Business Analysis Knowledge for Salesforce Experts, Fourth Edition

Written By Richard Cunningham

Explosive Growth in Salesforce Business Analysis Resources

The first half of 2021 saw tremendous growth in Salesforce business analyst information and training. Toni Martin launched the Salesforce Business Analyst (SFBA) Academy for Salesforce professionals to develop business analysis skills. Elements.cloud rolled out Elements Academy, including a collection of courses for business analysts. Salesforce Trailhead released a new module introducing process mapping, also covered in Elements Academy.

Quick Links

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 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.

While Get Started as a Salesforce Business Analyst introduces Salesforce business analysis, the SFBA Academy offers tools to plan a Salesforce business analyst career.

SFBA Academy

Toni Martin started the Salesforce Business Analyst (SFBA) Academy as a “resource dedicated exclusively to helping aspiring and current Salesforce Business Analysts to launch and grow their careers and skills with Curriculum, Career Support. and Coaching.”

  • Curriculum

    • Monthly Salesforce business analyst specific "content drops" 

      • On-demand workshops

      • Courses

      • Guides

    • This training equips SFBAs with the “nuts and bolts” to execute Salesforce business analysis.

  • Career Development

    • This membership provides SFBAs with Salesforce Job Search System resources, the dedicated course exclusively designed to be specific to landing a great job in the Salesforce ecosystem.

    • This series of videos, worksheets, and templates will help SFBAs:

      • Identify transferable skills to gain experience.

      • Package and position their talent for a job search.

      • Interview and negotiate with organizations.

      • Secure the role and start strong.

      • Confidently move forward in their ideal Salesforce role.

  • Coaching

    • Monthly Office Hours, led by Toni and her team of SFBA Mentors

    • An opportunity to get pre-submitted and live questions answered on topics such as an SFBA’s job search, BA deliverables, current project issues, and more

Once Salesforce business analysts have completed their training, they can move on to other important topics, such as agile software development.

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.

General Business Analysis

Capturing Requirements and Generating User Stories

Elements Academy’s Capturing requirements and generating user stories shows how to reduce the risks of misunderstood requirements and defective solution design in five modules:

Capture what users want

  • Understand what users need

  • Understand the underlying process

  • Understand the data model

  • Capture user stories

The course requires free registration. It uses process maps and data models extensively, so Elements Academy recommends taking its Business process mapping and Data modeling courses as prerequisites.

Process Impact

Process Impact has good articles on Business Analysis and Project Management at no charge. These articles emphasize the discovery and specification process more than communication (soft) 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. Software Requirements takes 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)

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

    • 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. Certification is no substitute for experience, where you work with customers to start making their solution a reality.   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). 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.

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 takes a deep dive 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.

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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