IIBA Multi-Level Competency

Based Certification Program

Level 1
Learning Objectives

International Institute of Business Analysis, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

2016 International Institute of Business Analysis. All rights reserved.
This document is provided to the business analysis community for educational purposes. IIBA does not warrant that it is
suitable for any other purpose and makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for
errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the
use of the information contained herein.
IIBA, the IIBA logo, BABOK and Business Analysis Body of Knowledge are registered trademarks owned by
International Institute of Business Analysis. CBAP is a registered certification mark owned by International Institute of
Business Analysis. Certified Business Analysis Professional, EEP and the EEP logo are trademarks owned by International
Institute of Business Analysis.
No challenge to the status or ownership of these or any other trademarked terms contained herein is intended by the
International Institute of Business Analysis.
Any inquiries regarding this publication should be sent by email to certification@iiba.org.

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Introduction to IIBA Multi-level CompetencyBased Certification

IIBA is the leading global organization providing networking, learning and resources to the global business analysis (BA) community.
IIBA continues to uphold the highest standards of practice for the BA profession.
The competency based certification program recognizes the BA professional through their career progression, supporting more
opportunities for growth and development. This is an important step in the evolution of recognizing business analysis professionals in
today's marketplace.
The four level certification program assesses and measures an individuals' competencies and clearly articulates what is expected at
each level for both the BA professional and their employers. The competencies provide a clear differentiation between certification
levels and enable the BA professional to seek specific learning and development to support them in achieving the desired level.
The four levels of the certification program recognize the increasing levels of maturity of the BA career progression. The certification
program encourages BA professionals to develop a career in business analysis and provides the ability to recognize milestones in their
career and map their career alongside the BA certification progression.
BA professionals have an opportunity to grow and develop in their profession and to be recognized for that growth and development
from the start of their career through to retirement.
The certification program consists of four distinct levels:
Level 1 provides individuals, with no business analysis experience who are developing their BA skills, with a certificate that
recognizes their entry into the BA profession, and will be exam based.
Level 2 recognizes results oriented BA professionals who have two to three years of business analysis experience. Level 2 will
require approximately 3750 hours of experience and is also exam based. Current professionals with their CCBA designation
will be grandfathered into level 2.
Level 3 recognizes BA professionals who lead and deliver business value with over 5 years of business analysis experience.
Level 3 will require approximately 7,500 hours of experience and is also exam based. Current professionals with their CBAP
designation will be grandfathered into level 3.
Level 4 recognizes BA professionals whose expertise in the BA field is well sought after, have over 10 years of business
analysis experience, are industry thought leaders, give back to the community and contribute to the evolution of the BA
practice. Level 4 will require a minimum of 15,000 hours, and is assessment based.

Introduction to Level 1 Learning Objectives

The Level 1 learning objectives have been created to aid training providers such as EEPs, Academic Recognition participants and
Chapters in creating professional development including exam study groups.
The learning objectives reflect the competencies and proficiencies an individual is expected to demonstrate to be considered for Level
1 recognition.
For Level 1, the following proficiencies are the measurement criteria for the competencies specifically, each learning objective will be
stated as:
Basic Knowledge - Has a fundamental awareness of basic skills and knowledge involved in the competency.
Understands - Recognizes the key elements of the competency and why they are important. However, not expected to have the
experience nor skill level to act upon the competency.
Follows Rules - Ability to adhere to prescribed ways to work in order to execute activities related to the competency. Generally,
needs rules and guidelines to perform tasks.

Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring

Plan Business Analysis Approach

Business Analysis Planning and

Monitoring
The business analysis approach and techniques used in managing business analysis work, business analysis
information and stakeholder engagement in an initiative.

3.1

Plan Business Analysis Approach

The purpose of Plan Business Analysis Approach is to define an appropriate method to conduct business
analysis activities.

Learning Objectives:
Follows Rules selecting the business analysis approach.
Understands determining the appropriate level of formality that is required for the business analysis
approach.
Understands identifying the required business analysis activities.
Understands considering the timing of business analysis work within the context of the overall change.
Understands assessing the complexity and size of the change and the overall risk factors for the change.
Follows Rules ensuring key stakeholders understand and agree to the business analysis approach.

3.2

Plan Stakeholder Engagement

The purpose of Plan Stakeholder Engagement is to plan an approach for establishing and maintaining effective
working relationships with the stakeholders.

