Merry Christmas and Happy New Years from the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter. First, because it is now the holiday season and this is the time traditionally known for giving and helping others, we at the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter would like to encourage you to donate your time and knowledge to a group that provides mentorship for youth or professional development for adults. Your successes and challenges can be the greatest lessons learned for others.

This is the time of year in which we look back at the past year and look forward to new challenges. Much of the discussion this past year has been on change. One thing has become clear is that great technological advances has quickened the pace at which the business environment is changing. New technologies and advances in artificial intelligence, digital transformation, robotics and nanotechnology continually disrupt industry business models globally. Retail and the taxi business are prime examples. As we are continually asked to do more with less and deliver faster…the pace is quickened. Business Analysis is the idea skill set and best positioned role to help develop solutions for these organizational change challenges.

This is well demonstrated by what is going on at IIBA^® International. In the past eighteen months IIBA has introduced a new four-level, competency-based revamped certification program, new academic program, revamped EEP^® program, new Global Thought Leadership program, leadership webinar series that has attracted 4,500 participants, first ever Leadership workshop, new Competency Model, new version of the Agile Extension of the BABOK^® Guide, and just this month the new Global Business Analysis Core Standard.

Locally, change was instrumental in helping Bluegrass IIBA Chapter win the 2017 Community Outreach Award from IIBA. We changed our approach to outreach to be more personal. We met with four managers of UK Healthcare to introduce the Chapter, IIBA and show them how we can help mature their business analysis practice. We gave a formal presentation on taking charge of your BA career to over 40 employees of state government with the help of Robbie Perkins, CIO of the Personnel Cabinet. We launched the Small Business Speaker Series in which we highlight local small businesses and learn the similarities and differences between business analysis and entrepreneurship. We also launched our Bluegrass BA Connection newsletter. All this while keeping our educational and social networking programs strong.

These transformations are not going to slow down as we move into 2018. Therefore, our educational program will focus on the skills and techniques business analysts will need in the near future. These include the Business Model Canvas and facilitation skills. We will continue our outreach program to reach more people to let them know how we can help them advance their career to keep pace with the transformations that are happening all around us.

To see how Bluegrass IIBA Chapter can help you keep pace with business transformations of today and prepare for the transformations of tomorrow or how the chapter can help to advance your career; visit our website (bluegrass.iiba.org), join us at any of our events or email us info@bluegrass.iiba.org.

 

President@bluegrass.iiba.org

Hello Everyone,

As the seasons change from Winter to Spring and the Thoroughbred horses prepare for racing locally, we here at the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter would like to offer our services to help you begin or continue your Business Analysis career.  Just like the horses, you cannot remain still and expect your career to be successful.  The only constant in this world is change.  Allow the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter to assist you with these changes.

Membership at the global IIBA organization includes the following benefits:

Membership in the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter enhance those benefits and provide additional value to individual professionals.

To improve your professional networking and grow your understanding of the work that local BAs perform here is a list of our Bluegrass IIBA monthly event titles.  We would love to see you at one of the upcoming events.

Finally, the Bluegrass IIBA would like to welcome JustInMind as a new chapter sponsor.  JustinMind is a California based company that has developed a prototyping tool with features to make it easy for BAs to collaborated with stakeholders on design.  In our continuing effort to provide value to our Bluegrass community we will give local professionals an opportunity to check out this new prototyping tool from JustInMind and become early adapters.

We wish each of you all of the best and hope to see you soon.

Terry G. Sundy Jr.

President, Bluegrass IIBA Chapter

President@bluegrass.iiba.org

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years from the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter.  First, because it is now the holiday season and this is the time traditionally known for giving and helping others, we at the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter would like to encourage you to donate your time and your knowledge to a group that provides mentorship for youth or for adult business development organizations.

As we prepare to close the current year we must first look back at our chapter’s accomplishments during 2016 and allow these accomplishments amongst other things to guide us in our planning for 2017.

Let me remind each of you of the goals and objectives of the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter.

