CBAP Full Course 2026 | Certified Business Analysis Professional Course For Beginners | Simplilearn

Hey everyone, welcome to the certified business analyst professional course by simply learn. If you want to build a career as a business analyst, product analyst, process analyst or even strengthen your skills in data and strategy roles, business analyst is one of the most important skills you need to master. But don't worry, we are going to break it down in simple and practical way. So you can clearly understand how business analyst works in real world projects. In this course, we will begin by understanding what business analyst really means. How organizations identify business needs, solve problems and deliver value to stakeholders. We'll also explore the role of a business analyst and how they act as a bridge between business teams and technical teams. From there we will dive into the international institute of business analysis sebap certification frameworks and understand the Babok guide which is a foundation for all this course. You will learn about its structure, knowledge areas, tasks and techniques that guide business analyst practices globally. As we move ahead, we'll also cover important concepts like business analysis, planning and monitoring, stakeholder identification, requirements gathering, elitation techniques and also selecting the right approach for different types of projects such as predictive, adaptive and hybrid models. We'll also explore business analysis governance where you'll learn how requirements are approved, prioritize, manage and control along with understanding change management and risk management in business analyst workflows. Finally, we'll be focusing on performance improvement. How to measure the quality of business analysis work, identify gaps, improve efficiency, and continuously optimize process for better project outcomes. By the end of this course, business analysis will no longer feel overwhelming. You'll have strong understanding of CBA framework, Babok knowledge areas, stakeholder management, governance and performance improvement, helping you move confidently towards business analysis and strategic decision-making roles. Before we start with the course, if you're ready to take your career in data analytics and artificial intelligence to the next level, check out the simple professional certificate course in AI powered data analytics. This course is perfect for anyone who wants to become a job ready in data analytics, AI, and business intelligence while building strong hands-on skills in modern tools and technologies. You'll learn how to work with key tools and skills like SQL, Python, Excel, PowerBI, and machine learning along with cuttingedge concepts like AI agents, automation, and cloud. You'll also dive deep into data visualization, predictive analytics, ETL workflows, and statistic methods that are essential in today's datadriven industry. Busy laid hands-on experiences through 11 plus real world projects including sales analysis, marketing campaigns, churn predictions and AIdriven business automation along with the final capstone project to showcase your skills. Upon completing this course, you'll earn a prestigious certificate from IIT Kpur and ICT Academy which can significantly boost your career and help you stand out to top employers. You'll also gain access to AI powered job assistance interview preparation and a 3-day campus immersion at IIT GPU. Check out the description box below to find the link and start your journey into AI powered data analytics today. Before we get started, here's a small question for you to answer. Which Babach knowledge area focus on gathering requirements and collaboration with stakeholders? Is it strategy analysis, elicitation and collaboration, solution evaluation or is it requirements life cycle management? Drop your answers in the comment section below. So let's get started. A person who is playing let's say intermediary role, right? A person who is sitting at the intersection of technology, business, different stakeholders. It's let's say if you go to a different country, right? And if you're not able to speak the language which is spoken in that country and people there are not able to understand your language how will you communicate and let's also assume that Google maps doesn't exist. So in case you want to travel from one place to other place you can't you can't communicate to the people. How will you deal with that situation? How will you survive in that condition right in that country? And that is where you if you if you if you get a translator who can translate the language local language of that country to your language and your language to their language. What will happen? Suddenly the the the the communication will become smooth. You will be able to navigate through the different challenges. You'll be able to enjoy your trip to that country. Right? So that is the exact role of a business analyst. You will see when you'll start working in the project and people who already who are already working they would know that business guys different stakeholders operations compliance legal they they may not understand the tech part right how the solution will be built how it will look like uh they might not be able to do that on the other hand typical developers may not be able to understand the business language right what they are asking asking us to build. What is the need for this system, right? What kind of other like legal cons considerations are going to be there. So developers may not be able to understand that. So the problem is same business cannot understand dev developers language, developers cannot understand business language. And that is where we need a translator and that translator is the business analyst. And you know when I was starting my career around that time early 2000 or earlier than that the BA role was not that defined. It was not very properly defined. Mostly you would see that you know a person working as a a tech lead or team lead. He would talk to clients. He would document something and pass it on to de developers or a person who is sitting on site irrespective of his title whether he's a project manager team lead or whatever he would engage with the customer and pass on the information to the offshore team right that is how it was done but slowly and steadily the role was defined properly people understood the need for this role and then when I came into picture got published The IIBA gets a lot of credit to formalizing this role of a business analyst. Okay. So this is a business analyst. Somebody who is a translator, who is a communicator, who is sitting who is sitting who is a mediator and who is you know sitting at that intersection where he is able to deal with different issues, he's able to translate the requirements, he's able to gather the requirements etc etc. Right? It's a very important role and uh obviously in today's world we'll talk about it later also but in today's world there is like any other role BA role is also going to get impacted by by AI and everything right so that is also we we need to take care but uh BA role is indispensable right it's very important role in today's context so a business analyst analyze the data from survey PH transactions support etc. They discovered poor mobile experience. They collaborate with it. They define support workflow etc etc. So we'll go through all of these things one by one in different chapters like we'll learn how to create workflows. We'll learn how to create UI. We'll we'll learn how to create data flow diagrams etc etc. Right? But all of these things BA need to do so that it's like I am not just translating I am also providing you supporting documents. I'll create something which can make you understand better. Right? So it's not just that I I translated what business said and I I just write I just wrote text and pass it on to developers. If there is anything extra that I can do so that they can understand requirements better that all that is something I'll also do right if if I'm talking about let's say how to design a screen I'll not just talk about it verbally I'll create a diagram or what what we call it wireframe for that screen to make it easy right so all all of those things we'll we'll learn role of a business analyst that's what we just discussed understanding enterprise problems goals requirements ments analyze those needs, analyze the solution, devising strategies, facilitating a stakeholder collaboration, driving change. So all of these things we do see I'll also give you different examples. Don't think that every one of you will play exactly same role, right? BAS in different industries, in different projects, they play different roles. It depends whether you are sitting and working closer to the business or you are sitting and working closer to the tech whether you are actively participating in test cycles also whether you are part of operations whether you are part of a bank or any other organization. So there are so many things and on the basis of these things on the basis of combination of these things you will see different flavors of of a BA role right somebody will do things which are differently than other BAS right so you may u you should never think that you know all of you in different projects will play exactly same role okay sometimes you will do a lot of stakeholder collaboration sometimes you may not talk to stakeholder your focus is mostly on analysis and solutionizing right so all those var variables and variety of roles will also be there and I'll give you enough examples so that you can understand a BA who is who is less let's say on the buyer side or a BA who is on the sell side somebody selling the product somebody buying the product and you will see there is a huge difference uh on the roles and responsibilities of those people so we'll I'll give you some detailed examples also to become a BA one should possess the following business knowledge, communication skills, tools, interaction skills, behavioral characteristics and analytical thinking and problem solving. Now tell me uh is there any role developer tester or a BA or anyone else project manager who doesn't need communication skill or who doesn't need interaction skill or who doesn't need analytical thinking problem solving or behavioralist