BABoK v3 techniques are a lot. There are not just 10, 20, or 30 techniques but 50 techniques, to be precise and that's not a small number!
The human mind can remember 5 to 7 elements at a time and anything more than that is hard to remember.
Then, how can one remember 50 techniques?
"Is it really possible to have a BABoK Techniques Mindmap?"
Many of you may wonder.
So, here's the Ultimate BABoK techniques mindmap which could save you 40 hours of your International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) exam preparation!
I know many of my good BA friends would vehemently disagree with this output.
Relationships between tasks and techniques are many to many.
A task in Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABoK v3) can use many techniques.
Same way, a technique can be used for many tasks.
So how can we place a technique in a single knowledge area?
#1 Why should we group the BABoK techniques?
Since there are 50 techniques in BABoK v3, which is a very high number, any practical way to organize the same can be quite beneficial for business analysts.
It is also quite beneficial to note that when we organize techniques into groups, we can discover common characteristics for many similar techniques.
It is indeed fairly practical to divide elicitation techniques to the group based and individual-based elicitation techniques.
Common characteristics of all group-based elicitation techniques are that:
- It would have a facilitator, as a group activity is more effective with a facilitator
- It's difficult to schedule
- It's good to obtain consensus, and
- Interpersonal issues and conflicts are quite common in these techniques
There would also be commonalities in the strengths and weaknesses of all group-based elicitation techniques and individual-based elicitation techniques
Similarly, all techniques in Static and Dynamic sub-groups for Requirements analysis design definition (RADD) will have common properties.
#2 What does the BABoK V3 Techniques Mind-map try to achieve?
This BABoK V3 Techniques Mind-map tries to explain the relationship between techniques and BABoK knowledge areas. I would request all my BA friends to be open to explore this mind-map. What we attempted to do was to align techniques to knowledge areas where it contributes the most. This does not imply that the techniques do not contribute to other knowledge areas. Now, a word of caution.
#3 A caution
Before we end, here's a word of caution - Remember tasks and techniques are many to many.
Learn to prepare the SMART WAY, not the HARD WAY!
You can access much more useful business analysis content on our BA learning portal, SuXeed.
Please provide your suggestions to [email protected] to make this mind-map even better for all business analysts.
Author: L N Mishra, Co-Founder, Adaptive US
L N Mishra co-founded Adaptive US, a business analysis skill development organization, working with professionals from 80+ countries in skyrocketing their BA career and staying ahead of the game. He has helped 5000+ BA professionals to achieve better salary and role in their BA career. He is the ONLY trainer who holds all 7 certifications from IIBA (ECBA, CCBA, CBAP, CCA, AAC, CBDA, and CPOA).
LN has authored 12 best-selling books on business analysis. He is also a Versatile trainer, coach and speaker on all IIBA Certifications.
Grab a copy of our best-selling eBook- 200 IIBA Exam Mock Questions with IIBA Exam Info utilized by 1000s of BA professionals to ace their IIBA exam.
LN is also a member of IIBA Question Setting Committee, mentored 100+ global clients and 3000+ Bas. He has 24+ years of working experience as a Business Analyst and conducted 1000+ workshops in business analysis, requirements engineering and agile, project management, requirements engineering and different BA Skilled webinars.
Please write to LN if your thoughts are in sync with his or if they spark a thought in you.
- Email: [email protected]
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lnmishra-ba-trainer/
- Website: www.AdaptiveUS.com