Rescheduled

IIBA Bay Area BA-BADD-D 2023 Conference (Business Analyst Development Day Conference)

Register today for the Business Analysis Conference for Business Analysts - BA-BADD 2023

Unlock Innovative Analysis - Business Analysis Conference for Business Analysts

As the tide of artificial intelligence and machine learning surges, Business Analysts are now wielding incredibly powerful tools that bring designs, requirements, and data to life in never-before-seen ways. Ever crafted acceptance criteria ChatGPT? Or used AI to unravel complex patterns in data like a digital detective? The business analysis landscape is evolving at a breakneck pace - it's high time we seize the future of analysis!

Step into a mesmerizing world teeming with trailblazing keynote speakers who've scaled the heights of their careers, transforming challenges into victories. Get an all-access pass to mind-bending sessions that will plunge you into the depths of emerging trends, time-tested strategies, and the disruptive technological forces reshaping the business analysis terrain.

Hold on tight, because this is more than just a journey. It's an exhilarating roller coaster ride into the future of business analysis!+

Get ready to supercharge your Business Analysis career!

Exciting Conference Features

  • Over 12 symposium sessions from industry-leading Analysis and global thought leaders

  • Sessions are recorded and will be available for download after the conference

  • A conference attendee page is provided to download materials during and after the conference

  • Interact with speakers in this immersive conference

All times listed are West Coast (San Francisco) time.

Presented by:

IIBA Bay Area Chapter

Become a Sponsor

Reach hundreds of Business Analysis Professionals in California by sponsoring this event. Stand out in a crowd by showing your support for the local IIBA Bay Area Chapter. Contact us today!

Online Virtual Conference

This conference uses Zoom. A link to the event will be sent out 1-2 days before the event start date.

IIBA Members

Rescheduled

Non-Members

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Keynote

The Truth is Out There: Beyond Yes or No

Every day we encounter polarities that shape our thoughts, emotions, and actions. Polarities are opposing forces or perspectives that exist in tension with each other and are often mutually exclusive. From inhale and exhale, joy and sadness, to love and hate, these dualities create tensions that are essential to how we work and how we view the problems. Understanding and managing these polarities is crucial for our personal and professional growth, as it allows us to navigate complex situations with greater ease and effectiveness. By embracing and integrating opposing perspectives, we can unlock more profound insights, new perspectives and ways of thinking that can lead to positive change in our lives and in our projects. In this session we’ll explore polarity thinking to get beyond “either/or” and leverage the value of “each.” Because when we get stuck on one side or the other, both sides lose.

Learning Objectives:

Experience what polarities are and how they impact our lives.

Learn to identify the push and pull or the impact of the polarity on our situation.

Introduce a tool to identify the polarity and begin to see both sides and determine the course of action.

Endnote

Positive Conflict - Transform Discord into Collaboration and Innovation

Why can't we all get along and be productive? As social creatures, we have a powerful need to get along, but that can lead to preference falsification, avoidance, and being afraid to speak up, all of which affect how we manage conflict. Let's talk about the Preacher, Litigator, Politician, and Defender in you and how they come out during times of conflict. We're going to talk about how to disagree - without being disagreeable - and why a drawing a house creates task-based discussions  to resolve conflict fast. Conflict isn't a game of tug of war; it's learning to Tango with a bear.

 

Key Takeaways

1. Understanding Conflict Modes

2. Understanding the Positive Conflict Model and how to use the model in utilizing friction and conflict to create innovative ideas

3. Discover techniques that can help make conflict more positive and collaborative

Sessions

Session Times

(San Francisco Time)

9:15 am - 10:10 am

10:15 am - 11:10 am

11:15 pm - 12:10 pm

1:15 pm - 2:10 pm

2:15 pm - 3:10 pm

Main Room

  • Presented by Kent McDonald

    Are you a business analyst who wonders how you can use your business analysis capabilities to be competitive in the job market for the next 3 to 5 years?

    As I first noted back in 2017, product owner and product manager roles offer a viable career path for business analysts, especially those who currently work on custom software development projects.

