Business Analysis Webinars for March 2016 - Part II

Motivating in a Virtual Environment
Presented by Carl Pritchard
 

This webinar shares tips and tricks on how to keep our virtual professional relationships engaged, enthused and participative.

 

Audience: Public

Date/Time: Tuesday, March 15, 2016; 11:00 am – 12:30 am EDT
Host: IT Metrics & Performance Institute    @ITMPI
Cost: Free
Registration:   ITMPI Live Webinar Registration
 

  

 

   

BABOK® V3 Perspectives: What are they?

Presented by Gina Schmidt, ASPE Training
 
As described in the BABOK® V3, Perspectives "provide ways to approach business analysis work in a more focused manner suitable to the content." In this webinar we will provide a quick overview of each of the perspectives and show how any given initiative many include any one or all of them within the business analysis approach! The five perspectives as defined by IIBA® and will be presented include; Agile, Business Intelligence, Information Technology, Business Architecture and Business Process Management.
 
Audience: Public
Date/Time: Tuesday, March 15, 2016; 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT
Host: ASPE Training    @ASPE-SDLC
Cost: Free
Registration:   ASPE Training Web Seminar Registration
 

   

 

   

 

   

Agile Teams Need Generalizing Specialists
Presented by Alan Koch, ASPE Training
 
A central tenet of the Agile methods is collaboration -- all participants in the project being actively involved with each other in all of the project work. While this sounds great in theory, it can be problematic in practice because all team members are not equal.
 
Most of the Agile methods describe team members as generalists. Some (for example, Extreme Programming) explicitly describe a team of generalists, with no team member owning code or any other thing, and all team members having the authority to do anything that is necessary to achieve the goals of the User Story at hand.
 
But can we achieve the Agile ideal of full and open collaboration when our team members are not generalists? Is there a place for specialists on Agile teams?
 
Topics covered:

·         Technical Experts, Agile Generalists, Generalizing Specialists on Agile Teams

·         The role of a specialist in Testing

·         The role of a specialist in Requirements Elicitation

 

Audience: Public
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 16, 2016; 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT
Host: ASPE Training     @ASPE-SDLC
Cost: Free
Registration:   ASPE Training Web Seminar Registration
 

  

 

   

 

Better, Stronger, Faster: Plan and Conduct More Effective Requirements Workshops

Presented by Scott Kastner, PMP, CSM, Navtech
 
Well-run requirements workshops are considered one of the most effective ways for delivering high-quality requirements quickly and accurately. They can also promote trust, mutual understanding, and strong communications amongst the project stakeholders and project teams, and increase the probability of producing the desired deliverables to the end-users.
 
In this webinar, you will learn useful guidelines for planning and conducting an effective requirements workshop; additionally, you will also get familiar with some of the most common processes and techniques used to overcome the challenges of requirements elicitation.
 
Audience: Public
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 16, 2016; 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT
Host: Corporate Education Group    @CorpEdGroup
Cost: Free
Registration:   Corp Education Group Webinar Registration
 

   

  

 

 

 

Requirements for Requirements!
Presented by Jamie Champagne, Senior IT Business Analyst, IT Planning and PMO
 
Requirements are the heart and soul of a BA. This is the bread and butter for what a BA looks forward to every morning!  Yet, how are requirements done well in today's busy and chaotic environments?  How can you possibly manage when you have no ownership on end results yet still are laden with the full responsibility to deliver?!
 
In this session we walk through practical applications of requirements analysis & design and managing requirements in the 'real world' - where strict processes and templates may not always be followed (or even created), learn tips and tricks to help keep efforts on track and moving in a positive direction even when you're not the leader or person in charge (or even get the title of Business Analyst)! 
 
Topics to be covered during this session are planning for requirements elicitation, elicitation techniques, traceability, testing plans, validation, approvals, tracking and even reuse.
 
