Ever wondered how the BABOK Guide matches up to real business analysis experience? The BABOK is brilliant at breaking down the possibilities of business analysis and providing a route for a wide variety of project types to move through it. But you don’t notice this unless you are paying close attention.
When I was preparing for my CBAP, I learned that it had been really easy to scan the BABOK and say, “I’ve never done that.” But when I dug deeper during exam preparation, I discovered my 10+ years of business analysis experience was even more relevant than I thought.
If I twisted my view of the world just a little, I could see where I had not fully appreciated what I was able to do as a BA and often why I was able to succeed as a BA.
What’s amazing is that this activity, to deeply appreciate your experience and learn to talk about your experience in the terms that are quickly becoming standard within our profession, has great intrinsic value, even if you don’t care a darn about the CBAP.
You might find value if:
- You are reworking your resume or preparing for a business analyst job interview and you want to incorporate BA appropriate BA terminology.
- You think you might have some business analysis experience, but want to see how qualified you are as a business analyst.
- You’ve been putting off your CBAP application because documenting your BA work experience overwhelms you.
The BABOK Tasks
Here are the tasks from the BABOK v2 we were able to address before BABOK v3 was released. Use these stories as a guidepost to discovering your own relevant business analysis career experiences.
- Getting Elicitation Right – With Preparation (BABOK 3.1)
- Do You Define the Business Need? (BABOK 5.1)
- Evaluate Solution Performance (BABOK 7.6)
- Do You Have a Favorite Elicitation Activity? (BABOK 5.2)
- The BABOK might not be a methodology, but the BA still needs one (BABOK 2.1)
- It’s Not “All Requirements” – Assumptions and Constraints Matter Too! (BABOK 6.4)
- Mind the Gap – The Capability Gap (BABOK 5.2)
- Are You Responsible for the Solution? (BABOK 7.1)
- Business Analysts Plan to Plan (BABOK 2.3)
- Good Things Come in Nice Packages (BABOK 4.4)
- Oh where, oh where does this requirement belong? (BABOK 7.2)
- The Value of Reusable Requirements (BABOK 4.3)
- Let Your Stakeholders Know You Heard Them (BABOK 3.3, 3.4)
- What are your requirements verification practices? (BABOK 6.5)
- How to Distinguish Requirements Validation and Verification (BABOK 6.6)
- Let Your Stakeholders Know You Heard Them (BABOK 3.3, 3.4)
>>Learn More About Becoming a CBAP or CCBA
Interested in becoming a CBAP or CCBA? We cover 8 steps to the CBAP certification, that will take you to just learning about the certification to successfully sitting for the exam.