Live Webinar – March 4th, 2015 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm  EST
Offered by IAG Consulting (REP 2858)
Duration 1 hour 1 PDU or  1 CDU 1 Category A – Free PDU

Business architecture is a strategic differentiator. However there are practical applications of tools and techniques that will support and link business strategy to the tactical outcomes.

By applying models and standards the business analyst and the project managers benefit from the alignment, clarity and re-usability of the business architecture.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explain why bother doing business architecture
2. Describe business architecture as a complementary and supporting methodology to analysis deliverables
3. Demonstrate some cool tools PMs and business analyst could use
4. Show you how to be a hero to your business, developers, testers and customer
5. Provide a description of value Participants will acquire a functional knowledge of business architecture. The adoption of business architecture tools and techniques will support the management of requirements & risk by establishing clearer scope.

Click to register for Top 10 Things About Business Architecture

Live Webinar March 4th, 2015 – 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm  EST
Duration: 1 hour webinar Credits: 1 PDU Category A – Free PDU
Sponsored by: PMI Requirements Management CoP (REP #S055)

Organizations are becoming increasingly aware that no matter how well they manage projects, they won’t succeed if they don’t get the requirements right.

But what does it mean to have good requirements?

Is it creating a mountain of unnecessary paperwork? Is it a rejection of techniques that have served requirements practitioners well over the years? Where is the business analysis industry going?

Specifically, this presentation:

• Describes seven trends in the field of business analysis and why some of these trends are replacing time-honored traditions while others are not
• Describes four competencies that are needed to take advantage of these trends
• Discusses what this means for practitioners who do or manage business analysis work

Attendees will be able to discuss:

•  The latest trends in business analysis
• Which trends are apt to last and which will fade
• What is needed to take advantage of these trends

This presentation addresses these hot topics in business analysis.

Presenter: Elizabeth Larson , (LinkedIn profile) PMP, CBAP CEO of Watermark Learning, Elizabeth has over 25 years of experience in business analysis, project management, training, and consulting. She is a frequent speaker at Business Analysis and Project Management conferences and co-author of the Practitioners’ Guide to Requirements Management, The Influencing Formula, and the  CBAP Certification Study Guide (2nd Edition). Elizabeth is on the team that is developing the PMI-PBA Practice Guide, was a lead contributor to the BABOK® Guide Version 2.0, Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring, PMBOK® Guide – Fourth Edition (Collect Requirements), and is the content lead for Scope Management for the PMBOK® Guide – Fifth Edition.  Elizabeth has been cited in CIO and PM Network and regularly contributes articles to BA times, Project Times, and Modern Analyst.

Note: You do have to be a PMI® member to register for this opportunity.

Click to register for What’s Hot and What’s Not: Trends in Business Analysis

Live Webinar February 26th, 2015 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EST
Webinar Duration: 1 Hour ea Credits: 1 Category B – Free PDUs
Presented by: Modern Analyst

NOTE: We have listed this as a Category B but the provider has stated that this session is ** Eligible for PDUs, CDUs. ** This most likely will be a category A presentation by Diversified Business Communications (Rep #1811 – parent company). More Information will be available will be available at the end of the session.

There was a time in the BA’s not so distant past when the source code also served as the documentation of what was actually implemented.

Quality assurance engineers could compare it with the BA’s requirement specifications relatively easily.

Those days are gone.

The sheer number of lines of code (LOC) has grown exponentially and continues to mushroom. A multimedia project can easily have 50 million lines and as BA’s you need the right tools and strategies to develop and link up supportive documentation with requirements specifications.

Nowadays, code is no longer a workable way to provide project documentation and ensure project integrity and consistency.

Furthermore, effective BAs have to be good translators.

They must be able to speak the language of the business, effectively interpret it for the analytical minds of the technical implementers, plus find the right vehicles to convey the information.

In order to achieve all this, you need the right tools and strategies to develop and link up supportive documentation with requirements specifications.

This webinar will provide you with practical tips and real life best practice recommendations for effectively managing requirements specifications and supportive documentation in the 21st century.

When you attend this event you will:

1. Learn how to balance what is written in the user story and how the projects specifications are updated
2. Unlock synergies across disparate development teams to empower all collaborators to resound faster to business requirements
3. Find out about mitigating and managing risk in your regulatory compliance documentation?

Who can benefit from this webinar?

• Business Analysts, System Analysts, Requirements Managers
• Project Managers, Quality Assurance Manage

Presenter: Jiri Walek, (LinkedIn profile) Vice President, Product Management, Polarion Software

Click to register for Requirements vs. System Documentation

Live Webinar February 25th, 2015 – 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm EDT
Offered by IAG Consulting (REP 2858)
Duration 1 hour 1 PDU or 1 CDU 1 Category A – Free PDU

• Are you a Business Analyst trying to find your role in an Agile project?
• Are you looking for ways to ramp up your Agile team’s productivity?

