Merry Christmas from all of us at Redvespa! Each year we like to give back to our local community and to those that need a little extra support at this time of year. So we’ve made a $1,000 donation each to the SPCA, the Wellington CIty Mission and the Malaghan Institute.
We’ve had a great 2011 and are feeling really excited about 2012. Read on for our latest updates, and some inspiring holiday reads (in case you get stuck). We wish you all a safe and happy festive season. See you next year!
IIBA BA Development Day Conference 2011
Equip, Evolve and Enable. These themes resonated throughout the IIBA BA Development day held at Te Papa Wellington on 9 November. Redvespa was there with speakers, participants, a stand and a Yikebike!
We love business analysis and we had a fantastic time meeting Business Analysis colleagues to share our knowledge and passion. We also loved that the speakers shared their experience through practical application, encouraging audience participation, so that Business Analyst’s of all levels could take something tangible away from the presentations and workshops. A great example was Mary Gorman’s presentation on Business Rules and Data Requirements being elicited together, delivered a practical simple logic and approach supported by her direct experience of applying and evolving the technique.
It was great to see that many organisations sent along a team of Business Analysts so that they could maximise learnings from the day by attending multiple presentations. Others that attended as a sole representative of their organisation, this conference enabled them to network within their profession and gain real confidence they were on the right track with what they were doing.
Well done and thanks to the IIBA New Zealand Chapter for a very successful event, with its smooth organisation, well thought out presentations, great food and even a handy satchel to keep all the goodies in. The New Zealand chapter has certainly earned their designation as the best IIBA chapter 2011.
We encourage Managers to consider sending their Business Analyst’s to the 2012 event as part of their growth and development plan. It’s a day designed to share information, understand what other organisations are doing and network with the best in their field.
Blair’s blog
If you missed Blair Loveday’s presentation at IIBA Development Day then read up on his blog Developing your business analysis practise – reaching for the stars. The blog post is adapted from his presentation notes and there are more blogs to follow!
And from our partners B2T training Kupe Kupersmith has a take on this topic titled Why Bother with a Business Analysis Center of Excellence?
We’ve been assessing our BAs
It should be no surprise that Redvespa is making great use of our own services and tools!
As part of the Redvespa Pulse offering we can and have conducted individual BA Capability Assessments with our Business Analysts. The results are confidentially delivered to the participant, though many from Redvespa chose to share their individual results with our Delivery Manager.
The capability assessment is proving to be very powerful information and has triggered discussions on motivations, specialisations, and innovative opportunities for development. Our new(ish) Delivery Manager says her role is just getting easier because of the pro-activity the staff are exhibiting in their development. Some participants have even chosen to formalise their development opportunities into an “Individual Development Plan” geared to evolve with them.
And we love that our super-duper experienced staff are learning something new through this process too. Together we are re-motivating existing areas of knowledge and are appreciating a different perspective about what there is for them to learn and how to learn it…. All this from an investment in a simple assessment of our BAs… plus it’s been great fun.
Redvespa is also building new assets for our staff, based on the capability assessments group recommendations report. The asset building is very much geared on understanding motivations of our analysts, our Redvespa business goals and providing opportunities to practise new business analysis techniques.
Surf’s up for Santa!
Santa’s project team are working hard for a successful delivery in just a few sleeps. Meanwhile, we are watching international discussions with interest as many of the same topics were discussed at the recent IIBA development day – such as Kupe’s blog on State of Business Analysis Practises.
At the Development Day, Wellington’s resident expert on agile methodology, Pete Tansey talked about investing in understanding the level of business analysis / skills required in a particular agile project. Then along comes this article from Ellen Gottesdiener and Mary Gorman Its the Goal not the Role: the Value of Business Analysis in Scrum.
And if you want to know what rocks our Delivery Manager’s socks, check out this article about Winning through Integrated Thinking.
