The IIBA's 2nd Scottish event. How was it for you?

​​It was a real pleasure to listen to Paul Turner and Matt Andrews share their wealth of practical experience on Business Analysis. The hosts, Hudson, with their perfect venue in Edinburgh, did an amazing job of looking after everyone. The nibbles were delicious therefore it was no surprise that my colleague Adrian strategically placed himself beside them at the back of the room. The event was well attended with around forty people coming along; some familiar faces from the kick-off event and some new faces too.

I found it thoroughly entertaining to listen to Paul Turner who talked about a variety of techniques that a BA can use to help deliver successful projects. The classics like CATWOE, SWOT and Use Case Diagrams were well covered with clever anecdotes and funny stories.

Paul talked with a lot of energy about selecting certain Technique for a particular task. One of the key messages delivered was that you must use the right technique at the right time, selection is key. I could have listened to Paul all evening. It was so interesting to hear the back story of the Business Analysis Techniques book: 72 Essential Tools for Success, co-written by Paul Turner; and how in actual fact it should have been 77 Techniques. To hear about the technique that didn’t make the final cut was funny, The Zimmer Framework released on April 1st. Although Paul did point out that you would not find this covered in his presentation slides.

Paul convinced me that you really can, never have too many tools and techniques in your BA toolkit. I left wanting to have a nosy in my own toolkit, remind myself of what I have and think about how I could understand and then practice some new techniques.

On behalf of AssistKD, Paul seemed delighted to announce their association with IIBA UK Chapter and sponsorship of The Business Analyst of Year Award 2012. You can access further information about this award through the following link: http://www.assistkd.com/business-analyst-of-the-year-2012.php Surprisingly, The Business Analyst of Year Award has never been won by a Scottish person.

During the interval I had another opportunity to network with the other Business Analysts attending the event. There was even a prize draw for two books, Business Analysis Techniques: 72 Essential Tools for Success and Building Business Capability. You will never guess whose name was drawn out first, yes, mine. Such a pity I already had a copy of the 72 Essential Tools for Success; better luck next time.

Matt Andrews really did have a hard act to follow but nevertheless Matt’s presentation was also thoroughly entertaining and informative as well. Matt’s chosen topic was ‘I tried being nice……’ – Influencing Skills for the Business Analyst. Matt covered the main influencing techniques i.e. Persuading, Bridging, Attracting and Disengaging. He gave practical examples about how we could use these skills to influence the stakeholders that we work with. Not only that but how we might recognise if a stakeholder uses these influencing techniques on us. Being made aware of the different influencing techniques will no doubt make me more aware when I am helping the business to express their needs and not their wants.

Matt’s talk was also entertaining as he made us giggle with cute pictures of kittens in marshmallows, a Yoda reference and stories from his career about using the various techniques, for example the Attracting technique. A technique especially useful for building rapport with stakeholders which I believe he exercised on all of us at the event to find that common ground. Yes, we have all flirted with some Programme/Project Manager or other at some time in our careers to get what we needed from them, be it subconsciously or not.

Overall it was a fantastic event, hugely entertaining but also incredibly informative. If you did not make it along to this event you should be able to access the presentation slides through the regional IIBA website shortly. I will definitely be looking out for details of the next Scottish Regional event, currently scheduled to be held in Glasgow in June 2012.