In this workshop we will explore how to work with business teams on AI projects. We will look at the 10 steps to guide yourself and your business stakeholders through the project and some key techniques to use along the way! You will walk away with a renewed confidence to tackle these projects and ensure you are all on the right path!

Transitioning between working for project-based organizations to product-oriented companies or vice versa can sometimes seem like navigating between different galaxies, even for Business analysts who are proverbially good at adapting to different business environments.

This session aims to:

• Uncover the major differences between the Project and Product worlds from a Business Analyst perspective
• Explore some of the most common pitfalls faced by Business Analysts when making a transition between these contexts
• Provide practical advice for successfully adapting to the new landscape

Let's explore the capabilities of how ChatGPT Advanced Data function can take a data set, define it, and analyze it. We will do this in real time, experimenting and together prompting ChatCPT with our questions about the data set. We will likely end up discussing things like: What can AI do and what can't AI do in analyzing data? Do we need to know SQL anymore? What questions lines and processes do we need to use to interpret the AI driven analysis? What work might this replace?

As technology and artificial intelligence (AI) continue to advance at a breakneck pace, the imperative for companies to evolve fundamentally is more pressing than ever. Mastery of business analysis will become indispensable for organizations striving to remain competitive.The essence of continuous business analysis lies in its capacity to facilitate this adaptation through a comprehensive understanding of both the overarching strategy and the minute, by value-driven analysis and synthesis.

Discover how AI, Agility, and Analysis come together to help organizations and teams deliver value with artificial intelligence. In this session we will look at what AI augmented business analysis looks like, how AI can help teams analyze users, processes, data, and create more value. We will look at the key practices needed to enable business analysis in an AI driven world, and how these impact common BA practices today.

In this workshop we will explore the 3 categories of impacts of AI on business analysis. Productivity, SDLC changes, and business model and process changes. The facilitator will present some theses of change in each ares, then small groups will explore and share themes, what they are seeing in their industries, and the impact; then share with the larger group.

Laughter is powerful medicine.
It has the unique ability to both energize and bring peace.

When we laugh, endorphins are released in our bodies,
making us immediately feel happier and more relaxed.

If you've had a busy day and you're feeling tired or stressed,
a good laugh is just what you need.
By laughing you give yourself a boost of energy and positivity,
making you feel fresh and energetic again.
It helps you to see life more lightly and to deal with challenges with more resilience.

What to expect?

• Just follow me, don't think, don't analyse…
• Just go with the flow and feel the difference.
• Get energized for a whole day…

Based on 2 cases within our own work environment we would like to highlight the role of BA as team leader and team connector.

Case1:
Last year one of our product teams experienced profound changes. Some people left the company with a lot of their product knowledge. The remaining people on the team became desperate, confused and frustrated.

Case 2:
In the same year a new project started in another team but there was not enough internal development capacity. A nearshore development team was brought in. We experienced that this is not always obvious with a lot of extra pitfalls and challenges.

In this session we specifically zoom in on following questions:

• What was our approach in each of the cases?
• Which BA skills have we been able to apply?
• What are the do's, the don'ts and the pitfalls?

Whether you're at the end of your assignment or in the middle of a project, during a 1-1 meeting with your manager, you might be asked a question for which you're never quite prepared: "Do you have any achievements to share?" (or it can be another wording with the same sense).

In such situations, our minds can blank out, leaving us unsure of what to say. Let's get prepared and discuss your Business Analysis Portfolio, and how it can assist you in one-on-one discussions and when planning your career growth.

The Kanban method is the simple way to efficiency, predictability, and agility.

In this Kanban workshop facilitated by Annette Vendelbo, Accredited Kanban Trainer, and Coach from Kanban University you will get a high-level introduction to the Kanban method. Via hands- on exercises you will experience flow and the effect of the strong Kanban practices. You will get new tools that you can put into practice immediately. Independent of how you work and what you work with.

Agile frameworks have been in use for more than 20 years, but many organizations have found that the expected outcomes have not materialized. Managers have started to question the overhead connected with agile frameworks, and Scrum Masters and agile coaches are not as high in demand as they used to be. But what are people looking for instead?

The answer to that question is flow. It doesn’t matter what you work with, or what services you deliver, the key to efficiency and faster time-to-market is to optimize the flow of completed work. It is an inconvenient truth that unfinished work has no value.

The Kanban method was born as a flow system, and for approx. 20 years the method has become more and more sophisticated. Kanban uses a set of building blocks. 3 change management principles, 3 service delivery principles, and 6 general practices. All 6 practices should be put into action independent of maturity level. In a deeper way on the higher maturity levels and shallower on the lower levels. (Kanban works with 7 maturity levels according to the Kanban Maturity Model).

The Kanban method scales. In fact, you scale Kanban by doing more Kanban. This way you can introduce a way of working spanning whole organizations, and thus giving everyone a common language. This makes it easier to collaborate and it makes service delivery extremely efficient.

• Flowstoppers webinar on LinkedIn Live
• Flowstoppers webinar slides

Although the role of a Business Analyst isn't explicitly mentioned in the Scrum Guide, we all understand the significant impact of their absence. We also recognize that merely adding a Business Analyst to write stories doesn't automatically guarantee a successful product.

In this session, I'll guide you in identifying the various roles you can play, both within and outside of Scrum Agile teams. We'll discuss the barriers to achieving successful products and explore the different methods and tools available to address these challenges.

This talk is to help my audience understand why it's so hard to bring in a change in life. We all talk about having better meetings, better processes for requirement gathering, better participation in natural teams, even a better future, a better body, a better mindset but we why are not we not able to change on a deep level?

• I will help my audience understand what it means neurologically and biologically to change and adapt.
• I will outline the steps that my audience needs to take in order to recognize how they can change themselves and help their key stakeholders change so that they can succeed in their role/life.
• I will talk about how to rewire your brain to help adapt to changing environments and ultimately be more impactful as a BA.