characteristics right so everyone who is playing any role whatsoever in any corporate or in any company they we all need all of these characteristics right they are not something very unique to a BA Okay, agree or not? So, but why we are me talking about them for a BA? So, for example, what do you mean by business knowledge? Uh, even a kid who is like 8 to 10 years old kid that that person can go to the to the shop, buy a chocolate or ice cream and he knows that he needs to pay. He he also needs to he he knows that you know uh when he's paying he should get something in back uh something in return right so the basic transaction people who are not educated at all who has who have never gone to this to any of these schools they also know the basic transaction how to survive in this world right u so everyone is aware about that much so that is kind of knowledge everyone needs to needs to have but Then if you are working let's say as a business analyst uh in in any of the sectors let's say telecom or pharmaceuticals don't you think that you need to know finance better than other people who who knows who know them just to survive or just for day-to-day life so your understanding will be will be much much better you will start for example I am working in banking so I know normal transaction but on top of it now I know what is the meaning of credit in my account debit in my in my account what is the meaning of credit card right so then I have more in-depth knowledge of my domain then somebody is working let's say in a particular bank let's say JP Morgan now that person needs to have even further even more detailed knowledge of that bank okay I I already knew credit cards but what kind of cards, JP Morgan offering, what kind of products we offer to our clients, right? So, you have even more understanding, granular, deeper understanding of the products of of your own company, what kind of what kind of clients they have, uh what kind of services they offer. And then finally, if you are part of a particular application, you are part of a particular project, you will have very detailed knowledge of that project, right? So, the business knowledge goes deeper in steps. Everyone would have some understanding then depending on your role depending on your industry you will have deeper and granular understanding and then of your product of your whatever you are working on you will have very in-depth knowledge similarly communication skills right everyone needs to have communication skills but why it is mentioned for BA because BA talks a lot talks a lot means not they don't talk I I didn't mean they talk nonsense but they they have to talk a lot they have to talk to you know uh stakeholders to elicit the requirements. They have to talk to developers and testers to explain the requirements. So there is a lot of engagement and lot of interaction. So that is why your communication skills and interaction skills are important. Also it's not always easy for uh your stakeholders to tell the problems. it. You might have noticed many times that we are feeling something but we are not able to express we are not able to tell we are not able to you know uh speak about it and uh in the previous slide what did you see that it's important to understand problems and goals right how would you understand problem if somebody is not able to explain so that is why some like it's not just what what is being said but how it is being said the the uh you know uh what do you call it uh uh just uh so your verbal understanding and then non-verbal understanding right non-verb non-verbal communication also the body language the facial expression and all so that is how and and then you run a lot of meetings right you are going to run a lot of so many workshops to elicit the requirements uh to present the requirements to uh let's say you are doing brainstorming session to find the solution of the problem and things like that. So you will have to engage people and you will have to run those sessions that is why interaction skills. So communication is like what you uh talk and all but interaction is more on the engagement side how to run different sessions it will happen multiple times like if you are not good with with uh with this with these skills people will talk about things which are not even important in that meeting right so how you will make sure that people are sticking to the topic how you will make sure that you are able to get to the outcome of that meeting expected outcome of that meeting so that's where you need to have interaction skills behavioralist characteristics then analytical thinking because you have to analyze things you have to solve problems right and tools and technology everyone needs like we are right now using zoom you we use teams outlook um Jira and in today's AI world we need to definitely use AI tools right there are it's not like it's it's no longer a choice it's uh it's uh enforced in different organizations even in my organization enforce that you have to use AI, you have to save time. So these are the now in this course we we will not cover communication skills, interaction skills, they all these all are soft skills that you need to develop not part of this particular course. Here we'll talk about business analysis, right? How to perform business analysis? What tools and techn what tools and techniques are available to you to use while performing business analysis. So the core agenda of this particular course is business analysis skills not these soft skills but if you think you are you are already good at these skills then it's good otherwise you can try to you should try to improve them right uh because theoretically it looks very easy okay I'll go to that person and I'll conduct the interview and I'll collect the requirements but in real world it's not that easy some practice some uh experiences is always required. So try to do that. Uh try to uh try to you know improve on these soft skills as well along with your core business analysis skills. To become a certified BA, one needs to pass one of the IIBAs exam exams one of these exams. Uh so there is when I did there used to be only two certification CCBA and CBP certification in the competency of business analysis and certified business analysis professional. A few years back they added ECBA which is uh what is the name elementary or uh something like that. So this is the exam for freshers with without any experience right entry level or something entry certification for business analysis. We'll see the full full form. So they added it later on. All three of them have different experience requirement which we will learn in coming slides. But basically these are these three certifications which are offered by IIBA that is international institute of business analysis. Uh few years back they started uh you know talking about CA certified business analyst CBAT thought leader certified business analyst thought leader and I was very keen that okay I'll do it I am holding CBP for quite a long time but then they dropped the idea. I don't know why they wanted to introduce it and then why they dropped I I I have no idea but then for some for a few months it was there on their website you know coming soon coming soon CBAT but then it it went away and it never came back in last 3 four years so these are the certifications right eligibility etc we'll just see in coming slides and uh so this is the organization III is the organization right as I said they I think they were uh they launched the 2008 or 9 or something before that there was no IIBA. These certifications were not there and that's why I was saying that the business analysis practice was not standardized when IIBA came into existence when they launched this book Babok they try to standardize things what is the role how that role should be performed etc etc. So all these three exams they all are based on the same book business analysis body of knowledge. Similarly for PMP we have project management body of knowledge pimok here we have beok all these exams are dependent on this or based on the same book. So and this is what we are going to cover we in this course in 36 hours we will cover this entire book and that is why I was telling irrespective of your experience whether you are eligible for CCBA or CBP or whatever out of these three you will still have to read the same book which I'm going to teach you here right so don't worry about that you will be you will be prepared for one of these exams automatically Webok business analysis body of knowledge is a globally recognized standard guide that outlines the core knowledge areas, tasks, techniques and competencies. So the overall beck is divided into knowledge areas right. Uh have you ever tried any one of you have you tried reading behor 100 means 100%. You will not see you will not find even a single example in this entire book. It's a good thick book. You read it cover to cover front to back. I challenge you if you find even a single example. No explanation with examples, no mathematics, nothing. It's just complete theory. And that is where I think these classes are important because it's not easy to read something like web. So first is enterprise. It is a system of one or more organizations and the solutions they use to pursue a shared set of common goals. Right? And ad tech enterprise decided to expon expand its digital presence. So they are like bigger companies, bigger organizations. You already know that organization. It's an autonomous group of people under the management of a single individual. So like simply learn it's a company. Now those two terms are very common. So that is fine. What is requirement? It is a usable representation of a need. Right? It focuses on understanding the kind kind of value that could be delivered if a requirement is fulfilled. So requirement is a is a need that one of the stakeholders, one of the person would have. Okay. Um few basic questions. All of you are working. Not all of you, right? But people who are working, you do you fill time sheet on a weekly basis or maybe monthly basis? You fill a time sheet, right? And in that time sheet, what do you do? You put your time against a particular project, right? What why do you do that? So that you can bill or your company can bill a particular client who you are working for, right? You are doing something