I'm very pleased to announce the release of the first edition of the BABOK Learning Guide! This reference is a spreadsheet identifying many of the most useful resources in our Online Library and free elsewhere on the web--meaning that all of this reference material is included for free in your IIBA membership! Each reference is linked to the task or technique it supports, making it easy for BAs looking to expand their understanding of the profession to identify the most relevant material for their area of interest.

We will continue to update this in months to come with additional material, new publications as they get added to the Online Library, and reader suggestions.

IIBA members may download the Learning Guide here. IIBA membership is required to access the Online Library.

My thanks to the volunteers who put this document together, including Laura Paton (the team lead), Kim Byron, Edward DiLorenzo, Venky Neelee, and Michael Western.

When developing IIBA's competency model, we took a close look at several models of skill acquisition and eventually settled on using the Dreyfus Model. I was amused to learn that it has been most heavily applied (and validated) in nursing, especially as my wife is currently working on her Ph.D in that field! Sadly, her research doesn't have to do with education and so I can't make her do my job.

Anyway, last night I was thinking about the relative importance of various learning and improvement methods to people at the various levels, and how much those things will affect how effective a person is. I think it looks something like this:

That is to say, at the Novice level you are almost entirely dependent on some kind of training or education to help you figure out what to do (I'm including mentoring in that). As you progress through the Advanced Beginner and Competent stages, your own experience becomes more important until it becomes the primary predictor of effectiveness.

Finally, though, experimentation with new ideas starts to become a factor. Most of the people I know who are really good at whatever they do try new approaches just because. Self-education seems to be more important than training at those levels of performance, although formal training doesn't stop being useful. I'm not sure if that's a limitation of training itself or a reflection of the reality that there are rarely enough practitioners seeking training at the expert level to create the market demand (or for that matter enough trainers).

This model also has interesting implications for certification programs. Many of those programs aren't very clear about what level of competency they actually are certifying. For example, I see a lot of discussion/dispute in the Agile community over the Scrum Alliance certification program, which is based on a course lasting a few days. Is that a legitimate approach? It can be, if you are aiming at the Novice or Advanced Beginner level. However, if people think that they're getting Competent or Proficient practitioners out of a course they're going to be disappointed. At the other end of the scale, I'm not clear on whether it's practical to try and certify Expert practitioners.

I'm going to be spending more time investigating the practical implications of the Dreyfus Model. The reason I'm thinking about that, of course, is that it has real implications for professional development at different stages of a person's career. The mechanisms that are good at one level won't work at others.

It's been exactly one year since we released version 2.0 of the BABOK Guide. It represented over four-and-a-half years of effort by a dedicated team of dozens of volunteers, and the results were remarkable. The understanding of business analysis that our team developed has been accepted around the world, to such an extent that people have forgotten that nobody could agree on what a business analyst was only a few short years ago!

Change, however, never stops. While we haven't yet started work on version 3.0, we have kicked off a number of initiatives that will shape what it looks like, with work underway on an Agile extension and an Enterprise Business Analysis extension. We are also in discussions with other organizations to examine areas of mutual interest, including project management and business process analysis. These perspectives and others will lead us to a far better understanding of the breadth of business analysis than we have today.

I have another change to discuss--related to the availability of the BABOK Guide. Until we released version 2.0, the BABOK Guide was available as a free download from the IIBA website. That wasn't a policy decision so much as it was an accident--the IIBA of 2006 simply didn't have the ability to sell the BABOK in PDF or print and so we made it available to everyone to comply with ISO requirements around certification. However, we needed to boost the value recieved by members of IIBA and so determined that version 2.0 would only be available to them for free. 

However, things have changed. Members have many more benefits available to them today than they did a year ago, as we've launched the IIBA Community Network, drastically increased our webinar production, published our Competency Model, and last but certainly not least rolled out the IIBA Online Library. Much of that work was funded through sales of the BABOK Guide. There has been one major disappointment as well. We've seen many in the community continue to rely on version 1.6 of the BABOK Guide despite the improvements we introduced in 2.0.

So, we are now offering the business analysis community the opportunity to read an online version of the BABOK Guide through Google Books. Although you can't download or print it, it does include the full, searchable text. Members still get free access to a PDF copy, of course, and it's still available for sale as well.

