Friday, September 19, 2014

GAP Analysis

A gap analysis is a formal study that identifies the gap between a business’s current situation and its future needs in terms of performance, processes, sales, systems, and organizations, or it may be Business, Technology, Products/Services against the future situation or needs. The study could be restricted for the department’s particular function, product, or location, or it could be an enterprise wide analysis. Gap Analysis actually defines the benchmarking of future portfolios, systems, or processes.

Although the scope of this blog is restricted to IT Business Analysis, we need to discuss this topic in detail so that the Business Analyst can get the detailed perspective of the gap analysis done using various scenarios, such as:

- Business Process / Industry standards Analysis

- Products & Services Analysis

- IT Systems Analysis

- Compliances Analysis

- Technology Analysis

- Performances Analysis

Business Process / Industry Standards Analysis:

If an organization decided to improve their overall processes, they could do so by implementing ISO ® or just adhering to Verisign® security requirements related to a secured online payment process for their website for receiving online payment. In both of these cases, there could be significant impact on the functioning of respective department(s) where changes are expected. Thus, the Gap Analysis is needed to identify and define future requirements for the solution.

Product & Services Analysis:

Based on the company’s projection, there could be requirements or plans to expand an existing portfolio by adding new products or discontinuing existing product(s). These are very high-level Gap analyses that are done keeping the future growth of the company and future need of the consumer in mind. In this case, the company’s profit and shareholder interest are taken into consideration. For example, considering the demand and future need of healthy food, Pepsi decided to enter into the healthy food market and planned to acquire the Tropicana ® and Quaker ® brand to expand Pepsi’s portfolio. Market potential, usage gap, and competitive gaps are other factors to be considered while undertaking the Gap Analysis.

Compliances Analysis:

Recently, there have been new compliances introduced by financial regulatory bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), as well as other such bodies in their respective countries. These compliances deal with (possible) financial frauds or are intended to ease out the business process. A recent change introduced by the SEC was “Locate the Stock” in the "Short-Selling" process in 2005. Similarly, in 2010, the SEBI, through Mutual Funds Amendment regulations, introduced new timeframes in conducting Mutual Fund business.

Technology Analysis:

Enterprise-wide analysis will facilitate defining the Gap between the outdated technology that exists and current and/or future needs of the new technology/machines that will improve the production/services of a company. For example, offset printing machines versus digital printing machines with the latest features offered by Hewlett Packard.

In Information Technology, the term GAP analysis is defined as the detailed study of the gap between future systems or the requirement or process (which is known as “TO-BE” which means the way it should be or is “to be”) and the current system or process (which is known as “AS-IS” i.e. meaning the way it is or “as it is”).

Basis of GAP Analysis:

Here is the simple equation for us to start.

GAP Analysis = TO-BE – AS-IS

A Gap analysis is accomplished using various criteria such as functionalities, technology, compliances, legal issues, industry standards, performance, and look and feel.

Functionalities: Due to changes in processes, products, or services, the organizations need to build new systems or modify the existing ones. The changes could be minor or could lead to building entire new systems.

Technologies: The reality is that today’s latest technology is dated tomorrow. Nothing changes faster than technology, thus professionals tend to migrate toward new technology to keep them up-to-date for their career race. Organizations find it difficult to hire technical support professionals to operate and maintain systems built using outdated languages (such as COBOL, Pearl, etc.).

In addition, the old technology brings new security threats, as these dangers get more complex by each day, as well as other technical limitations needed to accommodate new changes in the system.

Legal/Compliances: With business processes getting more intricate, the threat to business owners and investors is getting equally complex. In order to avoid extreme damages, such as bankruptcy (as happened in infamous Enron company where many investors, especially retired people, lost money in the stocks), the government introduced new compliances, Sarbane-Oxlay for bring transparency to corporate accounting systems. With this new compliance, every company in United States has to change their accounting system to accommodate this law.

Industry Standards: Industry standards keep enhancing, evolving with new trends and innovations. For example, most of the industry would now prefer to convert their products to something more environmentally friendly to appeal to their customers.

Performance: With increased business and complex technology, there will be a greater load on the system, thus, these systems need to cope with complexity and increased load.

For example, booking airline tickets 20 years ago was far less complex than it is today. The number of travellers and complexity of the system has grown tremendously.

Look and Feel: Every company has to update its website based on new standards and trends in the market. This helps to boost the business and buying experience of the consumer. Some of the e-commerce websites dealing in garments were actually helping consumers get the fitting room experience by allowing them to enter the data and choosing a particular garment. Then, the application would show the buyer how he/she would look in that outfit.

