Why professional training and certification is important to a Business Analyst?

In early 2000s, it was easy to get a BA job without professional training.  However, the situation has changed due to increased competition and plenty of availability of trained, certified and experienced Business Analysis professionals in job market. Therefore, without professional training and certification Business Analysts may lose out to competitors.

Formal ‘Training’ and ‘Certification’ will definitely help BAs getting focused, structured and systematic knowledge, and skill in business analysis field form an experienced professional that is required to build the solid foundation in the BA domain, to get a job, earn respect after joining the job.

Some may underestimate the professional training, but the hiring manager will not. If he/she has to hire a Business Analyst, they will prefer someone who is already equipped with knowledge and skill acquired through professional course over someone who isn’t, because their company can save time and money in training the new joiner. It also helps to reduce the leaning curve after joining the job.

Most of my students had MBA degrees, and additional BA certificate helped them to compete others easily.

Followings are some of the benefits of professional certificates:

1. Better Recognition: It provides recognition of your skills and competence for doing a job, which will allow you to justify your experience and improve the employability.
2. Better Career Plan: It helps to build a systematic career plan and advancement strategy.
3. Better Alternate option: Professional certifications provides an affordable and focused alternate to the university education that many can’t afford due to their high cost and longer time schedule.
4. Better Knowledge and Skill: Professional certifications focus on the fundamentals and ensure that the certificate holder has the minimum knowledge and skill in the related area.
5. Better investment for organization: The hiring manager would find it more beneficial as the company can save time and money in training the prospective employee.
6. Better skilled employees/ quality for organization: The professional certification of employees will validate the company’s ability to assign knowledgeable and skilled professionals on the project. Sometime, the clients insist that the consultants or employees on their project must have the professional certification to ensure high quality delivery.
7. Which is better?: Reputation of certification awarding body is important. Currently IIBA, and BCS are both highly recognized organization in the field of business analysis. Although PMI more recognized and offering PMI-PBA, it has limited focus in terms of business analysis.
8. Better productivity: It adds to increased engagement, employment satisfaction and productivity that are the top ways of measuring the value of professional certification, as they contribute in reductions in staff churn, training, and recruitment costs.
9. Staying updated: Re-certification ensures that the professionals stay updated in their field.

How to select the right training program?

A profesional training - classroom or virtual doesn’t matter. 

What matters is:

• Content of the training,
• The technology used for delivering the online training,
• The style of teaching to keep audience engaged, and
• Specialization of the institute (some institute offer generalized mass training in every field and those courses usually don’t add value). So, select institutes who offer specialized training that is focused and intense in their specialized field.
• The reputation of the institute.

Check our website for business analysis, project management, quality assurance and data management training. Domain training and certification in Investment banking, retail banking, insurance, supply chain and more are also offered.

I have been teaching business analysis, digital marketing and other interesting topics in both classroom and virtual mode since 2005(over ten years). I find virtual trainings are as good as classroom training if proper training tool is used and the same view is echoed by my students as well.

In classroom session, you are looking at the white board or large screen for the presentation and practical session. Sometimes, it becomes difficult for the students seating at the end of the class. So, if you are learning to create a model, you may or may not see the the instructor’s actions on the screen or how he/she is creating a model. However, in the virtual class, it is easier to see how instructor is creating diagram/models or focusing topic on the slide on your screen. You may have an option to enlarge if you wish to see it better.

The training tool is very important as it allows you to interact with the instructor, share the presentation, deliver the notes automatically, and view the screen during practical session.

At the end, it also depends on the instructor’s style of delivering the training to ensure to keep the audience engaged and interested. :)

Please visit my blog to know the comparative analysis of certifications available in Business Analysis field at entry-level and mid-level.

If you need details, please write to - priti.verma@anisans.com

What is the difference between incident and problem?

Based on ITIL standards,

Incident - An incident is an unplanned disruption or degradation of service.

Problem - A problem is a cause of one or more incidents.

Incident Management
It’s considered as incident only it extends and impact on regular business process. They are flagged as emergency if they impact on critical services.
It needs to be resolved immediately.
It can be resolved using either permeant or temporary fix
Incidents can turn into a problem when it reoccurs or likely to reoccur.