This talk will not only create intrigue in my audience but also inspire them to bring in long term changes in their lives.

Business case analysis is one of the most important skills a BA must develop. But few organizations dedicate time to business case analysis because they think business cases are time-consuming, documentation-heavy activities. Business case analysis is used at the enterprise level, to get project funding and prioritized portfolios, and at the product level to prioritize features and requirements for getting consensus on scope and product roadmaps. Whether you are using a traditional methodology, an agile approach or a hybrid, you must be able to quickly analyze business value and feature alignment with strategy. Come see examples of lightweight business case analysis and learn to help your organization make better prioritization decisions.

• Recognize the importance of business case analysis in daily work
• Think of business case analysis as an iterative activity
• Perform a quick cost benefit analysis on a single requirement

Organizations are complex structures which must evolve and grow to succeed for the long term. People working within organizations need clear direction and are motivated by an understanding of the organization’s mission and long-term goals, and the best way to achieve them. Business analysts are in unique positions in their organizations to help develop, support and advance short- and long-term goals. Analysis professionals understand how to enable change and often work with employees at every level and in every department/division.

• What is a strategic plan?
• Who creates this plan? How is the plan created?
• How is the plan communicated?
• Why and how should Business Analysts be involved?

A data migration is not only about shifting data to a new environment. The data has a pupose … a business purpose! And that business purpose becomes more important as IT is not only migrating data, but also starting with a new global application that will make use of this data.

In this talk I will guide you through my experiences and will discuss the learnings. To be honest &hellip in hindsight should we have migrated the data at all? Or all the data? And what is the Business driver to this migration?

„You have been promoted to Business Analysis Manager!“

Congratulations, this is not only a big step in your career, but also a visible recognition of your achievements and your expertise. Up to here.

While the step from Business Analyst to Senior Business Analyst is quite easy to handle, the next step to Business Analysis Manager is a much bigger challenge.

What you need to develop now is a totally different skill set. In addition you need to accept really quick:

You are not part of the gang anymore.

In this session we are going to discuss the following topics:

• The usual pitfalls when you take on a team lead role for the first time (and how to live with them).
• The opportunities you’ve got while shaping your BA Function.
• How to establish a work environment in your organisation that supports your BA team.

Are you riding the AI wave in your analysis work, seeking inspiration, or skeptical about the AI hype? Join us at our 'coffee corner conversation' to explore diverse perspectives.

In our session, we'll dive into:

• The synergy between business analysis fundamentals and the successful implementation of AI projects.
• Essential tools and clever techniques that elevate your analytical prowess in AI.
• Fresh insights from our 2024 AI community explorations at The Business Analysts.

Come armed with your unique use cases, your most incisive questions, and your brilliant insights. Let's brew some thought-provoking discussions together!

There are two legs to a successful organisation. The first is Strategy and the second is execution. What distinguishes successful organisations from the others is not entirely their strategy, but a combination of perfect strategy, excellent execution, and few other factors.

There exists abundance of resources and reports of studies that suggest that many organisations have not successfully been able to connect their strategy to the day-to-day activities of their employees, and this has led to, amongst others, low motivation, inefficiencies, and waste.

When done well, strategy and execution can set any organisation apart.

Come and join us in this conversation-styled discussion as we delve into the world of Strategy & Execution, exploring results of studies by different bodies and discuss ways to bridge the widening gap between strategy and execution.

Often times, we see a huge disconnect between corporate strategy and execution efforts.

Report from different quarters show that an average member of organization cannot tell how their day to day functions help drive the strategy of the organization or how their output contribute to the objectives of their company.

This constantly widening gap has resulted in low team morale, lack of clarity and direction, division and overall dissatisfaction across the entire organization.

How do we connect and align strategy with execution? While there are many possible ways, in this presentation, we will explore the OKR Framework as a way to create alignment and bridge the gap between Strategy and Execution.

In this presentation, we will :

• review case studies and reports around strategy and execution
• deep dive into the OKR framework
• better understand how to improve alignment between Strategy and execution

The fast-paced Event industry's highly dynamic and agile nature requires crucial strategic planning and execution to create the show for its intended audience. The Business Analyst within this industry plays a pivotal role in collaborating with multiple stakeholders, starting from identifying the problem and implementing the right solution to that problem with the aid of technology.

• This session will explore a BA's primary roles and challenges in the Events world and the best-supporting aids for a BA to continue to work efficiently.
• This session will unfold the general working nature of the event industry and then move on to the most common challenges, including managing different levels of stakeholders, collecting unified requirements, implementing technical solutions with non-technical stakeholders, and finally implementing the solution across other geo-locations.
• This session also focuses on the importance of data within the event industry, which is the most helpful support for a BA and the primary fuel to run the Event industry.

Attendees will better understand BAs' indispensable role in shaping successful events and overcoming the challenges inherent in this vibrant industry.

Business Analysts, requirement managers, and similar roles often sit in the gap between different teams, and communicating between them isn’t always a smooth process.

Imagine how your work would be different if you could help every team speak in the same language!

In this interactive coffee corner conversation you’ll learn two techniques to make communicating between teams much easier. Whether you’re working with Marketing, Sales, Service, or technical teams, discover how to translate their message, for any topic, any audience, at any time and have confidence you can get your message across.

Ontdek in deze sessie hoe artificiële intelligentie (AI) je bedrijfs- en functionele analyses versnelt en verbetert, waardoor je effectievere en efficiëntere analyses kan maken door jouw eigen praktische ervaring te combineren met de veelzijdigheid en welbespraaktheid van ChatGPT.

Ontdek tevens in deze sessie hoe je specifieke analysemethoden zoals ArchiMate, BPMN, DMN, UML, ... gebruikt in samenwerking met de Generatieve A.I. Business Analyst.