Audience: IIBA Members
Date/Time: Monday, March 28, 2016; 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT
Host: IIBA    @IIBA
Register:   IIBA Member Webinar Registration
   
 

 

 

   

Continuous Delivery 101
Presented by Chris Knotts, ASPE Training
 
Continuous Delivery (CD) is gaining steam as a practical set of technical processes for delivering end-to-end application value in a faster, more incremental fashion. Continuous Delivery is also closely associated with DevOps, although there is much debate about exactly how the two terms overlap.
 
In this one hour web seminar, we will bring some clarification to these topics as we present an overview and take questions on Continuous Delivery. We will relate CD as a set of workflow and IT management practices to DevOps as a cultural movement, and discuss the complex relationship between the two. Key areas of discussion will include:  
 

·         CD: What is it?

·         A brief history of continuous delivery

·         Why CD is so important

·         Continuous Delivery and DevOps

·         Real-world case study: implementing Agile, DevOps, and CD at scale

   

Audience: Public
Date/Time: Tuesday, March 29, 2016; 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT
Host: ASPE Training    @ASPE-SDLC
Cost: Free
Registration:   ASPE Training Web Seminar Registration
 
 

 

 

   

Intro to DevOps for Business Analysts
Presented by Chris Knotts, ASPE Training
 
DevOps focuses on being lean and eliminating waste by retaining the fundamental principles of Agile. At the same time, it improves the collaboration between dev, IT and ops. So how does all of this impact the BA? A BA has a crucial role to play in coordinating between teams. DevOps is a cultural change. It's about sharing business objectives and getting all the stakeholders working towards a common objective. The BA role can be a key DevOps player and the go-to person for business success. In this session, get a quick introduction to DevOps and the impact it has on the BA and how the BA role can be a factor for organizations.
 
Audience: Public
Date/Time: Tuesday, March 29, 2016; 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT
Host: ASPE Training    @ASPE-SDLC
Cost: Free
Registration:   ASPE Training Web Seminar Registration
 

   

 

 

Blueprint Systems Live Product Demonstration
Presented by Blueprint Systems
 
Join us for a live, interactive demonstration where we will demonstrate how Blueprint helps teams and stakeholders engage effectively to produce great business applications.

Learn more about:

 

·         Defining requirements for large enterprise Agile projects;

·         Driving efficiency through reuse across multiple projects;

·         How multiple groups can engage to seamlessly implement project changes

 
Offering integration with application lifecycle management tools, Blueprint works with different development methodologies, including Agile and Waterfall.
 
Register now and see why Blueprint is a better, visual way to drive the success of mission critical IT projects
 
Audience: Public
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 30, 2016; 11:00 am – 11:30 pm EST
Host: Blueprint Systems   @Blueprintsys
Cost: Free
Registration:   Blueprint Systems Live Product Demonstration Registration
 
 

  

 

 

The New Kid on the Block: What’s the Role of a Business Relationship Manager and How Do You "Fit In"?
Presented by Bonnie Cooper, PMP
 
Your title may not illustrate it. Your job description may not sufficiently describe it. But you are known as a trusted advisor who delivers business value through projects and services. You are a prime liaison between service provider and business leadership. If you are a project manager, business analyst, account manager, or a functional manager within a corporate shared service department like IT, Finance, HR, Legal, Customer Service – you need to attend this webinar, and learn how the role of business relationship manager is helping organizations realize value from day-to-day operations and project investments. As a strategic partner, and overall valued consultant, the business relationship manager is the advocate who brings credibility to the table when business goals are at stake.
 
Key learning points include:
 

-          Describe the responsibilities of a business relationship manager.

-          Learn how business relationship management contributes to organizational success.

-          Understand what business transition management is and why it’s important.

-          Practical examples of effective business relationship management.

 
Audience: Public
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 30, 2016; 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT
Host: Corporate Education Group    @CorpEdGroup
Cost: Free
Registration:   Corp Education Group Webinar Registration
  
 
 
 
 

5 Things You Must Know About Requirements Planning

Presented by Rob Stewart, IAG Consulting
 
Requirements Planning adds incredible value to the requirements process. More than simply creating another “work breakdown structure” document, this is an opportunity to address risks proactively and gain better stakeholder participation.  This session demonstrates how every component of a requirements plan adds value.
 