• Champion Business Analysis (BA) excellence by building in the community to promote BA as a profession
• Create BA practitioners and leaders who deliver organizational results
• Build and capitalize on linkages that unify those impacted by BA
• Bring business analysis educational program to the Bluegrass
• Provide networking opportunities for business professionals to learn from each other
• Give business professionals the opportunity to advance their career
• Raise awareness of the value of business analysis to the organization
• Bring local, regional, national and international resources to the local business professionals

Bluegrass IIBA – 2016

• We were announced as the 2016 IIBA Chapter Innovation Award winner. Competing with over 120 IIBA chapters worldwide, we were recognized for innovations including:

• We created the “BA Feud” game modeled after the hit TV game show “Family Feud”
• We created the “Bluegrass Business Analysis Hall of Fame” to raise awareness of the business analysis profession in the community.  We inducted our first two honorees in May 2016.  They were Aaron Whittenberger (professional service) and Daryl Keltz (chapter service).
• We created “BA Talks” video series found on YouTube based on the popular TED talk series

We collaborated with other chapters such as Louisville, Toronto, and Cincinnati to provide value to members of each chapter.

• We held nine monthly chapter meetings, two networking socials, ten sessions of IIBA certification study group, three meetings, two half-day professional development workshops, an Annual General Meeting and the Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
• Our chapter has used a variety of formats for our monthly chapter meetings and events including:

• Presentations
• Role Play
• Panel Discussion
• Webinar
• Networking Socials
• Leadership Fair
• Professional Development Workshops
• BABOK v2 and BABOK v3 study groups

Bluegrass IIBA – 2017

There was a recent study performed globally where 41% of CEOs believe they will be running significantly transformed organizations within the next three years.  The speed at which the world does business is ever increasing and this is being fueled by technological advancements, increasing use of big data, and more sophisticated customers.  These CEOs will be looking for people to help deliver innovative ideas to support strategic decision making. 

All of this is causing transformation with the global business analysis community.  Business Analysts (BAs) will need to evolve to meet the needs of the business and the business leaders.  This will create new BA techniques and new roles for BAs to fill, the trending role of “Business Relationship Manager” is just such a role.

The Bluegrass IIBA Chapter has dedicated itself to helping business analysts meet the business needs of the future.  In 2017, in addition to the chapter initiatives listed earlier we will focus on community involvement, IIBA certification, bringing value to the individual BA via Chapter Leader Training, discounted BA industry leading books from our sponsor “J. Ross Publishing”, discounted BA industry training from our sponsors “The Solarity Group” and “ASPE Training”.   We also plan to create a Business Analysis Center of Excellence Roundtable to bring value to the Bluegrass area business community.

To communicate these transformations in the business analysis community, the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter is proud to introduce the “Bluegrass BA Connection” newsletter.  We will publish this newsletter quarterly to keep the business community informed of the latest business analysis news and transformations.  This newsletter is intended for business analysis and organizational change practitioners, as well as managers and directors responsible for the delivery of business solutions and support for organizational strategy.

To see how Bluegrass IIBA Chapter can help you keep pace with the business analysis transformations of today and prepare for the transformations of tomorrow or how the chapter can help to advance your career; visit our website (bluegrass.iiba.org), join us at any of our events or email us info@bluegrass.iiba.org.

Terry G. Sundy, Jr.

President, Bluegrass IIBA Chapter

President@bluegrass.iiba.org

The Bluegrass Business Analysis Chapter takes the summer off from chapter meetings so that our members and participants can take vacations with their families. Some of my greatest memories growing up are of family vacations to the Canada side of Niagara Falls, Disney World, Universal Studios and others. I have continued these traditions for my kids while they were growing up, taking them to Florida, Air Force Museum, Six Flags Amusement Park, Carowinds Amusement Park, Universal Studios and others. We hope that all children get to have those experiences with their families and have those cherished memories later in life.  So we promote that idea by not holding meetings in June and July, so that families can get busy making those memories.

 

Does this mean that the Board of Directors sleeps during the summer?...Not at all!  Your Board holds its annual planning session in July…planning the fall, winter and spring schedule for the Chapter.  We will once again hold our Winter Networking Social in December, and our Leadership Fair in the fall.