Leer het Stapsgewijze Generatieve A.I. Proces van het definiëren en het bouwen van een business case met context retention, van capabilities en strategie tot gebruiksgerichte user stories, en het stroomlijnen van uw architectuur en analyse journey. We gebruiken in deze sessie het PROMPT Framework 'PREPARE'.

Generatieve AI (GenAI) technologie zal hierbij een steeds grotere rol spelen, en het is belangrijk om deze kennis te verwerven, je rol aan te passen, en je voor te bereiden op de generatieve AI toekomst.

Whether you feel stuck in a rut or just want to take stock, we can all learn and develop from making time to reflect. In this session we will discuss common BA career choices and challenges, and apply simple yet powerful techniques to help achieve career clarity.

This session is suitable for both business analysts who are just starting out and experienced professionals looking to advance in their careers. Join us for learning and discussion, to help you make informed decisions and understand your career options.

Key Takeaways

• Adopting a growth mindset
• Achieving career clarity
• Applying a job crafting approach
• Becoming more motivated in your current role.

What makes a successful team? What makes a successful team member?

No one gets in to tech because we like talking about our feelings, but that time has come. By understanding the concepts of emotional literacy, emotional intelligence and emotional agility we can improve our relationships, teams, projects and products.

In this session we will journey through the ups and downs of many common scenarios for business analysts and project professionals.

Key Takeaways

• Understand the concepts of emotional literacy, emotional intelligence and emotional agility;
• Discuss the ups and downs of common situations we face at work;
• Increased emotional agility for awareness and adaptability in the face of challenges.

Our solution analysts @ Colruyt Group are working in projects with changing and more challenging IT contexts. Just training them in a few core methods like use cases, BPMN, … wasn’t enough anymore. We required a more complex method framework. Not only a method framework was needed but also a new training and community approach to support our 400+ analysts. Therefore, Bart and Dimitri introduced an analyst framework inspired by the BABOK and a new learning approach to rollout this framework.

Discover

• Our approach from methodology to an analyst community.
• The challenges and opportunities we encountered.

Did you ever work on a project when everything was happening everywhere and all at once? Or maybe the project itself was fine, but the company or external changes were too fast and too unpredictable? Most probably, at that time firefighting or hot-fixes were mentioned several times.

Why is the word “fire” used in IT at all? Possibly, because when something goes wrong or there are too many changes to handle properly, then we all feel some kind of heat. Indeed, even hardware can literally heat up if it is overloaded.

But do we always have to work in fire-fighting mode? What if there are techniques which can help us to control the flame or even start dancing with the fire?

There are some helpful techniques which belong to both BA and QA toolkits. In this talk let’s discuss how BAs and QAs can work together to tame the fire on a project.

How are you feeling about your BA work? Do you want to be more excited about your work?

Even with Business Analysis being an "analytical" job, we can be hit with the following emotions:

• Frustrated that stakeholders don't listen to our recommendations
• Feeling that your BA skills are not being used to their full potential
• Intimidated by other BAs who make the job look so easy

We've all been there. Join us for this insightful discussion on how we can find our BA Swagger to be the best BAs we can be, to gain stakeholders' trust and respect and to feel like new and exciting opportunities will open up for you. We work so hard — shouldn't we have some of the glory?

Emily Tom will share some practical tips she has learned over a 20-year career on how to find your swagger.

This talk is for you who is new as a business analyst and you who are onboarding new business analyst colleagues.

In Denmark, there is no formal business analyst education. For many business analysts, the first years are hard to get through as they do not know about the processes, tools and techniques that are needed to solve their tasks.

In this talk you will get ideas for how new business analysts can start their learning journey in a meaningful and fulfilling way.

How to gather requirements and discover real needs of business stakeholders?

Active listening techniques is not only about asking right questions. It is more about being self-aware and understand well what cognitive filters might stakeholders have. So let's try real mirroring and lieutenant Columbo's way of discovering the truth.

Simply doing Agile is not enough. To survive in the competitive VUCA environment, organizations must sense and respond to change with speed and precision. This capability does not depend exclusively on using specific methods or framework. In each context, the stakeholders’ needs must be understood to identify what is the most valuable approach. This is a job to Business Analysis.

Get your brain involved in some stories and put it to work in a group puzzle to make it become nimble. Note: Brains love storytelling and puzzles.

Objectives

• Expand your vocabulary with the difference between Agile and Nimble.
• Understand the importance of being nimble.
• Engage with other participants on a nimble activity game.

A product (any product) is created through multiples iterations of improvements. Waterfall approaches call them projects. Agile frameworks call them sprints or cycles and try to keep them smaller. During those iterations, some information is created to guide the development team on what must be done, other information must be part of the product, saved in a knowledge base for reuse.

Using music, dance and audience engagement, this flash workshop demonstrates, in just 15 minutes, how project and product information should be managed in any organization.

Objectives

• Understand the difference between project and product lifecycles.
• Experiment a product development in multiple iterations.
• Segregate knowledge bases.
• Have some fun in the process.

The advancement of AI technology will have an impact on all organizations. What does that mean for all professionals that play a role in improving business outcomes? What is new and showing promise? Will these tools help encourage or hinder human connections?

As an article writer and YouTuber, Fabrício Laguna has been one of the leading voices on the BA and PM community demonstrating the possible usage of ChatGPT as a tool for improving work productivity. In his articles, he demonstrates how AI can be used as a tool to create nimble organizations. On video, he talks to ChatGPT as if it were a real person throw an avatar created by Synthesia, another AI tool. But AI has also limitations and its usage raises technical, legal, and ethical questions that must take place in the strategic planning of any organization.

The content of this presentation answers the most common questions and concerns about AI and brings insights into this rapidly evolving technology field focusing on what it means for you and your organization. The format in which it is presented with video interactions, live dancing and storytelling involves the audience who is filled with energy as in a theatrical performance.