for a client. You fill your time sheet for that project and that project on that basis your finance team will bill your client and get the money. So who exactly is paying your salary then? Who exactly is paying your salary? Your company or your client? Your client, right? How is your company making money? Whatever client pays the your company will take a cut and pass on rest of rest of the money to you as your salary right on a high level that is how that that's how things work on the basis of multiple people multiple people like us who are working our company is able to produce something that that product is sold or that service is sold company makes money and that they pay for our salary but India if you think about it at a high level company is also getting paid paid because we are working right and the client is the person who is paying. So how you should treat your client? You should treat your client accordingly right that they are the people who are paying. Now you tell me what is the difference between uh a customer and end user? Is there any difference between a customer and uh this end user? See my handwriting is very bad. I I keep writing because whenever there is something needs to be explained I'll I'll write on whiteboard or I'll just annotate on the screen but you have to put efforts to understand my handwriting. So if uh uh you are your company has given you a laptop let's say your company bought 1,000 laptops from HP. Your company is the customer of HP right? Your company bought 10,000 laptops from HP. So your C company is the customer and you you guys are the end user because you are using I bought a phone. Let's say I want I bought I bought a phone for my wife. So I am the customer. My wife is the end user or vice versa, right? Uh so that is the difference right? Customer and end users who will have uh requirements both of them can have requirements. End users can have their own requirements and customers can have their own requirements. Now tell me uh one more thing we are talking about design. It's a usable representation of a solution. It focuses on understanding how a solution might realize. Uh is there any difference between requirement and solution? Some basic things we are talking about so that you are comfortable with terms and your understanding gets better. So if I tell you that I'm hungry, I'm telling you the problem, right? The requirement that I want to eat. I'm hungry. But what I want to eat is the solution, right? I'm thirsty and you give me something to eat may not uh may not help, right? Or you say I I say I'm thirsty and you give me coke and then I say I don't drink coke. So requirement is something which can talk about the problem or the need and how that need will be fulfilled is the solution. I'm thirsty is the need. But what is the solution? Let's say I need uh a lemonade. Lemonade is the solution. Right? So as a business analyst your focus is not just to understand the need. Your focus is also to identify what kind of solution or that stakeholder may need or he should get right. So that is also you need to understand that there is a difference between requirement and the solution and there is also a difference between the uh desires and actual needs. I can I can ask for anything and uh uh uh as a business analyst analyst it's your job to first of all identify my real need what actually I need instead of delivering whatever I ask you to deliver it's like when you when you want to buy a new car how many features you look for I want this in my car I want this in my car you know it should have cruise control sunroof moon roof ventilator ated seats. There are so many features these days in in cars. But when you actually own that car, how many of those features you are using? You may not be using all of those features and uh same goes for mobile, same goes for laptop. So customers can tell you so many different things but it's your job to help your customer understand what is their real need. Sometimes they may not be able to identify. So you help your customer identify what they need. You help your customer visualize what kind of solution will fulfill that need. Right? Both of these are your responsibilities. Risk is nothing but uncertaintity. Something uncertain that may happen or may not happen in future. But in case it happens, it will have some impact on your project, some impact on you. So that is the that is the risk and with risk there are two things probability of the risk and impact. So probability means whether it will happen or not and impact if it happens what will be the impact on you. So you want to go out and you just see on your phone that there is a probability of rain right 100% probability and you carry thousands of rupees cash in your pocket then that is the impact. If you don't carry anything there is a risk of rain but you know that nothing will get impacted. Maybe I'll get cold or something but physically there will not be any impact on currency that I carry. Right? So we'll talk about risk and risk risk mitigation. How how we manage risk and how we mitigate risk. We'll talk about all of this. Now look at these this BACCM business analysis core concept model. You see there are these six core concepts need change solution context value and stakeholder. What is or who is a stakeholder? A group or individuals with a relationship to the change or the simplest possible definition of a stakeholder is a person who can get impacted by the project or a person who can impact the project. Anyone who can impact or who can get impacted both of them are your stakeholders. So if I ask you who will have a need, who will have a problem to solve, who will have a a requirement, a stakeholder will have right. So a stakeholder can have a problem or opportunity to be addressed. A stakeholder will have that need. If let's say you are my stakeholder and uh you are uh you have a problem, right? If I fix your problem, you will get some value. you will let's say uh you will feel uh you are able to do your business better you are able to deal with your clients better depending on the solution that I provided right so there is some value to the and how you will get the value when I'll deliver the solution right so all of these concepts are connected a stakeholder had a need in order to fulfill that need I delivered a solution when that solution got delivered a stakeholder got some value Right? You had uh you you were hungry and that was your need. I gave you a very nice drink. And when you had that you felt happy, you felt like you you you were not thirsty anymore. So now what is the change? In order to deliver that solution, you will have to go through a change, right? So what is there are these two terms which you should know if uh as is what is your as is asis and to be as is also called your current state and this is also called your future state. So current state and future state I don't have a house that is my current state. Tomorrow I buy a house and shift into that. That is my future estate, right? Current state and future estate. In order to move from current estate to future estate, well, will it happen automatically? Obviously not. I'll have to transfer. I have to request a pack packers and movers to pack my stuff from my rented house, move to move me to a new house. So there is a complete transportation and everything. So this is called change, right? the process or act of transformation which will move you move you from your current state to the future state. So that is called change. So stakeholders had needs. In order to fulfill those needs, we went through a change process and delivered a solution. When that solution got delivered, stakeholders got the value. Right? Now what is context? All these five terms are easy to connect. What is the context here? In scope and out of scopes. Incope means things that you will things that will be part of your project. Things that you will cover in your project. Right? Out of scope are the items that you will not touch in this project. Okay? And when we create requirement documents, we all also create sections where we clearly mention that you know these items are in scope, these items are out of scope. For example, you are you are going to construct your house and you tell the developers that you know obviously walls are in scope, ceiling is is in scope, flooring is in scope but he will also mention that interior designing is out of scope. So whatever cost that you are paying this is for walls for ceilings plaster etc. Maybe a coat of paint but no furniture. Furniture is out of scope. Air conditions, conditioners are out of scope. Right? So that is why you have to mention that in document so that it's it's it remains clear what is in scope, what is out of scope. Now tell me now let's see who can answer this question. When you are creating this agreement for your house airport of your city, is that in scope? Is it in in scope of your house project? No. Right. It's not building a hospital nearby, is that part of your individual houses project? No. Right. Similarly, building a new school because you are talking about your own house. You're not talking about setting up a entire neighborhood. You are talking about building your personal house. How can airport, railway, station, hospital, and school be in scope or out of scope? Right? They that is they all are out of scope. But do you mention them in your document that you know I'm building my house so walls, ceilings and everything is in scope. But hospital, railway station and all of that is out of scope. Do you write that? We don't write. If you start writing all of these things, your project document will become encyclopedia. Anything everything in United States is out of scope. Everything is in in Australia is out of scope. Everything outside this city is out of scope. So everything on this planet is out of scope except this except that particular house. A tiny house, a small house is in a scope and everything else on this planet is out of a scope. Will you still write out out of scope items? You will create a huge encyclopedia, right? So why don't you write all of that in an out of out of scope section? Because they are not part of your context. That is the usefulness. That is the purpose of context. Context tells you what are the circumstances that can influence or influenced by our