2019 Chapter Meeting Presentations
Click on the month to view the topic abstract, speaker bio and download a copy of the presentation. Please note, not all presentations are available for download.
January 2019 Shannon Z. Cross - Waterfall and Agile Spiral
February 2019 Recruiter Panel
March 2019 Thomas Haver - Develop Yourself and Uplift Others
April 2019 Russell Cotter - Demystifying Enterprise Business Architecture
May 2019 Zack Kelly - Improv Your Interactions
June 2019 Drew Washburn - Scrum/Kanban: A Foot in Both Worlds
July 2019 Summer Social
August 2019 9th Annual BA-CON Conference
September 2019 Laura Fernandes - My Kingdom for a Rosetta Stone: Documentation in Agile Development
October 2019 Monica Johnson - Lean IT, Agile, and DevOps: One Team, One Goal
November 2019 Rob Reed & Russell Cotter - Breakdown Down Scrum Values with Martial Arts
December 2019 Happy Holidays!
A Big Thank You to State Auto for sponsoring our chapter meeting and dinner!
To learn more about State Auto and how they can help you, visit StateAuto.com
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Waterfall and Agile Swirl
Join us to hear from Shannon Cross of CAS to discuss the challenges of being a BA in a WAgile environment. Shannon has operated, thrived, and made mistakes in the Waterfall/Agile “WAgile” Swirl. From it she has gained insights in working at the team, executive, and customer levels. "Waterfall and Agile Swirl" will cover some tools to help manage these incompatible but often combined frameworks, how to speak with teams and business executives in this situation and managing scope and change.
Download Shannon’s presentation here.
Shannon Z. Cross
Shannon Z. Cross currently works at CAS (Chemical Abstracts Society), a leader in cheminformatics solutions, providing scientific information to industry and academia in pursuit of research and discovery. Shannon’s role as CAS Services Client Engagement Manager combines her experience and skills of Product Owner, Program Manager, BA and entrepreneur into one package. Which means, she believes certain rules are thrown out the window and what remains is a foundation of using the best tool for the job. Not to be confused with ever changing process or undefined business strategies. Shannon holds a MA in management, BA in anthropology and is a certified Project Manager, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Scrum Product Owner, and Scrum Master. Her professional experience crosses public, private, and government sectors.
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Recruiter Panel
We will be speaking with a panel of Columbus IT recruiters about how we can better market ourselves in 2019. Please come with questions for our recruiters and see how they can help you and your career in 2019!
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Develop Yourself and Uplift Others
In the constant flux of software development, everyone involved in creating new technologies and features must adapt to changes or be left behind. One obstacle facing professional development is lack of support and/or guidance from management. According to a recent survey by Robert Half Finance & Accounting, only 26% of employers allow their employees to attend continuing professional education courses during business hours. However, all is not lost: change can come from within rather than management. Employees can take the reins of continuous improvement and generate positive change for themselves & their organization.
In this session, the audience will learn how to implement a robust continuous improvement curriculum that can be integrated into an organization's culture -- one training class, one conference, one professional group at a time.
Winter Weather Emergency Policy
Level 1 for Franklin County - Meeting still being held
Level 2 or 3 for Franklin County - Meeting is canceled
Thomas Haver
Thomas is presently serving as a Senior Application Architect for Huntington National Bank. He is responsible for the conversion from manual testing to Ruby/Cucumber automation for the entire enterprise. Originally accountable for the development and maintenance of automation frameworks for Digital Channels, he now leads the automation effort for 73 applications across Huntington that encompass testing, metrics & reporting, data, and environment. Thomas leads the training & technical support for both on-site employees as well as offshore contractors.
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Demystifying Enterprise Business Architecture
What do we mean by Enterprise Architecture, what do we mean by Business Architecture. Who cares and why?This presentation will offer information and insights around Business Architecture that explores:
• Differentiation and connection of disciplines
• The rise of Business Architecture because the tail needs to stop wagging the dog
• Why Business partners need to share some accountability and responsibility
• Why Business Strategy matters and requires constant work
• Tips and techniques
Russell Cotter
Russell is an Enterprise Business Architect and IT Practitioner with 35 years of experience. In Australia, Russell worked mainly in Government Enterprise, where he was involved in revising and improving the national infrastructure for systems and data communications.
During his tenure as an IT practitioner, Russell also served in the Australian Army Reserve 8th Signal Regiment where he was involved in the setup and operation of field telephony and data systems.
After immigrating to the United States in 1997, Russell has worked with industry sectors including Telecommunications, Energy, Education and Financial Services, in full time and consulting roles.
His greatest “claim to flame” was leaving an obscure test script exposed to the production environment that lay dormant until one day the script evaluated to “true”. This triggered automated events that led to the crippling of the corporate email systems over a weekend. Needless to say, his email privileges were suspended for some time!
Russell takes a wide and long term view of the IT landscape, and is often known for breaking the barriers of the accepted “conventional wisdom” that surrounds him. He is a continuous learner, innovator and unapologetic challenger to accepting the way things have always been done.