Objectives

• Presenting an interesting and informative perspective for the future of BA using AI.
• Bring some clarity on the main questions related to current usage of this new technology.
• Speculates about the some trends and possible future usage of AI on our businesses.
• Create an impact and good vibes for the coming forward event.

Something must be wrong! A lot of organizations invested in Agile frameworks, trainings, and practices (sprints, scrums, retros!) and are still unable to deliver the speed and flexibility they desire. When they talk about Agile they usually struggle to differentiate DOING agile (by using methods and frameworks) from BEING agile (acting according to the agile mindset and achieving measurable results).

To avoid this ambiguity we prefer to use the term “NIMBLE”. Nimble was defined by IIBA in a Global Research for Business Leadership as “the scalable capability for organizations to sense and respond to change”. This study presents that the key to being nimble is not specific methods or frameworks, but the organization’s business analysis capability. Yes, you can play a key role in your organization’s nimbleness.

In this tutorial, Fabrício and Filip dive into the details of this IIBA report connecting its eight practices with tangible business analysis capabilities and related approaches

Last year I shared my model that can be used for reflection, self-assessment and personal or team development. In the feedback on the session at BA&Beyond, but also in other sessions I regularly get the question to share a picture/description of a typical Business Analyst.

Though in the discussion it is always difficult to describe a typical I've decided to pick up the challenge. In my talk I will share the elements of a Business Analyst and how you can use this for your reflection on your personal or your team development. When referred to Business Analysis, the pitfall is that the focus lies on tools and techniques, but we all know that there is more that makes you a good BA. With the elements of my model and an extra tool I will show you what a BA looks like and how you develop yourself as a BA.

Communities make individuals stronger. What does it take to create a thriving BA community, whether it is in your team, your organisation, your business domain, your city, your country, or globally? What do you expect from a community, and what can you contribute?

Let's discuss with Andy, Wouter and Filip, who will be sharing experiences from their own local and global, organisational and regional BA communities!

Communities make individuals stronger. What does it take to create a thriving BA community, whether it is in your team, your organisation, your business domain, your city, your country, or globally? What do you expect from a community, and what can you contribute?

Let's discuss with several people from IIBA, who will be sharing experiences from their own local and global, organisational and regional BA communities!

• What is "engagement" and why would we want it? How do we measure engagement? What are our objectives?
• What are key challenges we need to overcome?
• What opportunities can we build upon or leverage?
• How do we get from interest to engagement?

Join us for a dynamic and highly interactive workshop designed to delve deep into the essential tools and techniques of business analysis. We will engage delegates in practical exercises designed to create an immersive learning experience that is both challenging and rewarding.

What We Will Cover:

• Customer Journey Mapping: Map the end-to-end customer journey, identifying key touchpoints, pain points, and opportunities for digital enhancements. impact on customer satisfaction, guiding product development priorities.
• Story Mapping: Develop a visual story map that outlines the necessary features for a new, integrated booking and travel management platform. impact on customer satisfaction, guiding product development priorities.
• Process Modelling: Design a "To-Be" process model that incorporates automated tools to streamline itinerary generation and customer management. impact on customer satisfaction, guiding product development priorities.
• Persona Development: Create detailed personas based on demographic and behavioural data to guide targeted marketing and product offerings. impact on customer satisfaction, guiding product development priorities.
• Kano Analysis: Produce a Kano analysis to categorize features based on their impact on customer satisfaction, guiding product development priorities.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain practical skills in applying business analysis techniques to real-world challenges in the travel industry.
• Understand how to use customer data to inform decision-making and improve user experience.
• Learn to communicate complex analysis and solutions effectively through visual business analysis techniques.

Imagine being part of a once-thriving project, brimming with potential and promise. Yet, despite the initial optimism, cracks begin to appear. A series of errors and questionable decisions within the project team lead to escalating challenges. As tensions rise, the project's future hangs in the balance.

And then, the unexpected happens—Richard Milestone, the project manager, meets an untimely and mysterious demise. The workshop takes a dramatic turn as participants are thrust into a world of complexity, urgency, and intrigue.

What Awaits You

• A Riveting Narrative: Our Murder Mystery Workshop unfolds like a gripping novel, where you become a central character. You'll navigate through a labyrinth of challenges, decisions, and surprises.
• Practical Learning: As you work to solve the mystery, you'll apply essential business analysis techniques, including data models, customer journey mapping, and decision tables. Gain real-world experience in a simulated environment.
• Team Dynamics: Collaboration is key. You'll work closely with your fellow participants, mirroring the importance of teamwork in project management and business analysis.

Isabelle presents how the municipality of Ghent works to reduce poverty by offering proactive services.

While the different levels of the Belgian government (federal, regional, and local) provide social benefits to its citizens, applying for these benefits is burdensome for its most vulnerable rights holders. They have to provide documents to prove their financial and healthcare status. To alleviate this administrative process, the municipality of Ghent opts to the fullest extent for an automatic allocation of social benefits.

To enable this, District09 and Digital Flanders, set up an award-winning, future-proof, and reusable platform. Through data exchange and automation across the different layers of the Belgian government, it ensures a more accessible and effective allocation of social benefits to its rights holders.

In 2022 and 2023, District09 and Digital Flanders implemented three different use cases, proving the different Belgian government levels can work together while navigating complex GDPR regulations.

In almost every initiative, people rely on other people to achieve success. They could not control each other thoroughly, so they had to put their trust in each other. It could work out, but sometimes, it does not. People may fail to establish trust, slip and let it decay over time, or unintentionally break it down entirely. Fixing an issue may be simple in some cases; it is a filigree work for others.

In this session, I aim to share my experience in:

• Finding the root causes of lack of trust;
• Embracing the psychological elements behind them;
• Using business analysis as a framework to establish/regain trust.

Since their introduction in 1987, Use Cases have become widely adopted by business analysts. However, they have attracted a reputation from some for being heavyweight and even a legacy technique that isn’t required in modern, agile development. Yet this opinion couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only are use cases as relevant to business analysts to day as they were 30 years ago, they are still being evolved and improved.

