Jarett Hailes - Business Analysis Based on BABOK® Guide Version 2 – A Pocket Guide

Business Analysis - Based on BABOK Guide Version 2
A Pocket Guide

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There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

- Peter Drucker

Understanding needs. Defining objectives. Prioritizing problems and opportunities. Selecting the right solution. Ensuring what is delivered is effective. All these activities and more rely on effective business analysis.

The profession of business analysis is rapidly changing and evolving. As organizations realize how crucial it is to be able to successfully manage and deliver change in order to survive and thrive in the global economy, demand for business analysis skills will continue to increase. To this day, people still have difficulty understanding the purpose of business analysis and how it fits with other professions that are involved in the same activities within organizations. In 2003 the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) was formed to define and develop standards for the profession and help business analysis practitioners (called Business Analysts) improve their skills.

The IIBA developed A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK Guide) to provide Business Analysts and other stakeholders a comprehensive understanding of what business analysis is about and how it can be delivered to help organizations meet their objectives. Version 2 of the BABOK Guide was released in 2009 and helped shift the focus on business analysis from mainly within the Information Technology domain to one that enables all aspects of the organization to improve their performance and deliver solutions to meet their needs. The BABOK Guide delivers a wealth of information about business analysis, but it can be difficult to know where to start or how to apply its content. Since the profession has evolved since the release of Version 2, there are certain aspects of business analysis that are under-represented in the current version of the BABOK Guide. The purpose of this pocket guide is to provide a clear, concise summary of the key ideas from the BABOK Guide while also offering additional competencies (competences), techniques and ways to apply business analysis within organizations.

Current Business Analysts can use this pocket guide as a quick reference to key concepts. Other stakeholders involved in business analysis activities, from C-suite executives to project team members to front-line staff, can use this guide to gain an understanding of the value business analysis has within an organization and how to effectively interact with Business Analysts.

As you review this pocket guide, I en courage you to think about your organizations mission, goals, and objectives, as well as its current operations, and consider what its key success factors are going forward. From this starting point you can leverage the content from this pocket guide and the BABOK Guide to ensure your organization focuses its energy on what truly matters and is able to successfully deliver solutions that meet its needs.

May 2014,

Jarett Hailes, CBAP

The purpose of this pocket guide to the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (or BABOK Guide for short) is to help understand the key knowledge found within the BABOK Guide and how it can be applied to a particular situation. This pocket guide can be used by:

Individuals interested in how business analysis works or who may want to become Business Analysts;

Business Analysts as a quick reference during the course of their day-to-day work;

Team members working on projects or within normal organizational operations where business analysis is performed;

Managers and executives who need to understand how business analysis can help improve their organizations.

This pocket guide is based upon the content found in Version 2 of the BABOK Guide, published in 2009.

Throughout this guide, you will see boxes that contain information of particular interest. Each box has one of the following symbols:

Business analysis as a profession is relatively young, but the core activities that encompass its value have been performed by a wide variety of individuals within modern organizations for quite some time.