Date: 19 Mar 2015
Where: Edinburgh
Venue: Lloyds Banking Group (formerly Scottish Widows)
Port Hamilton
69 Morrison Street
Edinburgh
EH3 8BW

Strategy: The elephant in the room

The words "strategy" and "strategic" are much maligned in many organisations. Unfortunately, the word "strategy" is sometimes used to describe lofty, impractical, long-winded and cloudy documents that are rarely read and collect dust. A gap between strategy and execution can emerge, with different stakeholders and departments heading in their own direction. As BAs, we often get caught in the cross-fire!

It doesn't have to be like this!

In reality, having a clearly articulated strategy is crucially important for organisational success. A clearly defined strategy helps organisations achieve focus and can make project selection easier. It can help speed up decision making throughout the entire organisation, and ensure everyone is aiming for the same destination. As business analysts, gaining an understanding of our organisations' strategies is key - we can help ensure that our programmes, projects, requirements and solutions are aligned. Not only this, we may be involved with shaping or defining organisational, project or or business unit strategy. Other times, we might need to tactfully challenge the direction an initiative is taking. The BA toolkit includes a range of practical and useful strategic tools, and this is an area in which we can add significant value to our organisations.

In this presentation, Adrian Reed explores strategy through a business analysis lens. He'll explore:

  • What is strategy?
  • The role of strategy and strategic thinking in Business Analysis
  • What can we do when strategy is "cloudy" or when the business is pulling itself in different directions?
  • Strategic analysis tools and techniques

Adrian Reed is President of the UK chapter of the IIBA, and a true advocate of the analysis profession. In his 'day job', he works as Principal Consultant at Blackmetric Business Solutions, where he provides business analysis consultancy and training solutions to a range of clients in varying industries.

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