Learning Objectives:
Understands performing stakeholder analysis.
Basic Knowledge defining the level of stakeholder collaboration that will be required to support the
change.
Basic Knowledge identifying appropriate stakeholder communication needs.

3.3

Plan Business Analysis Governance

The purpose of Plan Business Analysis Governance is to define how decisions are made about requirements
and designs, including reviews, change control, approvals, and prioritization.

Learning Objectives:
Follows rules identifying an effective decision making process
Understands developing an effective change control process for requirements and designs.
Basic Knowledge planning effective prioritization process for requirements and designs.
Follows Rules planning an effective approval process for the deliverables that will be produced.

Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring

3.4

Plan Business Analysis Information Management

Plan Business Analysis Information Management

The purpose of Plan Business Analysis Information Management is to develop an approach for how business
analysis information will be stored and accessed.

Learning Objectives:
Understands determining how business analysis information will be organized.
Basic Knowledge determining the appropriate level of abstraction for business analysis information.
Understands planning the traceability approach.
Basic Knowledge planning for requirements reuse.
Follows Rules determining how business analysis information will be stored and accessed.
Basic Knowledge identifying of what attributes will be used for ongoing management of requirements
and designs.

3.5

Identify Business Analysis Performance

Improvements
The purpose of Identify Business Analysis Performance Improvements is to assess business analysis work and
to plan to improve processes where required.

Learning Objectives:
Understands reports on business analysis performance.
Basic Knowledge identifying analysis performance measures that can be used.
Basic Knowledge assessing business analysis performance measures.
Basic Knowledge recommending improvements to business analysis performance.

Elicitation and Collaboration

Prepare for Elicitation

Elicitation and Collaboration

Obtains and confirms information from stakeholders to address the business need.

4.1

Prepare for Elicitation

The purpose of Prepare for Elicitation is to understand the scope of the elicitation activity, select appropriate
techniques, and plan for (or procure) appropriate supporting materials and resources.

Learning Objectives:
Understands the scope of the elicitation effort.
Understands selecting appropriate elicitation techniques.
Follows Rules to set up logistics for elicitation activities.
Understands preparing supporting elicitation materials.
Understands preparing stakeholders to ensure elicitation activities will run smoothly.

4.2

Conduct Elicitation
The purpose of Conduct Elicitation is to draw out, explore, and identify information relevant to the change.

Learning Objectives:
Understands guiding the elicitation activity.
Follows Rules to capture the outcomes of the elicitation activity.

4.3

Confirm Elicitation Results

The purpose of Confirm Elicitation Results is to check the information gathered during an elicitation session for
accuracy and consistency with other information.

Learning Objectives:
Understands comparing elicitation results against source information.
Understands comparing elicitation results against other elicitation results.

4.4

Communicate Business Analysis Information

The purpose of Communicate Business Analysis Information is to ensure stakeholders have a shared
understanding of business analysis information.

Learning Objectives:
Understands determining objectives and format of communication.
Understands communicating the appropriate level of detail so stakeholders can understand the
information.

Elicitation and Collaboration

4.5

Manage Stakeholder Collaboration

Manage Stakeholder Collaboration

The purpose of Manage Stakeholder Collaboration is to encourage stakeholders to work towards a common
goal.

Learning Objectives:
Understands gaining agreement for required stakeholder commitments.
Understands to monitoring stakeholder engagement.
Understands demonstrating collaborative relationships with key stakeholders.

Requirements Life Cycle Management

Trace Requirements

Requirements Life Cycle Management

Selects appropriate tasks and techniques to manage and maintain requirements and design information from
inception to retirement.

5.1

Trace Requirements
The purpose of Trace Requirements is to ensure that requirements and designs at different levels are aligned
to one another, and to manage the effects of change to one level on related requirements.

Learning Objectives:
Understands considering value and relationships while tracing requirements.
Understands identifying the relationships to track to effectively manage traceability.
Follows Rules determining an appropriate traceability repository to be used.

5.2

Maintain Requirements
The purpose of Maintain Requirements is to retain requirement accuracy and consistency throughout and
beyond the change during the entire requirements life cycle, and to support reuse of requirements in other
solutions.

Learning Objectives:
Basic Knowledge to determining how best to maintain requirement and design information.
Basic Knowledge determining how best to manage attributes.
Basic Knowledge managing requirements that can be reused, longer term."

