International Institute of Business Analysis officially announced the launch of this intermediate certification at its virtual Annual General Meeting in June. Applications will be available later this year, and the first candidates are expected to write the new CCBA™ exam in January 2011. 

Candidates can apply for the CCBA™ designation after they have accumulated about two and a half years of business analysis experience within the past seven years. Professionals with the intermediate CCBA™ certification will be able to apply their skills to smaller scope and less complex tasks than those with the more rigorous CBAP® designation. 

Details on how to obtain either designation can be reviewed in the Certification section of the IIBA websitehttp://www.theiiba.org. 

2) Since September is back-to-school month, we thought we would put on a "show and tell" event. We're calling it the BA Practitioner Fair. Think back to the days when you attended an elementary school science fair. You visited a variety of exhibits, hearing about unique experiments, and learning about discoveries at each table. Perhaps you enjoyed the thrill of hosting your own exhibit. 

Well, the BA Practitioner Fair on September 22nd will provide a similar experience as it showcases the practice of Business Analysis. We're going to set up several exhibits where you will hear about tools, techniques and processes employed by the local BA community. We hope to showcase Business Analysis "experiments," with real-world challenges, solutions, results and lessons learned. 

We're looking for individuals or organizations that want to be a part of this newly introduced program. If you have conquered a challenge in the realm of Business Analysis activities and would like to share it in a 15 minute table-side talk, please contact Susan Block at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  by August 24th. 

We can't give you extra credit for participating in the fair, but we can give you extra recognition!