Additions to the Program

                Professional Development Workshops

We held our first professional development workshop in our partnership with Business Analysis Knowledge Academy.  We are committed to presenting the rest of the 10-part series of workshops that gives our participants a full look at the business analyst role within the context of a project.  By presenting this education in a series of workshops it allows participants to learn new knowledge and skills, go put what they have learned into use and come back and learn a new topic….repeat process. 

                Webinar Speaker Series

This webinar series begins next week and will look at transformations happening in the business analysis area and help business analysis professionals prepare for the future.  This series is being provided to us by IIBA Americas Eastern Region and we will provide its educational value to our community.  By leveraging the region’s resources, this series will feature regional, national and internationally renowned thought leaders in the business analysis arena, beginning with Kitty Hass, CEO of KHass & Associates, Inc., a leading expert in strategic business analysis and prominent keynote presenter at industry and corporate conferences around the world.  I am confident that you will enjoy and get a great amount of learning value from Kitty’s and all the presentations in this series.  Come and learn about the future of business analysis.

                Education by Reading

We have partnered with J. Ross Publishing to provide books on business analysis, business, innovation and other topics to our members at discount rates.  J. Ross Publishing is the publisher of Seven Steps to Mastering Business Analysis by Barbara Carkenord among many others.  This partnership came about because J. Ross Publishing reached out to us and nine other chapters in the IIBA chapters network.  Seeing the value that this relationship could bring to our members, we were the first chapter to take advantage of their offer.

The Future

We have created new relationships with SQS-USA and Analysts International Corporation (AIC), and continued our relationships with Tempur-Sealy, TEKsystems, ITT Technical Institute, Louisville IIBA Chapter, Cincinnati IIBA Chapter, Kentucky Bluegrass PMI Chapter and others.  We will continue to seek out alliances that bring value to our members and participants.

                Bluegrass Business Analysis Hall of Fame

We feel that contribution and advancement of the business analysis profession deserves recognition, just as any great individual feat would.  Last month we inducted our first class of professionals into the newly created Bluegrass Business Analysis Hall of Fame.  We will continue to induct classes in future years and work to increase nominations from the community annually, until everyone in the community is aware that this honor exists.

Summer Means Transition

So as summer has set upon us, and we break for the summer to allow our participants to take summer vacations, the Board will transition to new officers.  We had three officers elected to new positions in our chapter leadership last month, including the President.  Terry Sundy has been elected as my successor as President of the Chapter, and will take office next month.  However, as the Board transitions into a new look, you can expect the same great dedication to a consistent and valuable program for our members and participants.  Wait until you see what we are planning in August! I guess you will just have to come and check it out!

So exciting things happening internationally and here in the Bluegrass region.  We are proud of our accomplishments to date and look to continue our growth and community engagement in the future.  You are welcome to join us in any capacity you wish.  To see how Bluegrass IIBA Chapter can help you advance your career; visit our website (bluegrass.iiba.org), join us at any of our events or email info@bluegrass.iiba.org.

Aaron Whittenberger, CBAP

President, Bluegrass BA Chapter

Aaron.Whittenberger@bluegrass.iiba.org

The start of a new year traditionally is a time where we review the prior year and plan for the upcoming year.  We look to 2016 with renewed focus on delivering value, connections, educational learnings and engagement opportunities.  There are exciting transformations happening in the global business analysis community and the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter has strategic plans to help business analysis professionals and organizations in the Bluegrass region to plug into these transformations.

As I mentioned last month, Terry Sundy, Vice President of Administration and Finance, and I had the opportunity attend the Building Business Capability (BBC), the official conference of IIBA®, in Las Vegas, Nevada.  BBC is a great forum to see the direction that the profession is taking; see the future of business analysis.  There were several themes or areas that we saw that business analysis will be stretching in the coming years.  It may take five to ten years for business transformations to take form, but we plan to keep business analysis professionals informed from the very beginning so they can get in on the ground floor and drive these transformations if that is where their passion for the profession drives them.

During BBC, we saw recurring themes around business architecture, design, business relationship management and strategic enterprise business analysis to drive organizational change.   The one underlying them that all these topics drive toward is adding value.  Business analysis is about adding value to the organization whether strategic, tactical or operational.

Let’s look at these transformations we learned about at BBC and the months since and see how Bluegrass IIBA Chapter plans to help business analysis professionals of the Bluegrass region plug into these changes:

• Business Architecture is a vast area of a strategic organizational discipline that helps ensure that change initiatives within the organization are aligned with the organization’s strategic goals.  Business Architects do many of the same tasks and techniques that Business Analysts do.  You can expect to see this topic in the upcoming educational program of the chapter.
• IIBA announced the new Enterprise Business Analysis Core Competency Assessment (EBACC) Framework.  This will be bring increased focus to the enterprise business analysis practice by allowing organizations to measure the maturity of their enterprise practice and increase the level of business analysis service delivered within the organization.  Bluegrass IIBA Chapter is bringing renewed focus to Business Analysis Centers of Excellence (BACoE).  We will gather businesses within the region that have an interest in this topic for roundtable discussions on implementing and maturing a BACoE. Read and reply to news article.
• IIBA announced the new gold standard in professional business analysis certification to be released in September 2016.  The new IIBA certification program has four levels of competency based framework recognizing increasing levels of maturity along the BA career progression.  We will offer a CBAP Study Group this spring for those interested in obtaining their IIBA certification before the switchover.
• We will continue to innovate to ensure that we have a progressive educational and networking opportunities for all our members and guests.
• We will continue to initiate and nurture alliances that bring value to our members and guests, such as those we have with The Solarity Group, Kentucky Bluegrass PMI Chapter, Louisville IIBA Chapter and Cincinnati IIBA Chapter.  We will seek out other professional associations in the community that can bring learning opportunity and strategic value to our members and guests.

There are always opportunities out there for learning and growth, and Bluegrass IIBA Chapter will help our members and guests explore those opportunities to add value to their organization.  To see how Bluegrass IIBA Chapter can help business analysis and organizational change within your organization; visit our website (bluegrass.iiba.org), join us at any of our eventsor email info@bluegrass.iiba.org.

Aaron S. Whittenberger, CBAP

President, Bluegrass IIBA Chapter

President@bluegrass.iiba.org

 

Last month, Terry Sundy, Vice President of Administration and Finance, and I had the opportunity to attend the Building Business Capability (BBC), the official conference of IIBA®, in Las Vegas, Nevada. BBC was a great forum for meeting BA professionals from around the world and sharing insights, opportunities and challenges. This year's BBC was the largest IIBA^® conference ever held and there was a high level of enthusiasm. I think that is due to the transformational changes taking place in the BA profession. This optimism for the future has created a wave of energy and excitement about new opportunities for the BA community.

 

Local Connection

 

The Bluegrass IIBA Chapter is where BA professionals from the Bluegrass region can share insights, opportunities and challenges. This is where you can connect to the excitement of the changes and the opportunities of the transformations within the global business analysis, and IIBA, community.

 

 Reshaping the Future

 

At BBC, IIBA shared updates on the progress the organization has made on its three-year strategic plan, as well as, insight on its plan ahead in 2016. As we wrap up year one on our three year journey to reshape our future I would like to share some of our successes. 

 

Adding Value

 

We have made great strides to delivering value for your Bluegrass IIBA membership dollars. This is evidenced by a group of BAs in Burlington, VT who wish to start an IIBA Chapter, but wanting to start as a branch of an established chapter selecting the Bluegrass Chapter as best able to support their goals.  We had 32 new members of the chapter during the year, about half coming in Vermont; and 84% of our members renewed their memberships in the past year. We continue, and have deepened, the discounts offered to members to our meetings and events, including a BABOK® v3 Study Group, and Professional Development Workshop held at Toyota in Georgetown.  The added member content in the members-only section of our website, along with the 20% discount on products and services from The Solarity Group, our Charter Sponsor, delivers exceptional value for your membership dollars.

 

IIBA has created a new video, available on our homepage, of the strides we have made in the global BA community this year. As the new IIBA video says, we have only just begun. Our future success will require us to come together with a renewed sense of focus, passion and value. 2016 is right around the corner, and we can and will deliver increased value and engagement to the community. 