Learning Objectives:
   1. Illustrate the pitfalls of traditional approaches to Requirements Planning
   2. Deliver guidelines for making Requirements Planning a value-add activity
   3. Know what material must be present in a high quality requirements planning document
 
Audience: Public
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 30, 2016; 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT
Host: IAG Consulting    @IAGConsulting
Cost: Free
Registration:   IAG Public Webinar Registration

 

 
 
 
Polarion QA - The Right Enterprise Test Management Solution
Presented by Regg Struyk, Product Manager, Polarion Software
 
Despite technological advances, many QA teams still rely on basic Office docs and spreadsheets to manage their testing ecosystem. Even worse, of those seeking an updated Test Management solution, only forty percent have a proper selection process in place (*Forrester).

Join this webinar to learn how Polarion QA provides modern solutions to your entire enterprise software testing needs - while maintaining quality integrity.

What you will learn:

·         Achieve visibility into all testing activities at any given time

·         Easily link and manage issues from source code to requirements

·         How to improve collaboration across the entire testing ecosystem

·         How and why automatic orchestration of testing activities is crucial

·         Reuse key artifacts such as Requirements and Test Cases

·         Why an integrated testing ecosystem is critical

 
Audience: Public
Date/Time: Thursday, March 31, 2016; 11:30 am – 12:30 pm EDT
Host: Polarion Software       @PolarionNews
Cost: Free
Registration:   Polarion Public Webinar Registration

The Value of Business Analysis: The Trusted Advisor

Often when people talk about the Business Analyst being a trusted advisor within the organization, they are speaking about advising senior management of the organization. That role of the business analyst is that of a Management Consultant, the role of trusted advisor goes much beyond consulting or advising management. The business analyst has to become a trusted advisor to everyone within the organization. Whether they are an IT Business Analyst, Business Architect, Process Analyst, Agile Business Analyst or Business Intelligence Analyst they will work with many people within the organization; and they must garner trust from everyone with which they work to gain the needed knowledge from those individuals or assist them in doing their tasks. So let’s look how the business analyst works with and advises others within the organization.

The Project Manager

The Business Analyst works with the Project Manager in managing the project to a successful completion. Although their focus is different; the project manager is focused on the project and the business analyst is focused on the product or solution, their goal of a successful completion of the project is the same. Like many members of the project team, the Project Manager relies on the requirements developed by the business analyst. The business analyst can advise the project manager throughout the project on concerns from both the business and technical stakeholders and may advise on activities or tasks to respond to those concerns.

The Project Sponsor and Business Stakeholders

As the major decision maker of the business stakeholders, the business analyst advises the project sponsor on upcoming project business analysis activities, product features, solution scope boundaries and works with the project sponsor and project team to resolve any issues that the business stakeholders raise. The business analyst works with the business stakeholders to draw out, analyze and document the business needs and requirements for the solution to resolve those needs. The rest of the project team and organization rely on the accuracy and clarity of those requirements. The business analyst works with the business stakeholders and project sponsor to validate and approve the requirements.

The Enterprise Architect

Although Enterprise Architect is considered a business analysis role, in larger and more complex organization these will be two distinct roles; therefore, I list them separately. However, realize that in smaller organization these roles may be performed by one individual. The enterprise architect will be concerned with the architecture of the solution being considered; they will be develop the technical architecture for the solution based on the requirements of the project. They will put that technical input to the requirements during their development, then use those requirements to ensure the technical architecture of the solution is aligned with enterprise standards. During the development of the architecture and the solution the business analyst advises the enterprise architect on the business perspective of the requirements.

The Business Relationship Manager

The Business Relationship Manager is responsible to ensure that the project sponsor is included in all correspondence necessary and that the project team understands the business perspective of the solution scope; in this respective, this is a business analysis role. The business analyst will advise the business relationship manager the same as the project sponsor and ensure that they both are included in all communication and fully informed as to solution scope.  They will ensure that the project sponsor and business relationship manager understand the technical side of the solution scope.

