Q. Can you please give me some advice on starting my preparation for the CBAP® exam? How did you prepare for it? Where are CBAPs most valued in the world?

A. Thanks for writing. I wrote an article about an approach to passing the CBAP exam. It’s based on surveying a wide group of CBAPs who passed the exam. For my own certification, I mainly used the BABOK and my knowledge as a PMP because there were no other study aids available in early 2007 when I took the exam. The CBAP exam is based largely on the BABOK®, so our Study Guide will be a big help to understanding the BABOK® and to answering questions about it.

To prepare, I’d suggest reading the article and using it to create your own plan. Everyone studies differently, depending on their learning style. Overall, you should expect to study 80-100+ hours for the exam based on the median and average study times of 100 hours in our survey. One other tip is to use our online study exam system that you receive with the purchase of your Guide. It has summary feedback by knowledge area so you can judge your mastery of the BABOK. Each question has explanations for correct and incorrect answers. Students in our CBAP Prep classes tell us the incorrect explanations are very useful to help them learn the BABOK® concepts.

Based on the numbers of CBAPs by location, the certification seems to be most valued in the US and Canada, particularly in Ontario (Canada) and in Minnesota (US). These two areas have the highest number of CBAPs of anywhere in the world. There are now 1000 CBAPs in the world, a nice threshold that we crossed. Hope this helps you, and best wishes on passing the CBAP exam!

Q. Do you plan to offer separate training on preparing for the new CCBA exam?

A. We are not planning on offering a separate CCBA Study Guide or Exam Prep class. From everything the IIBA has announced the exam will be based on the BABOK®, so our Study Guide, preparation class, and all of our ancillary products will still be highly applicable. We urge CCBA candidates to download a copy of the BABOK from the IIBA and begin their preparation by reading it thoroughly. We’ll make a more formal announcement of our plans as we learn more from IIBA, and when their CCBA exam gets closer to being ready. The exam is scheduled to be available in the first quarter of 2011.

• Read our article called “Foolproof Plan for Passing the CBAP.”
• View our CBAP Frequently Asked Questions page to read more about the CBAP exam.
• Download the BABOK from IIBA.
• View information on the CCBA certification.
• Check out our CBAP Resources.

CBAP and CCBA Exam Preparation was posted at ProjectBrief Blog. | http://www.watermarklearning.com/blog

UC Diagram-Training Example

Since most people refer to these as use cases, that’s the name I’ll use. They are a great way to elicit, analyze, and model interaction requirements. Plus, they help generate related requirements for interfaces, data, process, and business rules.

I gave a use case training class last week, so it’s fresh in my mind. It also influenced me to put this explanation in question and answer form.

Q. What is a use case?

Use cases and scenarios describe functionality that describes how actors interact with a system. The system could theoretically be anything, but use cases most commonly are used with online or web applications. The term “use case” is often a short version of “use case narrative” or “use case flow of events” and is shown as an oval in a use case diagram as in the example above. They are written as text and divided into primary, alternate, and exception scenarios.

Q. What is an actor?

Actors interact directly with a system, and can be humans, systems, or event/time triggers. In a banking system, an actor might be a teller who enters banking transactions and a Customer Information System that supplies and maintains customer data. They are shown outside the use case diagram as stick figures or using an icon like in the example above.

Q. What are associations?

These show which use cases an actor can initiate and which actors a use case can access. The line between an actor and its associated use cases depict the associations. The BABOK® uses the term association for this concept, and another common term for this is interface.

Q. What is a scenario?

A scenario is one path or flow through a use case. Typically a use case has a primary scenario, one or more alternate scenarios, and possibly exception scenarios. For example, a bank transaction might be completed using a customer’s account number (primary path), using the Customer Information system to look up the account number (alternate), or be cancelled (perhaps due to not locating the account number). One of my favorite ways to summarize use cases to my students is they are a collection of related scenarios in the accomplishment of a goal.

Q. What is a use case model and what are its components?

A use case model contains the use case diagram and the text scenarios and flows.

Q. What does the BABOK view as the specialized relationships in use cases?

There are two specialized use case relationships described in the BABOK. There is a third (and useful) relationship that the BABOK does not describe, but I listed it below for completeness.

1. Extend- documents the place in a use case to add future extended functionality, like an alternate path in a separate use case. “Search Name Phonetically” is an example below of an extend relationship.
2. Include – provides access to shared functionality in a separate use case. The common functionality is housed in a separate use case and is “included” by one or more use cases that share the same functionality. In the banking example, looking up customers by name is a common function that would likely be in an included use case, such as “Locate Customer” below.
3. Generalization –separates the general interaction steps from specific detailed steps for use cases that have a Parent-Child sub-type structure. In the following example, there is a generic Transaction entity with a use case of “Make Transaction” that has sub-use cases of “Make Deposit,” “Make Withdrawal,” and “Make Loan Payment.” Actors can be generalized as well. (This is an accepted and useful relationship that was included in BABOK® version 1.6. I would like to see it added back to BABOK® version 3.)