 

Innovation

 

At BBC, this year Bluegrass IIBA Chapter took Honorable Mention for the Innovation Award in the IIBA Chapter Awards ceremony. This recognizes the innovation that our chapter leaders put into our educational program and community outreach program.  This is evidenced by our Town Hall Meeting, Leadership Fair and Bluegrass Business Analysis Hall of Fame; which no other chapter does.  Where most chapters only have presentation style meetings, we held the Town Hall Meeting, audience discussions, small group discussions and panel discussions within the past year. Join us at our events to hear our plans for business analysis education and community engagement for 2016.

 

It is a very energizing time as we deliver on our commitments and increase the value we provide to the community. I encourage you to take a closer look at Bluegrass IIBA Chapter to learn more about the initiatives underway at IIBA and in the Bluegrass region. Come learn of our vision of the future and gain access to resources for business analysis professionals to help you do your day-to-day job better, today and in the future.  

 

To see how Bluegrass IIBA Chapter can help business analysis and organizational change within your organization; visit our website (bluegrass.iiba.org), join us at any of our events or email info@bluegrass.iiba.org.

 

We at Bluegrass IIBA Chapter wish you and your family a very safe and wonderful holiday season!

 

Aaron S. Whittenberger, CBAP

President, Bluegrass IIBA Chapter

President@bluegrass.iiba.org  

The Bluegrass IIBA Chapter has always had focus on Community, but as we begin our third program year, we renew that focus on improving how business analysis is delivered to organizations in the Bluegrass.  That focus will be delivered to multiple segments of the Community in the following manner.

Students and Colleges

We held four meetings at ITT Technical Institute, and have consistently participated in the Program Advisory Committee (PAC) for their School of Business and School of Information Technology.  We have reached out to Bluegrass Community and Technical College and held our CIO Panel Discussion there in May.  This month we will be holding our meeting on the campus of the University of Kentucky.  We invite all the students, staff and faculty of UK to come hear about The Important Skills for Success for a business analyst.  Our Director of Educational Outreach, Gabriel Ferguson, has been active in making connections with other colleges and universities in the region.  He is exploring the possibility of IIBA Academic Membership and the Academic Recognition programs with those educational institutions.

We will follow this up next month with a panel of recruiters and local consulting firms on hiring practices and the local business analysis job market.  If you are currently in the market to change jobs, a student nearing graduation, or just want to stay connected to the local marketplace, come join our Panel Discussionin November.

Business Analysis Community of Practice (BACoP) and Business Analysis Center of Excellence (BACoE)

We are interested in helping organizations who wish to start a BACoP or BACoE within their organization to do so.  Our Vice President of Community Outreach, John Batts, will be reaching out this month to find those organizations that already have one and those that might be interested in starting one, and making connections within these organizations so that they can help each other mature their practices.  John has developed some great resources for organizations to help them on their path to maturing their practices.  Be looking in social media and on our website to see this initiative kick off.  If you have interest in learning more about a BACoP or BACoE, reach out to John at Community@bluegrass.iiba.org.

Recognizing Excellence in Business Analysis

We have just lunched the Bluegrass Business Analysis Hall of Fame to recognize those that have made a significant contribution to the advancement of the business analysis profession within the Bluegrass region.  We are taking nominations from the community on those individuals you feel are worthy.  You don’t have to be a member of the Chapter or IIBA to be considered for this award; you must have given a significant contribution to the advancement of the profession within the region, or to an organization within the Bluegrass.  We will induct a new class of professionals each year and give recognition to these individuals for their contribution to the profession.  Take a look at our Hall of Fame pagefor more information, and get your nominations in.

Leadership Fair

We invite the community to visit our Leadership Fairto explore leadership opportunities with the Chapter.  We will have three Board positions up for elections in April and have a few chapter leadership and committee positions available for those who wish to serve the local business analysis community.  You will have opportunity to talk to our current chapter leaders to see how your interests may fit into our chapter leadership opportunities.

