Business Analysis Knowledge for Salesforce Experts, Sixth Edition

Written By Richard Cunningham

Business Analysis Meets Generative AI

Generative artificial intelligence impacted many knowledge workers in 2023, including business analysts. It will not replace business analysts, developers, or admins, but it will transform their careers. AI can take over low-value tasks so stakeholders, including business analysts, can focus on high-value objectives.

Generative AI has made enough of an impact to warrant a new section here, AI-Powered Business Analysis.

Salesforce Business Analysis

Get Started as a Salesforce Business Analyst

For Salesforce professionals new to business analysis, Get Started as a Salesforce Business Analyst introduces business analysis concepts and skills in a Salesforce context:

  • Salesforce Business Analyst: Quick Look

    • Learn what Salesforce business analysts do and the skills they need to succeed.

  • Admin & Business Analyst Job Comparison: Quick Look

    • Learn what Salesforce admins and business analysts do and how their roles differ.

  • Essential Business Analyst Skills

    • Explore fundamental skills that drive successful projects.

  • User Story Creation

    • Discover the importance of user stories and learn how to write them.

  • Strategies for Presenting to Executive Audiences

    • Learn how to effectively present to executives.

  • Process Mapping for Business Analysts

    • Use process mapping to improve business processes.

  • Business Analyst Best Practices

    • Improve your skills as a business analyst with pro tips from the experts.

The Salesforce Certified Business Analyst Credential

Get certified as a Salesforce Business Analyst! The credential can expand career opportunities if you have a little Salesforce business analysis experience. If you have a lot of experience, the Salesforce Certified Business Analyst credential makes it official!

Learn Salesforce Agile Practices

Agile software development needs business analysts to continuously discover customer needs, write user stories and collaborate with product owners. Trailhead has a trail for agile software development, Learn Salesforce Agile Practices.  It includes two modules:

  • Salesforce Agile Basics

    • Learn why Salesforce adopted agile, basic concepts, and lean principles

  • Scrum and Kanban at Salesforce

    • Discover two workflows Salesforce teams use for agile development.

The Learn Atlassian Agile Practices trail provides a more general overview of agile development.

General Business Analysis

Elements Academy Courses

Elements Academy offers free business analyst courses, including:

  • Perform process-led fit-gap analysis

    • What is fit-gap analysis, and why is it important?

    • Universal Process Notation (UPN) topics

    • Accelerate fit-gap analysis with AI

    • Capture operational impact

    • Perform technical fit-gap analysis

  • Capture business requirements

    • Collect and manage business wishes

    • Capture feedback/pain points from end-users at a point of need

Bridging the Gap to Business Analysis Success

Bridging the Gap offers business analysis courses, including the free How to Successfully Launch Your Business Analyst Career for signing up. The Business Analyst Blueprint® Certification Program focuses on earning an Applied Certification in Business Analysis™ (ACBA).

Bridging the Gap also offers a variety of templates. Beyond checklists, the templates guide requirements discovery to cover business needs.

Bridging the Gap’s blog offers many informative free articles about life as a business analyst. They also have Agile Business Analysis Archives.

Laura Brandenburg, Bridging the Gap’s founder and CEO, wrote the book How to Start a Business Analyst Career. In this video, Laura discusses business analyst training vs. certification with Salesforce Business Analyst thought leader Toni Martin.

Adriana Beal, a Bridging the Gap contributor, wrote an excellent book, Tested Stakeholder Interviewing Methods for Business Analysts.

Requirements In Depth

Dr.Karl Wiegers, a 50-year software development veteran, has written ten books on the subject, most recently: 

Both books provide concise insights based on Dr. Wiegers’ extensive software development experience. Candase Hokanson co-authored Software Requirements Essentials with Dr. Wiegers to bring an agile perspective to the book.

Dr. Wiegers has written two authoritative books about requirements

These books dive deeply into discovering, creating, and managing requirements. Dr. Wiegers also wrote Successful Business Analysis Consulting for experienced business analysts looking to move from employee to consultant.

Dr. Karl Wiegers created Process Impact to highlight his many articles on Business Analysis and Project Management. These articles emphasize the discovery and specification process more than communication (soft) skills.

International Institute of Business Analysis

The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) offers these business analyst certifications:

  • Core business analysis certification levels

    • Entry Certificate in Business Analysis™ (ECBA™)

    • Certification of Capability in Business Analysis™ (CCBA®)

    • Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP®)

  • Business analysis specialties

    • Product Ownership Analysis Certification (IIBA®-CPOA)

    • Agile Analysis Certification (IIBA®-AAC)

    • Business Data Analytics Certification (IIBA®-CBDA)

    • Certificate in Cybersecurity Analysis (IIBA®- CCA)

IIBA requires work experience to earn certifications for a good reason. Certification is no substitute for experience, where you work with customers to start making their solutions a reality.   You get more benefits from what you learn to prepare for certification exams than the certification itself.

IIBA publishes the Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK® Guide). It is the most comprehensive source of business analysis information in one place. The BABOK Guide is a valuable reference, especially if you anticipate working with enterprises with formal procedures, such as large corporations.

IIBA recognized the significance of agile software development and published the Agile Extension to the BABOK® Guide.  It introduces three agile horizons: 

  • Strategy - understanding and achieving business goals

  • Initiative - defining and delivering a solution satisfying a business need

  • Delivery - understanding and fulfilling requirements mapped to business goals

Like the BABOK® Guide, the Agile Extension to the BABOK® Guide extensively covers techniques to apply to solution discovery and design.

AI-Driven Business Analysis

Process Mapping

Trailhead Business Process Mapping

Salesforce introduced the Business Process Mapping module to Trailhead in 2021. It connects business analysis with solution architecture through process mapping. The module deeply delves into creating process diagrams, guiding a business analyst or architect on the relationships between process steps, inputs, outputs, and resources. The trail also covers the purpose and scope of a process map and stakeholder engagement.

Elements Academy Business Process Mapping

Elements Academy’s Business Process Mapping course defines business analysis and highlights why it’s crucial for strong architecture. The course shows some specific benefits of process mapping, including “Engaged stakeholders lead to better feedback.” Better stakeholder feedback enriches the understanding of what a business needs, resulting in a solution better fulfilling the requirements.

Purposeful Architect Process Mapping Overview

Check out our map of nine articles about process mapping:

  • Blazing a New Process Mapping Trail

    • Salesforce’s Business Process Mapping Trailhead module connects business analysis with solution architecture through process mapping.

  • Elements Academy Highlights

    • Elements.cloud’s Academy includes a Business process mapping module showing a simple means to create process maps.

  • Mapping Out Complexity

    • Purposeful Architect’s introduction to process mapping.

  • The Process Map and User Story Tango

    • Process maps help develop user stories in an extended format and find process gaps.

  • Thoughtful Process Mapping

    • Tailoring process diagrams for specific stakeholders to engage them and streamlines process map review.

  • Process Mapping the Big Picture

    • Starting a process map at the business program level ensures thorough process coverage.

  • Leveling Process Maps

    • Clarifying a process map by adding levels of process diagrams to reduce the steps per diagram.

  • The Art of Connecting Process Steps

    • Connecting process diagram steps with informative labels to create meaningful process diagrams.

  • Decision Analysis and Modeling

    • Showing all possible outcomes of a decision with decision trees and tables to ensure coverage for every scenario.

Do you have a favorite source of business analysis not included here? Please leave a comment, and we’ll check it out.

Richard Cunningham
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