I discussed dimensional modeling in the last post and why I felt this was something the BI BA can own. I also focused on red and blue people (nothing political here). These colors represent the business and IT. When blended they become “Purple People”, a Wayne Eckerson (TDWI) term. I wanted to continue down this path with data cleansing and data quality, and how BAs can assist in this area.

Data Cleansing

Data cleansing attempts to understand the content of the data, establish a standard form, and correct any inaccuracies detected. Data cleansing is done prior to the extract, transform, and loading (ETL) of the data. One of the tasks associated with data cleansing is the removal of obvious duplicates and not so obvious duplicates.

There have been many articles lately about the role of the BA on Agile projects. Some postulate that the BA role is closest to the product owner. After all, it is often suggested, they reside with and represent the business. They are in the best position to be the final voice when defining and prioritizing requirements.

As some of you may already know, the CCBA® has officially been announced and the exam is coming out soon. This is a new IIBA® certification for competent business analysts.

Who is a competent business analyst?

A competent business analyst is one who has invested time to develop their business analysis skills and expertise but has not yet achieved the level of experience required to sit for the CBAP® exam.

This certification is great for developers who have performed business analysis tasks for a minimum amount of time, or quality assurance analysts, or any other professional who has performed some business analysis task in the last 7 years.

Why should you consider this designation?