5.3

Prioritize Requirements
The purpose of Prioritize Requirements is to rank requirements in the order of relative importance.

Learning Objectives:
Understands determining the appropriate basis on which requirements will be prioritized.
Basic Knowledge guiding stakeholders through the challenges of prioritization.
Basic Knowledge prioritizing as new information becomes available.

5.4

Assess Requirements Changes

The purpose of Assess Requirements Changes is to evaluate the implications of proposed changes to
requirements and designs.

Learning Objectives:
Understands assessing the formality of the assessment process.
Basic Knowledge completing impact analysis activities, as needed.

Requirements Life Cycle Management

Approve Requirements

Basic Knowledge to guiding impact resolution activities.

5.5

Approve Requirements
The purpose of Approve Requirements is to obtain agreement on and approval of requirements and designs
for business analysis work to continue and/or solution construction to proceed.

Learning Objectives:
Understands stakeholder roles and authority levels.
Understands managing conflicts and resolving issues.
Understands using appropriate methods to gain consensus about key business analysis information.
Follows Rules tracking and communicating approval decisions.

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Strategy Analysis

6
6.1

Analyze Current State

Strategy Analysis
Defines the most effective way to apply enterprise capabilities to achieve the desired goals and objectives.

Analyze Current State

The purpose of Analyze Current State is to understand the reasons why an enterprise needs to change some
aspect of how it operates and what would be directly or indirectly affected by the change.

Learning Objectives:
Understands defining business needs.
Understands the organizational structure and culture.
Understands the organizational capabilities and processes.
Understands the technology and infrastructure utilized by the organization.
Understands organizational policies and business rules.
Basic Knowledge of the organization's business architecture.
Basic Knowledge of the organization's internal assets.
Basic Knowledge of external influencers.

6.2

Define Future State

The purpose of Define Future State is to determine the set of necessary conditions to meet the business need.

Learning Objectives:
Understands articulating business goals and objectives.
Understands determining the solution scope.
Understands identifying constraints.
Basic Knowledge identifying potential changes to organizational structure and culture required to
support the desired change.
Basic Knowledge identifying new capabilities and business processes that will be required to support
the change.
Basic Knowledge identifying new technology and infrastructure that will be required to support the
change.
Basic Knowledge identifying new organizational policies and business rules.
Basic Knowledge ensuring business architecture is respected.
Basic Knowledge assessing resource alignment for future state and transition to future state.
Basic Knowledge identifying assumptions related to the future state.
Basic Knowledge evaluating the potential value for the future state.

6.3

Assess Risks
The purpose of Assess Risks is to understand the undesirable consequences of internal and external forces on
the enterprise during a transition to, or once in, the future state. An understanding of the potential impact of
those forces can be used to make a recommendation about a course of action.

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Strategy Analysis

Define Change Strategy

Learning Objectives:
Basic Knowledge identifying unknowns.
Basic Knowledge identifying and manage constraints, assumptions and dependencies.
Basic Knowledge quantifying the impact of risk factors.
Basic Knowledge assessing stakeholder and organizational risk tolerances.
Basic Knowledge recommending an effective course of action based on risk assessment.

6.4

Define Change Strategy

The purpose of Define Change Strategy is to develop and assess alternative approaches to the change, and then
select the recommended approach.

Learning Objectives:
Basic Knowledge identifying the appropriate solution scope after evaluating multiple solution scope
options.
Basic Knowledge performing gap analysis to understand missing capabilities.
Basic Knowledge completing the enterprise readiness assessment.
Basic Knowledge developing an effective change strategy.
Basic Knowledge developing appropriate transition states and completes release plans.

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Requirements Analysis and Design Definition (RADD)

Specify and Model Requirements

Requirements Analysis and Design

Definition (RADD)
Describes tasks and techniques to ensure the requirements and solution design address the business need.

7.1

Specify and Model Requirements

The purpose of Specify and Model Requirements is to analyze, synthesize, and refine elicitation results into
requirements and designs.

Learning Objectives:
Understands modelling requirements and designs.
Understands analyzing requirements and designs.
Understands identifying key information for requirements and designs, and their attributes.
Understands developing the appropriate level of abstraction to meet various needs.