Join the inventor of Use Cases, Ivar Jacobson, to learn about how he and agile heavyweight Alistair Cockburn have modernized Use Cases, and how he has created a family of Use Case practices that are an essential toolkit for any business analyst.

Use the practices to explore some Use Cases of Artificial Intelligence, and find out for yourself how easy and powerful they are to use.

In the dynamic realm of Business Analysis, the dichotomy between ideal project trajectories and the reality of unpredictable outcomes is stark. "It's Not Your Fault" is a candid talk designed to delve into the often-undiscussed facets of project failures and the ensuing burnout in the BA landscape. This session aims to foster a culture of resilience and learning, emphasizing that setbacks are not a reflection of individual inadequacy but a universal aspect of professional growth. Attendees will engage in an honest discussion about coping strategies, psychological impacts, and the critical role of supportive work environments in navigating these challenges. The talk will offer actionable insights on building resilience, cultivating a positive mindset, and the importance of organizational support in the face of adversity, all essential for thriving in the ever-evolving world of Business Analysis.

In this interactive talk you will get a deep insight into:

• Understand Project Failure: Explore the realities of project setbacks in Business Analysis, emphasizing that these are part of the learning curve, not personal failures.
• Build Resilience: Learn practical strategies to develop resilience, maintain a positive mindset, and manage burnout effectively in the face of project challenges.
• Fostering Supportive Environments: Highlight the importance of creating a supportive organizational culture that acknowledges challenges and encourages growth amidst adversity.

In today's world, where the amount of data is rapidly increasing, developing an effective data strategy is crucial for organizations to effectively use their data in line with their business goals. However, it's often observed that data projects tend to focus on immediate, operational issues rather than on driving transformative change across the organization. This leads to a shift in focus from understanding the 'why' (value drivers) behind data initiatives to just dealing with the 'how' (the technology parts like artificial intelligence, reporting, etc.).

In my presentation, I will introduce a unique approach to data strategy, inspired by the classic arcade game Pac-Man. In this game, the player guides Pac-Man through a maze, collecting dots while avoiding ghosts. This gameplay serves as a metaphor for developing a successful data strategy in businesses. Participants will discover:

• 1 - Eating Data Dots: Similar to Pac-Man, identify and 'consume' key data points that drive business value, focusing on strategic data use to power business goals.
• 2 - Navigating the Organizational Maze: Learn to maneuver through your organization's complex structures, akin to Pac-Man navigating mazes, to efficiently access valuable data.
• 3 - Recognizing the Ghosts: Just as Pac-Man avoids ghosts, identify and steer clear of common data strategy pitfalls and challenges to ensure smooth progress towards your data objectives.

• Data Usability: How to Build Better Data Products
• Data Driven Management: The Why, Who, What and How?
• Once You POC, You (Can't) Stop!

This workshop explains how the Anticipate technique works and participants experience hands-on what future priming means. It sensitises your brain to future developments that are important to you or your organisation.

What comes closest to predicting the future is to see things early.

And to see things early you need to prepare your mind.

The best way to prepare your mind is future priming (based on Harvard research) which takes place by formulating so-called future facts. You make think of them as newspaper headlines which include the following requirements:

• 3 to 7 years in the future
• not mentioning your own company but certainly affecting your own company
• unconventional but not absurd
• should not describe a trend, but an event (which prompted the newspaper article)

These facts are plotted on a canvas with the axes uncertainty and impact. We then conduct a scenario analysis with the most uncertain, most impactful ones.

It's time to charge up your life!

In a world where we're constantly plugged in, we often forget to unplug and reconnect with what truly energizes us. Join us for a dynamic exploration of how to Recharge, Unplug, and Do What You Love, all while having fun and boosting your personal battery.

We will conclude with a shared boost of energy, and look forward to activating our passion and learning something new. It's time to unplug and recharge!

Objectives

• Learn to identify your energizers and energy drains, and how to balance them effectively.
• Understand the importance of measuring and acting upon energy levels within your team to promote well-being and productivity.
• Challenge the notion of productivity and embrace mindfulness as a path to achieving more with less.
• Share your energy and recharge others because energy multiplies when it's shared!

In this ground-breaking study, “The Future Business Analyst”, Joe explored whether and how the business analyst of the next decade will be that different from today’s business analyst. To answer these questions, Joe interviewed over 30 of the world’s top business analysts and surveyed hundreds of practitioners from companies such as IIBA, AssistKD, HSBC, Vodacom, Discovery, and TikTok. This enabled Joe to gain an accurate, global picture of business analysis and compare it across demographics.

The Future Business Analyst provides answers to critical questions such as:

• What trends will shape the future of business analysis?
• What challenges must business analysts be ready to overcome?
• What skills and mindsets do future business analysts need to succeed?
• What steps need to be taken to become a future-ready business analyst?

Today’s business analysts must become tomorrow’s business analysts, but success today does not guarantee success tomorrow. Only preparation can do that.

Are you ready to become The Future Business Analyst?

Organisations want to become more and more data driven. Business analysts play an important role to make the journey to a data driven organisation possible. In his talk, Joris will take you through the typical stages an organisation goes through in its journey to become data driven and shows the crucial role of the business analyst at each stage of this journey. You should visit this talk if you want to know more about:

• The typical stages an organisation goes through on the journey to become data driven
• The role of the business analyst in each stage

In today’s volatile world, business analysts are relied on to help deliver solutions that create an excellent user experience and customer delight. In the pursuit of innovation, we cannot rest on our laurels; what is ‘wow’ today is passé tomorrow. We must remain curious – researching, investigating and exploring – continuously learning as we go.

