CFA-001

The GAQM Certified Functional Analyst (CFA) - 001 exam covers a broad range of topics related to functional analysis. The main points can be grouped into these key areas:

I. Fundamentals of Business Analysis:

• Understanding Business Needs: Gathering requirements, eliciting stakeholder needs, defining business problems, and translating them into functional requirements. This involves techniques like interviews, workshops, surveys, and document analysis.
• Business Process Modeling: Creating and interpreting process flow diagrams (e.g., BPMN), identifying process improvement opportunities, and understanding the relationship between processes and systems.
• Requirements Elicitation and Analysis: Techniques for gathering, analyzing, and documenting requirements, including use cases, user stories, and other requirement specification methods. This also includes prioritizing requirements and managing conflicts.
• Requirements Management: Tracking, managing, and prioritizing requirements throughout the software development lifecycle. This includes using various tools and techniques for traceability and change management.

II. Functional Analysis Techniques:

• Data Modeling: Understanding entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs), data dictionaries, and data flow diagrams (DFDs). This involves identifying data entities, attributes, and relationships.
• Use Case Modeling: Developing and documenting use cases to describe system functionality from a user's perspective. This includes identifying actors, pre-conditions, post-conditions, and alternative flows.
• User Story Mapping: Creating visual representations of user stories to understand the flow of user interactions and prioritize development activities.
• Other Modeling Techniques: Familiarity with other analysis models like decision tables and state diagrams, as appropriate for the context of a problem.

III. Communication and Collaboration:

• Stakeholder Management: Identifying and managing stakeholders, understanding their concerns and expectations, and effectively communicating with them throughout the project lifecycle.
• Effective Communication: Communicating technical information to both technical and non-technical audiences. This includes written and verbal communication skills.
• Collaboration and Teamwork: Working effectively with team members and stakeholders to achieve project goals.

IV. Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) and Agile Methodologies:

• Understanding the SDLC: Familiarity with different SDLC models (waterfall, agile, iterative, etc.) and how functional analysis fits into each model.
• Agile Principles and Practices: Understanding agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, etc.) and their application to functional analysis.
• Iteration and Feedback: Understanding the iterative nature of software development and how to incorporate feedback into the analysis process.

V. Testing and Validation:

• Test Case Development: Basic understanding of how to create test cases to verify that the system meets requirements.
• Verification and Validation: Understanding the difference between verification (are we building it right?) and validation (are we building the right thing?).

It's important to note that the emphasis on each area can vary slightly depending on the specific version of the exam. Always refer to the official GAQM CFA-001 exam guide and syllabus for the most up-to-date and accurate information. The exam tests both knowledge and application of these concepts.