project. What is the ecosystem that we are working in? Right? What are the conditions that we are working in? So because the condition or the circumstances are related to individual personal house, nobody's going to ask by default airport becomes out of scope because that's not the context, right? Somebody like uh you know uh let's say Shivam says you know Gurv I'm not able to hear you properly and uh simply learn should also provide me a high bandwidth internet connection now what should I say sham that is not part of the context right if you have any problems uh that is not in in scope because it's out of context if you have any problem with related to material or any questions anything then that that can be provided to you. But highspeed internet connection because uh because of this training that is not part of the context that's a that's not the context that's not in scope. So that is how these these six terms are very much related and they are interdependent. I hope you are able to relate them. Now you know uh stakeholders would have need or needs in order to fulfill their needs you will have to go through a change process or a transformation process you will deliver a solution solution will provide them with a value and all all of those things will be done in a particular context right now current state and future state so as is and to be these two terms are also very very important. All these terms are very important for BAS. Business analysts can use the core concepts to consider the quality and completeness of the work. Right? What kind of changes are we doing? What are the needs? What are the solutions? Who are the stakeholders? What do stakeholders consider to be of a value? Right? What are the context that we and solutions are in? So all this all these six terms they'll help you ask right questions and complete the requirement work. Okay. Knowledge area. Now as I told you earlier this is divided into six knowledge area or you can say six chapters. These are the six main chapters. Along with along with these six chapters what what do we have? We have the introd introduction bit. So that is fine. There is one chapter which is called perspective. So it perspective, agile perspective. So that particular chapter is not tested in the exam. It's completely theoretical and it's like we can read in just one hour. Now first one is business analysis planning and monitoring, elicitation and collaboration, requirement life cycle management, solution evaluation, requirements analysis and design definition and strategy analysis. So what is the first one? Business analysis, planning, monitoring I think instead of reading I'll just explain here. So this knowledge area is all about planning. Okay. How I will identify my stakeholder? how I will document the requirement, how I will conduct elicitation. So here you will just do the planning part and how I will monitor my progress. Here you will not conduct the elicitation. Here you will not meet the stakeholder. Here you are just planning. Okay. So first chapter is all about planning the project and your activities in that project. Okay. And as I said, we will go in detail. We will spend two to three classes on each of each of these knowledge areas. Right? So don't think that we are just going very high level. I'm just introducing the names and we will go deeper in each of them. Second is elicitation. Elicitation. What is the meaning of elicitation? Elicitation means collecting the requirements. Right? Now have you heard the term requirement gathering? Why? Which term do you like more requirement elicitation or requirement gathering? And why? Which term do you think is more suitable and why? Requirements gathering is much better. Yes. So but you you are you all of you are thinking superficially, right? But what looks easy, what sounds easy but think about it. What is the meaning actual meaning of gathering? There is a document on my desk. I just gathered it. Right? There is another envelope on my desk. I just gathered it. Do you think requirements are lying down on the floor or lying down on on a table where you go and just collect them? So gathering means collection, right? collection is not it's not like you just go and stakeholders are ready with their requirements and they'll hand it over hand them over to you that is not so from the process point of view requirement gathering is not a very appropriate word what is the meaning of elicitation to bring forward right to ask right questions and bring the requirements forward not just because somebody is telling you but because you are probing You are asking right questions. You are cross you are crossqu questioning the needs. You are trying to assertain that actually you have these needs and things like that. Right? So instead of oneway communication where somebody is telling you the requirements and you are just documenting them instead of that you are it's a proper session two-way communication two-way probing a discussion debate and then you get the requirements. So that is the English meaning of elicitation and English meaning of gathering we discussed right. So now once you understand the exact meaning then you you you know that illustration is a better term because for requirement gathering you will not get the salary right you will not get enough salary for just for gathering you are getting a salary as a business analyst because you perform elicitation not just gathering anyhow people will keep using these terms interchangeably even I'll I'll also maybe I'll I'll interchangeably use these words during this training but you you need to know the purpose and the different. So here in this elicitation and collaboration knowledge area you actually perform elicitation in the first business analysis you planned how you will perform elicitation. Here you actually perform elicitation. Then what what do you think will be the output output of elicitation? When you perform elicitation what you will get? Yes. So you get a lot of information you get a lot of data right? In order to convert that data or the information into proper requirements, you perform requirement analysis and design definition. Right? So outcome or output of elicitation is not like final requirements that is opinion of the user, information or inputs from the user, feedback from the user. So you collect a lot of data and lot of information out of elicitation. Then you come back at your desk and you compile all of the all of that data and information and you convert them into properly written properly arranged requirements and that part is done in requirement analysis and design definition. You perform the analysis. You create requirement document and you create all other design artifacts like if you want to create any uh u flow diagrams, data flow diagrams, you create UI uh mockups etc etc. Right? Once you identify the requirement their life cycle will start. So requirements life cycle will start as soon as they are identified and till they are delivered and also after that uh for their maintenance similar to the humans humans right you are born your life cycle starts till the person is dead. So requirement similarly you have a requirement life cycle. What can happen during that life cycle? The status of requirement can change. Requirement itself can change. Some of the other things related to requirements like priority right can change. So as a business analyst you gathered requirements your job is not done. Uh you have to maintain those requirements throughout their lives. So that is done in requirement life cycle management and uh uh solution evaluation is what you deliver what is built that you need to evaluate whether it's performing as per the expectation or not. So that is uh done in uh solution evaluation evaluate what is done and then estate analysis is what the at the organizational level as an organization what is the strategy what is the need organizational need. So that's how these six knowledge areas are arranged. Now I'll keep repeating it and you will understand it better later on that they are not performed in a particular sequence depending on the project they can be performed in different sequence again and again repeatatively iteratively right that you will understand when we go deeper but just understand it doesn't mean that first we'll do planning then we'll do elicitation then we'll do this there can be a project where the project is launched because there is a problem identified so solution evaluation is performed, problem is identified, then you do the elicitation to get uh details of the problem and then you plan the project. Right? So in a different order you perform these knowledge areas or uh at a organ at at the organizational level a strategy analysis was was performed let's say where you did root cause analysis or you performed uh um what what what do you call it uh a strength weaknesses sort analysis and uh after that sort analysis you found out an opportunity and you launched a project. So you see a strate was performed then elicitation and planning is done. So depending on the nature of the organization and project these can be performed in different orders. Just remember that and you will understand it later slowly. Right? So these they all are interlin right? All six knowledge areas. Now one more thing under these knowledge areas there are tasks. Okay. U one of them has six tasks. One of them has four tasks and remaining have five tasks each. So there are total 30 you can say five five four and six. So total 30 tasks and there are 50 techniques. Okay. So there are six knowledge areas. Right? All these knowledge areas have 30 tasks and there are in total 50 techniques. There is between task and techniques. There is many to many relationship right I don't know if you know these symbols but let's say there is many to many relationship between task and techniques. One task can use one or more techniques. So let's say no uh elicitation right in order to perform for this knowledge area what could what can be the tasks prepare for elicitation prepare for elicitation conduct elicitation document elicitation result etc right so this task let's say conduct elicitation is a task under elicitation knowledge Conduct elicitation task can be performed using multiple techniques like interview, workshop, let's say surveys. So you see conduct