This is a temporary solution—we have plans for a more broadly useful online version to be rolled out later in 2010. The long-term solution will enable us to build in extensions to the BABOK Guide, solicit and incorporate feedback from the community, and facilitate discussions around business analysis. Our long-term objective is to build a comprehensive online encyclopedia of business analysis that will be a daily reference for business analysts everywhere. I'd love to give you a date on when that will be launched, but it all depends on when the technology catches up with our ability to afford it.

So, what do members get now? Well, there's still the free PDF copy. We also have a group of volunteers working on the BABOK Learning Guide, which will annotate the BABOK Guide with links to further resources available in the Online Library and elsewhere. The BABOK Guide is only the beginning—the real job of the Professional Development team is to help our members become better business analysts and to raise the profile of the profession, and we are going to keep working on that in the months and years to come. 

I'm happy to announce that a new volunteer effort is underway here at IIBA. I've just got off a call with a group of volunteers who will be working to build a BABOK Learning Guide for IIBA members. The purpose of this effort is to assemble references that will be usable by students to better understand the content and context of the BABOK itself.

The first stage in this effort is to assemble a listing of references from our Online Library. For each section of the BABOK Guide, we will be identifying books that better detail or explain that subject. We'll then be including that information in an online version of the BABOK Guide itself, to make it easy to find that information and keep it current over time. 

The other value this will have is that it will serve as a quick index to the Online Library itself. We have almost 300 books in there and I know that information can be a bit overwhelming to navigate. This index will make it easier for people to figure out where to go if they're interested in a topic.  

In addition to the improved group wikis, GoLightly (our SaaS provider) has added the following features:

Have you ever tried using the Wiki Notepad on the Community Network? If so, great, but there aren't many of you who have. 

My hope is that that will change very soon. Next week we will be upgrading the wiki software on this network to replace the current (limited) Notepad and replace it with an engine based on MediaWiki, the software used to run Wikipedia. I've used the new version myself on other sites and it's much nicer looking, and more powerful, than the current implementation.

However, there's one important note. Existing content cannot be ported automatically over to the new engine. If you are participating in a group using the wiki, please copy all of the content out of the wiki to a local file by the end of this week. If you do not do so it will be lost.

Once the new engine is in place, we will begin the process of loading the BABOK Guide into a wiki here for easy searching and cross-linking. You will not be able to modify the content (at least not initially) but that will let us update it to include links to the IIBA Online Library.  Later on, we will add discussion pages and other features designed to allow us to collect feedback toward the eventual version 3 (and no, that's still some time away). 

IIBA® is pleased to announce the launch of the new Online Library. This library gives IIBA members exclusive access to a huge online selection of 300 books, and we will be adding new books each quarter.

This Online Library is an incredible value for IIBA members—if you tried to purchase these works individually, it would cost you around $15,000 US. A subscription to services that provide you access to all of these works online would cost you around $700 annually. As an IIBA member, you now have access to this wide selection of books for FREE! Membership is IIBA is now more valuable than ever.

The content of this library has been reviewed and selected by the IIBA Professional Development team. It includes most of the books used in the development of the BABOK® Guide, making it a key reference for anyone who is studying for the Certified Business Analysis Professional™ (CBAP®) exam. A complete list of books available in the Library is available for review and more will be added in the months to come.

We invite you to visit the Online Library and take full advantage of this important member benefit. You will need to log in to your member account to access the library.

Not an IIBA Member, or your membership has expired? You can join or renew now. As soon as your membership payment is processed, you will have immediate access to the Online Library.

At IIBA, we are continuously looking for new benefits to give to our members, to add even more value to your IIBA membership. We ask that you forward this email to your business analyst colleagues and let them know that there has never been a better time to join IIBA.

Kevin Brennan

Vice President, Professional Development

I was delighted today when the Community Network decided to do down briefly due to a problem at our hosting provider (it's since been fixed, obviously), just as the email announcing its availability was going out to the IIBA membership.

I'm trying to draw a BA-related lesson from this, but really it's just Murphy's Law in action.

So, with all of that said, Angela Wick (the Chair of the Competency Model Committee) and I will be hosting a webinar tomorrow to talk about what's in the model, why IIBA decided to develop one, and how it is likely to evolve over the next few years. Just as a hint, one of the things we can tell you is that you can expect to see two updates to it in 2010 to cover additional material. The webinar is open to members and non-members alike, and we look forward to seeing you there. 

