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Friday, July 3, 2009

Changes at IIBA

Quite a lot has been going on. We'll have details in this month's newsletter, but here's the high-level summary.

First of all, all the measures proposed at this year's AGM passed with the overwhelming support of our members. Thanks to everyone who voted, and we're glad to know that our membership has confidence in the direction of this organization.

As a result of those votes, I have informed the Board that I will not be standing for re-election in September. The purpose of those changes was to ensure that the Board could fill its proper role in governing IIBA, which requires it to be clearly distinct from the group that manages the day-to-day operations. I am remaining a member of the IIBA Senior Leadership Team and will remain VP, Professional Development, so for most purposes people won't even notice the difference in dealing with me. Some other current Board members will be taking the same step this year.

Secondly, we have added some new people to the SLT. Michael Gladstone, after two years of service as VP Certification, is stepping down from that role to focus on his responsibilities as IIBA's CIO (and free up time for his family and day job). Paula Maychruk is replacing him as the VP, Certification, and Jonathan Anderson has accepted the position of VP, Membership.

Last but not least, this blog will be undergoing a transition as IIBA's Community Network gets ready for its general launch. The site is up and running at http://community.theiiba.org and is accessible by all IIBA members, although we're still getting everything in place. All the functionality and features are present and working, but we're still adding content, putting groups in place, defining our policies, and so forth. However, if you are an IIBA member feel free to stop by or jump in. The formal launch will be within a couple of weeks.

Lastly, the BABOK Guide has been selling quite well on Amazon--well enough that they're having trouble keeping it in stock (because they're not ordering enough copies from us yet).

Kevin Brennan, CBAP
VP, Professional Development


Wednesday, June 17, 2009

New EEP Contract

I'll be sending this out in an email soon but wanted to update people here as well.

A while back we sent out an announcement that we were going to move EEPs over to a new contract. That hasn't happened yet, as we're still dealing with an issue regarding trademark law. Our trademarks are registered in Canada and the US, and to make a long story short, we found that under Canadian law we are required to do certain things that we are forbidden to do under US law.

Our legal staff believe that it is possible to come up with a contract that is legal in both countries, and are working on the solution. We hope to have that in place soon.

Kevin Brennan, CBAP
VP, Professional Development


Tuesday, June 16, 2009

IIBA Community Network Launching Soon!

A few months ago, when we released version 2.0 of the BABOK® Guide, we told you that IIBA was preparing to launch a greatly enhanced online community for our members. I’m happy to tell you that it’s almost ready. In fact, as I write this, we have finished integrating it with our membership database and are beta-testing it with a number of our volunteers. We anticipate a launch to the entire IIBA membership within a few weeks.

So, what is the IIBA Community Network? It’s an online platform to allow business analysis professionals to share their experiences, ideas, and templates with one another. It’s a resource that will help our members, chapters and volunteers to communicate more effectively with one another and with IIBA.


It includes a long list of features, such as:

Personal Member Pages

  • A significantly enhanced member profile to replace our existing membership directory. Unlike the existing system, you can decide whether to share your contact information with other IIBA members. You can include a photo of yourself, a biography, and even tag your profile with your most important skills and knowledge. You can contact other members through the system as well—however, even if you choose to allow other members to contact you, your email can be kept confidential.
  • Every member can also have a personal blog, and comment on other member’s blogs.
  • You can search for members based on their skills, location, or other information.

Groups

Groups can be created on the site to discuss specific topics of interest, for individual chapters, to discuss specific industries, or anything else. While we will have a number of groups set up at launch, members are also able to create their own groups to discuss topics we haven’t considered. This allows the community to evolve to fit your needs.

Each group gets its own dedicated wiki, which can be modified and built on by its members. In addition to that, groups also have their own file library which they can use to store documents, presentations, or other files of interest to group members. Groups also have their own dedicated email list server, so group members can email one another without having to know the email address of every group member (and yes, we do have more conventional forums as well for people who prefer those). Finally, groups can have their own blog—this is mostly intended for groups like the SLT, Chapter Council, or individual chapters, so that they can communicate to the wider membership—but other groups can allow moderators, or even all members to contribute to their blogs.

Finally, the settings on all of these things are configurable. Some groups may choose to moderate their email list and library submissions, while others prefer a more wide-open conversation. You can set up different groups with different permissions and structures, depending on what’s appropriate—so we have groups for volunteers to discuss IIBA business as well as groups to talk about specific industries or methodologies.

Event Calendar
The site also comes with a proper event calendar so that we can keep everyone updated on events of interest to the BA community, such as webinars, chapter meetings, and conventions. We’ll be making an effort to capture as many of these as possible so that you know what’s available out there, but as with everything else you can add events yourself as well. Events are also searchable, so you can look specifically for webinars or chapter events in your area. Event locations are even shown on Google Maps!

Forums
The forums represent a major upgrade in capability from the ones on our current site. They now support WYSIWYG editing, allow people to develop reputations, include polls, and more. You can also subscribe to a forum via an RSS feed so that you know when a conversation has been updated.