    Come to this session to learn about the similarities and differences between business analysis, product owner, and product manager roles. Then discover how you can apply your business analysis experience to becoming a product owner or product manager. Along the way, you’ll hear about the lessons I and others have learned from moving from business analysis through product owner to product management roles.

    Objectives

    - Compare business analysis, product owner, and product management Roles

    - Learn how to use your business analysis skills to successfully become a product owner or product manager

    - Discover lessons learned from people who have moved from business analysis to product manager

  • Presented by Teri Christian

    Overview of the five levels of Agile Planning, why each level is important, and the critical success factors, skills, people, and investments at each level.

    Objectives

    - The five levels of Agile planning

    - How to create a product management ecosystem

    - Critical success factors, skills, and investments at each level

  • Presented by Jeremy Mann

    Patterns, or rhythms, are unigue within client domains. Identifying delivery patterns is a start to aligning delivery to client value expectations. When patterns are repeated and yield underwhelming results it is necessary to disprupt the patterns and establish trust by evolving and improving the cadence.

    Objectives

    - Identify unique cyclical patterns within our client domains.​

    - Explore client requests triggered within cycles.​

    - Identify strategies to intervene when delivery patterns are not producing desired value.

  • Presented by Mindy Bohannon

    I’ve been playing two roles on my project for over a year – part lead Agile Business Analyst and part Scrum Master. Oh, the techniques I’ve learned! The leadership and facilitation aspects of retros and other SM activities have led to my being a better and more caring leader and business analyst. During this session we’ll review the general goals of a Scrum Master, how it overlaps with being a BA, and four different types of retrospective activities.

    Objectives

    - Responsibilities and overlap of a Scrum Master, Business Analysis, and Leadership

    - Improvement retro

    - Celebration retro

    - Root cause analysis retro

    - Retro covering many months or years of work

    - Demo during the session of a retrospective

  • Presented by Jonathan Babcock

    Many initiatives are positioned to fail before they even make it to delivery teams due a lack of basic “pre-emptive” business analysis at strategic planning and line-of-business leadership levels. The good news is, this gap, and ongoing adoption of agile delivery methods provide a great opportunity for business analysis practitioners to provide significant value.

    During this session, we'll refer to industry research and observed evidence supporting the notion that strategic business analysis, partnering business leadership with trusted advisors and other key solution delivery roles, can drive the next jump forward in how we define and deliver business value.

    Objectives

    - Gain insights into typical pitfalls associated with how executive business stakeholders decide which projects will be worked and when, and how business analysis practitioners are uniquely positioned to help avoid or mitigate them.

    - Learn how agile adoption is creating opportunities for business analysts to add value, about the skills necessary to take advantage of them, and ways to drive the influence of business analysis “up” into organizational leadership tiers.

    - Learn about executives' need for trusted advisors, and the unique characteristics business analysis professionals bring to the table for filling that role to address “executive blind spots.

Track 1

  • Presented by Bruce Gay

    In today’s business environment, we need new tools and models to operate in a more flexible, discovery-driven world. Design Thinking has emerged as a successful methodology that organizations use to approach problem-solving and delivery of innovative solutions that delight their customers.

    In this interactive session using “Mentimeter”, you will learn the benefits of incorporating Design Thinking methodologies on projects for increased customer alignment and business impact. The webinar provides participants with a high-level overview of Design Thinking methods and tools. The presenter will use case studies to show how to successfully integrate design methods into projects with lessons learned and unique outcomes.

    Objectives

    - Identify and apply Design Thinking techniques for improving benefits realization and project success

    - Describe the benefits of incorporating design methodologies on projects for organizational understanding and buy-in

    - Illustrate multiple design-thinking tools that could benefit current or future projects

  • Presented by Tina Underhill

    Value seems tough to define, let alone measure and plan the increment of that value our leaders our expecting. Come along and plan a road trip with little to no congestion as we have fun along the way.

    On our journey, we will collaborate to understand the best feature to start with based on the effort, perspectives, and costs.

    We will talk through the major differences between Output against Outcome while we navigate through the traffic and accidents we will encounter.

    Lastly, we will leave you with a process to get started right away!"

    Objectives

    - Define value and techniques to measure it

    - Value Perspectives

    - Product Economic Terms

    - Outcome Product Backlogs and Refinement

  • Presented by Joe Perzel

    All projects have their promoters and their detractors, people that can either make or break your project or your team. This presentation will give you practical advice on who you need to focus on, show you how to classify where each person sits on the “Interest, Attitude, and Power” axis of your Stakeholder chart and how to improve the attitude and interest of the power players in your world.

    Objectives

    - What is the Stakeholder Identification chart and how it will help you

    - Using personality profiling to help you understand what makes people “tick” and where to place them on the chart

    - Techniques and tools to help move people from “disinterested to involved” and “poor attitude to a champion”

    - The key tactics of “Include, Influence, Ignore, Isolate”

    - Adding advanced negotiation techniques for the most important stakeholder types

  • Presented by Kathy Berkidge

    BAs plan our stakeholder engagement approach carefully to maintain effective working relationships with our stakeholders. While there are many tools and techniques to perform stakeholder analysis, we need to analyse the mindset of our stakeholders – a deeper level of analysis - to understand how they will react in various situations, and how we may best respond to them.

    This means we must be willing to look within ourselves to understand how our behaviour, words and actions may be perceived to adapt as necessary while avoiding causing conflict.

    The ‘Stakeholder Engagement Canvas’ helps us perform a deeper level of stakeholder analysis. This new tool examines various aspects of the stakeholders’ mindset in context to the project as well as how we can be more mindful during our engagement with them. Kathy will present how to use this canvas to enable more effective stakeholder engagement.

    Objectives

    - The importance of planning for effective stakeholder engagement

    - Using the stakeholder engagement canvas to plan, monitor and review stakeholder engagement

    - Understand how mindfulness helps build rapport and enhance communication with stakeholders

  • Presented by Dr. Elizabeth Fleming

    Alignment between organizational strategy, leadership development, culture, and employee engagement has been extensively examined in business publications over the past several decades. The importance of creating alignment is paramount, especially given the changes associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the ever-changing landscape of our workforce. High-performing companies recognize the need to analyze the implications of strategy on culture and diligently work to align strategic priorities with individual, team, organization, and cultural needs. This session focuses on discussing best practices and the application of key learnings to help your organization plan for the future.

    Objectives

    - Develop a stronger understanding of alignment as it relates to business, people, and culture.

    - Learn about the impact of COVID-19 and the ever-changing needs of the workforce.

    - Discover tips and best practices for aligning strategic priorities within individuals, teams, the organization, and the culture.

Track 2

  • Presented by Judy Alter

    Businesses are making changes at an incredible pace that was uncommon, even five years ago. Many factors play a part in the changes, such as customer demands, technological advances, and rivalries. Business change is more complicated and demanding than in the past. The number one priority in any change project is the people factor.

    Customers have higher expectations than in the past. The other priority people are the employees, vendors, stakeholders, consultants, and any other person affected by the change. Preparing all people is a crucial first step to getting them to be a partner in the changes.

    Transparency is critical throughout the project. Employees of affected areas will feel threatened just hearing the word change or transformation in a project. The earlier that “how does this affect me?” can be answered, the smoother the adjustments will be for everyone.

    Objectives

    - Encourage many different groups of people to embrace change

    - Explain the "how does it affect me" early in the project

    - Review the new opportunities for the people working in the affected areas

    - Analyze what training people working in the affected areas will require

    - Understand how to keep the people as the number one priority with the changes

    - Explain what I learned in two large change projects as lessons learned

  • Presented by Kit Welchlin

    The natural byproduct of open and honest communication is conflict. The more willing people are to share what they really think and feel, the more likely there will be conflict. Conflict is a good sign of relationship health. The ability to negotiate is crucial to long term relationship development and growth.

    Negotiation skills dictate your level of professionalism. Acquiring negotiation skills strengthen your confidence and increase the likelihood that you will walk away from the bargaining session with satisfying outcomes.