The Development Team

As development of the solution is about to begin the business analyst will hold a requirements review session with the development team and business team. This allows to get everyone on the same page with respect to the requirements. This gives the development team the opportunity to raise issues with the requirements, especially if features or components are functionally impossible to deliver. Also difficult to deliver features and components, and alternatives to those can be raised at this time. It is possible that the enterprise architect or business analyst has raised and considered alternatives prior to the requirements review. Like the enterprise architect, the business analyst will advise the development team on the business need and perspective of the requirements during the development phase of the project.

The Quality Assurance Team

Like the rest of the project team, the quality assurance testers will rely on the requirements for the solution. The quality assurance team will build their test cases on the requirements. The business analyst will put the business perspective on those requirements so that the quality assurance team understands the business reason and relative importance of the requirements.

Organizational Management

As the organization is expecting to receive some benefit from the change and its solution, the business analyst, possibly through the project manager, must advise business management of any changes in that expected benefit as the project progresses through its life cycle. Once delivered the business analyst will measure solution performance against developed success metrics and advice management on benefit realization.

So as you can see, the business analyst, as a trusted advisor, advises many individuals in many roles within the organization. They advise inside and outside of software development and process improvement projects. They advise on topics of business needs and perspective, technical constraints, data, business processes, architecture, communication needs, requirements, user acceptance testing, solution validation and more topics. They use numerous techniques and models to bring shared understanding of these topics across the project team and organization. So when interacting with anyone within the organization, or as someone in one of these other roles within the organization and interacting with a business analyst remember the business analyst’s duties as a trusted advisor.

 

Aaron Whittenberger, CBAP is a senior business analyst in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. He has over 28 years of business and IT experience, including 16 years of business analysis and 15 years of consulting experience. Aaron is an avid Business Analyst, Business Process Analyst, Project Manager, Blogger, Mentor, Trainer and Presenter.  He is a champion for the IIBA®, business analysis as a profession and the recognition of its practitioners.  You may connect with Aaron on LinkedIn or follow him on twitter @TheWittyBA.

Business Analysis Webinars for March 2016

Agile BA Panel with Angela Wick and Ryland Leyton
Presented by Angela Wick and Ryland Leyton
 
Agile Business Analysis - It's coming to a team near you! Or maybe you are already on a team as an Agile BA? Angela and Ryland will answer your Agile BA questions and offer some nuggets on Agile BA Topics like:

·         What are the common challenges of an Agile BA?

·         What's my role with the Product Owner?

·         Can I use my known BA techniques, or is it just User Stories?

·         Do I work on multiple teams and project? Waterfall and Agile?

·         Is there a middle ground? Sort of Agile BA?

Come listen in, ask questions, and discover more about being an agile BA.

 
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

·         Learn what are the common challenges of an Agile BA

·         Discover the relationship the BA has with Product Owners

·         Learn techniques to use as an Agile BA

 
Audience: Public
Date/Time: Tuesday, March 1, 2016; 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EST
Host: Business Analysis Times    @BATimes
Cost: Free
Registration:   BA Times Webinar Registration

 

 

 

 

How Leaders Succeed by Embracing Fresh Perspectives

Presented by Al Pittampalli
 
Understanding the Power of Flexible Decision Making
 
For leaders, changing your mind has always been perceived as a weakness.

But in a world that is changing faster than ever, successful leaders are realizing that the willingness to change your mind is now the ultimate leadership advantage.

 
In this webcast, you'll learn that being persuadable helps leaders make better decisions, respond quickly to threats and new opportunities, and utilize feedback to improve their skills at an accelerated rate.

Beyond just discussing why you should be persuadable, this webcast will teach you how. We'll discuss the key practices of persuadable leaders that you can use to improve the quality of your business and life.

 
What You Will Learn

·         How to make more accurate decisions by actively trying to falsify your own thinking

·         Ways to get honest feedback from your team so you can improve yourself at an accelerated rate

·         Tips for adapting to changing circumstances powerfully by "killing your darlings"

 
While attending this program is FREE, reservations are required.
 
