BA & Beyond 26

Plenty of organisations struggle with turning their strategies into tangible results, and many leaders consider poor strategy-execution a primary reason for failure. Indeed, without successful execution even the best strategy is pointless. Strategy = execution.

Where should strategic transformation become reality? In change initiatives. With business analysis perfectly positioned to connect the dots from theory to practice, from idea to solution.

Enter the strategic BA, who ignites organisational change through finding answers to key questions:

• How do we formulate actionable goals that guide execution and change without restricting creativity?
• How do we deal with stakeholders who know the solution before having investigated the problem?
• What is the importance of deep listening, and how do we do it?
• Why should we consider solution options, digital or other, and how do we facilitate their discovery?
• Should we still be doing projects? Is there a better alternative?
• What are the strategic BA’s new roles in a world where strategy = execution?

Learnings

• Leverage BA skills and mindset to support strategic decision-making
• Understand how to constructively challenge stakeholders' input
• Rethink the concept of projects and business cases

Key tools & techniques

• benefits mapping; benefits realisation management
• goal setting; metrics
• five whys; root cause analysis
• requirements elicitation techniques; strategic user stories
• implementation and validation plan creation; assumption identification & prioritisation

Who is this for?

Everyone who wants to move from simply implementing solutions to realising the strategy of your organisation. This can be anyone involved in innovation and transformation projects.

• business analysts & architects
• project-, programme- and portfolio managers
• process owners & customer journey managers
• product managers & owners
• change &ammp; innovation managers

Special features of this workshop

• We'll be showing and applying GenAI techniques as additional guidance and input for the exercises.

Feedback

Old ways of planning, prioritization, designing change and delivering value are increasingly challenged by fast marketplace changes and mind boggling technology advances. That’s where Business Architecture comes in to provide much-needed guidance.

Quick and effective business change means that those conducting Business Architecture work must incorporate a number of business realities and perspectives. They also have to be confident they know about the tricky interconnections among them. For the business to be agile, we must be able to identify what work is impacted and design with deliberate integrity to avoid the risk of unintended consequences and assure cohesion. There is immense complexity in issues such as AI and other new software opportunities. We have to leverage these opportunities and to invest in better processes to improve new ways of working, avoid redundancy and make best use of scarce resources. With a sound architectural foundation, business-wide transformation, process digitalization and continuous operational optimization can be accomplished and change efforts can progress smoothly with few surprises.

This highly participative workshop will delve into the aspects of realistic Business Architecture, leaving the participant with the knowledge and skills required to make Business Architecture a repeatable and practical discipline that can flex with time.

Learnings

• Understand what a straightforward and useful Business Architecture looks like
• Understand how the business delivers value for its customers and other stakeholders (Business Model)
• Define how the work of the business can be cross-functionally organized through end-to-end process value streams (Operating Model)
• Connect investments in resources and capabilities back to the business strategy (Pain-Gain Resources Model)
• Learn to build process, information, and capabilities architectures and interconnect them through a balanced business performance scorecard
• Leverage innovation through critical enablers such as digital technologies and AI.

Key tools & techniques

• Business Model
• Operating Model
• Pain-Gain Resources Model
• Balanced Business Performance Scorecard

Who is this for?

This workshop will be of benefit to professionals and managers of all types involved with planning and designing organizational change and building business capability to adapt and innovate continuously.

• Business Architects
• Business Analysts
• Strategic Planners
• Process Professionals
• Enterprise Architects
• Business Managers
• Change Agents
• Anyone preparing for Business Architecture certification

Team members attending together will have the opportunity to work together during the working sessions.

Special features of this workshops

• This is a pragmatic working class with a case study and team workshops to practice the techniques
• Be able to socialize architectural concepts upward and reduce internal resistance to change
• Learn a method that scales for both small and large organizations
• Discover where AI can accelerate your efforts
• Work with Roger Burlton; the most experienced pragmatist in this field

Feedback

The role of the Business Analyst is changing fast. With the rise of generative AI, BA work will not be the same anymore, from how you analyse the current state to how you manage requirements and design solutions. This full-day training gives you the skills and confidence to make AI part of your daily practice.

We begin with practical prompting techniques to get the best out of AI tools, then move into concrete exercises showing how AI can boost productivity, sharpen your analysis, and support collaboration across the BA workflow. In the afternoon, you’ll take it a step further by creating your own CustomGPTs, tailored to your specific challenges as a BA.

This training is interactive, demo-driven, and built on real cases. No theory, only practices you can immediately put into action. You’ll leave with ready-to-use prompts, tested workflows, and a clear vision of how AI will transform your role as a Business Analyst.

Learnings

• Generative AI is changing the BA role and daily tasks
• Practical prompting frameworks and tips to get better results
• AI across the BA lifecycle: current state analysis, requirements, and design
• Recognize risks and limits of AI, including hallucinations and governance
• Compare ChatGPT and Copilot in practice, and understand where each fits best
• Design and test your own CustomGPTs for BA work

Who is this for?

• Business Analysts
• Functional Analysts
• Process Analysts
• Product Owners
• Teamleads of the above roles

Feedback

Please note

! Please bring your laptop for this hands-on training, including an active GPT license. This training can be followed using either ChatGPT Plus or Microsoft Copilot. Both tools work, but in practice we see that ChatGPT delivers better results.