    Objectives

    - Negotiating models

    - 5 steps in the negotiation process

    - Techniques to gain cooperation

    - 10 characteristics of an effective negotiator

  • Presented by Jason Hunt

    Overworked? Stressed out? Too much on your plate? Well, these could be symptoms that you're taking on responsibilities that are not actually yours. As a leader, there are many monkeys (tasks) that need to be completed. Great leaders delegate these monkeys to others and ensure that the monkeys stay off of their backs. Unfortunately, too many leaders feel like they have to have all the answers or solve all the problems, thus taking the monkeys back. This is not effective leadership and doing so will often lead to stress and burnout. Learn how to share your monkeys through effective delegation and how to keep these monkeys off your back by teaching others how to solve their own problems. Doing so not only helps you become a better leader, but it is an essential strategy to helping grow additional leaders in your organization.

    Objectives

    - Understand a 3 step process of delegation.

    - Learn several tools that will help direct reports solve their own problems.

    - Find more time in your day with less monkeys (tasks) on your back.

    - Grow your leadership bench by creating critical thinkers.

Meet the Speakers

  • Judy Alter

    Presentations

    Number One Priority in Successful Change Projects

    About

    Judy Alter is a public speaker and coach: mentor, trainer, and Senior Business Systems Analyst with almost 20 years of experience in Business Analysis. The last eight years were spent working with various Agile Frameworks.

    Judy rebranded herself as “The Optimistic BA” and is known as charismatic, optimistic, humorous, and a successful leader. Her specialty is with handling people, but she also has command of business analysis hardcore skills.

    CEO/Owner of Judy Alter Speaker & Business Analysis Services LLC Present

    IIBA Leader since 2012, where she has served in many roles

    IIBA Global Chapter Council Chair September 2017 to December 2022

  • Jonathan Babcock

    Presentations

    Agile, Executive Blind Spots, and the Evolution of Business Analysis

    About

    Jonathan Babcock, a Director at Jabian Consulting, is a solution definition and delivery strategist with 20+ years of experience partnering with business leaders to reach their goals through people, process, products, and technology. I've advised clients from line-of-business management to C-level executives across several industry verticals.

    He enjoys writing and speaking locally and nationally on business analysis, solution definition and delivery methods, communication techniques, professional development, and team leadership. His current professional passion is applying principles of business and process analysis to help clients deliver complex projects and scale their delivery capabilities.

    He is active in the Atlanta-area business analysis community, and has served as vice president of professional development for the IIBA Greater Atlanta Chapter, helping them achieve recognition internationally in 2018 with the IIBA chapter award for professional development.

    Jonathan has spoken at several industry conferences including Building Business Capability, BA World, PMI Professional Development Day events, and IIBA chapter events.

  • Jennifer Battan

    Presentations

    Keynote: The Truth is Out There: Beyond Yes and No

    About

    Jennifer Battan, CBAP®, the Out of the Box BA, has an energetic passion injecting innovation and creative problem-solving techniques into how BAs do their day-to-day work. Her passion is helping teams apply the art and science of business analysis techniques with fresh, modern perspectives. Jen is an internationally recognized conference speaker, educator and thought leader within the business analysis and creative problem-solving communities. She served on her local IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis) Chapter board as President and in various roles for more than seven years and led a content development and writing team for the IIBA’s Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge®, and on the standards committee for the latest CBAP® exam. As a certified LEGO® Serious Play® Workshop Designer and Facilitator and Gamestorming Facilitator, Jen helps clients and practitioners reach their goals and have fun while they learn, make decisions, and develop shared strategic understanding. Jen spends her free time inspiring learners of all ages to utilize diverse approaches in applying creativity to any challenge they face.

  • Kathy Berkidge

    Presentations

    Workshop: The Stakeholder Engagement Canvas

    About

    With a background in software development, Kathy is an agile BA professional with over 30 years of experience in I.T. She provides business analysis and agile training and consulting services to many organisations in a variety of industries, as well as speaks internationally on topics relating to agile, mindset and business analysis. Kathy works with teams to improve teamwork, be more innovative and deliver better customer value. She is passionate about seeing people, teams and organisations thrive in an environment of collaboration and harmony.

    As a dedicated mindfulness practitioner, Kathy is passionate about seeing people and teams thrive within an environment of collaboration and harmony. Mindfulness offers many benefits to both individuals and teams resulting in more productive interactions, effective communications and valuable outcomes. Kathy helps teams integrate mindfulness practices into their agile processes and solution delivery framework. Kathy also speaks at a number of local and international agile and business conferences.

