Come Visit Sparx Services North America at BBC2017 in Orlando, FL November 6-10

For those of you attending the 2017 Building Business Capability Conference in Orlando this week, stop by the boot and learn about the exciting new training, consulting and technology offerings from Sparx Systems North America - specifically targeted at the Business Analyst community. 

Request a demo of the Sparx Business Architecture Toolkit aligned to the BABOK v3 and while you are there, learn about how you can use the industry leading architecture modeling tools in Sparx Enterprise Architect to support your BA processes and practices.

If you are CBAP certified and in need of some additional CDU's, Sparx Services North America can help!  As an IIBA Endorsed Education Provider, we hacan offer a wide variety of courses to help you continue your professional development as a Business Analyst that can be conducted either on-site at your company or virtually.  Talk to one of our staff at BBC to learn more or send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

We look forward to seeing you in Orlando!

In BA Lens this month - the IIBA magazine discusses how Sparx Systems has brought the BABOK Guide for Business Analysts into Enterprise Architect's tooling environment, helping to make it more interactive and functional.

Sparx Systems' BA toolset is a product of a memorandum of understanding between the two organizations that aims to "create greater connections and engagements across the business analysis community" (see press release). 

As stated by the editor at BA Lens - "As a business analysis professional, you need access to the leading-edge tools and resources. This toolkit will allow BAs to meet any challenge with instant access to BABOK® Guide v3 in a convenient and familiar web-based format."

The toolset comprises of two different parts - an interactive, editable example model of business analysis techniques and a convienient web-based reference to the BABOK.

“It is the first-time business analysis techniques have been actualized in this way, and the solution has the capacity to revolutionize the way the BABOK® Guide v3 is applied within the enterprise,”, Sparx Systems COO Tom O'Reilly said.

To read the BA Lens article in full visit:  http://balens.iiba.org/?q=content/collaboration-driving-new-level-efficiency-and-engagement

To learn more about Tools and Techniques for BABOK Guide v3 visit: http://www.sparxsystems.com/products/mdg/babok

Sparx Systems has been identified as an exemplar model regarding the firm's approach to Agile in an article published in the August issue of BA LENS online magazine.

The feature highlighted that in order to fully understand Agile, an organisation needs to embed the principles of Agile into it's DNA.

"Sparx Systems has built the agile mindset into the organization’s culture and to the delivery of the recognized products they provide to their global network of users."

In partnership with the International Institute of Business Analysis, Sparx Systems released the Tools & Techniques for BABOK Guide v3, a digital reference for IIBA's Business Analysis Body Of Knowledge. Tools & Techniques for BABOK Guide v3 can be accessed freely via the new Pro Cloud Server, viewed on any mobile device browser.

With the recent inclusion of OSLC RESTful API within Sparx Systems products, and increasing number of web-based integrations will be available to users of Enterprise Architect, Web EA and Pro Cloud Server in the near future. The Beta release of Enterprise Architect 14, slated for late 2017, will prove to be another quality product as a result of Agile methodologies and best practices.

Read the article in full on IIBA's BA LENS website

Sparx Systems is proudly sponsoring the Building Business Capability (BBC) conference, the official event of the International Institute of Business Analysis (#IIBA) at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, during Oct 31 - Nov 4.

The @BBCapability event provides attendees with insight into Business Analysis & Architecture, Business Rules & Strategy, plus Business Strategy & Transformation, in the pursuit of business excellence. A delegation from Sparx Systems will showcase the powerful Business Transformation features within Enterprise Architect.

Enterprise Architect posseses a powerful suite of features, specifically targetted at the Business Analysis profession - From the initial, yet critical Requirements Engineering stages of any project, through to Business Modeling, Business Process Simulation and onwards to Documentation.

Sparx Systems is also in partnership with the BBC event host IIBA, working closely with chapters and the core leadership team towards the provision of a reference model of the Business Analysis Body Of Knowledge (BABOK).

For more details about the BBC event, and Sparx Systems' involvement at the event, please visit the BBC website.

IIBA Japan, in conjunction with a number of organisations, will be hosting the 'C3' Business Analysis conference during early June located at Fukurashia Shinagawa Crystal Square

'C3' aims to encapsulate 'Change by Creative Collaboration' by creating a forum for attendees to share ideas with a 'fusion of knowledge' based on change management.

Sparx Systems Japan will be an exhibitor and also conducting a 45 minute presentation at the event - additional details will be available in the future.

Dates: June 10 and 11

Venue: Fukurashia Shinagawa Crystal Square

For more details please visit the event website (in Japanese): http://www.iiba-japan.org/news/topics/c3-change-by-creative-collaboration.html

“It's not the technology that's scary; it's what it does to the relations between people that's scary”

- Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Everything Changing:

We are all aware that we are living in a period of unprecedented disruption where everything that we thought as being the status quo, business as usual, is changing rapidly.  Technology ‘disrupts existing markets and value networks, displacing established market leaders and alliances’.  Popular examples are Uber which is challenging the taxi industry model. Then there is AirBnB challenging the accommodation industry model and 3D printing which is challenging the manufacturing model.  