To sum up, Use Cases are an important and widely used technique for capturing interaction requirements. They provide a structured means to uncover many hidden and detailed requirements, and they can lead to related interface and data requirements. Because of their importance in the industry, expect to be tested on them in the CBAP exam.

LEARN MORE: For more information, read our article on Use Cases called Demystifying Use Case Modeling. It requires a simple one-time registration for you to access it. Once registered, you can read dozens of other interesting article on business analysis and project management. A good, basic book on Use Cases I recommend is called Applying Use Cases, Second Edition, by Geri Schneider and Jason Winters, ISBN 0-201-30891-5. We also teach a practical, concise training course on Use Case Modeling to learn this technique in-depth.

Scenarios and Use Cases – Useful Techniques was posted at ProjectBrief Blog. | http://www.watermarklearning.com/blog

I’m giving a presentation at an upcoming conference called “BA Toolkit: Essential Tools for an Agile Project (or any other for that matter.)” I’m basing the presentation on a recent project that built our CBAP Online Study Exam. One of the tools I used on that project was the State Diagram. The BABOK® notes that these diagrams go by different names such as State Machine Diagram, State Transition Diagram, and Entity Life Cycle Diagram.

It proved helpful for a number of reasons:

1. A state diagram maps the official “states” or statuses that an entity can have, which is to say from initial creation to final disposal. It visually diagrams what would otherwise be a complicated verbal narrative or list. Whenever I map out one of these diagrams, it invariably leads me to find some more subtle states that I might have otherwise have missed.
2. It specifies a sequence of states or statuses that an entity goes through during its lifetime. If an entity changes states, there is always an event that triggers the change. The example below shows sample events (“Offer Made” and “Emp. Is Eligible”) as well as the process to respond to those events (“Accepts Job” and “Employee Retires,” respectively). The triggers and responses are often hidden requirements and the state diagram helps us uncover them. For example, the processes often become use cases and the triggers are an important pre-condition to them.
3. There may be specific things that should be performed when the entity reaches a new state. For instance, when a New Hire “Begins Work” in the example below, the process of “Intake New Employee” gets performed to manage the transition such as election of benefits and recording of personal details.
4. Each state might have its own unique data associated with it. For instance, a New Hire would have less data than an Employee who has started work. Retirees have even more attributes because of their retirement status. The discovery of new states will usually lead to uncovering additional data requirements. I love it when that happens!
5. Before an entity leaves one state for another, there may be some “clean up” activity to be performed. In the example, when transitioning out of the “Former Employee” state, the process of archiving the employee is done. For simplicity’s sake, our example doesn’t show what happens after that.

Here is an example state diagram. It shows 1) Five example states for a Human Resources application, 2) Transitions that reflect the business process in moving from state to state, 3) The event or trigger that causes a move to a new state, and 4) Activities that can take place upon entering or exiting a given state. 

Example State Diagram

To sum up, State Diagrams show the various states which an entity or class flows through during its lifetime (i.e., from creation to deletion). It also shows the events or triggers that prompt from one state to another, and formally labels the transitions. This type of analysis would normally be done only for complex entities that have multiple states or “life cycles.” They can help discover missing data attributes and processes involved in the various transitions.

You don’t need to be a proponent of UML or a specific methodology such as Object Oriented Analysis and Design to use these. They have value for most IT projects, and can help uncover missing requirements quickly. You might also get asked a question on the CBAP® exam, so add studying it to your preparation!

For more information, check out Wikipedia’s page on state diagrams. Make sure to scroll past the obscure entries like the “Directed graph“ and “Mealy machine.” We also cover state diagrams in our Business Process Modeling class and Data Modeling class.

State Diagrams: They Don’t Just State the Obvious was posted at ProjectBrief Blog. | http://www.watermarklearning.com/blog

The impetus for this blog comes from having just taught a successful training class in Data Modeling to a mixed group of BAs, BI specialists, technical architects, and business SMEs (subject matter experts). What made it successful was not only the learning that took place, but also the students’ willingness and eagerness to apply this technique back on their jobs.

I’ve been doing and teaching data modeling for as long as any business analysis technique. Many organizations I encounter think of data modeling as being technical and not BA work. Of course I feel differently, and have long viewed logical data modeling as business analyst work. The IIBA® agrees by including this technique in the BABOK.

