I decided to use any free time that my schedule allowed – no matter how little, to get the process started. And as it often happens, after I got done with it, I thought, “gosh, this wasn’t so bad – I wish I had done this sooner!”  It was actually very invigorating and motivating. That’s when it dawned on me what an excellent idea it would be to share my experience and the template that I had created to structure my thought process, with my fellow BAs so that a larger group could benefit from my efforts. And then what else could be a better place than Bridging-the-Gap to share this – I have grown so much with the help of this blog, its members, its experts: Doug, Michelle, Linda, and last but no means the least, Laura!

(By the way, for more advice on getting your CBAP, check out Laura’s 8 Steps to Becoming a CBAP resource page.)

The worksheet that I have provided here is a template to help you capture information about your projects as they pertain to your CBAP application. The way this worksheet was planned, it allows you to work in in bits and pieces. So even if you have 20 minutes every day, I believe this worksheet will allow you to capture the required information and any related thoughts that come to mind, thus allowing you to keep the process going.

There are 6 sheets in the attached worksheet:

1. Start – Provides an overview on how to use this worksheet.
2. Projects – Allows you to list all your relevant projects and the associated details required for the application.
3. Project Tasks – Allows you to match your experience with the tasks defined in BABOK.
4. Org Info – Allows you to collect details about the organizations where you have performed these BA tasks and information about your project contacts.
5. Questions – Allows you to capture questions as they arise in your mind. There will be several questions that will come up in your mind while you are working on your application. This space will serve as a placeholder before you can draft an email to IIBA.
6. To Do List – To keep the application process on track. Write down the things that you need to attack to keep things moving for your CBAP application.

When I started this document for myself, I only had the Projects and the Questions sheet. I worked on my worksheet in bits and pieces over the span of my three weekend travels, and I am glad that I decided to forge ahead rather than waiting for a big free slot of free time, else I could have never finished it.

So my two cents would be to begin working on your CBAP application as little or as much you can every day! If you can set aside a dedicated time, that is superb, but if not, don’t prevent yourself from putting in those few minutes every day.

I hope this template serves as useful to you as it did to me.

>>Learn More About Becoming a CBAP or CCBA

Interested in becoming a CBAP or CCBA? We cover 8 steps to the CBAP certification, that will take you to just learning about the certification to successfully sitting for the exam.

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