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CONTENTS AT A GLANCE

Chapter 1 Earning the Certified Business Analysis Professional Certification ... 1

Chapter 2 Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring ................... 41
Chapter 3 Eliciting Requirements ................................... 95
Chapter 4 Managing Requirements Communication .................... 127
Chapter 5 Working as an Enterprise Business Analyst ................... 171
Chapter 6 Analyzing and Documenting Project Requirements ............ 227
Chapter 7 Assessing and Validating Project Solutions ................... 279
Chapter 8 Working as a Business Analyst ............................. 309
Chapter 9 Managing Projects ...................................... 343
Chapter 10 Passing the CBAP Examination ............................ 387
Appendix About the CD ......................................... 423
Glossary Glossary of Key Terms ................................... 425
Index ................................................ 457

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Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Chapter 1 Earning the Certified Business Analysis Professional Certification . 1

Introducing the International Institute of Business Analysis . . . . . 2
Exploring the IIBA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Joining the IIBA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Defining the Business Analyst Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Qualifying for the CBAP Certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Identifying the Typical CBAP Candidate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Starting the CBAP Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Documenting Your Work Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Documenting Your BA Knowledge Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Confirming Your Professional Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Providing Professional References for the CBAP
Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Completing the CBAP Exam Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Reviewing the Exam Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Maintaining the IIBA CBAP Certification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Adhering to the CBAP Code of Ethical and Professional
Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Key Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Questions and Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter 2 Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring ................... 41

Determining the Business Analysis Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Determining the Project Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Using the SDLC Methodology ........................ 44
Consider the Project Life Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Consider Project Risks, Expectations, and Standards ...... 46
Performing Stakeholder Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Identifying Project Stakeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Identifying Project Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Defining the Role Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Create a Requirements Communication Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Identifying the Communication Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Analyzing Communication Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Defining the Requirements Risk Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Identifying the Risks Within the Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . 59

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Managing the Requirements Risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Monitoring and Controlling the Risk Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Choosing the Business Analysis Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Estimate Requirements Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Estimate Project Work for Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Identifying Project Assumptions and Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Communicating Requirements Activities Performance . . . . . . . . . . 74
Determining the Project and Product Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Key Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Questions and Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Chapter 3 Eliciting Requirements ................................... 95

Eliciting Stakeholder Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Interviewing Project Stakeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Managing Stakeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Exploring Elicitation Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Leading a Brainstorming Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Hosting a Focus Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Observing the Stakeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Hosting a Requirements Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Using a Requirements Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Using Static Requirements Gathering ....................... 107
Performing Document Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Completing Interface Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Creating a Prototype Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Key Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Questions and Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Chapter 4 Managing Requirements Communication .................... 127

Manage the Scope of Project Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Creating a Requirements Baseline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Creating Requirements Traceability Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Maintaining the Requirements Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Manage Conflicting Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Identifying and Managing Conflicts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Implementing Conflict Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Determine the Requirements Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Identifying Communication Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Formatting Requirements for Stakeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Creating Work Products and Deliverables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Create a Requirements Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Preparing the Requirements Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Building the Requirements Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

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Conduct a Requirements Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Hosting a Formal Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Hosting an Informal Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Communication Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Host a Formal Requirements Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Preparing for the Formal Requirements Review . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Conducting the Formal Requirements Review Meeting . . . . . 151
Obtain Requirements Sign-Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Obtaining Signatures for Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Moving Through Project Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Key Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Questions and Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Chapter 5 Working as an Enterprise Business Analyst ................... 171