elicitation is a task under elicitation and collaboration knowledge area. This task can use one one or more than one techniques like this. Other way around workshop as a technique can be used in multiple tasks like conduct elicitation can use workshop. I want to review my requirements. I want to provide a walk through to stakeholders about my requirements to take this sign off. I want to evaluate the solutions. So in many places you can use workshop as a technique. So that's why I was saying there is one many to many relationship between tasks and techniques. One task can be can be can can use multiple techniques and one technique can be used in different different tasks. Okay. So that is how is organized. Six knowledge areas, 30 tasks and 50 techniques. Okay. every task is also organized in a particular fixed template which I'll explain later u or let's we can talk about it now as well. So task is like name of the task right the order may differ or maybe I missed one or one point or two but you will get the purpose. So name and description of the task conduct elicitation what is the purp you will see a description you can have a purpose so it will tell you what is the purpose of this task what inputs required to perform that task right what will be the output once you perform this task so input and output of that task what are the key elements what exact what exactly is done techniques used and uh there is there is one or more two headings like additional inputs additional something. So basically every task that you perform there will be some inputs which you will use you will do some processing here inside this task. In order to do this processing you will use some techniques and then there will be output of that task. Right? So each and every task in Babok is is planned like this right. There is a fixed format and fixed template which is repeated again and again again and again for each and every task 30 tasks right. Uh what you need to focus on do you need to remember everything? No. what you need to focus on. See in your day-to-day life if once you become a business analyst we don't even talk about a lot of theory which is here we focus on 50 techniques right because techniques is some technique is something that you actually use in your project you don't have to talk about inputs outputs you know that uh with time you will know that uh and also to pass the exam and throughout this course every every time we will not talk about you know what is the input what is the output you will after some time once we cover 15 20 tasks you will start guessing the input output yourself and I'll tell you I'll keep checking now can you guess and you will start answering the question what we need to focus we need to focus on understanding the key elements of the task what exactly the task is doing what are the key concepts key elements related to that task that is where you need to focus you should have absolute clarity on key elements and you should have absolute clarity on 50 tasks techniques. These two things we need to focus uh obviously I'll explain why these inputs why this output why this input to this particular task why that output from this that particular task all that we we'll discuss but you don't have to worry some generally what happens people will say see sir there are 30 task in case there are four inputs so there will be 120 inputs and let's say there are 80 outputs how will I remember this all 50 techniques can be used by different different tasks. So there can be 200 types of permutations combination. How will I remember them? So that is what I'm telling you. You don't have to remember. You don't have to memorize inputs, outputs, techniques, stakeholders. No, you don't have to memorize them. You just need to focus on understanding key elements of a task and in isolation all 50 techniques you need to understand. Rest everything will come automatically once we move ahead in this course. This is just the list of 50 techniques which are which we are going to go through all of them acceptance and evaluation criteria and all of these. So there are in total 50 techniques see one page and second page. So two pages they are just listing down the techniques. So we will come uh we'll cover them as and when we come across uh them in our content right from the Babok point of view all 50 techniques are part of a separate chapter but when we study we'll try to cover them as and when we come across them instead of so I'll keep explaining you techniques wherever we find them getting used in our material okay uh answer this quickly which of the following is not a component of business analysis core concept model we didn't discuss content was not there so content is the right answer I think there was one more question on the previous slide yes what does BACCM stand for yes business analysis core concept model which of the following is a business analysis which of the following is a right not it's not like not which is not correct answer is a right elicitation and collaboration. See if you consider the previous version of beok then you will say the rest of three are also correct. They used to be the names in the previous version but now they have changed. So elicitation collaboration is there. So that is the correct answer. Enterprise analysis has become strategy analysis. Right? Solution assessment and val validation became solution evaluation and requirement analysis and life cycle management. Right? So these three B, C and D they used to be the names in the previous versions of beok but in present version and current version only A is correct. I'll just answer which of the following is a stakeholder in typical BA engagement. All of them are your stakeholders. Next is IIBA stands for the analysis a globally recognized professional association dedicated to supporting and advancing the discipline. It was founded in 2003 Ontario Canada based and publication major publication is Babok guide and how does it define the standard through the Babok guide identifies the skills necessary to be effective through the IIBA business analysis competency model and self- assessment tools and there are these three certifications that we discussed. So if you go to the website of IIBA you will see that there are some resources which are available for free and there are some resources which are available for members only. So you can use them like business analysis competency model or there is a self assessment tool. So you can use that uh IBA membership uh it provides access to exclusive content and support. So if you take the membership you can get access to career action guide etc etc. There is as I said there is a lot of material which you can get. When you take membership you get free access to new versions of Babok as well. You can participate in different networking and community events and sometimes they ask for volunteers as well. So let's say they want to create 20 new questions or 50 new questions or they want to create a new version of Babok things like that. So at in those in there also you can get some volunteer opportunities also the also there are many webinars that they run some webinars are public some webinars are members only. So that is also uh another benefit of taking membership. Right now if you are planning to write the exam whichever CBP or CCBA in that case taking membership is sensible. Maybe you next year you you think of not renewing it. That is fine because if you take membership the cost of membership is less than the discount you get on the exam fee if you if you are a member right we'll just see on coming slide. So see there are three first is entry certificate second is certification of capability and third and final one is certified business So this is the basic one. This is the middle one and then the final one. Okay. Now what is the difference? Uh as I told you the book is same content is same. Then what is the difference? For CBP you need to have a minimum 700 7,500 hours of business analysis work experience in the last 10 years. So there is this experience requirement that you need to fulfill. How do you calculate? If I try to simplify this for your understanding let's say how many days there are there in a in a in a year 365 right out of that there are u holiday weekends uh 104 Saturday Sunday then you have 1520 national holiday public holidays then you have your sick leave annual leave so I think if we reduce all that conservatively we work for roughly 200 days 200 days 220 days. So conservatively I will say 200 days into 8 hours per day. So again I if I round it off let's safely conservatively assume you work 1500 hours per year. So for to get 7,500 hours of experience you need to have at least five years of prior business analysis experience. Five years So that is the expectation that is the eligibility criteria for CWAB that is fine that you divide this experience into six knowledge areas. So you can equally divide like 1,000 hours or 1500 hours in each of the knowledge area that is fine. So that is first at least five years of business analysis experience right and then professional development have a minimum 35 hours of professional development. So the training that we are conducting right now, the class that you are in right now, this will give you 36 or 38 hours or maybe 40 hours of PDUs, professional development units. So this training that you are attending with me right now, this training is a prerequisite. You need to complete this training or from some other vendor that is fine. But at least there has to be at least one training which uh you attended at least for 35 hours, right? And that training completion certificate is important. So that is why I was telling you yesterday that from s from the portal LMS portal you need to download your completion training completion certificate and that certificate you have to upload when you apply for CWEP exam right. So you will get the PD. So this is the second important requirement. And third one is references. You have to provide two references. Now they can be uh your managers right current manager, previous manager. So that is fine. If you are a fresher, you don't have a manager or something then you can provide reference of anyone who is already CBP certified. If somebody is your manager, they don't have to be CEP certified, right? Your manager without