Central Iowa Chapter of IIBA®

Thank you, Farm Bureau, for hosting our April Meeting

The Dark Forest of Processes: a Business Analysts Survival Guide

Do you find yourself unable to navigate through the thick forest your project has become? Are you only able to see the tree closest to you? Are you stuck in the weeds deep in the details? Have you come across some skunks that cause time delays, fallen into the quick sand known as scope creep, or eaten encountered fire breathing dragon stakeholders? We need a survival guide to make it through the Dark Forest of Processes! Projects are like forests full of different kinds of trees with unique characteristics and intertwined branches, vines and roots. It’s essential to see each tree as well as the entire forest to navigate your path through from the beginning to the end. Projects should be decomposed and analyzed from the tree tops down to the forest floor. It’s easy to get stuck focusing on only one tree, or one process, and not understanding the relationship to the whole forest, or project, or line of business. Understanding processes and sub-processes down to the individual data elements or business rules is an essential business analysis skill. In this presentation we will explore decomposing the processes and their ‘branches’ down to the leaves on the branches to get to the root of the problem.

Each process is different, just like trees are different. Trees have unique leaves with different sizes, shapes, unique characteristics, just like processes! Our businesses are a combination of evergreens, oaks, fruit, and locust trees. It’s important to navigate through the forest as we approach solving problems. Our processes may need more nutrients or they may need to be pruned or completely removed. In order to understand what the problem really is we need to step back and start at a higher level. Start high and dive deeper in your navigation. Come learn how to add tools and techniques to your tool belt and approach diagramming and analyzing processes to develop a compass to lead you through the dark forest! We need to understand where we are to determine where we are going!

Knowledge Areas in BABOK®Guide 2.0 discussed in this presentation are Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring, Enterprise Analysis, and Requirements Analysis.

BABOK®Guide 2.0 Techniques discussed in this presentation are Functional Decomposition (9.12), Process Modeling (9.21), and Organization models (9.19).

Heather is from Des Moines, Iowa. She grew up there, pursued her bachelors and graduate degrees there and stayed to raise her family. She is a stimulus for change as a mom, a business analyst consultant, as President of Central Iowa Chapter and Deputy VP Chapters IIBA®. Heather has worked as a Business Analyst long before there was a formal title. For the past 15 years, she has worked with a variety of project teams to identify and solve many problems and challenges in the financial services and insurance industries. Her experience includes: new system development, disaster recovery, time management and expense allocation, CRM system implementation and migration, document imaging and workflow implementation, compliance projects, process mapping, process reengineering, decision analysis, strategic planning and managing diverse teams. She has a passion for sharing the power of the Business Analyst role and promoting the importance of that role in every business. Under her leadership, the Central Iowa Chapter IIBA® has grown to be one of the most active chapters in the organization. The chapter was awarded the 2011 Inaugural IIBA® Growth Chapter of the Year due to exceptional growth. Heather is a natural collaborator in her BA role and engages people at all levels in organizations. She has been fortunate to work through all the processes of business analysis in the SDLC and be able to participate in many roles in projects. There is no part of the RACI matrix she has not been responsible for! Heather has a BA in Accounting from Grand View College and an MBA from Drake University and is a CBAP®.

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Thank you, John Deere, for hosting our March meeting.

Requirements Elicitation in Crisis

Come join Bob the BA who will explore the usage of hostage negotiation techniques in the requirements elicitation process.  This YouTube inspired dynamic presentation will utilize an interactive video where you - the negotiators - will choose the path to success!  Take part in a requirements hostage negotiation where you have an opportunity to make the choice that will either rescue the requirements or forever keep them hostage.  Learn which requirements need rescuing and how they impact scope management.  With a cast of thousands (okay, just friends and fellow BAs) this presentation and video are sure to help you make better decisions during requirements elicitation.  With help from Bob the BA you will understand how to negotiate the successful release of your requirements safely, soundly and accurately.

 Attendee Objectives:

• Understand the parallels between hostage negotiation and requirements elicitation.
• Learn what it means to negotiate and what to do in requirements hostage negotiation.

Learn innovative techniques and approaches to prevent and/or resolve requirements crisis.

Bob Prentiss is the Client Solutions Director of Business Analysis at Watermark Learning. Bob is CBAP® certified with 20+ years experience in corporate America; managing BA Centers of Excellence, assessing/managing BA maturity, quality and competency.  Bob is the developer of the PMI 2011 Product of the Year: the Project R.E.A.L. (Real Experience Applied Learning) class – a hands-on, live project experience.  Bob is a founding member and Past President of the IIBA MSP Chapter wearing several hats on the board, currently serving on the board as the VP of Professional Development.

Logistics:

Where: John Deere Financial 6400 N.W. 86th St Johnston, IA 50131-6600

Time: Lunch at 11:00 AM. Presentation: 11:30 -12:30

Cost: no charge for Central Iowa Chapter members in good standing,

$10 non-members; non-members welcome

Prize Drawing

 Registration has closed.

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