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BABOK Guide 2.0 What's in it for You?

A survey of the changes between Version 2.0 and previous


versions of the Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge
By Phil Vincent, CBAP, PMP
E-mail: phil@birchisland.ca
The Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK Guide) Version 2.0 is a musthave tool for individual business analysts, and for organizations that employ or engage business
analysts. The BABOK Guide 2.0 is a process- and methodology-independent reference defining
the business analysis tasks that must be done to effectively deliver solutions that add value to an
enterprise. The BABOK Guide describes techniques for eliciting, analyzing and managing
requirements that are in widespread use around the world, and provides a comprehensive
description of the key competencies that business analysts should have. The new version of the
BABOK Guide is both comprehensive and authoritative, having been developed with the help of
input from thousands of practitioners, surveys and extensive review and feedback from industry
experts.
The BABOK Guide Version 2.0 addresses a broader range of business analysis initiatives than
earlier versions, with less of a focus on software development, and more emphasis on selecting the
right combination of solution components, such as changes to organizational structure, policies and
processes. Software systems, whether custom developed in-house, outsourced or purchased as a
package, are likely to be only a part of a business solution.
While the BABOK Guide definition of a requirement is essentially unchanged, the types of
requirements have changed: Business requirements, Stakeholder requirements, Solution
requirements (Functional and Non-Functional) and Transition requirements. The interpretation of
requirement is also much broader, including past, present and future conditions and capabilities,
implied requirements, descriptions of organizational structures, roles, policies and so on.
The organization and structure of the new BABOK Guide has been improved: techniques are
described separately from the tasks within the knowledge areas. This makes each knowledge area
simpler and easier to understand, and to apply useful techniques consistently across the knowledge
areas.
Although we will probably never completely eliminate the role confusion between project managers
and business analysts, the BABOK Guide Version 2.0 clarifies the more contentious areas like
stakeholder analysis and scope control; and, within almost every task within every knowledge area,
the interaction between the business analyst and the project manager, along with other key
stakeholders, is explicitly described.
The knowledge areas within the BABOK Guide 2.0 are:

Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring


Elicitation

Requirements Analysis

Requirements Management and Communication

Enterprise Analysis

Solution Assessment and Validation

Underlying Competencies

Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring describes the planning of business analysis
initiatives very well, and limits the discussion to business analysis activities, so its much more
relevant for business analysts. Stakeholder analysis is limited to stakeholder participation in
business analysis activities. Defining the requirements risk approach, and defining the business
analysis work division strategy have been removed from the BABOK Guide Version 2.0, although
risk analysis is mentioned now as a technique. Both topics are described very well in the Guide to
the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide).
In shifting the focus away from IT initiatives, the discussions about waterfall, iterative and agile
development lifecycles has been replaced with plan-driven and change-driven project lifecycles.
New in Version 2.0 is the task to monitor and measure business analysis performance.
The Elicitation Knowledge Area hasnt changed much, with essentially the same techniques as
Version 1.6; however, reverse engineering has been removed as an elicitation technique. That
doesnt mean that its not a viable approach to uncovering requirements; its just that its apparently
not in widespread use among business analysts.
The Requirements Analysis Knowledge Area is where many people familiar with the BABOK
Guide Version 1.6 will notice a substantial difference. There is much less of a focus on documenting
requirements for IT systems, which really falls more within the realm of system analysis rather than
business analysis anyway.
The Enterprise Analysis Knowledge Area was one that many business analysts felt a little
uncomfortable with. Its simpler and likely more relevant to most of us, now, with a focus on
feasibility studies, defining the scope of a solution, and developing a business case. The discussion
about Enterprise Architecture has been removed (but it may come back in a later version). Selecting
and prioritizing new projects has been removed, as has launching new projects. Yes, some math is
still involved in the business case.
The Requirements Management and Communication Knowledge Area combines most of what
was in the Version 1.6 Requirements Communication knowledge area with the topics of change
control and requirements traceability. Of particular interest is a new task: Maintain Requirements for
Reuse, which addresses the concept of defining and managing requirements in such a way that
they may be used in subsequent business analysis initiatives, or just to keep them under control for
the purposes of maintenance and making enhancements to existing solutions.
The Solution Assessment and Validation Knowledge Area has been substantially beefed up.
The intention is to ensure that the emerging solution truly addresses the business objectives, even if
the business objectives have changed since the start of the initiative. How often have you been
involved in the development of a solution, only to discover that, even though it was what the client
asked for, when you go to put it in production, it doesnt fit with the business? The tasks within this
knowledge area are intended to help a business analyst avoid that situation.
The Underlying Competencies are described as a seventh knowledge area within the new
BABOKGuide, and this is a valuable improvement over previous versions. Underlying
competencies are the softer skills related to conducting business analysis activities, such as
communication skills, interacting with others, business knowledge of the organization, of the
industry and of related solutions, behavioral characteristics such as ethics and trustworthiness,
analytical thinking and problem solving, and knowledge of software applications like modeling tools.
Finally, a glossary of 226 terms is provided.

Dont throw away your earlier version of the BABOK Guide; some of the great features of Version
1.6 are not part of the latest version. Enterprise Architecture is out, for now, because Version 2.0
focuses on individual initiatives rather than strategic business analysis. That wonderful list of
requirements quality attributes from page 209 of Version 1.6 is gone as well as the description of
the different types of quality of service requirements is gone. These changes may have been
necessary to make the current contents more reflective of the concept of generally accepted
practices in widespread use, but they are still worthwhile concepts.
Summary
The Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK Guide) Version 2.0 has
reached a level of maturity that is likely to see widespread adoption in all industries, and will likely
be the definitive reference about business analysis for the next couple of years.
Version 2.0 focuses more on getting the right solution that adds business value, rather than on
getting a software solution right. As such, it truly concentrates on business analysis rather than
system analysis or project management.
If you are a business analyst, you could use the BABOK Guide as a reference for planning and
conducting business analysis initiatives, and as a roadmap to help you with your own professional
development.
If your organization employs or engages business analysts, Version 2.0 of the BABOK Guide
could serve as the basis for a competency model that defines the skills and abilities that your
business analysts should have.
For more information on The Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK
Guide) Version 2.0, please contact a training consultant at 1.800.288.7246.
Phil Vincent, CBAP, PMP, is a senior consultant with the Corporate Education Group.
IIBA, the IIBA logo, BABOK and Business Analysis Body of Knowledge are registered trademarks owned by
International Institute of Business Analysis.
PMI, Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge and PMBOK are registered trademarks owned by the
Project Management Institute.

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