certification is fine. But otherwise, you can provide contact of anyone who is CEB certified. So what happens when you provide the me reference they will get email from IIBA that and they'll ask few questions so it will be a simple five six question long form that I know you or how do I know you what is the relation and all that so they need to respond so when whoever you provide as your reference whoever you mention as your reference please uh align them please inform them that I am providing your name with your email ID as my reference to CBP. So once when you get the email from IIBA, please respond to that email. Right? So these are the main three requirements. Work experience at least 5 years of B experience 35 hours of minimum training in last four years. So it's not like you attended a training 8 years back that will not be counted. So something which you attended recently in last 3 four years that training and then your reference these three are the main requirements. Now what happens when you if you don't have that experience so next certification is CCBA right so there this requirement will be just half 3750 hours so that means you can say 2 to 3 years of experience is enough right and then you can equally divide this by half this requirement will still be there but I think number of hours will be less 20 or 25 hours of training is required reference references will I think you need to provide reference then for ECBA this is not required no experience is required uh and no references are required because they are considering that you are fresher you have no experience so you might not have any professional references to provide so for ECBA requirements are very very lenient and the question paper is also slightly simpler as compared to CBEP and CCBA obviously because you don't have that kind of experience. So what I would suggest the important part that go to iba.org portal. Okay. And check let me also tell you one more thing before we move on. See this is the fee for ECB exam. Okay. Application fee none. Examination fee is $195 for members and $350 for non-members. How much is the difference? Almost $100 or not almost exactly $155 is the difference in the fee for ECBA. Similarly, if we move to CCBA, there is additional application fee $145 which is same for members and non-members and then 250 and 105. So again, $155 you save if you take the membership. Okay, the total cost if you are a member is roughly $400, right? $395 and without membership it will be exactly $550. For CBA the fee is almost similar to $100 more. So $250 350 and this becomes so $200 more. So total fee for CBAP if you don't have a membership is $650, right? And for a member it is $500, $495. Okay? So you save almost $155 in the fee if you take membership. And if you go to the IIBA portal, you can check how much is the membership fee. Membership fee is dependent on your country. So they have divided the all the countries into three categories and the fee is dependent on your region. If you are in India, it will be less than uh other countries. Let me quickly give you some idea of that as well. I I have no problems if you take membership or no you you don't take that's completely up to you. The only difference is because for the first year you can get why I'm suggesting because for the first year you will get both the benefits right you will pay less fee for the exam at the same time you can get the membership benefits if we go to the membership view pricing let's see if they have revised any prices earlier it used to be $50 $60 let's see region one 155 USD region 200 USD and region three 60 USD. So if you see countries this there is a list of countries. So for example India is in region three. So you pay $60 and you save $155 on your exam. So you will still end up saving $890. People who are in this uh in these countries they'll they'll still save. People who are in region one Australia, Austria, USA, the UK, they'll not be able to save but still at the same cost you will get the benefits of membership along with the exam. Okay. So this is on the membership. If you take if you look at the certification IIAB certifications so they are they they started offering other certifications on data analysis and others but from the BA point of view they still have just three. So when you click on certification okay we are here now let's go to the core certification right core business analysis certificates ECBA CCBA and CV so let's check the criteria for ECBA just to make sure that whatever is mentioned in our slide is still have there is no change so there are no requirements sorry uh this includes IABA membership. See this is fine. There is no eligibility criteria as such for ECBA right let's go back and check for CCBA. See here you have 300 7 3750 hours of B experience 21 hours of professional development instead of 35 for CW you need to provide references rest everything is same so the only difference is in experience and trainings right and for CV I already explained so please go through this portal spend some time try to understand I also told you how to calculate your work experience so that you can do it yourself make yourself comfortable with the portal and identify which certification certificate is more suitable for you right now what will happen after 3 years so all these certifications are valid for 3 years after 3 years you have to renew the certific certification in order to renew it it's not you have to pass the exam again you can just keep accumulating your PDUs like now we set professional development units after passing the exam we call them continuous development unit. So you keep accumulating CDUs by reading something by uh by attending some trainings by volunteering on something you keep accumulating those CDUs right so you can renew after 3 years if you go for ECBA after 3 years instead of renewing your ECBA you can go for CCBA so that is how we need to manage this so the first chapter Chapter proper chapter or the first second uh lesson number two is business analysis planning and monitoring part one. So from the slide or from the content point of view some of these uh knowledge areas are divided into two parts because some of them are really big. For example planning and monitoring definition they are very big. So they are divided into two one part. Some of them are in one part some of them are are in two parts. Okay. So what did I tell you yesterday that there are six knowledge areas right and the business analysis planning and monitoring focuses on the planning part here we do not execute tasks we do not perform task we just plan so and uh uh we always say as a project manager program manager that failing to plan means planning to fail. So if you fail to plan or you are intentionally you are you are not planning that means you are planning to fail. So that is why planning some bit of planning is always required. Uh depending on whether you are using waterfall or agile you plan differently you may plan iteratively at different levels but some planning is always required right. So that is what we cover in this particular knowledge area the planning bit. See there is this scenario given in 2016 what of Vodafone UK ran into serious trouble while migrating its CRM system because of migrating the system without a structured validation approach not involving key stakeholders in planning and testing weak governance oversight and risk planning this led to billing errors customer complaints and 4.6 6 million fine from Ofcom. This this Ofcom must be a regulator. If you were leading the analysis effort in this project, how would you plan and manage your work to avoid such outcomes? So from the business analysis point of view, what do you think is wrong here or was went in in incorrect or wrong direction. See there was no validation approach not involving key stakeholders, weak governance, oversight and risk planning. All of these things are some of them are specifically for business analyst like validation. How will you validate whether solution is working as per the requirements or not? Some of them like engaging stakeholders are there are overlap between responsibilities of business analyst and project manager. If we right now we're talking about typical traditional waterfall project management, right? So uh you talk to same stakeholder as a business analyst. Project manager also talk to the same stakeholder as a project manager. Then what is the difference? The agenda is different. Right? Project manager will talk to talk to them for let's say project budget, project cost, project schedule, project risks that they all are the accountabilities of project managers. We we'll cover many of those things in this course. and BA will interact with the same stakeholders for the requirements for solution validation for writing acceptance criteria to take their help in supporting in testing etc etc so BA's engagement is slightly different than the project manager engagement even though there will be some overlap because the stakeholders are same okay uh now why this is required we always say that you know If you identify problems earlier, it's easier to fix. It's cheaper to fix. But if you end up identifying gaps, etc. later in the project, they get difficult and more expensive to to fix. So let's see uh if you if you just reached let's say uh you are at point A right now. You are at let's say point A and you want to go to point B. But there is no map, nothing. So you start moving in the wrong direction. Okay, you reached to point C. And then you realized, oh, I started moving in the wrong direction. I need to correct my course. I need to correct my path and I need to change and go to B. Now what what do you think? What what will be the difference? In one more case, let's say you moved further away and here you realized that it is wrong direction and you have to correct and go to point B. Now what do you think? What is the difference? If you talk about time, if you talk about money, both will change right here. If it was supposed to take 1 hour and let's say 500 rupees in in in taxi now it because you have to travel this much it will take maybe 1 one and 1 hour 30 minutes and maybe 750 rupees in this case it may end you may end up spending 2 hours in taxi and maybe 1,000 rupees right time required is more fuel required is more so overall money