{{Recipient.FirstName}}, Here is your upcoming events and relevant news from Bluegrass IIBA Chapter. The chapter's mission is to empower business analysis professionals to become organizational leaders; sharing information is one way we do that.

Highlighted Story

IT governance: Best practices for aligning IT with business strategy 

IT governance has never been more vital to organizational success. Choosing the right framework and ensuring a smooth implementation are table stakes for today’s IT leaders.

The unprecedented pace of AI’s evolution and its use have put a strain on organizations.

According to a 2026 study from the IBM Institute for Business Value study, 77% of organizations reported that AI adoption is outpacing their governance capabilities.

Although governance practices — including the discipline of IT governance — predate AI, the challenges presented by AI adoption and findings such as those in the IBM study show how important IT governance is to overall organizational outcomes.


Upcoming Events
Agile After Hours: Pie, Stories and Simplicity
Aug 03, 2026 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-04:00)
Join us for a delightfully themed evening as the Bluegrass, Southeast Michigan and Chicagoland IIBA Chapters come together to celebrate what makes both life and agile work a little sweeter — simplicity, community, and the joy of the things we love. We will celebrate Homemade Pie Day, Love Your Bookshop Day and Simplify Your Life Week. In the spirit of Homemade Pie Day, we're honoring the art of making something from scratch. Just like a perfectly crafted pie, great business analysis requires the right ingredients, patience, and a willingness to iterate until you get it just right. We'll also be building our very own Community Cookbook! Bring your favorite pie recipe to share, use the link below to submit your pie recipe ahead of the event to be included in our community cookbook. Come ready to share your best slice of wisdom, whether it's flaky, creamy, or somewhere in between. Inspired by Love Your Bookshop Day, we'll celebrate the knowledge-sharing culture at the heart of our BA community. Independent bookstores thrive by knowing their customers deeply, curating with purpose, and building loyal communities — sound familiar? We'll discuss how business analysts can channel that same energy to champion their stakeholders and deliver real value. And in honor of Simplify Your Life Week, We'll put our agile skills to work with a hands-on technique designed to help us cut through the noise and focus on what delivers the most impact. Light on ceremony. Heavy on connection. Always better together. Free and open to all. This promises to be a fun and interactive event, one You Won't Want to Miss! Hosted by Bluegrass, Southeast Michigan and Chicagoland IIBA Chapters

Bluegrass IIBA - Agile Analysis Study Group
Aug 04, 2026 6:00 PM - Sep 01, 2026 8:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-04:00)
Early Bird Pricing ends July 24th | Are you interested in IIBA®-AAC certification, or just would like to learn more about the content of Agile Extension to the BABOK® Guide version 2? Then this agile business analysis training opportunity is for you! Bluegrass IIBA Chapter will host a virtual Agile Analysis Study Group for those individuals interested in IIBA®-AAC certification or learning the Agile Extension to the BABOK® Guide to elevate their career. All students will receive an AAC Study Guide. This study group uses additional study material, student homework and provides a practice exam experience for students. Bluegrass IIBA Chapter will run the study group for five (5) sessions on Tuesday evenings beginning on August 4, 2026. This study group will provide 12.5 Professional Development (PD) Hours for those students seeking IIBA® core certification, and provide a practice exam opportunity for all students. We ask students to begin studying early so it is a good idea to be registered at least one week prior to the first session. Register two weeks prior to the first session to take advantage of the Early Bird pricing. Students will be provided with course material. This study group is an instructor-led course by instructors from the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter. | Hosted by Bluegrass IIBA Chapter.

