Last year, i worked with several colleagues to prepare a presentation to Microsoft on tool support for the Business Analyst. The audience included leadership from Visual Studio Team System, DPE, Office, Oslo, and others. One of the members of our small working group considers himself first and foremost a Business Analyst. He brought a tremendous amount of domain knowledge, reference material and credibility to the discussion. One of the organizations he referenced was the International Institute of Business Analysis. There are several things that this organization offers, including their core publication, "The Business Analysis Book of Knowledge", and their certification, "Certified Business Analysis Professional".
As I have been working on the topic of the relationship between Architecture and Business Analysis, and their requisite roles, I decided to join the IIBA. My main reason was to gain access to the BABOK. I expected that it would give me an objective assessment as to whether my thoughts on integrating the two roles had merit. I also figured that, as someone who has focused on architecture, there were most likely many things to learn. The result: Yes: There is serious overlap. And, Yes: I have lot to learn.
The BABOK outlines six core areas of focus for Business Analysis. Even without any of the details, I would expect that many of these line items will resonate with my fellow architects. In fact, I would expect that you all perform some or all of these activities. In a series of subsequent posts over the coming weeks, I will explore each of these areas, presenting some of the topics that the IIBA feels are important to that focus area, and discussing them in the context of the architect and what they need to do to create good architecture.
The six areas of focus, with their related topics, are as follows.
- Enterprise Analysis
- Requirements Planning and Management
- Requirements Elicitation
- Requirements Communication
- Requirements Analysis and Documentation
- Solution Assessment and Validation
I would recommend that you all join (the fee is $95 US). Among other things, becoming a member gives you access to the BABOK. Having read through about half of the BABOK so far, the areas that they consider in detail are all valuable for the architect to have in their box of tools, and to have at the top of mind as they work through the process of creating the architecture at hand.