Requirements Representation

The Decision Model for Business Rules and Logic: An Enterprise Analysis Technique

Presented by Barbara von Halle & Larry Goldenberg, Knowledge Partners International

Decades ago, the Relational Model changed the way we perceive and manage data. Now, in 2010, the Decision Model is doing the same for business decisions and rules. Business analysts and business SMEs are using it today to represent business logic and rules as a rigorous, predictable normalized structure. Developers are translating that structure into code in a straightforward manner. Consequently, for the first time, a business’s logic is explicit with its own unique look-and-feel. Inconsistencies, gaps, and redundancies become obvious. This shift is having a profound effect on certain industries already and new software is emerging.

The timing is intriguing because Decision Management itself is gaining momentum, according to Harvard Business Review (Tom Davenport, “Make Better Decisions,” HBR, Nov 2009).

Learning Objectives:

Recognize that business decisions and business rules/logic comprise a new dimension and model
Witness the inherent structure, integrity and normalization principles that lie hidden in business logic today (as they were hidden in data years ago)
Follow the step-by-step creation of a Decision Model using an agile iterative approach

Speaker Biography: Barbara von Halle (BA, MS) is Managing Partner of Knowledge Partners International, LLC (KPI) and co-inventor of The Decision Model. The fifth recipient of the Outstanding Individual Achievement Award from International DAMA, Barb was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1995. As an early advocate for the Relational Model, she was the leading columnist in Database Programming and Design magazine for many years. Her first book, Handbook of Relational Database Design published by Addison-Wesley in 1989 has over 21 printings and cited in 28 books. Today, Barbara co-authors columns on the Decision Model in Modern Analyst, BPTrends, and TDAN. She is currently assisting organizations in developing Decision Models and establishing Decision Model Centers of Excellence.

Speaker Biography: Larry Goldberg (BS, PhD), is Managing Partner of Knowledge Partners International, LLC (KPI) and co-inventor of The Decision Model. Larry has over thirty years of experience in building technology based companies on three continents, and in which the focus was rules-based technologies and applications. Commercial applications in which he played a primary architectural role include such diverse domains as healthcare, supply chain, and property and casualty insurance. Larry is a co-editor of The Business Rule Revolution: Running the Business the Right Way (HappyAbout.info 2007), is on the editorial board of BPMInstitute.org and is the Editorial Director of the BDM Bulletin, a monthly e-publication of the BPMInstitute.org.

Peeling Back the Onion - Presenting an ITIL Compliant eBonding Interaction

Presented by David Davis, AT&T

The AT&T Managed Services provide a suite of ITIL Service and Assurances Processes for end-to-end care of a customer network infrastructure. Part of the suite of services involves an application to application (A2A) integration in which the client application post XML to an open API to create a "ticket or order" in the AT&T application. The end-to-end implementation has several key interactions (both system and process related). This presentation will cover explaining the critical interactions in an overlaid storyboard to help all parties understand where requirements are defined and the critical elements of it. The storyboard starts at a "Ducks and Bunnies" Level and drills down to XML schema details. Additionally, the presentation will cover hints and tips on presenting the file and capturing audience comments, concerns, issues, and gaps while doing the presentation.

Learning Objectives:

A method for graphically presenting requirements
A model of collecting and presenting various components of a requirement set
A drill down presentation from executive level, to low level details

Speaker Biography: David Davis is a self proclaimed practitioner of WOW! A proven dynamic, creative, and enthusiastic leader, Dave has strong business acumen with a wide range of experience in Project Management, Program Management, Business Analysis, Business process management, and change management. He has shared his message in many web publications and presentations throughout Europe and North America. Dave’s ability to motivate, coordinate and oversee cross-process teams working with limited resources and tight timeframes is second to none. He excels at quickly understanding customer needs and the benefits realization of his work. Perhaps most importantly, Dave is an outstanding coach. He takes a sincere interest in his team members and helps develop the skills needed to achieve their professional goals. Dave’s enthusiastic guidance on motivating and leading people produces WOW! Results for all Project Stakeholders.

