Bob the BA!

'THE BADASS BA BUCKET LIST' 
(Slide Deck)

Is it the end of an era? The beginning of the end? As businesses change, so must our profession to meet their needs. Business analysis is not dead, it is evolving - and that is okay. It really is! After all, the egg did not get to where it is today without the chicken evolving (it's true - the chicken came first). Change is happening way too quickly for woulda, coulda, shoulda.

In this session, I will share my bucket list with you, but more importantly we will work together to create yours. This is not a “Someday I wish I...” bucket list, but a genuine, actionable, dare-I-say ultimate bucket list for this profession, that will transform you into the Analyst of the future!

Learning Objectives:

• Expectations for what the future of business analysis looks like.
• A 'bucket list' of things BAs must do today to meet their future head on.
• Leave with your future plan 'bucket list' in your hands!

Technical Requirements and the BA (Slide Deck)

More and more, roles in the organization demand more technical savvy.  Technology is rapidly changing and in turn, is changing how we need to approach our roles and the requirements that drive our product changes.  The term “Technical requirements” is not an industry standard yet they seem to be cropping up more and more.  What is the best way to handle these technical requirements?  How can we analyze more technical projects?  Are you ready for your technical future?

BOB PRENTISS is a keynote speaker, author, mentor, coach and Business Analysis thought leader. Bob is passionate about helping you think, learn & work differently so you can become the best version of yourself. Bob is the CEO and founder of Bob the BA Training providing badass business analysis training, consulting and mentoring services. Bob the BA helps organizations transform their requirements practices utilizing modern techniques, an agile mindset and street-smart approaches to get the work done faster. Bob is CBAP® certified with 30 years of experience in corporate America; with a background in managing BA centers of excellence, assessing and managing BA maturity, quality, and competency. Bob has presented numerous keynote, workshops, seminars, conferences, and training sessions across North America. Bob is a founding member and past President of the IIBA® MSP Chapter. Bob the BA is part of The League of Extraordinary Analysts Inc.  

Fail Fast, Fail Safe (Slide Deck)

In business we are told from the very first day on the job that failure is bad. Avoiding failure is more important than succeeding and we go to great lengths to avoid it.  We put ourselves into a make believe world where no mistakes can be made and we over work ourselves to the point of exhaustion all in the name of 'not failing'.  Deluded in the belief that failure isn’t an option, we are at a loss on how to handle failure.

PAUL CROSBY is one of the Founders, the CFO, & Chief Paper Pusher for The League of Analysts Inc - Bob the BA.  Paul is also the full-time instructor for Project Management and Strategic Enterprise Analysis Training at Bob the BA. Paul was President of Minneapolis-St Paul Chapter which was awarded Chapter of the Year and Most Innovative Chapter by IIBA. Paul has presented at events all over North America including BA World, Project Summit, Local IIBA Chapter Meetings and other events. With over 25 years of experience in manufacturing, insurance, healthcare, education, and government sectors in the roles of CFO, Portfolio Manager, Program Manager, Project Manager, Educator, Editor, Business Analyst and Green Belt Process Improvement, Paul has helped many companies think, learn, and work differently.

Writing Better Requirements (Slide Deck)

Writing requirements is easy. Writing GOOD requirements (concise, complete, understandable… you've seen the list), that's what's hard. One of the biggest challenges we face as BAs is that we are challenged to write for many stakeholders, users, designers and testers- who don't have time to try to figure out what we mean. Modeling can help, but a template of narrative, verbal requirements is still likely a required part of your process. If you've ever taken over a project from another BA and tried to decipher someone else's requirements, you've seen this first hand.

Jennifer has been a passionate volunteer with the Minnesota Destination Imagination affiliate program for more than 18 years. In addition to her work as a tournament appraiser and regional challenge master, Jennifer has served Destination Imagination as a volunteer Dissector (Challenge editor) and workshop presenter at the Imagination Celebration in Rio de Janerio. A native of Nebraska, Jennifer is now an active member of the Brooklyn Park, Minnesota community. She’s a stained-glass artist, scaredy-cat knitter, avid reader, Munzee hunter and fearlessly fosters the creativity and curiosity of her four children. The activities in her at home maker-space have not required a visit from the fire department or HazMat unit… yet.