AI for Business Analysis Course
Aug 12, 2026 12:00 PM - Aug 14, 2026 4:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-04:00)
GUARANTEED TO RUN | Early Bird Pricing Ends July 24th | Are you looking to expand your skills in using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to transform your business analysis and become a leader in leveraging emerging technologies? The future of business analysis lies at the intersection of human creativity and technological leverage. Our AI for Business Analysis course is an immersive and interactive journey to prepare experienced BA professionals for the AI-empowered future. Through real-world exercises with leading AI agents and tools, gain first-hand experience planning initiatives, analyzing requirements and devising solutions. You will learn methods of “prompt engineering” for using generative AI agents to produce key BA artifacts, research new subject matters, evaluate work, and conduct interviews with subject matter experts. Whilst balancing AI’s power to create content with human judgment, you will discover AI dialog techniques that will enable iterative and incremental analysis and development. This course qualifies for 14 PDHs/CDUs for all IIBA® certifications. This course will contribute 14 PMI® PDUs (12 Ways of Working and 2 Business Acumen) towards your chosen certification. | Get EEP level training at IIBA Chapter pricing! | Wednesday, August 12 - Friday, August 14, 2026; 12:00 PM - 4:30 PM EDT | Virtual training course | 3 sessions | 14 PD Hours/CDUs | This course is sponsored by Bluegrass IIBA Chapter This course is delivered by SoftEd US

Bluegrass IIBA - AI for Business Analysts: Real Skills, Real Scenarios
Aug 19, 2026 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-04:00)
What if you left tonight's chapter meeting already knowing how to use AI as a BA tool? The Bluegrass IIBA Chapter is dedicating an entire meeting to one of the most transformative shifts in the business analysis profession — and you won't just watch it happen. You'll do it yourself. This is a live, hands-on workshop led by Van Miller, CBAP, built around a real-world healthcare scenario: creating a patient portal. Van will guide you through a series of ready-to-use prompts that you'll type into GenAI yourself, in real time, to tackle the kinds of tasks business analysts face every day. No prior AI experience required. We hand you the prompts — you run them, see the results, and learn exactly what GenAI can (and can't) do for your BA practice. Presented by: Van Miller, CBAP | Wednesday, August 19, 2026; 6:00 PM EDT | Virtual presentation | | Hosted by Bluegrass IIBA Chapter

Bluegrass IIBA - Lunch ‘n Learn BA Technique – Know Your Problem Domain
Aug 20, 2026 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-04:00)
Join the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter for an engaging lunch hour focused on enhancing your business analysis toolkit! Our expert-led session will feature a hands-on demonstration of a practical BA technique you can apply to your work immediately. How many projects have you seen pour months of effort into building the right solution to the wrong problem? It happens more often than anyone likes to admit—and it almost always traces back to a problem domain that was never fully understood before the work began. Join us for this Lunch 'n Learn as Peter Lutz explores one of the most foundational—and most overlooked—disciplines in the business analyst's toolkit: knowing your problem domain before you dive into the details of analysis. A clear grasp of the problem domain is what keeps teams from racing toward solutions before they understand what they're actually trying to fix. Presented by: Peter Lutz, CBAP, CSPO, AAC, Senior Agile Business Analyst | Thursday, August 20, 2026; 12:00 PM EDT | Virtual presentation | Hosted by Bluegrass IIBA Chapter

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Challenge Your Mind
 
Do you like to challenge your mind by solving puzzles? Are you naturally curious? Click the puzzle image below to download and solve our monthly puzzles to challenge your mind. You do get the answers along with the puzzles, so no cheating!
 

 
Chapter Members and Study Group Participants who received their Certification
 
Read the list of recent certifications earned by members of our Bluegrass community.
 

 
Chapter News
 
Read the latest news stories about the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter and business analysis community.
New Book Available for Sale! 

One of our chapter leaders, Aaron Whittenberger, has written a book entitled Agile Business Analysis: A Guide to Product Thinking and Delivery. The book is now available for sale on Amazon. 

https://www.amazon.com/Agile-Business-Analysis-Thinking-Whittenberger/dp/1734262680/

 

Read more...
Coffee with Digital Tom--An AI Resource

Digital Tom answers real questions from BA practitioners 

Read more...
 

 
We at Bluegrass IIBA Chapter realize that your successes and challenges can be great lessons
learned for others; therefore, we encourage you to donate your time and experience
to local groups that provide mentorship to youth or professional development for adults.
Let's enrich our community by helping others advance or prepare for new careers.
 

 
       
                    
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