required is also more so that is the main problem who will help with this direction. What exactly is required? What exactly do we need to build? Which direction do we need to move to? Those things are dependent on our nice business analyst, right? He is the person who will tell the who will collect the requirements, who will tell the requirements, who will have the idea what to build as a solution, right? So the overall road map etc. He'll have a good idea. So that is the person who is supposed to navigate the team in the right direction and save. So that is why business analysis is very important. Otherwise if you start with wrong requirements, incorrect requirements, the cost of fixing them later on in the project will be high. Right? And for this reason that I just uh mentioned here. So business analysis is a structured approach used by business analysts to understand, analyze and solve business problems. Think of it like a road map or toolkit that helps a business analyst, right? Understand the current state of business. Identify the needs or problems. Design the right solution and ensure solution delivers value. I told you yesterday what is the current state? Your current estate, right? Or your solution or application's current state. I I live here. I live in Pune. That is my current estate, right? Uh I live in a particular apartment that is my current estate right. I have to move I switch my job and I now I need to move to I need to go back to Guru Gurugo where I lived for last 12 12 15 years Guruga that will be my future estate. So this is my current state right? This is my future state. What is the problem or let's say a different problem that before covid uh it was manageable to live let's say in a two-bedroom apartment or one bedroom apartment if you were married you were living or maybe you were single but living with your parents. Did you notice that after COVID when we had to work from home, study from home, suddenly whatever apartment we were living in, whatever house you were living in, it started, you know, feeling small because we had to work from home, we had to study from home. So did you feel that? Did you feel the same? And suddenly there was a need to move to a bigger apartment so that we can have separate space and in my case I had to I I used to work from home. some of the days and then I used to take trainings also. So suddenly it was like how could I work or operate from this house right my wife had to work and we have we didn't have enough space. So there this was the kind of identification of need or problem that I because of the lack of space I need to move to a bigger house. Don't you think it's a proper need? It's a it's a valid need. It's a genuine problem. Yes it is. Right. So then what what could I do? I could move to a bigger house. Right? Now when you talk about these solutions, it could be like uh you need three-bedroom house, you need four bedroomedroom house depending on your family members etc etc. So in that case do you think your wife or your husband becomes your stakeholder? because the solution or the problem that you are dealing with or the solution that you will identify it is going to impact them right or you you your if you have kids they might say I also need my separate room or your parents might say that you know when you are shifting make sure you shift to ground or first floor you don't go to 10th floor or 20th floor they have their own concerns they have their own requirements your spouse says that I want a better you know a kitchen or I want or I want a separate study. So you know suddenly because there is a project there is a there is a plan to move from our current estate stakeholders which are who are impacted or they can have their own requirements and on that basis we create the solution right and when you move right from one house to another house if the house is just in the same building on the same floor do I need professional packers and movers if I'm moving in the same building let's say across the hall uh do I need professional packers and movers maybe not right but if I'm moving to a different city do you think I need packers and movers in this case I need so you see depending on the solution the approach will also be different so it's not like you always move from this point to this point like this Right? Sometimes you need packers and movers. You will move. So like we discussed yesterday, there can be different solution options also to reach to solve our problems. So we'll discuss about all these things in detail. But the point which I wanted to make right now that understand what is the meaning of current state, understand what is the meaning of future state, how they are you know different, how they are different and how you need to move from current state to the future state using some of these solution. I can move from my house to the next house using packers and movers or I can do it myself. So there can be multiple solution options as well. But all these things I'll take uh I'll I'll explain in more detail in coming classes. Okay. What is the meaning of current state? What is the meaning of future state? What are the options? What are the what is the meaning of change? All those things we'll cover in greater depth in coming classes. So the webbook guide defines six knowledge areas. We already discussed uh six of them yesterday. First one is business analysis, planning and monitoring. So BAPM is the knowledge area that defines the tasks associated with organizing and coordinating the effort of business analysts and stakeholders. Right? So this is all about planning, organizing, coordinating. Here you do not perform the tasks. Here you do not actually start the elicitation. Okay. Now what happens when you so the primary goal of BAPM to define the approach to identify and involve right stakeholders to establish governance mechanism for decision-m and change control to plan how requirements and related information will be managed to evaluate and improve business analysis performance. So these are the primary goals and these goals are divided in different tasks. So the first task will be about approach. Second will be about identification of these stakeholder. So basically these five primary goals will convert themselves into tasks of this knowledge area. Okay, we'll see them one by one. So proper planning prevents poor performance is the key objective of this phase, right? The first phase of planning. Imagine being handed a project but not knowing what problems you are solving, who is affected, who decides what and how to structure your work. Without answering these questions, can you uh move ahead in your project? What do you think? If you have no idea what exactly is the problem, what will you fix? Right? Who are who all are affected? How will you connect with them? How will you fix their problems? If you don't know who you need to go to to take the approvals, who is the authority, you can't work without that. Who will fund the project? Who will approve the budget? All those are important questions. And how to structure your work, how to organize the information, uh depending on your depending on your uh organization, whether you are going to use Jira or you are going to use SharePoint etc etc all those things you need to have some idea right. It's not like you cannot start working without having answers to all the question. As a business analyst, as a program manager, we have to move ahead. If if all the information is not available, we make some assumptions and move ahead, right? But at least some idea has to be there. So this is the purpose of this knowledge area to get the idea or to get the answers to all of these questions which are mentioned here. Now as I explained you yesterday every task will have certain inputs they will tell what exactly is uh performed key elements and output. So like for example this knowledge area has these many tasks plan as business analysis approach plan stakeholder engagement governance and so on so forth. So these are the six five tasks in this knowledge area. Right? We'll go through them one by one. Outputs and inputs we'll also see for each and every task. This is a screenshot of picture from the book it book itself. So you see majorly the inputs to all of these tasks are needs and performance objectives. Output are these five. Right? So uh in the beginning of every knowledge area you will see a collective snapshot like this where there are all the tasks mentioned of this knowledge area all the inputs and all the outputs. However we have to go through each and every task in detail and we will see input and output specific to that task. Okay. So out of these five that let's say the first task it is the first core task of BAPM knowledge area in the beog guide before identifying or writing requirements plan how how you will approach the work choose the right methodology define the detail level assign roles and set up progress reporting so before we go into details let's see the different parts or sections as I told you every task task is uh every task has a fixed template the same template which is used across all 30 tasks. So you have name of the task description and you have inputs, you have outputs, you have guidelines and tools. Guidelines and tools are like optional. If they are available, we can use them. If they are not available, we can do without them. But input is important. Without input you cannot convert the you cannot get the output. Right? But guidelines and tools we consider as so just to simplify uh I always call them additional and optional inputs. Right? So you can say guidelines and tools are additional inputs. You use them if they are available. For example, business policies. It's not mandatory that you will always have business policies. It is also possible that you may not have some of these things. You will see different guidelines and tools throughout the course. Some of them may not be available. So that is fine. So these are additional but optional. Inputs are mandatory. Uh this is the name of the task output and uh there are two things the input can. So what happens? Let's say there is input, right? This input is going into this task. Task one. This task one is producing output. Now this output can go to a different task T2. T2 can produce. So now for T2 this becomes input, right? T2 can