Case Study - Use Cases as a Foundation for Solution Design

Presented by Joe Goss, UW Madison Div. of Info. Tech. (DoIT)

Detailed use cases are a common artifact of any project seeking to improve processes or design technology. In this case study, attendees learn how use cases were utilized step-by-step to develop the technical requirements for a successful million dollar project - from high-level business requirements to logical database design. The resulting system, Scholarships@UW-Madison, is now available to 35,000 undergraduate and incoming students. Attendees will review sample project artifacts from the start of the business analysis project to its delivery to the developer project team. As part of this review, participants will see the staging of these artifacts, and understand how each one led to the next. Lessons learned and best practices will be communicated as part of this presentation.

Learning Objectives:

Develop detailed use cases through facilitated group meetings
Refine functional requirements and usability through paper prototypes
Derive a logical database design from completed use cases

Speaker Biography: Since 1978, Joe Goss has been helping public and private sector customers define business requirements as a basis for creating cost-effective business solutions. Employed by UW-Madison as a senior business analyst and project manager, Joe is developing a business analysis center of excellence for the University, and leading several process improvement efforts on campus. He is currently helping the IIBA^® Development Committee design and implement an on-boarding process to strengthen newly chartered chapters. Joe provides brown bag sessions to campus on diverse subjects within business analysis. He routinely facilitates stakeholder groups, helping people with diverse and divergent points of view come to common agreement about functional requirements. He recently taught a semester-long business analysis class at a local technical college, and has given many formal presentations and lectures.

Managing Virtual Distance: Using Web 2.0 to Do Better Business Analysis

Presented by Dave Bieg, IIBA^®

We live in an increasingly distributed world where face-to-face meetings are often too expensive for the business. Can a profession based in relationships take advantage of web-based communications?

Learning Objectives:

Develop and maintain effective virtual business relationships
Explore ways to virtualize common BA techniques using new media
Glimpse the future of communications, and what it means to our profession

Speaker Biography: In February 2010, Dave Bieg became International Institute of Business Analysis's (IIBA^®) Chief Operating Officer after having held the role as a volunteer since June 2006. With 28 years of experience in business and information technology, Dave has held many roles including, operating his own consulting and facilitation business where his team provided learning, process and knowledge transfer strategies and solutions to achieve their client's business objectives. Dave previously worked at General Electric and Lockheed Martin, where he served as a Program Manager as well as a Business Analyst and Systems Engineer.

Avoiding 10 Common Process Modeling Mistakes

Presented by David De Witt, CBAP^®, NueVista Group

In this workshop, the facilitator will provide a framework for managing the situation where a customer has provided a solution instead of requirements. Often the difficulty is that the customer does not even know the difference. When it is brought up, the customer may resist further discussion from a fear of failure or a misunderstanding about the value of working through requirements before developing a solution. The initial work is establishing the context for the conversation and framing the questions needed to move the customer to think about the requirements.

Learning Objectives:

Use the key strategies to uncover the business problem behind a solution offered as a requirement
Tactfully engage the business partner in discovering the total business problem and requirements
Distinguish requirements language from solution language

Speaker Biography: David De Witt, Practice Director for NueVista Group’s IT Leadership Practice, has more than 25 years experience in organizational leadership, management consulting, and Information Systems optimization in a number of industries, including supply chain and third party logistics, financial services, and telecommunications. He has mentored companies in their strategic planning and management of Information Systems, leading initiatives in IS department governance, business alignment, staffing, infrastructure development and regulatory compliance support and reporting. David has facilitated cross-functional, multi-level work groups through a variety of processes, including strategic planning, business decision making, product design, process improvement, and business requirements development. He has facilitated projects in businesses of all sizes as well as for non-profit organizations. Through his facilitated, structured, documented sessions the client team can focus on the task at hand, avoid the meeting pitfalls that are causing frustration, and obtain high quality, tangible results. He holds the Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) designation from the International Institute of Business Analysis, awarded to candidates who have successfully demonstrated their expertise in the increasingly important specialty of business analysis. David currently serves as Vice President, Relationships and Marketing for the Chicgaoland IIBA^® Chapter and has served as a member of the Board of Directors, Midwest Facilitators Network and Advisor to the College of Business, Indiana State University. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Furman University, Greenville, SC, he earned his Master’s and Doctorate at Tulane University in New Orleans.