Regardless of how you or your organization categorize Data Modeling (DM), you need to be prepared to answer questions on it for the CBAP exam. Here is a short over view of some Dm essentials:

• Data models capture the static data requirements of an organization for its ongoing business operations and decision support. It does that by defining and structuring entities, relationships between the entities, and adding detailed attributes into the entities. There is usually ancillary documentation you need to include that doesn’t fit strictly into the model. Two major styles of data models are entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs) and class diagrams.
• Concepts. Entities are the basic building block of a data model. The BABOK goes a little abstract on us by categorizing these as “concepts.” No one I know of except a textbook refers to entities or classes as concepts. The BABOK does it because an entity could also be represented by a class if you are using UML (Unified Modeling Language). In short, a concept is an entity or class depending on the DM style employed, and the term may appear on an exam question. I’ll use the term “concept” interchangeably with entity and class.
• Entities/Classes represent the people, places, things, processes, or events within the business. They have multiple instances that turn into rows in a relational database, and attributes, which become columns or fields in a database.
• Relationships are significant business connections or associations between “concepts” (there – I used the term). Relationships can be “one-to-one,” “one-to-many,” or “many-to-many.” The BOK uses the term “cardinality” to refer to the number of entity elements that are associated, namely one or many. Relationships may also be categorized by being optional or mandatory, such as “zero or one” or “at least one.”
• Attributes are the detailed facts about the “concept.” An ERD or class diagram typically lists the attribute name, relying on ancillary documentation for specifying domain ranges, the type of data an attribute can hold, and the definition of each attribute.

Here is an example data model, illustrating the terms above, and highlighting the four types of cardinality. Don’t be surprised on the CBAP exam if you are asked to interpret a diagram such as this. That type of question demonstrates the application of a technique, not just understanding the terminology.

Data Modeling is an important requirements analysis technique, and one you are likely to be tested on. Make sure you understand this technique for the exam, and then work at applying Data Modeling on the job. I plan to blog about that in the future – after I finish all the BABOK techniques!

Data Modeling – Why is that Technique in the BABOK? was posted at ProjectBrief Blog. | http://www.watermarklearning.com/blog

I attended an IIBA Professional Development Day in the Twin Cities recently, and a panelist mentioned what he thought was a cool, new concept. He was describing what an agile development team did on a successful project, and called what they did “high-tech anthropology.” My ears perked up when I heard the term, and thought they were onto something new and inventive.

Before starting development, the team in question decided it should go out to the field to watch subject matter experts (SMEs) actually doing their job. By observing workers in their work environment, the team discovered a major flaw in the assumption of the project sponsor about the proposed technology. They prevented the wasting of substantial project funds by doing observation. The consulting company doing the work dubbed this approach “high-tech anthropology.”

Well, not to be cranky…but, this is simply the packaging of a tried and true technique with a new name. The consultant’s “exciting new approach” was actually the long-standing technique we call observation. I hate it when someone tries to “invent” something new by renaming a standard method. OK, enough ranting. You can call me the “BA Curmudgeon” if you want.

Observation is a common elicitation technique that is used to watch people in their natural work environment. It’s useful to uncover requirements and as an adjunct to other elicitation methods. I first learned the value and power of this technique in my first job as an analyst back in the 1970s (I was in high school – just kidding). While analyzing the various departments in a bank for process improvements, we routinely observed each department in action. We’d follow personal bankers, tellers, mail room staff, etc. around their jobs. Heck, I was even a teller for a week – a scary thought, but actually doing the job of an SME gave me far better insights than just watching or talking to one. (If you want to get fancy, real anthropologists call doing an SME’s job “participant observation.”)

It is also valuable when stakeholders are unwilling or unable to articulate their work or their processes. A business analyst may need to do observation to conduct basic discovery work when more routine methods prove fruitless. For example, observing personal bankers opening new accounts on the job revealed some of the exceptions they face, but couldn’t articulate in an interview.

For the CBAP exam, it’s useful to know that the BABOK mentions two types:

• Passive / invisible – BA observes the SME doing job or following a process, but does not ask questions.
• Active / visible – BA observes the current process and takes notes, and may dialog with the worker (and even perform the process).

To summarize, observation gives us realistic and practical insight into business processes as they are actually performed. It can help elicit informal details and actual practices that may not be captured in more formal sessions. This method isn’t practical for new processes, or for those with lots of thought processes. It can be time-consuming and disruptive to “observes.” Like any technique, observation can’t uncover all needed exceptions and critical situations. But, with all its advantages, there’s a reason why this technique has stood the test of time. And, why people are tempted to repackage it as something new.

For Additional Learning:

Check out our CBAP Certification Prep Course.

To familiarize yourself with the actual CBAP Exam, try our CBAP Online Study Exam.

You may also find our our article: Foolproof Guide to Passing the CBAP (pdf) valuable. (You must be a Watermark Learning Member to access this article.  Membership is free and allows you to access valuable skill-development tools, such as articles, webinars, eNewsletters and special discounts.)

