach to business analysis based on a human theory of business analysis. This webinar is for members only. Register now.

ABC: Authors, Books and Conversations Webinar Series

Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. EST (UTC/GMT -4 hours) This month, our author is Scott W. Ambler who has authored many books including Agile Modeling and The Elements of UML 2.0 Style. Scott W. Ambler is Chief Methodologist for Agile and Lean with IBM Rational, working with IBM customers around the world to help them to improve their software processes. He

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Certification Update

Certification Program Update

By Suzanne Bertschi, Certification Product Manager

CBAP Call-in Webinar

Monday, February 7, 2011 at 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. EST IIBA is inviting all Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) recipients to attend a quarterly webinar dedicated to you! The first one held in November was a successwe received a lot of great questions and good feedback. The next CBAP webinar is scheduled for Monday, February 7, 2011 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. EST so book it now in your calendar. Michael Gladstone, CBAP and IIBA Vice President of Certification, will be hosting this one hour call-in webinar. CBAP recipients will have the opportunity to share their experience as a CBAP and pose questions to Michael. As this is a CBAP only event it is not listed on the website so make sure you register now. Stay tuned for a schedule of these quarterly CBAP webinars to be posted on our website, and updates will be provided in future monthly newsletters. All webinars will be archived and posted to our website within five business days of the event.

CCBA Exam Now Available!

IIBA is pleased to announce the successful launch of the Certification of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA) exam effective January 4, 2011. Everything you need to know about the CCBA designation is documented in the CCBA Handbook. Since the CCBA online application launched on November 29, 2010, there has been a great deal of excitement in the BA community about the new designation. More than 400 applications have been initiated from business analysis professionals in over 25 countries around the world. Many candidates have already been approved to write the exam, and we look forward to congratulating our first CCBA recipients very soon. If you have not already started your CCBA application, you can do so by following this link CCBA Online Application. Once your application is approved and IIBA has received your exam fee payment, you will receive an email from our exam administrators so you can register online to take the exam at one of our many computer-based testing (CBT) Locations, with 406 locations in North America and over 100 international locations. Reminder: As a special promotion for the CCBA designation, IIBA will waive the CCBA application fee if:

CBAP Update
To date we have 1,108 CBAP recipients. For a listing of CBAP recipients, visit CBAP Listing. Please note that we mail out the CBAP packages including the wallet card and certificate on a quarterly basis. For more information on the Certification program, visit the IIBA website. For Certification questions not addressed on the website, email certification@theiiba.org.

y You submitted a CBAP application, with the

application fee, prior to the CCBA launch on November 29th.

y Your CBAP application was declined due to either: Not meeting the Work Experience requirements Not meeting the Knowledge Area requirements y Please note: applicants have until January 31, 2011
to submit the CCBA application in order for the application fee to be waived.

Benefits of CBAP Certification

Calling all CBAP recipients! IIBA wants to know how the CBAP certification has helped you in your daily job, to share this information with IIBA members and potential CBAP applicants. In 500 words or less tell us:

y Why you chose to obtain the CBAP certification

Toronto May 16-19, 2011 Toronto Metro Convention Centre www.businessanalystworld.com

y How the certification has helped you professionally y What study advice you would give to CBAP exam applicants
Send your stories to IIBANewsletter@theiiba.org. You could be featured in an upcoming newsletter!

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Endorsed Education Providers

Endorsed Education Provider (EEP) Update

New EEP vendors
IIBA is pleased to present several new EEP vendors listed below:

Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP v2): Practice Exam 3 Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP v2): Practice Exam 2 Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP v2): Practice Exam 1 Underlying Fundamentals Solution Assessment & Validation Requirements Analysis & Documentation Enterprise Analysis Requirements Elicitation Requirements Planning & Management Requirements Communication

Blueprint Software Systems, Inc.

www.blueprintsys.com Ohio, U.S.A. Eliciting & Defining Business / System Requirements

Globmacs
www.glomacs.com Dubai, United Arab Emirates Business Analysis

Newly Endorsed Courses

IIBA is pleased to present these newly endorsed courses from our existing EEP vendors listed below:

MindLeaders, Inc.
www.mindleaders.com Ohio, U.S.A. Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP v2): Practice Exam 5 Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP v2): Practice Exam 4

Radford Institute Australia PTY LTD

www.radfordinstitute.com.au South Australia, Australia Advanced Better Business Analysis Enterprise Analysis and Business Architecture

IIBA Merchandise Now Available

International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) has partnered with Lands End Business Outfitters to offer top-quality products featuring the IIBA logo.