Best Practices for Controlling Risk in Application Modernization Projects

Presented by Matthew Morgan, Blueprint

In this session, Matthew Morgan, SVP of Products at Blueprint, will discuss the top five best practices Blueprint customers leverage for controlling risk in application modernization projects. This session will discuss how business analysts are key to understanding how existing IT assets are used by the business, which application areas should be enhanced and extended as part of a modernization project, and how end-users need to best be empowered by future applications. This session will discuss how a lifecycle approach to requirements ensures success of project teams.

Learning Objectives:

How Business Analysts can use visual requirements to assist in Application Modernization projects
How globalization and distributed teams create collaboration issues within modernization projects
How Agile can be leveraged for application modernization

Speaker Biography: Matt Morgan is the SVP of Products for Blueprint, an HP partner for requirements definition and visualization. Over the last three and a half years at Blueprint, Matt has led the product management efforts for Blueprint Requirements Center and related product lines. Before Blueprint, Matt spent a decade at Mercury/HP leading the organizations for product initiatives such as HP Quality Center, HP Business Process Testing, and HP Functional Testing. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of South Alabama.

The Agile Business Analyst - How to Write Effective User Stories

Presented by Bob Schommer, Skyline Technologies, Inc

Agile software development offers an alternative to traditional software and product development methodologies. Agile methods stress an empirical vs. a rigidly defined approach for developing software. Using agile development principles, we learn as we proceed, we plan for and embrace change, we deliver small working pieces of software frequently and iteratively, and we inspect and adapt to changes in requirements or budgets using a self-organized and self-directed team approach that focuses on close collaboration between IT and the business.

Learning Objectives:

Have a high level understanding of Agile development and the Scrum Framework
Discuss the components and attributes of a good user story
Use techniques to help elicit and write good user stories

Speaker Biography: Bob Schommer is a Certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP) for Skyline Technologies, Inc., a Green Bay based firm developing specialized IT solutions and services. Bob has over 28 years of IT experience in business analysis, project management, program management and portfolio management. Bob has been a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) since 2005 and recently received his certification as a Microsoft Technical Specialist in Microsoft Project. During his career Bob has led projects ranging in size from thousands of dollars to over $25 million in industries such as transportation, logistics, manufacturing, energy services, utility, prescription benefits, airline and grocery wholesaling. Bob is committed to advancing the use of Scrum and other Agile approaches and is Vice President of the Northeast Wisconsin (NEW) Agile Users Group. Bob has presented on various agile and Scrum topics at the IIBA^® Northeast Wisconsin Chapter and PMI Northeast Wisconsin Chapter.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Straightforward Modeling of Business Requirements

Presented by William Hagerup

56% of post-implementation defects in systems result from misunderstandings about requirements. Bill will describe a straightforward method for depicting business requirements designed to bridge the communications gap, and to ensure real understanding and agreement between BA's and their business clients.

Learning Objectives:

Use the ABC process to understand business requirements
Learn how to illustrate business requirements using simple modeling techniques
Communicate their understanding of business requirements effectively to others

Speaker Biography: Bill Hagerup, a senior associate for Ouellette & Associates Consulting, Inc.(O&A), trains and consults nationally for the firm. His professional development and organizational effectiveness activities are with O&A’s Fortune 1,000 client companies. Throughout his 40-year career in the IT industry, Bill has been in the trenches of computer operations, managed systems development, and taken fire on the front lines of customer-support services. Bill offers a unique mix of skills, depth of IT background, real-life experience leading both software-development and organizational-transformation projects, and natural talents as an instructor and facilitator. He combines O&A’s solid course material with his considerable experience in implementing change – from the client’s point of view – to help organizations learn and grow. Prior to joining O&A, Bill worked for a consulting company where he led numerous IT culture change efforts. Prior to that, he worked for a large insurance company where, as Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness, he pioneered customer service, team building, and quality initiatives. Bill is often quoted in industry publications. He also collaborated with other O&A consultants to write Leading IT Transformation: The Roadmap for Success, a must-read book for IT leaders, and staff members who are committed to transforming their skill sets and to meeting the demands of today’s increasingly complex, ever-changing business environment. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois.