Business Analysis Knowledge for Salesforce Experts
The Salesforce Business Analysts Trailblazer Community often gets asked by consultants, admins, or developers where they can find the Business Analyst content in Trailhead. They got their answer in November 2020 with a new trail, Get Started as a Salesforce Business Analyst. We have added the trail to our updated list of Salesforce business analyst resources:
Trailhead for the Salesforce Business Analysis Journey
Explore Salesforce business analyst skills
A Free, Quick Introduction to Business Analysis and More
Learn about business analysis, its importance, and processes
Business Analysis Meets Salesforce
Follow the Trailmix that puts the business analyst role in a Salesforce context
A Treasure Trove of Business Analyst Information
Discover a wealth of business analysis articles and courses at Bridging the Gap
Dive into Process Impact for articles on software requirements development and management
Meet the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), which offers certifications and publishes the Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge®
Trailhead for the Salesforce Business Analysis Journey
Salesforce Trailhead has a trail for business analysts, Get Started as a Salesforce Business Analyst. It 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 are different.
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.
Business Analyst Best Practices
Improve your skills as a business analyst with pro tips from the experts.
A Free, Quick Introduction to Business Analysis and More
Elements.cloud provides an Introduction to Business Analysis course at no charge. It literally maps out the importance and benefits of business analysis process in six brief units:
What is business analysis
Capturing user requirements
Mapping business processes
Writing user stories
Facilitating workshops
The course also includes a 26-minute video webinar based on Elements.cloud Org Confessions. The webinar shows how a business analyst uses Elements Catalyst to elicit requirements, map processes, and write user stories.
Elements also has several articles about business analysis:
Business Analysis Meets Salesforce
Toni V. Martin at Systems to Success recently created a Trailmix, Build Your Business Analyst Career on Salesforce. The Trailmix includes the following topics:
Get Started as a Salesforce Business Analyst (Trailhead)
Meet a Business Analyst
Supercharge Your CRM With the Salesforce Platform Trail
Explore with Analytics Trail
Trailhead Live: AI for Business Analysts
Salesforce Business Analysts Collaboration Group (Toni leads this group)
A Treasure Trove of Business Analyst Information
Bridging the Gap offers business analysis courses, including the free “Quick Start to Success as a Business Analyst” for signing up. They offer 100s of informative free articles about life as a business analyst.
Laura Brandenburg, Bridging the Gap’s founder and CEO, has an interview with Toni V. Martin of Systems to Success, Into a BA Leadership Role with Expertise in Salesforce.com: Toni V. Martin. Laura wrote the book How to Start a Business Analyst Career.
Adriana Beal, a Bridging the Gap contributor, wrote an excellent book, Tested Stakeholder Interviewing Methods for Business Analysts.
Bridging the Gap offers four on-demand courses:
BA Essentials Master Class
Business Process Analysis
Use Cases and Wireframes
Data Modeling for Business Analysts
Each course stands alone, but they recommend the BA Essentials Master Class for a good overview.
A Deep Dive Into the Process
Process Impact has good articles on Business Analysis and Project Management at no charge. These articles are more inclined toward the discovery and specification process than those in Bridging the Gap, which emphasize communication skills.
Dr. Karl Wiegers has taken most of the business analysis articles from the two books he wrote, Software Requirements (co-authored with Joy Beatty) and More About Software Requirements. I highly recommend Software Requirements to take a deep dive into Discovery with a C.A.U.S.E. - capture, acknowledge, understand, show and edit business needs. Dr. Wiegers wrote his latest book, Successful Business Analysis Consulting for experienced business analysts looking to move from employee to consultant.
Laura Brandenburg, Bridging the Gap’s founder and CEO, taps into Karl Wiegers’ experience and wisdom in these two video interviews:
Certification, Anyone?
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
Certificate in Cybersecurity Analysis (IIBA®- CCA)
Agile Analysis Certification (IIBA®-AAC)
Business Data Analytics Certification (IIBA®-CBDA)
IIBA requires work experience to earn certifications for a good reason. A certification is no substitute for experience, where you work with customers to start making their solution a reality. I agree with Laura Brandenburg about certifications - you get more benefit 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). This is the most comprehensive source of business analysis information in one place. The BABOK Guide is useful as a reference, especially if you anticipate working with enterprises with formal procedures, such as large corporations.
Do you have a favorite source of business analysis not included here? Please leave a comment and I’ll check it out.