Loving my job today!

I mean, it's got to be great when you are sitting in a room full of health care providers from multiple provinces, patients, and system vendors talking about how we can move to a future state of a complete, accessible health record.

"What's going to happen?"

"Something wonderful."

2010

BABOK v3 - Got my copy!!

I'm very excited about this, as it happens; for the last three years, I have been getting pressure to become a CBAP (Certified Business Analyst Professional) through the IIBA, and I am more than a little resistant to the idea. Part of the pressure has been due to the fact becoming certified will slot me very firmly in the Senior Business Analyst category, which is good for both me and my consulting company, and the rest of the pressure is due to the fact that a new version of the BABOK was in the works, and "everyone should really get certified before it changes because it will be much more difficult afterwards" blah blah blah.

I get it, change is scary. And I should probably be more focused on the advancement of my career than I actually am.

At any rate, I renewed my IIBA membership yesterday, and downloaded my copy of the BABOK v3.0 today. All I have done is look through the table of contents and skim the "Summary of Changes from BABOK Guide v 2.0" and I am very excited.

Based on what I've read so far, this update has addressed a few key things that were missing (in my opinion) from the previous version, namely:

• How business analysts are involved in the design phase of an initiative
• Requirements Life Cycle Management, as opposed to just Requirements Analysis
• Strategy Analysis instead of Enterprise Analysis

There are a few others, but those are the ones I'm really excited about at first glance. 

In addition to those changes, there are updates to the underlying competencies that a business analyst should have, and some more very useful techniques have been described - for example:

• Backlog Management
• Business Case
• Prioritization
• Process Analysis
• Roles and Permissions Matrix

... I'm telling you, this is VERY exciting stuff!!!

And now you have a better glimpse of my geeky side. In case it was missing before.

It's THAT time of year again

<< Becoming a better business Analyst - Part 2

And by "THAT" I mean the time of year when I am forced to undergo an annual peer-, self- and supervisor/manager performance review.

On top of which, I have been asked to perform a peer review of a co-worker's business analysis artifacts.

All of which has brought back with emphasis the series of posts that I started last year about becoming a better business analyst.

I have had occasion this year (more so than most) to notice when someone's skill is not quite up to par, and now that I find myself needing to perform a formal self-review, here is my feedback about how I actually rank when looking at those underlying skills (as identified in the BABOK® Guide, Version 2.0) that all business analysts should have.