Library
Last, but certainly not least, the community site has a searchable library. The Library can contain files, links to external sites, tips and stories, and book reviews, among other things. Each entry in the library is tagged so that you can easily find library entries that are relevant. Files in group libraries can be shared with the general library or kept private to the group. Each library entry allows for members to provide feedback on its quality and rate the value of the information

The most important point is that anyone can submit files to the library. We would like to encourage you to submit your templates, white papers, and anything else you see of value to the library in order to make it a useful resource for the BA community.

So, that’s what’s coming soon. We know that there are many BA sites out there today with a great deal of useful content, but we also believe that the IIBA Community Network facilitates knowledge-sharing that makes it unique. It allows members to talk to one another, rather than requiring the conversation to be directed by IIBA.

We do have open volunteer positions if you’re interested in helping out as a moderator or if you want to help develop and sustain a group discussing a particular topic or industry. If you are interested, please check out the volunteer pages on the IIBA website or contact community@theiiba.org. And keep your eyes open for the formal launch soon!

Kevin Brennan, CBAP
VP, Professional Development


Thursday, June 11, 2009

2.0 Exam Blueprint

Been meaning to post this.

  • BAP&M: 19.33%
  • Elicitation: 14%
  • RM&C: 16%
  • EA: 15.33%
  • RA: 19.33%
  • SA&V: 16%

Questions on the Techniques and on Underlying Competencies have been assigned to a relevant Knowledge Area.

As a reminder, the exam switches to version 2.0 on August 1. Questions should be directed to certification@theiiba.org.

Kevin Brennan, CBAP
VP, Professional Development


Wednesday, May 27, 2009

AGM 2009 Information and Revised IIBA Structure

The IIBA® Board of Directors and Senior Leadership Team (SLT) have reviewed the IIBA® leadership structure and have agreed that as the organization has evolved and matured, it is now necessary to change the bylaws. In our current structure, members of the Board of Directors are elected into active operations roles such as President or VP of Chapters. While this model was effective as we grew, the size and calibre of the IIBA® organization requires a more formal governance structure which allows us to be more agile and pro-active.

The Board is now proposing to move to a more traditional business model which clearly separates the purpose, objectives and roles of the board of directors from the team that runs the organization on a day-to-day basis. The changes we are proposing will ensure that the organization is governed more effectively and efficiently for the benefit of our members, other stakeholders, and the business analysis community as a whole. We need to be able to concentrate fully on the operations of the organization by hiring fulltime operational roles responsible to our Board and our members, as many of these roles demand more time and effort than volunteers are able to provide. Similarly, we need to ensure that the Board continues to effectively represent our members and their interests.

We will be asking our members to vote on the revisions to the Bylaws at the 2009 AGM. More information is available in this month's newsletter. The revised bylaws will be available for review on June 9, and a webinar to discuss the changes will be conducted on June 16.


Monday, May 18, 2009

BABOK Now Listed On Amazon

It's not in stock yet, but you can order a copy here.

UPDATE: Barnes and Noble apparently has it in stock.

UPDATE 2: It's now listed as in stock, although it will take about two weeks before Amazon has it in its warehouses and starts shipping.

Kevin Brennan, CBAP
VP, Professional Development

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Free to a Good Home

I have three copies of version 1.6 of the BABOK sitting around my office (in addition to the one I am planning to keep). The first three people to ask for one can have them.

UPDATE: All gone now, sorry.

Kevin Brennan, CBAP
VP, Professional Development


Errata Part 2

Here's the other things that got fixed. A few formatting/layout issues are not included on this list. See also the previous part. I'd love to think that the BABOK is now errata-free, but I'm sure there's something else that has still slipped past us.

P.5: Para.3, Sentence 3—Add comma after “Requirements include”. Delete comma after “enterprise”.

Figure 2-1 and 2-2: Change spelling of “Judgement” to “Judgment” to match text.

Figure 2-1: Reorganize Outputs in diagram to alphabetical order to match other diagrams in BABOK.

P. 34, 5th Para. Last sentence: Insert “or” after acceptance criteria and delete “or more detailed documentation” at end of sentence (the statement is redundant, since it’s mentioned earlier in the sentence as well).

P. 39: Last sentence—change “planned” to “considered in the plan”.

P. 53: Change “The word elicit is defined” to “The definition of elicitation is”

P. 66: Third para.--in “When presenting the requirements for review” delete “the”

P. 79: Last bullet point—delete superfluous comma

P. 85: Put parentheses around “is likely to”.

P. 104: Figure 6-3 incorrectly cross-referenced Specify and Model Requirements as 6.4 instead of 6.3.

P. 119—First word is “form”, should be “from”.

P. 138: 3rd paragraph: In sentence “It is likely that that there are...” only one “that” is needed.

P. 143: Under 8.1.4.3, Effectiveness Measures, it refers to decision analysis instead of problem solving.

P. 165: In section 9.7.3.3, 1st paragraph, delete second sentence as it refers to an example that was cut before release.

Kevin Brennan, CBAP
VP, Body of Knowledge