Digital Transformation for the Business Analyst (Slide Deck)

Digital Transformation is confusing. What exactly is it? Who drives it? Who is responsible? The term ‘digital transformation’ has been used to describe anything from creating a fully responsive mobile website to developing a social media strategy, but in reality true transformation needs to involve much more than just the end product!

Matt is very passionate about helping organizations make the connection between technology and realized business value, as well as helping IT leaders bridge the gap between IT and business, through facilitating the alignment of IT to business strategy.

This Stuff Ain't Easy - Waterfall to Scrum for Dispersed Teams (Slide Deck)

We’ve all seen how hard it is to transition from a Waterfall to Agile methodology. We’ve heard stories of companies who attempt to “go Agile” and fail hard and fast. The plain truth is that very few companies are set up for or committed to be able to adopt Scrum, Kanban or other Agile methodologies in their truest forms. In today’s world of fast changes in technology companies are just doing what they can to stay ahead of consumers while balancing the reality of today’s workforce increasing demands for work-life balance, remote processing and managing cross-functional teams. In this session we’ll review a case study of a large dispersed non-traditional Scrum team with the task of automating workflows on the Salesforce Service Cloud platform. You’ll gain insight into what they went through over their two-year transition from Waterfall to Scrum, and what they did to rocket from storming to performing in Tuchman's Stages of Team Development within three short months. You’ll be shown creative ways they used tools such as Jira, Confluence, and SharePoint and see what modeling techniques worked to communicate requirements across all members of the team, and the ceremonies they employed to communicate with every member of the team. You’ll leave this session with real-world examples of processes you can put in place to help your team be more successful and comfortable with an Agile way of working that allows for everyone to work and communicate more effectively whether sitting side-by-side or a continent away.

Michelle has proudly served on the IIBA St. Louis Board of Directors as the Chapter President, Webmaster and Newsletter Editor In Chief. She's currently a member of the IIBA's Global Chapter Council as the Global Mentoring Program Lead, and has previously served on the IIBA Volunteer Awards Task Force and as a stakeholder focus group member for the IIBA's Enhanced Certification Program.  Favorite Quote: Anything is possible if you don't know what you're talking about! You can follow Michelle on Twitter @greenmachinestl

The BA as Product Owner (Slide Deck)

Although my title is ‘Business Architect’, I have been a product owner for the past 4 years… and have found it both challenging and enjoyable.  With the current emphasis on agile processes, many Business Analysts find themselves serving in this role or as part of a product ownership team.   In this session, we will explore the role of the product owner in an agile project.  We will practice performing some of the primary responsibilities of the product owner, discuss the challenges that product owners have to overcome on a daily basis… and hopefully have some fun in the process.

BARBARA BROWN HILES , CBAP, CPHIMS has been solving problems as a Business Analyst and Architect for over 40 years, first as a systems engineer with IBM, later as the Director of Technical Services for Alliance Systems & Programming and currently as a Senior Business Architect and thought leader for Daugherty Business Solutions. Barbara has served on the local IIBA board of directors. She has presented at IIBA meetings, Common and other user groups across the country. What floats her boat is figuring out how organizations work ... and then applying that understanding to make it work better. Although she has been heard to state on occasion ‘once you understand how it all works ... you realize it’s a miracle it ever does!’

Numbers That Count: Changing the Way We Look at Metrics (Slide Deck)

Most people don’t feel very passionate about metrics, unless it’s a distinct loathing. I believe that what and how you choose to measure can change the trajectory of your business for better or for worse. We will have some interactive discussion on why metrics matter, things to consider, as well as things to avoid. Then we will explore some numbers that count, and how to apply them in your own organization.