Defining the Enterprise Business Analyst Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Participating in Strategic Planning and Goal Setting . . . . . . . 173
Developing Strategic Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Serving as an Enterprise Business Analyst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Examining the Outputs of Enterprise Business Analysis . . . . 178
Creating and Maintaining the Business Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Developing the Business Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Creating the Business Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Modeling the Business Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Determining Capability Gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Preparing for the Feasibility Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Determining the Purpose for the Feasibility Study . . . . . . . . 190
Planning the Assessment Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Conducting a Current State Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Creating a Feasibility Study .......................... 194
Completing the Feasibility Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Determining the Solution Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Scoping the Solution Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Writing the Solution Scope Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Creating the Business Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Quantifying the Project Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Finalizing the Business Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Key Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Questions and Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Chapter 6 Analyzing and Documenting Project Requirements ............ 227

Prioritize Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Setting Priorities for Requirements .................... 228
Analyzing Requirements for Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

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Organize Project Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Creating the Business Requirements Documentation . . . . . . 231
Exploring Solution Development Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Structure Requirements Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Creating a Goal Decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Dividing Solution Features and Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Working with Stakeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Analyze Solution Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Writing the Requirements Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Visualizing the Requirements Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Analyzing the Solution Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Identifying Supplemental Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Meeting Expected Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Identifying Constraints and Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Documenting Identified Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Documenting Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Determine the Requirements and Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Creating a Requirements Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Assigning Requirement Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Verifying Project Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Confirming Stakeholder Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Assessing the Quality of Requirements ................. 257
Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Key Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Questions and Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Chapter 7 Assessing and Validating Project Solutions ................... 279

Assess the Proposed Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Evaluating Solution Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Facilitate the Solution Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Allocate the Solution Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Reviewing User Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Reviewing Functions and Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Managing Design Phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Finalizing the Solution and Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Communicating and Assessing the Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Supporting the Solution Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Ensure the Solution’s Usability ....................... 291
Supporting Quality Assurance Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Key Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Questions and Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

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Chapter 8 Working as a Business Analyst ............................. 309
Applying Fundamental Business Analysis Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Using the Structured Systems Analysis and Design Model .. 310
Managing Business Analysis Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Relying on Communication Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Learning New Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Defining Your Business Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Knowing the Products and Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Recognizing Market Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Recognizing Organizational Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Relying on Expert Judgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Mapping IT Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Working as a Business Analyst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Hosting Effective Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Thinking Like a Business Analyst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Serving as a Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Coaching and Motivating Stakeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Performing Appraisals .............................. 325
Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Key Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Questions and Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Chapter 9 Managing Projects ...................................... 343

Initiating the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Examining the Project Charter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Developing the Preliminary Project Scope Statement . . . . . . 345
Planning the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Planning for Scope Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Planning for Time and Cost Estimates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Revisiting Project Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Executing the Project Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Executing the Project Plan ........................... 354
Developing the Project Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Using Project Management Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Utilizing Human Resource Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Monitoring and Controlling the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Controlling Project Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Performing Quality Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Controlling Project Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Closing the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Closing a Project Contract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Officially Closing a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

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Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Key Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Questions and Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Chapter 10 Passing the CBAP Examination ............................ 387

Preparing to Pass the CBAP Exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
What to Do First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
What to Do Second . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Create a CBAP Cheat Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Work Smart—Not Hard ............................. 390
Answering the CBAP Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Answer Every Question—Once . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Use the Process of Elimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Everything You Must Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Managing and Planning Requirements ................. 393
Review of Key Terms for Requirements Management . . . . . . . 397
Eliciting Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Review of Key Terms for Requirements Elicitation . . . . . . . . . 401
Communicating Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Review of Key Terms for Communication ............... 406
Working as an Enterprise Business Analyst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Review of Key Terms for Enterprise Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Performing Requirements Analysis and Documentation . . . . 410
Review of Key Terms for Requirements Analysis
and Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Assessing and Validating Project Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Review of Key Terms for Assessment and Validation . . . . . . . 419
Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

Appendix About the CD ......................................... 423

System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Installing and Running MasterExam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
MasterExam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
CBAP Video Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Electronic Book ........................................ 424
Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Removing Installation(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
LearnKey Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

Glossary Glossary of Key Terms ................................... 425

Index ................................................ 457

FM.indd xiv 6/11/2009 4:43:37 PM