    Kathy’s other passions include travel, writing and photography (mostly writing about my travels and taking photos of the sites). Just for fun, I study psychology and philosophy, as well as try to find the time to write my first novel.

  • Mindy Bohannon

    Presentations

    Plan Your Roadmap with Prioritization Techniques

    About

    Mindy thrives as an Agile Business Analyst. She relishes solving business problems, developing solutions that drive the business forward, and relating to others with collaboration, trust, and humanity during the process. Mindy began her career journey as a database developer; and is now a BA and Scrum Master, working on application modernization and data science projects. She’s spoken on analyst and professional development topics at many local and national conferences over the years. Equally, she encourages others to share their knowledge as the President of her local IIBA DC chapter.

  • Teri Christian

    Presentations

    Five Levels of Agile Planning – Who Says There is No Planning in Agile?

    About

    With over twenty-five years of experience in Information Technology and Digital Operations, Teri has designed and delivered services that help to improve organizations' ability to deliver quality digital products and services in an Industry 4.0 economy.

    Teri developed the Digital Operations (DigOps) model, with a patent-pending, over 8 years of learning and experimenting as she addressed customer needs. Powers had offices in Seattle and Sydney and have operated virtually over the last five years with contributors across the globe.

    Under Teri's guidance, Powers delivered support to a variety of industries in essential activities to compete and manage exposures given the changes in today's economy.

    Throughout her career, Teri has worked in various senior management advisory roles supporting leaders in a variety of industries. She began her career working as a business analyst and management consultant. Her key capabilities are in strategic advisory to compete in the current Industry 4.0 economy.

    With more than two decades of experience, executing, coaching, consulting, and training in traditional, Lean, and agile delivery across large-scale, complex enterprise organizations as well as smaller agencies, Teri is well qualified to provide advisory support to multiple organizations at scale.

  • Paul Crosby

    Description goes herePaul Crosby is one of the Founders & CEO at The Uncommon League. Paul is also the full-time instructor for Project Management, Agile, and Strategic Enterprise Analysis. Paul is the author of “Fail Fast Fail Safe - Harnessing Failure to Succeed” and “The Uncommon Book of Analysis Techniques” books. Paul has presented at events all over North America and Europe including BA World, Project Summit, Local IIBA Chapter Meetings and other events.

    Paul's latest book "Positive Conflict" will be published on August 15, 2023. Paul is also working on the “The Uncommon Book of Analysis Techniques - Part 2” expected late 2023 and "9 Pillars of Analysis - perspectives for every Analyst" expected Early 2024.

    Paul is a board member of the Sing Your Life - Uncommon Foundation. Through his leadership the foundation has been working with TechFluent, Women in Technology, and other organizations to bring Business Analysis, Agile, Product Management, and Project Management skills to new audiences as a viable career to lift many talented individuals into a technology career.

  • Dr. Elizabeth Fleming

    Presentations

    Strategic Alignment: The Key to Building a Winning Culture

    About

    For over ten years, Elizabeth has worked with small and large businesses to transform their organization by delivering a wide range of solutions tailored to her client's unique needs. Elizabeth integrates her strong interest and academic background in the psychology of people when leveraging evidenced-based approaches in the areas of talent and leadership assessment, succession planning, HR transformation, learning and development, and executive coaching. Elizabeth brings a strong expertise in instructional design, selection and development assessment, and organizational change management. She has been a presenter at various conferences, including those focused on leadership, manufacturing, technology, for IIBA, professional associations and for various companies across the U.S.

  • Bruce Gay

    Presentations

    Leveraging Design Thinking to Drive Value

    About

    "Bruce Gay helps individuals improve their project management skills, become better leaders, and achieve professional greatness. Bruce has over two decades of experience managing large, complex programs and customer relationships across multiple industries. He is owner of Astrevo, a consulting firm that provides project management training and coaching. Bruce enjoys “getting things done” and working collaboratively with others to solve hard problems.

    Bruce is a well-received speaker in the areas of design thinking and project management, cross-team collaboration, and AI tools for projects, and has presented at regional and international conferences. For the past 15+ years, Bruce managed product teams that incorporated UX Design and Design Thinking methodologies into their product development processes.