However ingrained attitudes, cognitive bias and assumptions can impede discovery. It’s easy to be prejudiced by our own entrenched beliefs. We may think we know ‘something’ and fail to explore ‘what else’. While we may have many facts and figures, we must remain open to uncover more.

In this session, we will explore how to maintain a curious mindset. You will learn how to be more open and objective to approach your work from a more non-judgmental, impartial position. By loosening our perceptions, we can see things with more awareness and clarity. This drives curiosity to gain deeper insights to deliver better business value.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the link between creativity and innovation.
• Recognise cognitive bias and how it impedes learning.
• Apply practical awareness techniques to enhance curiosity.

Business analysts who work as in-house team members and business analysts who work in a service company are different. And if you are a BA from the service company, you have to fight together with your team in competition with other service companies for the potential project every time. And even if you are a rockstar in business analysis techniques, you might only have a chance to demonstrate them once you win the competition and get the project.

I'd like to talk about the Presale phase and the role of the Business Analyst there.

Key messages that I would like to share:

• What Business analyst contributes to the Presale phase competition and how could they raise the chance of victory
• Do's and don'ts for Business analyst in the Presale phase
• Why Business Analyst should improve their sales skill and how it can help you in your professional life.

My session will be focused on those items and how we, as a business analyst, should be prepared for each point of sales.

What’s the secret to successful projects and initiatives? Teamwork and effective collaboration, of course.

BAs are the glue that help teams work well together; facilitating workshops and creating a shared understanding about the outcomes required. It’s important we set up teams for success and ensure we all know how to work together effectively. Team agreements are commonly used but are often too vague with many assumptions, which can lead to conflict and confusion.

The Team Collaboration Canvas is a new tool specifically designed to help facilitate team chartering. It provides a simple method to capture the team’s ways of working along with the team’s vision, goals, responsibilities, and the context around the work environment, as well as support continuous improvement. This session will explore the Team Collaboration Canvas and how to use it to build awesome teams.

Learning outcomes:

• Understand the importance of team chartering and creating working agreements.
• Use the Team Collaboration Canvas to build successful teams and implement continuous improvement.
• Implement practical techniques to create effective team collaboration.

This workshop will focus on the use of artificial intelligence in the different phases of the building and sharing of knowledge as part of Business Architecture.

The workshop will start with a presentation by Russell and Kuno describing the principles and structure of the AI usage and guidelines for interacting with the AI service to get the optimal results.

The second part will involve the audience in creating a small sample business architecture consisting of Task maps, Capability maps, Organization maps and Product maps using AI.

The City of Copenhagen needed data to ensure alignment between the investments in properties, buildings, and facilities and the political decisions about service levels of facilities offered to citizens and institutions.

The responsible administration could not get the necessary information from existing data.

The core issue was a lack of understanding of the information needs, especially the information concepts and their relations.

It was decided that data had to registered based on an understanding of information needs instead of trying to manipulate data registered for different operational purposes in different it-systems.

Information modelling, defining the core concepts, their information content, and relationships both gave a much better common understanding of the necessary information and how it could be registered as data in existing systems but also gave a common language that could be used to describe and discus the needs for investments with management and politicians.

Lasse will be presenting a contextualization of the current AI craze. This against both previous hype markets and against the arguable “brown field” of enterprises. Making his living very much of a hype tech market, Lasse will be discussing how technology must always be centered around the whats and whys of business, effectively retracting a bit from the sheer technology discussion to subsequently being able to underscore the importance of technology for fixing issues.

Many business analysts and product owners grapple with backlog management on a day to day basis. On the face of it, managing a backlog of work items ranked in order of importance should be pretty straightforward. However the nuances of backlog management can be a source of frustration when other factors such as changing requirements, priorities, non-functional requirements, splitting user stories and alignment with wider context come into play.

In this workshop Lyn will navigate you through the minefield that is backlog management uncovering techniques and approaches to keep you on the right track. Content will based on the 2nd edition of the ‘Agile and Business Analysis’ book which Lynda is co-authoring and will be published later this year:

Workshop topics include:

• Creating the backlog
• Splitting stories
• Prioritising the backlog
• Definition of Ready
• Managing non-functional requirements
• Definition of done and the BA role in change
• Tools to help manage the backlog

In a rapidly changing business environment, mastering the arts of resilience, flexibility, and agility within business analysis serves as a key element for sustainable success.

This speech explores the quintessence of these three traits in navigating the unpredictable changes of the market, underscoring their role in effective approach to making decisions and fostering a proactive approach towards embracing change.

By exploring practical examples, this speech seeks to clarify that incorporating these characteristics not only strengthens the business analysis framework but also drives organisations toward a path of ongoing growth and operational excellence in the face of a dynamic market environment.

Session Key Takeaways:

• Flexibility for Adaptation
• Enhanced Decision-making
• Real-world Applications

Challenges of a big country with a small population

• Digitalization is almost always a bad business case
• Few people with specialized education

Challenges of extreme infrastructure

• How do you design solutions when you can’t count on the internet.
• How do you work together when people are very distributed and traveling is challenging?

Challenges of down scaling a business area and the IT systems

• We need all the services of a telecom, energy production and distribution, airports and airlines – how do you find solutions that supports these business areas but only has a fraction of the users and customers but needs to be run by a 4 people size it- department?

The benefits of being BA in Greenland

• You get to be involved in many aspects of digitalization projects and you can really see the results of you work.
• You work across all line of industries

In this coffee corner conversation, after a short piece of theory about CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), we will work in groups on practical cases that go beyond Green IT

When dealing with complex topics, business analysts are faced with the challenge of presenting topics to business stakeholders and development teams. For this, a suitable visualisation of the topic has proven to be the best entry point.

Depending on the challenge at hand, various forms prove suitable: flowcharts, system architecture, screen mockups, well-chosen examples - often also a combination of these.

In this session, I will first present you some real-life business examples and compare them to high art by Caravaggio, Munch and Miro.

Then participants can create and share visualisations themselves based on some provided challenges.