Audience: Public
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 2, 2016; 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST
Host: American Management Association    @AMAnet
Cost: Free
Registration:   AMA Webcast Registration

 

 

 

 

Mapping the BA's Stakeholders in a DevOps Workflow

Presented by Chris Knotts, ASPE Training
 
With the application of DevOps management principles impacting entire enterprise IT departments, it is important for the BA to understand who the stakeholders are in a DevOps-style project and how they map to the stakeholder profiles described in the BABOK. This short session will explain the contemporary roles of the various stakeholders one might find along the way on projects which espouse the principles of DevOps.
 
Audience: Public
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 2, 2016; 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST
Host: ASPE Training    @ASPE-SDLC
Cost: Free
Registration:   ASPE Training Web Seminar Registration  

 

 

 

 

Process Architecture: Designing a Process Management System That Gets Used

Presented by Beth Layman
 
This webinar describes how to think about process architecture and how to build a process management system that is accepted and embraced by the workforce.
 
Audience: Public
Date/Time: Thursday, March 3, 2016; 11:00 am – 12:30 am EST
Host: IT Metrics & Productivity Institute    @ITMPI
Cost: Free
Registration:   ITMPI Live Webinar Registration

 

  

 

 

CBAP and CCBA Certification Q & A

Presented by Dayle Beyer, PMP, CBAP, ACC
 
The event is a free chat session using webinar technology. It features written questions and live answers by an experienced CBAP from Watermark Learning. Topics include anything related to IIBA's certifications you want, ranging from the CBAP or CCBA application to the exams to re-certification.
 
Audience: Public
Date/Time: Friday, March 4, 2016: 12:00 pm – 12:30 pm EST
Host: Watermark Learning    @Watermarklearn
Cost: Free
Registration:   Watermark Learning IIBA Certification Chat Registration

 

 

 

 

The Business Value of Networking Transformation

Presented by Sandeep Dhingra and Leslie Rosenberg
 
Enterprises are embracing cloud, big data analytics, social and mobile technologies at an alarming rate in order to keep pace and compete. They want to embrace change, empower innovation, gain business agility, and improve operational efficiencies, but aren’t sure how to proceed, especially when it comes to overhauling their network architectures and operational practices. Enterprises often struggle with questions relating to network automation, network virtualization, SDN, and what approaches are best suited to their business objectives, application environments, cloud strategies, and resources.

Join this webcast to hear Leslie Rosenberg from IDC discuss critical requirements for leveraging the network and more as she reviews insights from a recent IDC Business Value study. Hear Sandeep Dhingra, Global Partner, Network Consulting Services at IBM as he explains a step-by-step approach to network transformation that is aligned to your business needs of the present and future.
 
Audience: Public
Date/Time: Tuesday, March 8, 2016; 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EST
Host: Ziff Davis
Cost: Free
Registration:   Ziff Davis Event Registration

 

 

 

 

Four Ways To Optimize Customer Data for Deeper Insights

Presented by Jen Underwood, Microsoft, Dan Ganancial and Scott Jones, Alteryx
 
To keep up with rapidly changing customer demands, businesses need to gain deeper insights into their customer data. However, business analysts must deal with increasing volumes and complexities of the data before they can deliver better insights relating to customer targeting and marketing spend. Register now for this webinar and see how business analysts can utilize 4 best practices to deal with the increasing volume and complexity of customer data:

1. BLEND your customer data from multiple sources to deliver a comprehensive view of your interactions

2. CLEANSE the data in a few simple clicks to remove bad data, outliers, and null data for better insights

3. PREDICT highest lifetime value customers without having to know how to program or code in R

4. VISUALIZE your data-driven analysis and increase your speed to insight

Attend this webinar and see how Alteryx and Microsoft Power BI enable business analysts to optimize customer data in order to generate deeper insights.
 
Audience: Public
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 9, 2016; 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EST
Host: Modern Analyst     @ModernAnalyst
Cost: Free
Registration:   Modern Analyst Webinar Registration