During his down time, Russell spends time with family and is regularly involved in international studies talks on Australia at several local elementary schools. This is something he has done for over 10 years. Russell is also a second degree, black belt martial arts instructor for a local Taekwondo academy.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Improv Your Interactions!
Improv is all about listening and reacting to your colleagues. We’re going to take that to the next level in this course by learning how to listen better and build off of whoever you’re talking to. This will help you build substantial relationships and provide meaningful input to the conversations you have, whether it be conversations with friends or clients. By playing various low stakes and fun games, we’ll learn how to roll with the conversation punches, keep your mind free and open to whatever comes next, and see things from the other person’s perspective to provide valuable input.
Zack Kelly
Zack Kelly is an entertainer at his core. Professionally, he’s a Business Analyst and Product Owner. His love of improv comedy lends itself well to his professional skills as a listener, connector, and facilitator. His background in mechanical engineering gives him an eye for detail and enhances his problem solving skills. He loves to fuse these skills to help others understand the big picture and solve problems. When he’s not working, Zack’s probably doing improv or something stereotypically nerdy.
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Scrum/Kanban: A Foot in Both Worlds
Are you a Business Analyst who understand the basics of Agility, but have you asked yourself, “What is the difference between Scrum and Kanban?” Have you wondered how a BA can function in these very different environments? Come hear Drew relate his experience thriving in each of these worlds! Come away with a better understanding of how a Business Analyst can facilitate the software development process regardless of whether your project is using Scrum or Kanban. Download Drew’s presentation here.
Drew Washburn
Drew Washburn draws on the combination of over 35 years in the computer industry with his background of performing in Community Theater to deliver an informative and entertaining talk.
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Summer Social
We are taking a summer break and hosting our 2019 Summer Social! Join us for appetizers and great conversation.
Friday, August 23, 2019
2019 BA-CON Conference
We do not have an August 2019 chapter meeting due to the 2019 BA-CON Conference.
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
My Kingdom for a Rosetta Stone: Documentation in Agile Development
The agile principle working software over comprehensive documentation has sometimes been interpreted to mean that written documentation is not needed or important in software development. I would argue that this principle simply means that documentation is not an end in and of itself – it plays a supporting role in the higher objective of developing and supporting software.
Why is documentation needed then, when is it appropriate, and how much documentation is “too much”?
In this session, I will make a case that Agile invites us to craft a practicable balance between comprehensiveness and minimalism that meets the need of a given audience and supports rather than minimizes other forms of communication. With some tact and planning, agile practitioners can apply simple but effective strategies to gain maximal value from minimal documentation.
This session will cover:
• Determining what is and is not value-added to document
• Strategies for writing effective minimalistic documentation
• The role of code as documentation
Laura Fernandes
Laura Fernandes, CBAP, has twelve years’ experience as a practitioner and people leader in the business analysis profession, working with stakeholders in financial, retail, and logistics environments. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Xavier University and a Masters in Information Systems from the Raj Soin College of Business.
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Lean IT, Agile, and DevOps: One Team, One Goal
Delivering business value in today’s digital technology environment requires using all the tools in the tool kit. Utilizing a Lean, Agile, Dev Ops combination allows teams to unite behind a common vision: deliver software at the speed of business.
Monica Johnson
Monica Johnson is a for Software Development Leader at Nationwide Insurance. Monica has 19 years of service with Nationwide and has played various roles including Developer, Project Manager, Software Quality Assurance leader, PPL, ADL, Lean Coach, and most recently Application Product Manager. Monica has a degree from Ball State University in Marketing. Monica has a passion for software development practices and helping teams be successful with a focus on software engineering and industry best practices.
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Breaking Down Scrum Values with Martial Arts
**Warning** – You may need safety glasses… there will be kicks, punches, boards breaking and splinters flying… with a grand finale you may never forget!!
The Scrum framework is meaningless without the Scrum values. The five values; focus, openness, courage, commitment, and respect are at the core of Scrum. These values are extremely important yet challenging for individuals and teams to embrace and live by day to day while on their agile journey. Everyone knows what these words mean, but without gaining a deeper understanding it will be difficult to truly see the value they bring to individuals, teams, and organizations.
In this session, we will talk through each of the five Scrum values while tying into examples from the TaeKwonDo martial art. By understanding the Scrum values through a martial arts lens, you will be able to explain why these values are so important and what you and your teams can accomplish by living these values!
Rob Reed
As an Agile Coach and 2nd Degree Black Belt TaeKwonDo Instructor, Rob loves to have fun and brings positive energy to everything he does. He can effectively communicate in a way that people can relate to. He is passionate about building relationships and supporting people along their journey whether it be with agility, martial arts or life! @ROBREEDJR
Russell Cotter
Russell works at JP Morgan Chase as an Enterprise Business Architect and is involved in Agile Transformation. Originally from Australia, Russell has worked in professional services across multiple industry sectors and fully understands and coaches teams on Business and IT partnerships. Russell resides in Columbus Ohio with his partner and two children and he also instructs martial arts. Russell is a frequent industry presenter on Technology insights and Architecture.
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Thank you for a great 2019!
See you on Wednesday, January 8, 2020!