Problem Management
Unresolved and repeated incidents become a problem that needs long terms fix.
A problem need policies and/process to resolve it to prevent it from reoccurring it.
Problem may be known or unknown
It can be remained unsolved or used an alternate option if the cost of resolving the solution is higher than the benefits it would bring in. (cost vs benefit analysis)

Incident vs problem.

Incident: If your 3 years phone breaks down, you need to fix it as you haven’t taken a backup. The technician fix it for you for USD 40.

Problem: There is battery and other hardware component issue, so the technician ask you to replace battery and the other component that combined would cost you USD 180. While the current value of your phone is USD 150 that you originally bought it for USD 500 as a newly launched model at that time)

You may take a backup immediately and make a decision if you want to fix your phone or buy the same model that now would cost you USD 350 (because, currently there is a new model in market).

If you read the example carefully, you understand that the incident needs immediate fix and problem can be prolonged till next incident occurs or you are ready to resolve it using other options (buying new battery and component or new phone, either the same model or new model). However, you will keep a close watch (i.e. taking backup regular or preparing yourself the new phone ) since you are aware of the problem due to the past incident.

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How Business Analyst defines a "business need"?

Here is the short blog on how to how to define the Business Need (either a problem or an Opportunity)

These high level guidelines or parameters will help business analysts defining their Business Needs.

Understand the business:

1.1 Business definition:

Business definition consist of analysis of following information:

1.1.1 What is the 'Entity Type'?
you need to define if the is proprietary or Corporate or Public Limited or Cooperative or Government…
You need to understand what are their governance standards  (such as tax, regulatory process) and requirements. and do they impact on your business need in anyway?

1.1.2 What is the Business Domain?
Is it agriculture or Service, or Hospitality or Defense or  Health Care or Banking or retail or manufacturing, or logistics and so on...

1.2. Products and Services:

1.2.1. Organization Structure (organization units and sub-units and how they are connected to main entity/Head office. People and their association with these entities and their role and position in the organization hierarchy)

1.2.2. Management and its culture (Democratic, lean management, hierarchal, traditional, modern….) Quality policy and standards, quality management process, values and beliefs

1.2.3. Clients, customers and the market: To understand their background and the special needs

1.2.4. Operations and legal and compliance requirement: How the products and services are reached to the end customers?

1.2.5. Organization goals: Long term and short term goals

1.2.6. Core competence: Products and services and other issues. Why these are better selling products compare to their competitors.

1.2.7. Competitive stance: who are competitor and comparison with competitors

1.3. Industry Standards 

  1.3.1 Current Industry Benchmark

  1.3.2 Current and potential future trends in the industry

1.4 New regulations

All these information and data is very useful to analyze the business in comprehensive manner. Without this analysis, the Business Analyst cannot provide the correct business solution that is appropriate the organization.

1.5 Background of Business Need (problem/opportunity):

When we identify the problem or the opportunity we have following area to work on:

1. The Record the problem or opportunity area.

2. Source of the problem or the opportunity:

3. Background of the problem: How it has arisen? Or how the opportunity has been generated.

Impact analysis or identify business value or Business Impact Analysis (BIA):

4.1. Area (department, functions): which part of the organization or which functions are getting affected with business need. For example, the problem is in retrieving sales data for retail chain store, check if the problem is in one region or it is across the region. Or it could be one ‘field’ or some more fields.

4.2. Stakeholders: Who (role – user or customer, signing off authority) are getting affected directly or indirectly? Are there more number of stakeholders is getting impacted with the problem or opportunity. The nature of impact needed to consider before the business need is fully defined. Pls refer stakeholder analysis in planning phase for more details.

4.3. Business Operations: where the impact is? One process or entire business processes are affecting? Is it industry wide impact (example. Change in service tax may affect the pricing and accounting process of the organization. Whereas, implementation of Basel II and Basel III would affect entire banking industry irrespective of size or location).

The best way to approach the problem is to complete the “Gap Analysis” where current business processes are compared against new (required) business processes and the organization’s current and future capability required implementing the same.