I’m very excited to announce that IIBA has signed a deal with Books 24x7 to provide our members with access to a huge online library of 300 books, including many works by leading thinkers in the field of business analysis. This is an incredible value for IIBA members—if you tried to purchasethese works individually, it would cost you around $15,000 US. A subscription to services that provide you access to all of these works online would cost you around $700 annually. However, IIBA is providing all of our members access tothis selection free as a benefit of IIBA membership—making joining IIBA worthwhile for this material alone!

The online library will include works on a large number of different topics of interest to business analysts, including, but not limited to:

•      Agile methodologies and techniques
•      Business process modeling and management
•      Business rules
•       Data modeling
•       Enterprise analysis
•       Elicitation techniques
•       Structured analysis methods
•       UML
•       Underlying competencies (coaching, facilitation,  decision analysis, and others)

In addition, we will be including works on other topics ofinterest to BAs and the BA community. We’ll be providing material to support BAs interested in learning more about business strategy, hybrid BAs who also do project management, usability design, or testing, BAs who are moving into a team leadership role, and more! We’re also going to be able to provide material to support those of you who volunteer with your local chapters, by including readingson topics like event planning, small business management, and using Joomla (the platform behind our chapter sites).

The content of this library has been reviewed and selected by IIBA’s Professional Development team and includes most of the books used in the development of the BABOK® Guide, making it a key reference for those of you who may be studying in preparation for taking the CBAP® certification exam.

Beyond that, we recognize that the value of this library rests in the use that you make of it. Expect to see it as an ongoing feature of IIBA’s Professional Development activities. In 2010, we will be producing a guide cross-referencing the content of the BABOK®Guide with the books in the virtual library, so you can immediately find supporting material on any topic. Webinars will include references for further reading as well. Later on, we will incorporate learning paths to help you identify introductory and advanced materials relevant to different topics and help you identify which readings may be most relevant to the current stage ofyour career.

While we are still in the process of finalizing the launch date, we expect the online library to be available before the end of March.There has never been a better time to be an IIBA member, and if you know anyone who has been waiting to sign up or who has let their membership lapse, let them know that now is a great time to come back to IIBA! 

It's been almost a year now since version 2.0 of the BABOK® Guide was published. While most readers have said it's a vast improvement on previous editions, and generally an easier read than many comparable standards, I also know that it's not an easy read.

We've been talking inside IIBA about the idea of a "revised and expanded" version to be published later this year. This would not be a new edition. The existing text of version 2.0 would be included without any changes, except for any errata that might be identified during the update, and the CBAP exam would not be updated or altered.

Instead, we'd be developing new material to help people better understand the existing content. This might include graphics, examples, case studies, advice, and similar material--anything that helps explain the concepts in the current edition or helps people learn new skills as a business analyst. 

My question to you, as business analysts, is what in the current BABOK® Guide could be better explained? What sections or concepts are you having the most difficulty with? What sections seem to be the least useful or relevant? In short, what do you look at and wish we'd done a better job of explaining? And is this something you'd be interested in seeing, or is the current version good enough for your needs?

5. IIBA is launching a Corporate Membership program in 2010. This program will allow organizations to purchase memberships for their staff, licenses for the BABOK Guide, submit internal courses for approval by IIBA, and get discounted rates on certification. Corporate members may also choose to make use of IIBA advisory services, which includes an assessment of business analysis practices in the organization. The goal of this program is to enable IIBA to directly engage with the organizations that employ business analysts and to help them to improve those practices, and build a career path for business analysts. 

6. Global Membership. IIBA recognizes that our current membership fees are unaffordable in many parts of the world, and we will be adjusting our membership fee structure to better reflect purchasing power parity in different countries. This program will be ready to launch in the very near future and we will announce the adjusted rates at that time. 

7. The BABOK Guide is now available in Japanese (through IIBA's Japan Chapter) and will be available in German from a group of German-language BA associations (GFO, OVO, and SGO). We hope to see it available in other languages before the end of 2010. 

8. IIBA will introduce an associate-level certification in 2010 for BAs who do not have enough experience to qualify as a CBAP. This new certification will not be a pre-requisite to the CBAP. We are beginning the work required to define the scope of this certification and hope to have it available in Q3. 

