Salesforce Business Analyst study guide
Salesforce Business Analyst · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Salesforce Certified Business Analyst is a Salesforce credential aimed at people who translate business problems into Salesforce solutions. Salesforce describes the role this way: certified business analysts understand business needs, capture requirements, and collaborate with stakeholders to build Salesforce solutions that drive business improvements. That description is the clearest statement of the credential's intent - it is not a product-administration or development certification, but a role credential for the analysis work that happens before and alongside configuration. The exam therefore tests the surrounding craft rather than click-paths: how you run discovery conversations, how you draw out and confirm what stakeholders actually need, how you document and validate requirements, and how you move a business analysis effort from intake through agreement. Topics on this exam: Customer Discovery, Collaboration, Requirements, and Business Analysis Process. The Salesforce Business Analyst study guide has 4 sections and about 1,219 words.
01Customer Discovery
Customer discovery is the structured effort to understand the business problem, the people affected, and the value at stake before anyone configures Salesforce. Candidates must know the core techniques: stakeholder interviews, job shadowing/observation, facilitated workshops, surveys, and document analysis (existing process maps, reports, org charts). Stakeholder map : executive sponsor, process owner, end users, SMEs, Salesforce admin/architect, IT/security, compliance. Personas and journey maps : group users by behavior and goals, not by job title.
293 words, about 1 min02Collaboration
A business analyst sits between the business and the delivery team. Collaboration spans facilitated workshops, requirement review sessions, backlog refinement, demos, and asynchronous channels such as Chatter, Salesforce Files, Quip, and Slack. Know the mechanics: an agenda, a timebox, a parking lot, and written decisions and actions. RASCI/RACI : Responsible does the work; Accountable owns the outcome and is exactly one person ; Supporting assists; Consulted gives input; Informed is notified.
315 words, about 2 min03Requirements
Business requirements - why: "Cut quote turnaround from five days to one." 2. Stakeholder requirements - who needs what. Solution/functional requirements - what the system does. Non-functional requirements - how well: performance, security, scalability, availability, usability, licensing and data-volume limits.
295 words, about 1 min04Business Analysis Process
Plan the BA approach, elicit, analyze, document, validate, support build and UAT, then evaluate the solution. In agile this repeats each iteration; it is not a single waterfall pass. Candidates should distinguish elicitation (gathering information) from analysis (structuring, prioritizing, confirming it). AS-IS / TO-BE process maps and gap analysis - the gap is a measured delta, not a wish list.
316 words, about 2 min