5. Financial and non-Financial impact of proposed solution

5.1 Will it increase revenue?

5.2 Will it decrease expenses?

5.3 Will it bring in new customers?

5.4 Will it bring in more money from existing customers?

5.5 Will it improve employee moral?

5.5.1 Not all the problem solving will result into business value such as financial and brand value. Sometime, resolving problem may result into improving the process that result into making things easier for employee in performing their daily work. Repeated work, instant access of data to make decision, decision support system.

5.5.2 Redundant process or lengthy or cumbersome process can be improved to make employees easy to do their daily work without unnecessary hurdles for additional approval or so on. This may result into improved employee moral with additional challenging project/work in their professional life.

6 Brand and image impact: problem within existing products or services or problems related to customers or problems related to operations ie delivery of products / services to the end customers.

6.1 Will it increase shareholder/taxpayer value? Increased customer satisfaction or improved products of services may result into increased revenue. Reduced operations cost could result into increased revenue. Both the cases, there will be direct or indirect impact on shareholder value.

7 Policy, Legal and compliance

7.1 Any new compliance or policy change may result into change in exiting operations or need for new business operations. Either way it may result into need of new business systems.

Once you analyze the business need on above parameters, you will have an understanding of business need and it's impact on the business. This analysis will support the stakeholders to make a decision - go/no-go.

More details in next blog - how to create a business need documents using these parameters and support the solution scope.

Reference:

http://www.uie.com/articles/business_value/

Which Business Analysis Certificate Suits Your Business Analyst Career Need? - Part II (Mid Level)

Continuing with my previous blog on comparative study on certification options available for launching a Business Analysis Career successfully, here, I am presenting the comparative study to help you to identify your mid-level career needs by selecting the correct certification to stay ahead. 

This comparative study will also help a BA professional to understand the certification in terms of the syllabus to strengthen and validate Business Analysis knowledge and skills and its acceptance level. 

This blog is also important to IT recruiters in understanding the value of "Certifications" presented by potential employees to align their recruitment needs.

Although the chart contains the data about all the institutes mentioned previously, the real comparison is between BCS (ISEB), UK, IIBA, Canada and IREB, Germany as PMI and Universities offer ONLY one level of certification currently.

Comparison Chart of Certificate options available for Business Analyst at mid-level:

BA Certificate Options available at mid-level

Please refer to the following pics for prerequisites for an International Diploma in Business Analysis offered by BCS, UK.

To refer to entry-level certificate options, please visit my previous blog by clicking this link: Which Business Analysis Certificate Suits YourBusiness Analyst Career Need? - Part I (Entry Level) (http://businessanalysis-anisan.blogspot.hk/2014/10/which-business-analysis-certificate2.html)

Disclaimer:  This chart is provided as an independent professional and is purely compared to the data available on their official website. Please note that these websites were accessed during the time period of September 10, 2014 through October 25, 2014.

I recommend everyone visit their website to check the latest updates or verify with officials for clarifying doubts, if any.

Business Analysis - The Question And Answer Book. It is the way you can understand all... over 200 questions and elaborated answers for you to prepare for interviews and certifications.

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

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Business Analysis: The Question And Answer Book

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Which Business Analysis Certificate Suits Your Business Analyst Career Need? - Part I (Entry Level)

When we started out in a career as a formal Business Analyst (BA), there wasn’t any certification required. This requirement did not go into effect until early 2000. Most of us learned the role of a Business Analyst on the job and by exploring reading materials (mainly from IEEE for the management requirement) and case studies to strengthen our knowledge. Many of us created our own standard documents that were not part of the process.

Now, the Business Analysis field is a well-evolved field of study. There are many institutes that are working toward creating standards, as well as the options of training and certification to validate knowledge either at the beginning of one's career or as a candidate goes along.

An aspiring Business Analyst has the following options to launch their career:

· Self-Study

· Formal Training and Certification at the entry level

· On-the-job-experience

Since there is an option for aspiring Business Analysts to select entry-level education as well as certification through various private and public education systems, recruiters may prefer the candidate who has undergone formal and structured training and has proven his/her knowledge through credible certificates.