High-Tech Anthropology? A New-Fangled Name for a Tried and True Technique: Observation was posted at ProjectBrief Blog. | http://www.watermarklearning.com/blog

You’ll probably also get tested on some of the 34 general techniques, too. That means there are 49 various techniques in the BABOK you could be tested on during your CBAP exam. That’s a lot to study!

My focus lately has been on the CBAP exam and helping people to pass it. With that, I’m planning on featuring every one of them in a separate blog post over the next year. Some of the techniques can be combined into a single post because of their simplicity or relatedness to other techniques. My intent is to focus the most on techniques that my colleagues and I at Watermark Learning feel are more practical or important.

Reader alert: even if you’re not planning on obtaining your CBAP, I invite you to read on. The techniques are widely applicable for anyone who works on projects, not just CBAP candidates! I’m also interested in your feedback on how well these tools and techniques have worked or not on your projects.

I want to highlight the RACI Matrix to get us started. It’s a technique that has wide applicability on project work for both the Business Analyst and Project Manager. It also helps with ongoing roles and responsibilities for functions or processes outside of projects.

A RACI chart helps with assigning and documenting roles and responsibilities. It is widely used, and focuses on the major task and decision-making roles for projects. RACI stands for the following:
• Responsible – who is responsible for doing a task or process.
• Accountable – who approves the work or process.
• Consult With – who provides knowledge, information, or expertise to help complete the work.
• Inform – who needs to know the result of the task/process.

I’ve found RACI helpful in several ways; the process of creating them helps with:
• Stakeholder analysis, which is the task in the BABOK that it is associated with. By asking who fits in the RAC and I, you will learn about a broad array of stakeholders.
• Determining the decision-makers for any number of things, from project deliverables to work products to operational outputs.
• Holding stakeholders accountable for the roles they play. Once people agree where they fit in the matrix, it is like an informal “contract” for how they will participate.
• Clarifying boundaries with outside suppliers for all RACI categories: who does what, whose input needs to be sought, etc.
• Reminding people over the course of a project or over time what their role is. The older I get (and the worse my memory becomes), the more I appreciate this!

Here is an example of a sample RACI chart taken from one of our courses. Note that generic roles can be listed such as “Sponsor” or specific names can be inserted. There are several other variations, but for brevity’s sake I thought one would be enough:

 
One constant in work life is that when humans are involved, roles and responsibilities can and do become fuzzy. RACI charts and the process of creating them can clarify and document important categories for project and operational work. The RACI matrix is no panacea, but it sure helps. To paraphrase Dwight Eisenhower, “plans (RACI matrices) are useless, but planning (agreeing on the RACI) is indispensible.”

For Additional Learning:

Check out our CBAP Certification Prep Course.

You may also find our our article: Foolproof Guide to Passing the CBAP (pdf) valuable. (You must be a Watermark Learning Member to access this article.  Membership is free and allows you to access valuable skill-development tools, such as articles, webinars, eNewsletters and special discounts.)

BABOK Techniques – RACI Matrix was posted at ProjectBrief Blog. | http://www.watermarklearning.com/blog

The actual CBAP exam is based primarily on the BABOK. I recall studying this guide a lot when preparing for my exam. Now that we are helping others prepare to pass the exam, I realize just how hard it is to write good questions. My hat is off to the test designers and exam writers!

There are so many details in the BABOK that you could be tested on. You really need to be familiar with the entire guide. You can either download a copy from http://www.theiiba.org/ (free for IIBA members) or you can buy a hard copy on Amazon.com.

Take for example, the many BABOK techniques. There are 34 general techniques that apply to multiple tasks. There are also 14 tasks by my count that apply to a single task. You are more likely to see questions on the general techniques. So my advice is to spend the most time studying techniques used in several BABOK tasks such as Process Modeling and Risk Analysis. But, the following tasks are important in their own right, are likely sources of questions, and serve useful purposes on the job.

I’ll cover some of these in separate blog postings in the future. Use the list below for your prep for the CBAP exam, just to refresh your memory, or to learn about a new technique to explore. Quick tip: use www.wikipedia.org to research new techniques and concepts. Check out the techniques below along with the BABOK section number to see which ones you are familiar with.

2.2.5.2   RACI Matrix

2.2.5.3   Stakeholder Map

2.6.5.2   Variance Analysis

4.1.5.2   Baselining

4.1.5.3   Signoff

4.2.5.1   Coverage Matrix

4.4.5.1   Requirements Documentation

4.4.5.2   Requirements for Vendor Selection

5.3.5.2   Feasibility Analysis

5.4.5.2   Problem or Vision Statement

6.1.5.2   MoSCoW Analysis

6.1.5.3   Timeboxing/budgeting

6.1.5.4   Voting

6.5.5.2   Checklists

7.3.5.2   Force-field analysis

Task-Specific Techniques for the CBAP® Exam was posted at ProjectBrief Blog. | http://www.watermarklearning.com/blog