Next up in my blog series on certifications is the Agile Analyst Certification (AAC) offered by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®). If you are performing business analysis on an agile team, you might want to consider adding this to your list of credentials.
Why the AAC?
Since the introduction of agile ways of working, people have asked many questions about where business analysis fits. In Scrum, the team includes a group of “developers” who don’t have other titles (even though they may have specific areas of specialization). As a business analysis professional, your skills on an agile team are more critical than ever. Earning this certification will ensure that you have the right mindset and the right tools in your toolbox. It could also be a gateway toward growing into a Product Owner role.
Source Materials
The resource for studying (and passing) this exam primarily includes the Agile Extension to the BABOK®, version 2, written in collaboration with the Agile Alliance. The extension contains most of what you will need to pass the exam, combined with your experience.
To a lesser extent, you should also be familiar with the content of the BABOK® itself (but you don’t need to memorize it).
If you’re a member of the IIBA®, you can get both publications in PDF format for free as a member benefit. If you’re not a member, you’ll have to purchase them.
Key Concepts
Agile Mindset
Having an Agile Mindset is a very important knowledge area for the exam. This subject accounts for 30% of the exam questions. If you already have prior agile experience, you probably don’t need to study this material quite as much as the other knowledge areas, which are listed in the next section.
Planning Horizons
The IIBA®‘s approach to this topic introduces a new concept called “planning horizons,” and having a firm grasp on what they are is key to the test. There are three horizons to be aware of:
- Strategic (10%)
- Initiative (25%)
- Delivery (35%)
Each of these horizons provides feedback into the other horizons. For the test, it is crucial to understand what types of activities occur in each of these horizons and their time spans.
Techniques
There are a host of new agile techniques included in the Agile Extension. Because I already held the CBAP® when I took this test, I focused on the new techniques while only brushing up on the ones I already knew. Here are the techniques that are unique or new to the extension:
- Backlog Refinement
- Behavior Driven Development
- Impact Mapping
- Job Stories
- Kano Analysis
- Minimal Viable Product
- Personas
- Planning Workshops
- Portfolio Kanban
- Product Roadmap
- Purpose Alignment Model
- Real Options
- Relative Estimation
- Retrospectives
- Spikes
- Storyboarding
- Story Decomposition
- Story Elaboration
- Story Mapping
- Value Modeling
- Value Stream Mapping
- Visioning
For a complete list of all the agile analysis techniques from the BABOK®, you can download a PDF version.
Exam Simulation
I usually subscribe to an exam simulator when I’m preparing for a certification test. For this certification, I used the one from Watermark Learning. I have used many of their other simulators, and they do an excellent job helping to prepare you for the exams. I like that their site keeps a history of your test results so you can identify areas of weakness. At the beginning of my certification journey, I will typically start cold and take a full exam simulation; this gives me a baseline and helps me form a plan of attack.
The simulator is available for 30, 60, or 90 days at various price points (the longer your term, the better deal you get).
Study Tools
I prefer a free website called Cram.com for creating study cards. The cool part is that you can turn your studying into fun by playing games with your questions and answers. You can also search to find other people’s collections for the same certification. And you can decide whether you want your set to be visible to the public or not. The only caveat is that there are tons of advertisements.
Exam Cost
If you are a member of the IIBA®, you can take the exam for $250. For non-members, the price is $375. Should you fail on your first attempt, re-write fees are $200 and $325, respectively.
The Test
The online exam has 85 multiple-choice, scenario-based questions that you must complete within 2 hours. Because it’s scenario-based, it asks you to apply not just book knowledge but also experience. Knowing the terms and concepts is not enough – you need to have lived through it.
The AAC is also a proctored exam, which means you will need to meet all the testing organization’s requirements to take the test. If you want tips for test day, visit this blog.
Exam Results
Once you finish the exam, you will get your result immediately. When I took the CBAP® exam, I had to do it in person at a testing center, and instead of getting your result right away, a survey popped up about your testing experience. Talk about annoying! Anyway – rant over. You know right away if you passed or failed. I typically key in on the word “congratulations” and don’t read the rest of the words. That’s all I want to know. In a couple of days, you should also go onto the IIBA® website and see how you performed in each of the knowledge areas.
As you can see, I passed with “Higher” on all the knowledge areas, which means I know the content and have the experience.
What about Recertification?
Yes, this is a certification that you must perform continuing learning for to be able to maintain. It’s interesting that for the AAC, the certification is good for only one year, as compared to the CBAP®, which is every three years. The shorter period is probably due to how rapidly agile changes and the need to stay on top of your skills. The cost of renewal is $30 for members and $50 for non-members. You also need to earn 20 Continuing Development Units (CDUs) every year. The unfortunate part is that you must track these manually, but if you either keep a spreadsheet or log your activities as soon as you do them, it’s not too bad. If you forget to do this as you go, you’ll struggle to go back and figure out all the events you attended or activities you did to earn your credits.
Final Thoughts
I found this certification to be a worthwhile investment. If you are a traditional business analyst who is struggling to adapt to an agile environment, then studying the Agile Extension and learning the new techniques will make you much better at your job.
So, what do you think? Do you still want to earn the IIBA®-AAC? Then go for it! And please come back and share your experience with me. I would love to hear your thoughts.