    Bruce lives in Pittsburgh, USA with his wife, two daughters, and his two dogs. Bruce is an active volunteer within the project management community and has served as Director of Corporate Sponsorship for the PMI Pittsburgh chapter for several years.

  • Jason Hunt

    Presentations

    Mind Your Monkeys

    About

    "Jason Hunt makes it easier for people to like and follow their leaders. He is the founder and CEO of Eye Squared Leadership and he has had the pleasure of working with over 22,000 people in organizations large and small. Jason's first major leadership role was to run a branch of 100 church members in outer Siberia when he was 19. Since then, he has served in a number of leadership positions, including principal of a school. 7 years ago, he started speaking professionally.

    Jason speaks to all sorts of audiences, from manufacturing to finance, to project managers, to social services and he does so over 100 times per year. He is the current president of the National Speakers Association of Minnesota and he was just awarded the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), a distinction that only 17% of professional speakers worldwide hold.

    Jason has a degree in leadership from the University of Minnesota. He is also certified by the John Maxwell Leadership Institute. In 2019 Jason published his first book and just a few months ago, he published four more books as a leadership series.

    Jason lives in Owatonna, Minnesota with his wife and four kids.

  • Kent McDonald

    Presentations

    From Business Analysis to Product Owner to Product Manager

    About

    Kent writes about and practice software product management in a variety of industries including retail, fintech, agriculture, financial services, health insurance, nonprofit, and automotive. kent practices my craft with a variety of product teams and provide just-in-time resources for product people at insideproduct.co. When not writing or product managing, Kent is #ubersherpa for my family, listen to jazz and podcasts (but not necessarily podcasts about jazz), and collect national parks.

  • Jeremy Mann

    Presentations

    Workshop: Learning Styles and Effective Communication

    About

    Jeremy is passionate in the business analyst community and has been a practitioner in software development, retail, ecommerce, supply chain, healthcare, marketing, law and manufacturing business domains. He is an active coach and team leader within projects and actively promotes transformative business practices in an ever-changing industrial landscape. As a consultant, he works with Logisolve, LLC as an advisory consultant and works directly with business analyst capabilities. He has been an active presenter as a CBAP in the business analyst community both within and outside of International Institute of Business Analysis® events. His presentations topics have included creating business analyst plans, designing communication strategies, organizing requirements management, working with product owners and product roadmaps, planning approaches to agile activities and many skills-based offerings for business analysts. He lives in the south suburbs of Minneapolis with his wife and three children.

  • Joe Perzel

    Presentations

    Project Stakeholders: Dealing with Sleeping Giants to Saboteurs

    About

    Joe has spoken at 20+ PMI, 15+ IIBA, 5 ASQ chapters as well as MN GTS, BBC, PMBA, PMO Impact, PMI Global. Joe has also spoken at BA World Conferences all over North America. Joe is the president of the IIBA Minneapolis-St Paul Chapter.

  • Tina Underhill CSP-PO, BSBA

    Presentations

    Traveling on the Turnpike - How to Gain the Value in Values

    About

    Tina has over 20 years as a BA with the past 3 years in the Product Owner space. A past speaker at multiple IIBA Chapters, PSBAW locations, the South Florida PMI Chapter, and am active on the Project Bites platform. Sharing information in a fun way helps us break down those complex and critical areas we fear together.

  • Kit Welchlin

    Kit grew up on a hog and dairy farm and began public speaking at the age of 9 in 4-H. By 16, he was organizing and facilitating presentations on leadership, citizenship, community service and motivation for the 4-H and Future Farmers of America.

    Kit has a B.S. Degree in Speech Communication, Business Administration and Political Science. He earned an M.A. Degree in Speech Communication and Business Administration.

    Kit purchased his first manufacturing company at age 21, and by 26 was CEO and Chairman of the Board of three manufacturing companies in three states. He’s been an instructor with the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, where he received the Excellence in Teaching Award. He is a Professional Member of the National Speakers Association and earned the CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) designation. He has delivered more than 3,000 presentations to more than 500,000 people. In 2014, Kit was inducted into the Minnesota Speakers Association Hall of Fame.

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