Chapter Awards

The Bluegrass IIBA Chapter submitted for the IIBA Chapter Awards last month.  This was our first year that we were eligible.  IIBA recognizes chapters for excellence in Innovation, Sustainability, Professional Development, Community Engagement and others.  The awards will be announced at Building Business Capability, the official conference of IIBA.  We recognize that we wouldn’t be eligible for this recognition without our community and chapter leaders.  We are the most innovative chapter in the IIBA Chapters Network, and have grown our membership and community involvement over the past year.  Tune in next month to see what awards we won.

To see how Bluegrass IIBA Chapter can help business analysis and organizational change within your organization; visit our website (bluegrass.iiba.org), join us at any of our events or email info@bluegrass.iiba.org.

Aaron S. Whittenberger, CBAP

President, Bluegrass IIBA Chapter

President@bluegrass.iiba.org 

The Bluegrass IIBA Chapter has completed another successful program year.  This year has seen us receive our charter from IIBA, incorporate the chapter, ratify our By-laws, open new marketing channels through social media, increase the variety of our program while maintaining its consistency, reorganize our chapter leadership team, and run chapter Board of Directors elections smoothly under the direction of a Nominations Committee.  We increased chapter membership to 30 members and attendance at our events steadily increasing.

Making Connections

We ended the program year on a high note with an Executive Panel Discussion that featured CIOs and Directors from Tempur-Sealy International, Toyota and UK Healthcare.  We held this meeting at the Bluegrass Community and Technical College.  Our chapter leadership once again participated in the ITT Technical Institute Program Advisory Committee.  We made inroads to new companies as their associates participated in our program for the first time; these include NTT Data, Papa Johns, PeriTech, Galmont Consulting, and Morgan Lewis.

Changing of the Guard

As mentioned, we successfully and smoothly completed elections for our Board of Directors, electing three new members to the Board.  With that we give a great deal of gratitude to Bud Ratliff, Daryl Keltz and Naresh Shah who have relinquished their positions to make room for Terry Sundy, Brandy Phelps and Jason Ballard.  We also welcome LeShai Phelps and Gabriel Ferguson to Director positions on the chapter leadership team.  Even with this change in leadership you will see the same dedication to an excellent and consistent chapter program.

Strategic Planning

Although the chapter does not meet during the summer months, the chapter does not lay dormant.  We do not hold program meetings so that our chapter leaders, members and participants can take summer vacation with their families.  However, the chapter leadership team will hold its strategic planning session, along with the changing of the guard, in July.  We will be plan the upcoming program year and be ready to begin again in August.

Building a Brand

Building your brand is one of the hot topics in the business analysis space right now that challenges the individual practitioner to develop their unique distinguishable brand through their daily work.  This goes for IIBA chapters as well; we will continue to build the IIBA brand in the Bluegrass Region with a renewed dedication to community outreach.  Even with our new connections to organizations in the community, there are still some organizations that are not aware of our existence and our services available to them.  The Bluegrass IIBA brand will be based on community and reaching those organizations to offer our services and programs to them.  To see how Bluegrass IIBA Chapter can help business analysis and organizational change within your organization; visit our website (bluegrass.iiba.org), join us at any of our events or email info@bluegrass.iiba.org.

Aaron S. Whittenberger, CBAP

President, Bluegrass IIBA Chapter

President@bluegrass.iiba.org 

I was impressed by a recent article in the Lexington Herald-Leader about Rebecca Webb, Mike Thomas and what a hand-full of people can accomplish when they combine their resources and work toward a common goal.

http://www.kentucky.com/2015/03/14/3747362_merlene-davis-small-group-of-volunteers.html?rh=1

Let me tell you about another small group of volunteers working right here in Lexington to help businesses do business better.

Change is the Only Constant in Business

The only thing you can count on in business and in life is change.  Things never stay the same, change is inevitable.  The recent Healthcare legislation is the perfect example.  Likewise things don’t stay the same in the business analysis space.  The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®) is dedicated to helping business have better business outcomes by constant maturing of the business analysis profession.  To that end IIBA® has announced the release of The Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® v3.0 (BABOK® Guide v3.0) coming in April.  The BABOK® Guide is the bible for business analysts, it defines the knowledge areas, skills, techniques and tasks of business analysis.  Things have changed so much in the business analysis arena that this BAOBK® Guide is expected to be almost twice the size of the current version of the BABOK Guide.