7.2

Verify Requirements
The purpose of Verify Requirements is to ensure that requirements and designs specifications and models
meet quality standards and are usable for the purpose they serve.

Learning Objectives:
Understands applying the characteristics of requirements and designs quality.
Understands performing verification activities throughout the work.
Follows Rules using appropriate checklists for quality control.

7.3

Validate Requirements
The purpose of Validate Requirements is to ensure that all requirements and designs align to the business
requirements and support the delivery of needed value.

Learning Objectives:
Basic Knowledge identifying assumptions and utilize them to manage risks.
Basic Knowledge defining measurable evaluation criteria to assess the success of the change.
Basic Knowledge evaluating alignment with solution scope to support value delivery.

7.4

Define Requirements Architecture

The purpose of Define Requirements Architecture is to ensure that the requirements collectively support one
another to fully achieve the objectives.

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Requirements Analysis and Design Definition (RADD)

Define Design Options

Learning Objectives:
Basic Knowledge making effective use of requirement viewpoints and views.
Basic Knowledge leveraging templates to develop the solution architecture.
Understands ensuring the set of requirements is complete.
Understands ensuring requirements relate to each other by identifying requirements relationships.
Understands defining the business analysis information architecture.

7.5

Define Design Options

The purpose of Define Design Options is to define the solution approach, identify opportunities to improve the
business, allocate requirements across solution components, and represent design options that achieve the
desired future state.

Learning Objectives:
Understands identifying appropriate solution approaches.
Understands identifying improvement opportunities.
Understands allocating requirements to solution components and releases to best achieve change
objectives.
Understands developing design options aligned with the desired future state.

7.6

Analyze Potential Value and Recommend Solution

The purpose of Analyze Potential Value and Recommend Solution is to estimate the potential value for each
design option and to establish which one is most appropriate to meet the enterprises requirements.

Learning Objectives:
Understands identifying the benefits that a potential solution is expected to deliver.
Understands identifying the costs associated with a potential solution.
Basic Knowledge determining the value of a solution to key stakeholders.
Basic Knowledge assessing design options and recommends the appropriate solution.

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Solution Evaluation

Measure Solution Performance

Solution Evaluation
Assesses the performance and value delivered by a solution being used and recommends actions to realize full
potential value.

8.1

Measure Solution Performance

The purpose of Measure Solution Performance is to define performance measures and use the data collected to
evaluate the effectiveness of a solution in relation to the value it brings.

Learning Objectives:
Basic Knowledge identifying the appropriate measures to use to assess solution performance.
Basic Knowledge validating the performance measures selected with key stakeholders.
Basic Knowledge collecting appropriate performance measures that can be used to assess solution
performance.

8.2

Analyze Performance Measures

The purpose of Analyze Performance Measures is to provide insights into the performance of a solution in
relation to the value it brings.

Learning Objectives:
Basic Knowledge examining the performance measures collected to assess solution performance
against the desired value.
Basic Knowledge highlighting risks identified through assessing the performance measures.
Basic Knowledge assessing performance measures to identify relevant trends.
Basic Knowledge testing and analyzing performance measures to ensure their accuracy.
Basic Knowledge identifying performance variances, their root cause, and recommending appropriate
actions to reduce variance.

8.3

Assess Solution Limitations

The purpose of Assess Solution Limitations is to determine the factors internal to the solution that restrict the
full realization of value.

Learning Objectives:
Basic Knowledge to identifying internal solution component dependencies.
Basic Knowledge performing problem analysis to identify the source of solution limitations.
Basic Knowledge performing impact assessment activities to quantify factors that effect solution
performance.

8.4

Assess Enterprise Limitations

The purpose of Assess Enterprise Limitations is to determine how factors external to the solution are
restricting value realization.

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Solution Evaluation

Recommend Actions to Increase Solution Value

Learning Objectives:
Basic Knowledge assessing enterprise culture.
Basic Knowledge completing stakeholder impact analysis.
Basic Knowledge assessing how a solution impacts the organizational structure.
Basic Knowledge performing operational assessment.

8.5

Recommend Actions to Increase Solution Value

The purpose of Recommend Actions to Increase Solution Value is to understand the factors that create
differences between potential value and actual value, and to recommend a course of action to align them.

Learning Objectives:
Basic Knowledge ensuring appropriate solution performance measures are being used.
Basic Knowledge providing substantiated recommendations.

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