Business Analysis Knowledge for Salesforce Experts, Third Edition

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The Salesforce Business Analysts Trailblazer Community often gets requests for more information about business analysis.  We have compiled this list of business analyst information resources, ranging from the introductory business analyst trailhead to IIBA certifications.

Our most recent update added information about agile software development.  For more about business analysis in an agile development context, see Business Analysis with Agile Software Development.

Trailhead for Salesforce Business Analysis and Agile Development

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.

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.

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:

  1. What is business analysis 

  2. Capturing user requirements 

  3. Mapping business processes

  4. Writing user stories

  5. 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:

Elements.cloud introduces agile business analysis in its article, Agile Business Analysis Principles.

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.

Bridging the Gap has many articles on agile software development in its Agile Business Analysis Archives.

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.

Software Requirements covers agile software development in chapter 20. It also touches on agile aspects of:

  • Agreeing on requirements (chapter 2)

  • The business analyst role (chapter 4)

  • Vision and scope (chapter 5)

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.

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.

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

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