The synergy between product management and business analysis is rooted in their shared goal of delivering successful open source products that not only meet user needs but also align with the broader strategic objectives of the business. This collaborative approach ensures a comprehensive and cohesive product development process, driving innovation and success.

The talk will be focused on the 3 factors:

Collaborative innovation

Uncover how collaborative efforts between product development and business analysis foster innovation, enriching open-source projects with diverse perspectives and expertise.

User-centric design

The pivotal role of product development in crafting user-centric open-source solutions, complemented by business analysis techniques for actionable insights from user interactions.

Data-driven decision making

Explore the integration of data analytics in both product development and business analysis, showcasing how insights derived from user behavior and market trends inform strategic decision-making.

As a business analyst, it is only a matter of time before you get a question about integrating AI in the existing processes.

In this session I'll show you how

• you can start talking about AI with business users
• you can identify possible AI opportunities
• you can guide business users to come up with AI solutions (and have buy in from the start)

"Beyond Boundaries: Connecting Enterprise and Business" explores the symbiotic relationship between Enterprise Architecture (EA), Business Architecture and Business Analysis (BA), illuminating how they transcend traditional silos to foster organisational cohesion.

This workshop delves into the distinct yet interdependent roles of BA and EA, emphasising their pivotal responsibilities in aligning business strategy with changes of the enterprise. Participants will gain insights into practical approaches for utilising both BA and EA, empowering them to navigate complex organisational landscapes with a focus on digital transformation.

From strategy into roadmaps yet into business outcomes, this workshop will unveil the potential of digitalising EA and BA, catalysing success beyond boundaries.

Let's exchange views on how to efficiently manage the situations where the solution is decided but no-one seems to know the real problem.

• Which techniques can help me?
• How can I manage the stakeholders?
• What can help in the long-term?

In this engaging talk, we will explore the pivotal role of Business Analysts (BAs) in Artificial Intelligence (AI)/ Machine Learning (ML) projects. As AI continues to revolutionize the business landscape, BAs are uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between business needs and AI solutions.

This session focuses on equipping BAs with the necessary tools and insights to identify and evaluate potential AI use cases within their organizations. Through a blend of theoretical understanding and practical case studies, attendees will gain a comprehensive view of how to harness AI for business transformation.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Understand the Basics of AI: Gain a foundational understanding of what AI is, including its key components like machine learning and natural language processing.
• Recognize the Role of BAs in AI Projects: Learn how Business Analysts can effectively contribute to AI initiatives by bridging the gap between business needs and AI capabilities.
• Identify Potential AI Use Cases: Develop skills to identify problems and opportunities within an organization that can be addressed through AI solutions

In this talk, we'll uncover the fascinating parallels between Business Analysis and photography, discovering how these six pillars play a pivotal role in both realms. Join me as we understand the intentional interplay of Purpose, Passion, Principle, Direction, Dedication, and Discipline, and how they collectively shape meaningful outcomes.

Imagine your analysis like a calibrated camera lens, each element sharpening your insights. We'll explore how purpose drives your quest for truth, passion fuels your pursuit of understanding, and principle guides you with integrity. We'll then set a clear direction for your analysis, fueled by unwavering dedication and meticulous discipline.

Key takeaways:

• Wield the 3P's and 3D's as your compass: Treat these six pillars as a guiding framework for navigating analytical landscapes with confidence and precision.
• Unlock Excellence in Your Practice: By embracing purpose, passion, and principle, you set the foundation for success. Direction, dedication, and discipline become the driving forces, propelling you towards impactful analysis.
• Let Your Focus Be Your Guide: Equip yourself with these tools, refine your analytical lens, and embark on a transformative journey to revolutionize your practice.

Are you ready to focus your lens? Let's embark on this transformative journey together!

Acceptance and Evaluation Criteria technique is one of the most useful BABOK techniques when clarifying the goals of a solution or a marketable feature. While evaluation criteria reflect a measurable set of targets from a potential solution, acceptance criteria display several verifying elements of needs or opportunities to accept a work item as completed. Acceptance criteria enable BA practitioners to validate and verify requirements and help them set boundaries for composing achievable work items and maximizing value. On the other hand, evaluation criteria rank and compare the potential solutions to decide on the future state by analyzing value generation.

This speech focuses on understanding and exemplifying Acceptance and Evaluation Criteria in those dimensions:

• Occasions and timing to choose
• What to commit and avoid while using
• Examples of applying

How many times have you found yourself alone in an overwhelming corporate or project environment? How many times have you thought that there is literally no one to support you? If only there was a group, or a team, or a community maybe to aid you in difficult times like this... Maybe there is a way to make this happen?

Pawel Sidorowicz is going to prove that building a community of practice in complex projects or organizations can create an atmosphere of trust and understanding between analysts assigned to different tasks, domains and regions. BA community can become a binding and crucial success factor for any project. Embark on a journey to discover that:

• Creating, nurturing and evolving a BA community of practice in complex environments is a must.
• Benefits of building such communities outweigh any potential costs.
• Together BAs can overcome any crisis!

There's something inside of us that stands between all of us and success at work, success at home, success in life.

It is a flock of chickens. Chickens like fear, negativity and self doubt.

Every time Phil Barth wanted to do accomplish anything worth accomplishing, he had to fry a chicken.

As a result of frying chickens...

• Phil won $32,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
• Phil got that first date with the woman who became my wife.
• Phil was even able to ride a roller coaster with his son for two minutes without throwing up. It would have been perfect... if only the roller coaster ride hadn't been 2:20.

You will laugh for an hour.

And you will leave this session with homework: One chicken that you are going to fry. One step that you will take toward making a dream come true.

Uncertain about your role as a Product Owner? Unsure of responsibilities beyond "Backlog management"? Realize there's more but don't know how or what?

You are not alone!