AMBER KAAN CSM is a Senior Consultant–Business Analyst currently at Charter Communications with a passion for continuous improvement and has been with Daugherty Business Solutions for three years. Prior to that she spent 13 years with Boeing. If there’s anything she excels at – besides PowerPoint – it is helping people look at their work and analyze results to see how they can do what they already do better. Through her work, she is able to support her family, including her husband, and their brood of four fabulous kiddos; a 13 ½ year old son (“The half counts, mom.”), 8 year old boy/girl twin bonus kiddos, and a 10 month old baby girl. If she had time for hobbies, they would include reading, writing, making crafty items that have a 50/50 shot at becoming a Pinterest Fail meme, and yoga. They currently include napping, thinking about napping, and talking about work stuff when she could be napping.

Opportunities for BAs in the Big Data Age (Slide Deck)

Big Data and Data Science has been one of the fastest growing jobs for the past several years. However, if you are interested in participating in this incredibly hot area in information technology, you will need to know more than buzz words.  You will need to understand what is expected in the role of a data scientist, including the required skills qualifications, education, experience and responsibilities.  You will also need to understand if this type of “analysis” is your cup of tea. Raygene Patterson will describe the various roles in data science and discuss how analysts can determine if this technologist area is right for them. She will also describe some of the skills that are necessary and some options available for obtaining the requisite skillsets.

RAYGENE PATTERSON MS PMP CBAP CSM is a Certified Project Manager, Systems Analyst, Developer and Trainer with more than 20 years of experience in information technology project management, analysis, design, development and training. She is currently a systems analyst and scrum master for Mastercard within the enterprise warehouse, focusing on data delivery projects as well as an adjunct instructor at Lindenwood University and teaches several courses in software development and analysis. She has been a CBAP since 2008 and also has her PMP, CSM, and SAFe certifications as well as several technical certifications, and is working on her PhD in Data Science through North Central University.

Mission to Mars: An Agile Adventure!

This innovative game challenges players to build and launch a rocket to Mars.  Players form Agile teams, collaborating through “Sprints” to complete important tasks. The game tracks each team's score, along with other metrics used in Agile, such as “Velocity”. In order to win the game and successfully launch your rocket, your team will have to demonstrate characteristics of actual successful Agile teams. According to Gartner researchers, 70% of business transformation efforts fail due to a lack of engagement. It's hard for people to learn if they aren't engaged while doing so. One of the best ways to ensure that people are engaged is by making the learning fun.

Cisco, ComTIA, Microsoft, and SAFe certified with extensive scope of responsibility, Michael has a proven track record of delivering optimal results in high-growth environments through initiatives that exceed operational performance targets and yield measurable outcomes.  Michael has spoken publicly at many events and user groups on various subjects including organizational change management, project management, Agile development process, and DevOps transformations.

BAck to the Future - Agile Evolution for Business Analysis (Slide Deck)

BA-ck to the Future…. Reviewing traditional business requirement gathering documentation, and transitioning it to state of the art business requirements for development teams. We will review the Agile Manifesto and learn to create User Stories with User Acceptance Criteria like Agile Scrum Development Teams.

MEEGAN TURNBEAUGH MPM ICP ACC ATF BVA SA has a distinguished 20+ year executive career enhancing client operations and efficiencies by leveraging key technology, new business practices, and procedures to analyze, audit, research, and implement key solutions. She consistently delivers production improvements through hands-on global leadership, business analysis and high-tech project management. Currently Meegan works for Daugherty Business Solutions as a leader in the Delivery Optimization line of service and teaches Project Management and Business Analysis at Lindenwood University in St. Charles.

• Bob Prentiss - The BA Bucket List (Keynote)
• Bob Prentiss - Technical Requirements
• Paul Crosby - Fail Fast Fail Safe
• Jen Battan - Writing Better Requirements
• Matt Bowers - Digital Transformation
• Michelle Green - This Stuff Ain't Easy: Waterfall to Scrum for Dispersed Teams
• Barbara Brown Hiles - The BA as Product Owner
• Amber Kaan - Numbers That Count
• Raygene Patterson - Opportunities for BAs in the Big Data Age
• Kim Schrey - BAck to the Future