There are a lot of misconceptions about Business Analysis in an Agile development environment, and sometimes Business Analysts find it hard to adapt to the short iterations, just-in-time planning and minimalist documentation that characterizes Agile development.

This webinar is a frank discussion about what Agile demands from a Business Analyst and how Business Analysts can succeed and ensure their team succeeds.

Learning Objectives:

1. Dispel common myths about Agile, including the belief that Business Analysts aren’t welcome in Agile
2. Explain why every development team needs excellent business analysis to be successful
3. Guide analysts in how to deliver the most value in Agile settings

Note:  A recorded version of this session is available.

Click to register for Three Ways Business Analysts Enable Agile Success

Live Webinar Feb 25th, 2015 – 9:30 pm – 11:00 pm EST or …
Live Webinar Feb 25th, 2015 – 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm EST
Duration: 1 Hr Webinar Credits: 1 PDU Category C – Free PDU
Sponsored by: RBCS (REP #2986)

Note:  Although RBCS is an REP this presentation will need to be recorded as a Category C

Should YOU Pull The PLUG?

What would John Connor, son of Sarah Connor, hero of the resistance in the “Terminator” movie series, say about the Internet of things, the ubiquity of mobile devices, the fact that we almost ran out of IP addresses, software that updates itself, and other signs of the coming computer apocalypse?

He’d probably tell us to pull the plug, quickly!

Beyond the nightmare scenario of the “Terminator” films, what are the implications of quality, and lack of quality, for the now-real situation that everything is connected to everything else? Will it be Neuromancer, “Terminator,” androids dreaming of electric sheep, or something more benign?

Join Rex for some fun and interesting speculation and prediction on the future of limitless connectivity.

In this webinar, Rex will discuss these points and more, helping you be more effective in Agile projects.

Presenter: Rex Black (Amazon profile) is President of RBCS, a leader in software, hardware, and systems testing. RBCS employs the industry’s most experienced and recognized consultants, RBCS conducts product testing, builds and improves testing groups and hires testing staff for hundreds of clients worldwide. As the leader of RBCS, Rex is the most prolific author practicing in the field of software testing today.

Check Out some of Rex Black’s Great Books:

1. Foundations of Software Testing ISTQB Certification
2. Managing the Testing Process: Practical Tools and Techniques for Managing Hardware and Software Testing
3. Advanced Software Testing – Vol. 1: Guide to the ISTQB Advanced Certification as an Advanced Test Analyst (Rockynook Computing)
4. Advanced Software Testing – Vol. 2: Guide to the Istqb Advanced Certification as an Advanced Test Manager
5. Advanced Software Testing – Vol. 3: Guide to the ISTQB Advanced Certification as an Advanced Technical Test Analyst
6. Critical Testing Processes: Plan, Prepare, Perform, Perfect
7. Pragmatic Software Testing: Becoming an Effective and Efficient Test Professional
8. ISTQB Foundation Exam Preparation Guide
9. ISTQB Advanced Test Manager Exam Preparation Guide 2nd edition

PDU Category C (PMBOK 5) documentation details:
Process Groups: Planning Executing
Knowledge Areas: 4 – Integration 5 – Scope 10 – Communications

• 4.1 Develop Project Charter
• 4.2 Develop Project Management Plan
• 5.2 Collect Requirements
• 5.3 Define Scope

As a Category C ‘Self Directed Learning Activity’ remember to document your learning experience and its relationship to project management for your ‘PDU Audit Trail Folder’

Click to register for the 9:30 pm – 11:00 pm EDT presentation of Skynet Has Arrived: Will Ubiquitous Connectivity Via Mobile & Distributed Computing Give Us Convenience Or The Terminator?

Click to register for the 2:00 am – 3:30 pm EDT presentation of Skynet Has Arrived: Will Ubiquitous Connectivity Via Mobile & Distributed Computing Give Us Convenience Or The Terminator?

Live Webinar February 25th, 2015 – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm EST
Duration: 1 Hour Credits: 1 PDU Category C – Free PDU
Featured Sponsor : Jama

As a Business Analyst or Project Manager, you are on the front lines of bringing products to market that build value for your business.If you’re like most BAs, however, you spend too much time reporting status, explaining context and tracking decisions.Learn tips and tools to help you keep your teams aligned, provide better visibility and maintain a continuous feedback loop so you can spend less time reporting and more time innovating.By bringing in your stakeholders early and often, you can slay the productivity-killing monsters that wreak havoc on your job, such as:

PDU Category C (PMBOK 5) documentation details:

Process Groups: Planning Executing

Knowledge Areas: 5 – Scope 6 – Time 10 – Communications

• 5.2 Collect Requirements
• 5.3 Define Scope
• 6.2 Define Activities
• 6.6 Develop Schedule

As a Category C ‘Self Directed Learning Activity’ remember to document your learning experience and its relationship to project management for your ‘PDU Audit Trail Folder’

Click to register for Owning The Collaboration Circle On All Of Your Future Projects