In the last couple of years, I have built and mentored a team of Product Owners and witnessed this struggle with many candidates I interviewed. I noticed a significant discrepancy in each candidate's understanding of the "Product Owner" job description. There is no common understanding of the role.

From this, I observed that there are three levels of growth for Product Owners. In this talk, I will take you through these levels, backed up with examples of candidates' assessment responses.

Takeaways:

• You'll have to do more than "backlog management" to succeed in your role.
• Grow as a Product Owner by learning about product discovery and strategy.
• Most candidates do not even master Level 1: classical requirements analysis.

In today's competitive business landscape, success hinges on understanding and meeting customer expectations. As a business analyst, it's about understanding and enhancing the customer journey. By meticulously analyzing customer interactions, feedback, and pain points, you not only uncover valuable insights but also pave the way for a qualitative service design. Learn why customer experience is the key to identifying and defining the solutions that will maximize the value delivered by an organisation.

Join this session for insights on

• how to kickstart customer-centricity in your BA team
• how to assess your current service design maturity and take action

We've collected several experiences for a starting business analyst.

• What can you expect when you have your first assignment as an business analyst?
• Things to do and things to avoid
• How to support your starting business analyst as an employer

Even in a flood of AI, we continue to learn about humanity. We’ve learned new vocabulary such as LLM, prompt engineering, and hallucinations. We apply this vocabulary to interactions with websites such as Midjourney, Jasper, and ChatGPT.

But the world is screaming for empathy and wants us to be people-centric. What’s a girl to do? A person with AI buzzwords won’t replace you, but a person who knows how to apply AI buzzwords to improve teamwork might replace you. This session applies the AI fundamentals we learned over the past year to our true performance and profitability bottlenecks: teamwork.

Agenda

• The most important LLMs are our colleagues and stakeholders
• The best prompt engineers ask humans the best questions
• Clarity doesn’t tolerate hallucinations

Takeaways

• Humans are LLMs that hire and pay each other
• Intellectual intimacy is a kind of wealth
• Prompts equate to leadership

The collaboration between the product owner and the business analyst is crucial for the success of the projects and products.

Have you ever worked with a product owner who seemed to be a superhero? Have you met product owners who behaved like villains?

In this talk, we will see what makes a product owner a superhero or a villain and what you can do as business analysts to transform the collaboration with the product owners into a successful one.

Overcoming conflicts between different requirements in business analysis is crucial. Despite different elicitation techniques, conflicts often arise that challenge the coherence of the system. This session will focus on strategies for identifying, managing and resolving conflicts to ensure a consistent and robust set of requirements.

Key Messages:

• Identify conflicting requirements early on
• Implement collaborative approaches for resolution
• Utilize practical strategies for harmonizing stakeholder needs

It should be no secret that poorly understood and/or defined problems (or opportunities) can lead to (partly) wrong solutions, and that business analysis professionals can be crucial to avoid this.

Similarly, unclear or vaguely defined missions can lead to (partly) wrong strategies.

Apart from that, strategies aren’t always (very well) aligned with the (real) mission.

Here too, business analysis practitioners can play a key role.

How? By applying #HolisticBusinessAnalysis.

In this session, the speaker will use a case to show how holistic business analysis can help organisations take their strategy to the next level - especially when dealing with complex situations.

Through this session, the speaker:

• shows you how to apply #HolisticBusinessAnalysis at a strategic level;
• hopes to inspire business analysis practitioners to claim their seats at a strategic level;
• hopes to inspire the leaders of organisations to involve business analysis practitioners in the development of their organisation’s strategy.

In the journey towards establishing a strategic digital automation platform, a Business Analyst stands as a beacon, pivotal to key moments like the creation of demand for automation and the selection of automation candidates. The BA enhances and leverages business capabilities, driving increased value creation and impactful business outcomes.

Building a digital automation platform isn't just about time-saving efficiencies; it should be gauged with tangible metrics, ensuring that along with time, it enhances security, quality, and customer satisfaction.

The BA's role is crucial in transitioning from strategic choices to operational steps of build, run, maintenance, and management of change. Whether it's a hyper-automation platform, a low-code platform or citizen development, the BA ensures the automation platform's optimal usage and strategic relevance, making them an invaluable asset in the digital transformation journey.

• Creating a strategic digital automation platform
• The pivotal role of the business analyst profession to go from strategy to operations

BDD (Behaviour Driven Development) is becoming increasingly popular in recent years. At the same time, many people consider BDD not more than notation for automated tests scenarios definition.

But looking closely, neither the name nor the definition of BDD mentions testing. BDD refers to development and according to definition, BDD is an approach which involves all phases of the development cycle. Setting its goal as development of common understanding of application behaviour, a process is designed to promote collaboration between stakeholders involved in software creation, both technical and non-technical.

An analyst, as a link between the business and the development team, plays a key role in this process.

• What opportunities does the approach open to the analyst?
• What challenges arise along this path? What BA techniques and practices are most suitable to resolve impediment?
• How to adapt artifacts?

During the session I will share reflections on the topic based on ten years of experience using the approach.

Having a lot of business knowledge and understanding the context of a product are key for any BA. Unfortunately, these skills alone do not make you a good tester. A BA can certainly detect defects in their products but that doesn't guarantee the needed level of quality is achieved.

Testers are trained to use the input from analysts to know what and how to test. I'm sure that having practical insights into the techniques testers use to measure the quality level of a product can help a BA to improve their work. That's why I would like to share some of these techniques with you.

Agile approaches as practised are often missing the critical analysis techniques needed to provide the broader context resulting in organisations and/or projects losing sight of what is valuable work and what isn't. Understanding an holistic view of what needs to be achieved strategically for a business, along with the user groups impacted and their usage scenarios is critical to driving product success. Integrating a user centered focus and use case thinking with other agile practices can increase stakeholder engagement, team morale, and deliver more relevant products; increasing the team's success.

Join us for a fun session to explore this!