And at the mid-level section, Business Analysts who wish to keep their professional knowledge/ license up-to-date also have options to formally update their knowledge on a regular basis by keeping their certifications valid.

The following is a chart you can use as a guide for your BA career. The entry level BA certification are highlighted in yellow. In addition, there are also other certifications that may be useful at the various stages of BA career. Please note that these certification institutes (except ANISAN Technologies and university degree) do NOT offer training as it is outsourced to the private institutes who provide training and prepare for the certification.

ANISAN, on contrary offers comprehensive services such as training, valid certification, professional development units needed for certification and prepare students for the certifications exams mentioned below.

Comparison Chart of Certificate Options Available for Business Analyst at Entry Level:

BA Certificate options available at entry level

To view better, you can download this picture and view in enlarged version.

Please note that PMI-PBA has the following eligibility criteria:
1. Five years (7,500 hours) within the past eight consecutive years with project experience of 2000 hours (equivalent to 1 year).

2. Three years (4,500 hours) within the past eight consecutive years with project experience/ 2000 hours (equivalent to 1 year).

For more information, please check this link: http://www.pmi.org/Certification/PMI-Professional-in-Business-Analysis-PMI-PBA.aspx

Note for Recruiters and aspiring Business Analysts: At the entry level, the emphasis must be on candidate’s ability to perform the job and for that (initial state) BCS (British Computer Society) certificate in Business Analysis or IREB’s CPRE-FL (International Requirement Engineering Board’s Certified Professional for Requirement Engineering – Foundation Level) is adequate, as these exams make a person understand the intricacies of the requirement management process over the project lifecycle. The certified candidates are not only aware of the basics of Business Analysis, but they’re also capable of producing deliverables.

The candidates with a master’s degree in Business Analysis may have a bigger advantage, as a university degree coupled with two years of rigorous course work will create a better knowledge foundation.

Once the candidate reaches mid-level, he/she can prove the knowledge via the next level certification i.e. CPRE-AL from IREB (International Requirement Engineering Board’s Certified Professional for Requirement Engineering – Advance Level), DIP in Business Analysis, or CBAP(Certified Business Analyst Professional.

A master’s degree in Business Analysis will give a person more of an advantage over someone who has only completed certificate courses. This statement can be backed with a similar analogy I can present with Management Degrees two decades ago. In the beginning, a certificate in management could get a job, but later, a Diploma in Management Degree was preferred over those certificates and, eventually, both certificates were replaced by a full-time or part-time Master Degree or Post Graduate Diploma in Management.

Going forward, an aspiring Business Analyst can use this comparative chart along with the latest updates in the education industry (Business Analysis) to see the trend before selecting the right education course to that can help launch their career successfully.

Lastly, the Business Analyst must know that this training offered is only one third of the requirement as along with Business Analyst Knowledge, the Business Analyst must possess knowledge in the following areas:

· Finance and Economics

· Domain Knowledge (for example – for Finance domain, aspiring BA can opt for formal Education CFA, MBA or on-the-job experience)

· Business Case Development

· SMEs (Subject Matter Experts)

· Principle of Information Technology

· Organization Structure and other Management skills

· Vendor Management

Before you plan your career in Business Analysis, you must evaluate your current capability in terms of knowledge and skill, and plan carefully to acquire remaining ones.

My next blog is based on howto acquire Business and IT knowledge before launching your career in BusinessAnalysis.

Here is the blog to help you stay ahead in your Business Analysis career when you have acquired 5-7 years' experience - Which Business Analysis Certificate Suits Your Business Analyst Career Need? - Part II (Mid-Level)

Also included: How to Stay Ahead with Correct Certifications When You Are Already Working as a Business Analyst.

Disclaimer: This chart is provided by an independent professional and purely compared on the data available on their official website. Please note that these websites were accessed during the time period of September 10, 2014 through October 4, 2014.

I recommend everyone visit their website(mentioned in the picture) to check the latest updates or verify any doubt.

Business Analysis - The Question And Answer Book. It is way you can understand all... over 200 questions and elaborated answers.

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

Business Analysis: The Question And Answer Book

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