Business analysis is the set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to understand the structure, policies, and operations of an organization, and to recommend solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals. Business analysis involves understanding how organizations function to accomplish their purposes and defining the capabilities an organization requires to provide products and services to external stakeholders. It includes the definition of organizational goals, understanding how those goals connect to specific objectives, determining the courses of action that an organization has to undertake to achieve those goals and objectives, and defining how the various organizational units and stakeholders within and outside of that organization interact. A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK® Guide) contains a description of generally accepted practices in the field of business analysis. The content included in this release has been verified through reviews by practitioners, surveys of the business analysis community, and consultations with recognized experts in the field. In less than five years, the BABOK® Guide has been recognized around the world as a key tool for the practice of business analysis and become a widely-accepted standard for the profession, with over 200,000 copies downloaded from the IIBA® website. Version 2.0 represents a major advance on that standard, and will become an essential reference for business analysis professionals.
I am the Vice President, Professional Development and Communities of IIBA, with responsibility for IIBA's standards development, membership, chapters, the IIBA Community Network, and enhancing educational opportunities for IIBA members. I was one of the charter members of IIBA and served on the IIBA Board of Directors from 2006 to 2009.
I have over a decade's experience as a business analyst and project manager across several industry sectors, including regulated professions, utilities, automobile manufacturing, courier services, and mortgage banking. During this time I have performed just about every task a business analyst could be expected to do, from developing corporate and product strategies to being paged by end-users looking for technical support.
I'm a CBAP, PMP, and OMG Certified Expert in BPM (at the Business Advanced and Technical Intermediate levels). I have taught project management and requirements analysis at Humber College, have a B.A. degree in History and Political Science from the University of Toronto, and am a graduate of the Second City's improvisational comedy program.