Choose From:

Polo Shirts

Dress Shirts

Jackets

Vests

Bags

Mugs and More!

Check out the wide selection of items available for purchase at the IIBA store.

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Monthly Giveaway

Play to Win!
In the December newsletter, we asked What two key relationships frame the power and success of organizations in the internet economy? The correct response is: abundance vs. scarcity; free vs. paid. Our winner is Ali Mazer with Sigma Software Solutions in Toronto, Ontario. FAST facilitative leadership amplifies the principles, techniques, skills, experience, and confidence to successfully lead groups and teams toward consensus. The FAST technique combines behavioral science understanding about group performance with empirical research about information discovery, analysis, and decision-making. The FAST reference manual provides a thorough HOW TO lead meetings such as prioritization, responsibility matrices, project planning, process building, scoping, stage gate approvals, quality initiatives, team charters, and decisionmaking of most any kind or purpose. MG RUSH is a high-performance training and instruction firm, founded upon extensive research with the effectiveness of various facilitated decision-making techniquesand many hours of experience leading sessions. FAST was created to fill gaps left by other techniques (eg, JAD) and make facilitated meetings useful in all types of information gathering, organizational/ business planning, and group decision-making settings.

Now heres your chance:

According to the December newsletter, what was the first major deliverable of 2010 for IIBA? Please email your responses to IIBANewsletter@theiiba.org by January 13th, 2011. The winner will receive the FAST Facilitator Reference Manual from MG Rush. FAST Facilitators Reference Manual (value USD$300.00) Vast (500+ pages) facilitators body of knowledge about facilitative leadership, facilitator skills, and group decisionmaking tools designed to build collaboration and galvanize consensus around actions and ownership.

Advertise in the IIBA Newsletter

New Ad Rates for 2010
(all prices are in U.S. dollars)

Policies
IIBA will only accept advertisements from organizations directly related to the IIBA mission of providing information valuable to our readers. IIBA reserves the right to reject advertisers who offer products or services that directly compete with those offered by IIBA. All ad copy and design must be approved by the IIBA marketing department. Content for ads should keep in mind the international nature of IIBA. However, ads specific to a certain geographical area may be approved on a case by case basis. Such advertisers should also consider individual chapter newsletters. Interested parties should email IIBANewsletter@theiiba.org. Be sure to include the size of ad you would like to place, a short company description and the newsletter issue in which you would like to advertise. For information about other IIBA Advertising Opportunities including Website Advertising, Website Events Calendar, Monthly Webinar Series and Monthly Quick Tips for Better Business Analysis Bulletin, please visit Advertising on our website.

1/8 page ad page ad page ad Full back page ad Discounts IIBA Sponsor Three to six ads purchased at once Seven to twelve ads purchased at once

$275 $440 $600 $750 20% discount Additional 10% discount Additional 15% discount

Questions or Comments?
If you would like to contact the editorial staff regarding future topics or suggestions, or if you would like to unsubscribe, please contact us at IIBANewsletter@theiiba.org.

The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of IIBA. Please note: Paid advertising does not imply IIBA endorsement.
IIBA, the IIBA logo, BABOK and Business Analysis Body of Knowledge are registered trademarks owned by International Institute of Business Analysis. CBAP is a registered certification mark owned by International Institute of Business Analysis. Certified Business Analysis Professional, EEP and the EEP logo, Certification of Competency in Business Analysis, CCBA and the CCBA logo are trademarks owned by International Institute of Business Analysis. International Institute of Business Analysis 2010. This newsletter is the copyrighted property of International Institute of Business Analysis. All rights reserved.

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