9. IIBA will be launching a 2010 conference in collaboration with BPTrends and the Business Rules Forum, to be titled Building Business Capability 2010. This umbrella conference will incorporate an IIBA Forum, a Business Process Forum, and the 2010 Business Rules Forum, with attendees welcome to attend any track sessions from any of the events. The IIBA track will be targeted at providing information to senior business analysts and managers of business analysts. The conference will run in the first week of November; location to be announced. 

10. IIBA will begin publishing books on business analysis in addition to the BABOK Guide and other standards. The first, due out in Q3, is a book on Managing Business Analysts.

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who attended IIBA's January 12th webinar on the direction of our association. The presentation (with audio) will be available on IIBA's website within 4 business days.2010 is shaping up to be a major year for IIBA, with many new initiatives and changes planned.

Before I get into what we announced, I do want to make clear that like any organization, our plans will change and adjust as the year goes on. We have a lot of work to do this year, some of which wasn't touched on in the webinar (such as changes to our systems required to comply with regulatory and tax changes in Canada) and it's always possible that some of these plans may have to change. Please stay tuned to our newsletters and webinars to keep up with the latest news, and feel free to ask questions here or at http://community.theiiba.org/vb/showthread.php?t=70With all that said, here are our plans for 2010.

1. IIBA will be releasing our business analysis competency model within the next few weeks. This model is based on version 2.0 of the BABOK Guide and describes the knowledge, skills, and other attributes a business analyst needs to be successful. We expect that this material will help organizations figure out what kind of people to hire as business analysts, the training those analysts need to be successful, and how to evaluate the performance of their BAs. Future releases of the competency model (expected in 2010) will expand it to address multiple job profiles and help support a career path for business analysts.

2. We will be launching projects to develop extensions to the BABOK Guide in 2010, including an extension for Agile business analysis and another for Enterprise-level business analysts.

3. IIBA will be introducing new member benefits this year. The first, planned for Q1, is access to an online library of 250-300 books on business analysis. We will be tying these into study paths for business analysts interested in enhancing their skills. We will also be increasing the number of Professional Development opportunities for our members. We will offer more webinars and be working to increase the educational value of those sessions (to enable them to count towards initial CBAP certification--they already count for recertification). We expect to introduce podcasts and other means of supporting the BA community online.

4. IIBA will be launching BABOK.org in Q2. This website will make the content included in the BABOK Guide available to everyone, members and non-members alike. The launch of version 2 was a huge success for IIBA, and the revenue we generated through that launch has enabled us to do a great many things (like get access for our members to that online library mentioned above). However, we believe that it is in the best interests of the BA community and of our members to make that content more widely available.

Over the last year, along with sales of the BABOK we've seen a large portion of the community outside the IIBA membership continue to use version 1.6 of the BABOK Guide--not because they view it as better, but because it was widely distributed and free. It's not in the interest of IIBA or our members to fracture the community or create different ideas of the role of the BA--we need to help everyone reach a similar view. Making the current version of the standard generally available means that we will ensure that our members, and business analysts in general, can expect that they can change jobs or move to different areas of the world and have some assurance that the BA role is seen the same way no matter where they go.

The online site will be designed for quick reference or searching, with the PDF and print editions available for purchase by those who prefer those formats (although the PDF and any future eBook editions will remain free for IIBA members). Extensions to the BABOK Guide will also be available on BABOK.org.

More in part 2...

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 12 p.m. EST (UTC/GMT -5 hours) 

Join IIBA President and CEO Kathleen Barret and Kevin Brennan, Vice President, Professional Development as they discuss the IIBA direction for 2010 and beyond. This is your opportunity to learn about the goals and projects IIBA is working on this year. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session.

Topics will include:

• New Competency Model
• BABOK® Extensions
• IIBA Publications
• BABOK® Guide Translations 
• Building Business Capability Conference
• ...and more!

This webinar is open to both IIBA members and non-members. Attendance is limited to the first 1,000 callers.

It has been brought to our attention that some members of IIBA have been sent emails that appear to be fraudulent through the Community Network. IIBA takes any such activity extremely seriously. We have suspended the account of that member pending a full investigation, following which IIBA will determine what further action is necessary.

We apologize to all of our members who were approached by this person and will be considering steps that we can take to prevent such behaviour in the future while still keeping the IIBA Community Network as an open forum for discussion.