| Date: | 5 May 2016 |
| Where: | London |
Talk 1: Between Business Demands and Thriving Technology: The 'Modern Day BA'
Business change no longer happens in isolation but is performed as a combination of business, information systems and technology driven change. Therefore, Business Analysis and Solution Architecture are often married up to deliver successful change. As this happens, the solid application of skills and capabilities required by a Business Analyst subtly shift. But how does the ‘Modern Day BA’ deal with increasing business demands and fast developing technologies?
This session examines the perceived boundaries of Business Analyst and Solution Architect roles and responsibilities; and the increasing need for overlapping skills. It introduces a multi-dimensional model for business change that is based on practical case studies within the financial services industry. Attendees will learn the importance of adaptable business analysis skills and how to strengthen the ‘voice’ of the 'Modern Day BA'.
Dr Claudia Michalik is an accredited Prince2 Practitioner, BCS Business Analyst, Lean Six Sigma Belt and qualified accountant with over 15 years’ experience in the financial services sector. Usually delivering major financial transformation programmes, her last project gave her insight into Business Analysis projects within IT Architecture at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, enabling her to seeing the ‘other side of the fence’. She is especially interested in the value that business architecture can bring to organisations, business design and the increased drive for change. Claudia holds master degrees in Business Administration and Science and a PhD in Innovation & Technology from international alma maters. Claudia regularly delivers BA courses leading to the BCS BA diploma for Metadata Training.
Talk 2: Cloud COTS selection: a proven method for BAs
Off-the-shelf solutions dominate certain areas of IT – an effect reinforced by cloud provision. Procuring IT faces internal complexity from the business, from stakeholders and from requirements, combined with external complexity from the set of candidate solutions. Case studies show informal selections exhibit bias and frequently disappoint, whereas formal, evidence-based decision-making is more likely to unite teams of specialists, to get better candidate suppliers, software or deals and to deliver the benefits needed.
Martin sets the context by referring to his systematic method to evaluate, select and procure off-the-shelf solutions. This augments the organisation's normal approaches to analysis, sponsorship/management, technology, decision-making, due diligence and change. He shows how requirements feed all stages of the selection, from long listing to negotiation. He then illustrates the approach applied to an actual cloud evaluation, selection and procurement – his first was in 2002, before it was even termed cloud
Martin Tate of Decision Evaluation Ltd is an independent consultant, trainer, author and ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’. He formerly worked for an IT provider and was trained to sell software. After an early IT career as programmer, analyst, project manager and employed consultant, Martin has been an independent consultant for over 20 years. He has personally run or rescued 52 IT selection projects and appraised over 1,000 candidate solutions. However, the most important statistic is zero – never once has an IT selection gone through his method and procured software that proved unfit for purpose. In 2007 BCS awarded him Chartered Fellow status for eminence in the field of IT selections and in 2015 published his book Off-The-Shelf IT Solutions: A practitioner's guide to selection and procurement. Martin regularly runs “Choosing COTS” courses for Metadata Training.
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