Your Bluegrass IIBA Chapter is dedicated to the support of the IIBA core purpose. In support of that mission the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter would like to assist business analysis professionals and those interested in business analysis in and around Lexington to understand these changes happening in the business analysis professionals.  We will host a virtual BABOK® v3.0 Study Group beginning in May 2015 to assist those interested in learning the changes in the BABOK® Guide.  Later in the Fall of 2015 we will host a Workshop to assist business professionals to understand some best practices in business analysis.

So as the business environment continually changes, this small group of volunteers that launched the Bluegrass IIBA Chapter a short sixteen months ago will continue to bring together the Bluegrass community of professionals who deliver organizational change to promote best practices in delivering better business outcomes.  We will continue to deliver on the Objectives of the Chapter by championing Business Analysis in the Bluegrass Region and educating business analysis and organizational change professionals on business analysis topics.  To see how Bluegrass IIBA Chapter can help business analysis and organizational change professionals here at home, join us at any of our events or email info@bluegrass.iiba.org .

Aaron S. Whittenberger, CBAP

President, Bluegrass IIBA Chapter

President@bluegrass.iiba.org

 

Continued and deepened focus on strategic organizational change will be good for Business Analysts in the Bluegrass Region and around the world.  Organizational change has been a focus in many industries for years; but I believe we will see a greater focus on organizational change at the strategic level in upcoming years, and business analysts are on the front line of change.  Several major industries, and many organizations within them, are in the process of transition so it should be no surprise that the importance of business analysis will be illuminated as markets shift and organizations are forced to deal with the accelerated pace and volatility of business.

Healthcare is a perfect case in point. Legislative changes of late have shifted the underlying foundation of the industry causing participants throughout the value chain to redefine their business models. Providers are struggling to keep up as they seek out new products and services to address a consumer-driven, rather than payer-driven, market. In many ways, financial services firms have undergone similar changes over the past few years. Branch banking has given way to technology-based solutions which bring products and services closer to the customer adding convenience and accessibility along the way. No matter the cause, change is not possible without projects and projects are not possible without business analysts. The good news for the profession is that change seems to be just about the only constant in today’s markets.

Here in the Bluegrass, as Toyota executes on their plan to move out of Cincinnati we will see more jobs coming to their facilities in Georgetown over the next two to three years.  This will have a welcomed effect on the local economy, but it will cause other organizations in their supply change, and in the local communities, to adjust to continue to service Toyota.  As organizations such as Toyota, KentuckyOne Health, Fifth Third Bank, Forcht Group, Lexmark International, Xerox, Big Ass Solutions and Tempur-Sealy show renewed focus on strategic organizational change they will have to exert great effort in determining what is, and is not, essential for the business.  This is true from a cost-containment and business process improvement perspective; where business leaders will back project that most closely align to strategy and provide the greatest value to the business.  This will provide tremendous focus and push to provide better business analysis activities within the organization, especially in the areas of enterprise analysis and project portfolio management.

The good news for businesses and the business analysis profession is that IIBA® is in excellent position to support the profession as it has done since its inception in 2003.  With new leadership, a new strategic plan, a new version of the BABOK Guide® due out in April; IIBA has shown renewed focus on chapters, products and business alignment.  This has positioned IIBA® to support the continued and expanded strategic demands put on business analysts, enterprise business analysts, business intelligence analysts, business process analysts, product managers, project portfolio managers and other business professionals.

So as businesses make continual changes to the environment in which we all work we will see a new set of challenges for business analysis professionals.  However, business analysts have the skills and talent to adjust to these challenges and bring about change that delivers the greatest value to the organization.  To see how Bluegrass IIBA Chapter can help business analysis and organizational change professionals here at home, join us at any of our events or email info@bluegrass.iiba.org.

Aaron S. Whittenberger, CBAP

President, Bluegrass IIBA Chapter

President@bluegrass.iiba.org