If you work in new product development or have participated in maintenance projects, then most likely you have used either the focus group or the brainstorming technique. The brainstorming technique is used to produce ideas and increase creativity. For example, after you’ve defined your problem and are looking for the different solution options, you gather a few folks from your project team (mostly the development team) and ask them about what they think a solution could be.

One of the great tool to use when studying for the CBAP or CCBA is to have a big picture of the entire BABOK. We're giving away this high level summary to help you on your journey.

Scenarios are defined as a development use for policy planning or organizational development and testing. Forms of planning and crafting scenarios can result in long term plans for organizations, and are flexible in nature. Most scenarios highlight large scale forces to push the future in different directions.

When senior managers of large corporations face a decisional dilemma, they know that their decisions could result in affecting thousands of lives. Simple executions are no longer simple when responsibility looms this big. Scenarios and the planning stages of a scenario help managers and executives to determine the right choice. This could range from the act of buying a competitor, replacing a main product ingredient with something else, and much more. Problems like these are commonly faced with long term results. In developing the right plan, scenarios come into play. Scenarios are also used for personal business use as well as for high level management and organization benefits.

Step 1: Read the CBAP® Handbook. You want to understand the qualification for sitting for the certification. This handbook provides a thorough explanation on the experiences needed to qualify, the educational requirements... etc

Step 2: Begin documenting your work experience. This is the most challenging task as it requires that you look back 10 years and recall information about each of the projects you've worked on. You will need to remember the project name, description, hours worked on each projects, hours spend on business analysis tasks on each projects... etc

As some of you may already know, the CCBA® has officially been announced and the exam is coming out soon. This is a new IIBA® certification for competent business analysts.

Who is a competent business analyst?

A competent business analyst is one who has invested time to develop their business analysis skills and expertise but has not yet achieved the level of experience required to sit for the CBAP® exam.

This certification is great for developers who have performed business analysis tasks for a minimum amount of time, or quality assurance analysts, or any other professional who has performed some business analysis task in the last 7 years.

Why should you consider this designation?