produce Now this output is possible that it is going not into a task but to a external party. Basically it's external right not consumed or maybe used by a stakeholder but not going into any any um any task. So here you will always see that some of the inputs are coming from another task like this and some of them may be external coming from outside not they are not output of any other task. So just be clear that some of the inputs can be the output of other task some inputs can be external. So you will always see here in uh when you read webop that some of the inputs are external some of the inputs are output of other task and here also you see business analysis approach is the output I'll tell you what exactly we are talking about but first let's understand the structure so what is the output of this task plan business analysis approach so task is plan the approach so what will be the output the approach now this output is used by these many tasks. You see in this knowledge area all the tasks are using this input. Next knowledge area prepare for elicitation, conduct elicitation, they are also using this output. Even manage stakeholder collaboration, analyze current state, define change strategy, assess risk. So many of the tasks in this o overall are using this output, right? So that is what you need to understand that every output will be used by multiple tasks right you will understand why when we'll when we'll go into task in detail you will understand why uh that is important uh and important input to other tasks. Okay. Apart from that there are other headings like uh tools and guidelines we have covered bas main or uh main elements. So there you will they'll explain what exactly this task all about right so the core element or basic elements will explain what exactly this task is all about and then there are uh stakeholders and techniques. So these are these are the headings or you know points which are covered consistently for each and every task. I told you yesterday you don't have to think too much about who are these stakeholders. You can just you read it but you don't try to memorize it. Okay. You have to focus on elements a lot. You need to be very clear about elements. You need to be very clear about techniques. Now which techniques are used in this particular task? You don't have to memorize. You will start understanding and guessing yourself. What are the inputs to this task? Again you don't have to memorize. You just need to understand the purpose of task. You will automatically start guessing if this is the task what kind of inputs I'll need right. So that you will you will start guessing what will be the output that is also very easy to guess. For example, plan business analysis approach. If you are planning something the output will be that something right. So you know an approach is the output. So you don't don't have to memorize. If you understand the concepts, if you understand elements and techniques, you will start answering the questions without mugging up, without memorizing. Especially when you see four options, then it becomes even easier to guess the right option, right? Right answer. Clear? So the first task which talks about planning uh the business analysis approach, what is the approach in this context here? The approach that we are talking about is whether it is uh adaptive approach or productive approach. Now what is the meaning of productive and what is the meaning of adaptive? So the business analysis approach should align to the overall goals of the change and also I would add that it should be aligned with the project approach. Right? You cannot have business analysis approach which is not aligned with overall project. Your business analysis is part of the overall project, right? It is just one phase of the overall project. So your BA approach, timelines, etc., they have to be aligned with overall project. Now, uh you co you coordinate the business analysis task with the activities and deliverable of the overall change, right? Change and project. That's what I'm I just explained. So what is the adaptive approach and what is the predictive approach? If we put it in more into project uh perspective see uh predictive used to be we used to call predictive the traditional waterfall SDLC right development life cycle agile is called adaptive so when I say predictive what will be the stages in the project in a typical project if you're talking about software development you will have requirements before that you can have some planning project planning pre- project activities like you are creating business case, you are doing some pro uh uh you know uh presenting that case, getting the funding etc etc but mainly then you will start with requirements then then you will have design then you will have development then you will have multiple phases of testing then you can have deployment or release then you can have maintenance right these are the phases on a high uh sequence will remain almost the same and they are called waterfall. Waterfall or sequential because they are in a particular sequence. This handovers are very well defined. Design will start only when requirements are completed. Right? When business analyst would say they they have they have completed the requirement, you can start with design. So design will start. Similarly when design is done then development will start and same same thing so so on and so forth right. So this is called productive because planning is done almost everything is should be planned in the beginning of the project and the flexibility is not that much there right so this is called predictive and what is adaptive adaptive is agile right where you pick the work in small chunks so the batch size will reduce and you then you keep picking items top priority items comes from the backlog. You keep building them, delivering them. Again you pick, again you build, again you deliver. So that is why adaptive is called iterative and incremental, right? Iterative means you do the same thing again then again then again. So you are repeating the same thing. You pick items. So you perform requirement anal uh you perform dev and you perform test and then this cycle you keep repeating every two weeks every 3 weeks you keep repeating there is a pro list of requirements you pick requirements from here two three requirements from top of the pre backlog you keep picking you keep delivering and you keep taking feedback so here the major difference the most important difference is that this is not sequential so even The requirements are done iteratively right instead of let's say in a project you had 50 requirements right so in waterfall in adaptive you perform the requirement analysis for all 50 once that is done you do the design for all 50 then you develop all 50 you test all 50 so everything is done on entire project scope whereas in agile you pick two requirements three requirements depending depending on the capacity you work on them deliver them then you pick next four so the batch size is reduced this is not agile course otherwise I would have explained a lot more what are the benefits what are the drawbacks of waterfall and agile etc etc but I'm sure in your mast's program you would have a separate course on agile but why we have to discuss it is still a bit of it because this is the first task itself right which is the there and approach whe whether you are taking productive or adaptive is going to have impact on your business analysis activities. Now you tell me if you talk about timing of business analysis activity timing do you see any difference in waterfall or agile in case of predictive all the analysis should be done up front right in the beginning of the project you need to analyze all the requirements in case of agile it will be ongoing every sprint every now and then you'll have to work on two to three So that is the that is one of the most important impact on the business analysis work whether you analyze all of them or you will do in chunks. What what is the impact on the formality of the documentation that you need to create? Waterfall or traditional is very very formal. This is less formal. So in case of waterfall we used to create very extensive extensive BRD. It will go through a very uh you know proper approval process. It will have a very very strict change management. In case of agile you you don't have to create huge or very heavy documents like BRD FRD. You can simply create Apex features user stories. You can still create documentation. It's not like but agile says you can do with less documentation as well. So that is fine. If I want to create let's say in waterfall BRD if I wanted to create a screen wireframe I'll have to create a proper screen wireframe. I'll upload it into the document insert it into my document. In case of agile if I'm using a whiteboard I create something like to discuss with the clients. This is the login page. Here you have these fields etc. I take the snap screenshot of this or I take a photo of this whiteboard upload on the Jira. I think that is also acceptable. Right? So timing is very different, formality is very different. Then the kind of documentation that you create is also different. Right? So the point is the first the first task itself talks about what is the approach in your project. what is the project approach on that basis your approach will also be different so that is why this is the first task so I hope you understood what exactly we're talking about if your project using waterfall your business analysis approach will be different if you are using agile your business analysis approach will be different now within the same project you can't use waterfall and agile right so if you are in your organization some projects are done in waterfall so they will you will deal with them slightly differently. In case of agile, you will do your work slightly differently, right? Also, the impact is on the stakeholder engagement, right? So, timing of the docu activity, formality of the documentation and what about the stakeholder engagement, is it same or different? So in case of waterfall where exactly you will uh engage with your stakeholders in the beginning of the project. So it's possible that for one month when you are performing your requirement elicitation…

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