Other: Any other reasons that not listed above.

Let us see what the GAP analysis will look like using these criteria:



This is a high-level document. Readers are strongly recommended to study it in detail for a better result as the GAP analysis (criteria, process, and result) may change based on domain and company's internal policies/culture.

Disclaimer: ISO®, Tropicana®, Hewlett-Packard®, VeriSign® their trademarks and respective product names are used here only for reference to explain the point in the blog.
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Friday, September 12, 2014

How to Fill Out the CCBA®/CBAP® Application Form?

Here is a detailed guideline to help you when filling out the Certificate of Competency in Business Analysis™ (CCBA®) or the Certified Business Analysis Professional™(CBAP®) application forms.

The application process through the International Institute of Business Analysis® (IIBA) is detailed and may be cumbersome for new entrants. This detailed guideline will give you some tips and advice on how to prepare and complete the application form.

First, you must read through all of the information and directions before starting to fill out the form. Knowing what is needed from you and is required to answer the questions will save you time and frustration later. The IIBA provides a handbook for your review so you will be aware of what’s expected of you during the application process.

Begin your online application and please note:

       1.      Fully complete all of your personal and professional information. List all of your projects (start date, end date, your role, etc...) in great detail. You can do this first in a Microsoft Excel worksheet so it is all easily at hand for you while you’re filling out your application.

       2.     Have solid, reliable, and positive references for yourself. Get their permission prior to filling out the application and advise them of your IIBA ® paperwork.

       3.     Be familiar with your knowledge areas and work experience by reviewing the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®) on the IIBA website. (http://www.iiba.org/BABOK-Guide.aspx). In the event that you are short some hours or particular experience, you can wait until another time when you are eligible as the application fee ($125 USD) is quite high and you want to make the process count.

       4.     You must ensure that you provide correct information and be careful in calculating the hours for your work experience. Important points are:
a.     You may not always be doing Business Analysis (BA) work or the 6 knowledge areas, so verify the actual number of hours you spend on BA-related work.
b.     Do not count administrative work or any work you have done that is not part of the 6 knowledge areas.
c.      It doesn’t matter how many projects you add as long as they are correct and provide experience from your professional life and not just the projects that last several years. It is fine to list relatively smaller projects lasting 1-3 months in your project experience.
d.     If you are working on multiple projects, do not hesitate to list all of them if you are doing BA-related work
e.     Most important, as a BA, your role may be restricted to one or more phases of the project life cycle. For example, you have been part of requirement gathering process, requirement analysis, modeling, or UAT. You can select that specific experience only and leave other parts blank for that project.

       If your trainer/institute has provided you with Professional Development Unit (PDU) hours (which are ways of measuring professional training), you can use their reference for validating institutional or certificate-related information. It is better for you to use another professional person to confirm your professional details, preferably your manager/senior who worked closely with you and is aware of your strength and weakness. They must be willing to provide and validate the info now or in future.

      5    Now, in Excel, make your worksheets:



a.     Worksheet #1 - Organization Details:  This sheet details the companies where you have worked.



                   b.     Worksheet #2 – Completed Project Details:  This sheet details the specific projects you’ve been involved in, the manager, your responsibilities, and number of hours put in.




               c.     Worksheet #3 – Personal Details:  This sheet details your personal resume and experience (in accordance with the BABOK® information), including your education and other certifications.

                      Education Details:



                 d. Certificate (PDU) Details


Finally, you must keep a copy of this information for your future reference for future exams (for example, if you are upgrading from CCBA® to CBAP®) or applications (if you failed in the first attempt.) Please note that some institutes do NOT provide Certificate codes and this information is not required to be provided.

I also encourage everyone to visit following the link to learn more about the exams and understand how the application looks:


For CBAP:  http://www.iiba.org/Certification-Recognition/CBAP-Designation.aspx

To Prepare for your certification, here is the book in Business Analysis - The way you can understand all... over 200 questions and elaborated answers.

In India pre-Order link 
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B074PRQQ5V or Global pre-Order link https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074PRQQ5V

Business Analysis: The Question And Answer Book


Disclaimer:  Please note that I am providing this information as an Individual Professional. I am not an official representative of IIBA. If you have any queries, you may communicate with them directly at certificate@iiba.org.



(IIBA®, CCBA®, CBAP®, EEP® are all registered trademark of the International Institute of Business Analysis, Canada)
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