However, in a recent interview Jay Scanlan and Paul Wilmot from McKinsey, posit that unlike a pure play disrupter such as Uber, “our incumbent organizations and our incumbent clients have a broader range of concerns that they need to address. And they have a broader range of customer needs and consumer demands that they want to fulfill.”

Unlike start ups, incumbent organizations hold valuable assets like people, finance and data, etc. Scanlan and Wilmot pose the question as to how incumbents will strategically use these assets to defend themselves against aggressive competition, as digital disrupts their industry.

Agile... The New Norm:

In the face of this change, the adoption of Agile approaches to project management is growing.  It is expected that in 2016 the US Federal Government General Services Administration will solicit bids for a number of major agile projects.  This follows the piloting of agile projects last year by 18F, an agile development consulting arm, within General Services Administration.

A recent survey of development and IT professionals, shows that Agile is now the norm. The majority of development teams and projects now embrace the methodology, while pure waterfall approaches are in the minority. The study conducted by HP in 2014 consisted of an online survey of 601 software developers and IT professionals  representing over 600 organisations,  where 400 + described themselves as “pure agile”.

According to Gartner “Digital business will require application leaders to explore development outside of traditional IT and to ensure fast-paced incremental releases in order to be competitive.”  Just as digital transformation is changing role of application leaders such as the CIO, so too it is impacting the role of the Business Analyst (BA) in the private and public sectors.

The Agile Business Analyst:

The BA has traditionally embraced the rapids of change much like a canoeist. Using the IIBA Body of Knowledge (BABOK) as both their map and compass, they engage the volatility and uncertainty of change. With an innate capability they navigate successful transits, piloting by their experience and understanding of the different currents and hazards.  

Agile presents great opportunity for the BA.  In the process of connecting people and engendering understanding, improving product quality and increasing customer satisfaction, they have the potential to play many roles, to become the consultant.

A key finding of the HP survey was that the majority of participants agreed that “the primary motivators for Agile adoption are associated with improving team collaboration and increasing software quality and customer satisfaction.”

Becoming increasingly involved in Agile projects and addressing the growth in the variety of concerns of the stakeholder (the Customer) will require that the BA leverage the use of Agile tools.  This technology will enable the BA to help their clients find ways to make Agile work for them.

BABOK  3.0 Reference Model - an Agile Approach:

Recently, through a collaboration agreement between International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) and Sparx Systems, a BABOK 3.0 Reference Model has been developed in Enterprise Architect.

This Reference Model provides case studies covering every knowledge area, task and technique in the BABOK Guide. Each case study contains hundreds of examples utilizing diagrams, matrices, charts, documents, and a plethora of tools.  This functionality with many others is combined with the power of Enterprise Architect.

The Reference Model links the BABOK 3.0 to a rich and complete User Guide that provides help and guidance with every aspect of using Enterprise Architect.  Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is the control center supporting real time collaborative Enterprise Architecture planning, building, testing, deployment and communication across all domains and stakeholders.

Enterprise Agile Adoption:

As the constraints of the traditional enterprise architecture approach are replaced by the force of digital convergence and transformation, executives seek agile enterprise architecture approaches and technologies that are fit for purpose.  The tools deployed to manage that architecture are critical to the success of digital transformation.

Detailed descriptions in the Reference Model will teach the Business Analysts how to use the tool to complete tasks and perform techniques including process modeling and requirements management. Videos, slideshows and white papers add to the rich set of guidance that will help BA's become an Agile Business Analyst assisting organizations to become more purposeful in how they choose to adopt Agile.

Seeking customer feedback and quickly improving the product, fuels the success of many disruptive technologies.  This is the approach of Sparx Systems to the ongoing development of Enterprise Architect. As Sparx Systems CEO, Geoff Sparks notes, “Agile development provides a shared and flexible team experience through complete transparency, iterative development and constant feedback - it has been the essential design goal of Enterprise Architect for over a decade and it will remain just as valid today.”

Additional Information:

• Product Feature Page: Tools & Techniques for BABOK Guide v3
  
• Company Announcement: IIBA Announces Strategic Partnership with Sparx Systems
• Enterprise Architect User Guide: Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK)

Event: IIBA® Business Analysis Professional Day
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Date: 19th October 2015 (8am-5pm)

A “Business Analysis Survey “was conducted by Sparx Systems (India), in collaboration  with BA Convention and IIBA™  at Bangalore , India.

The outcome of the survey revealed some interesting insights about the Business Analysis in India, which is garnering increasing importance in the realms of the Indian IT industry.

Though it was an elaborate survey which covered various aspects of business analysis in India, the below responses are more relevant to this EA user community

• Requirements gathering and Use Cases writing are still the primary tasks assigned to Business Analysts

• 75 % of the participants agree that one third of the project efforts are spent on corrections or repetitions

• 80 % of the participants advocated the usage of Requirements Management and Business Modelling tools improve the quality of projects

• 62 % of the respondents felt that initial upfront cost involved in procuring and training of modelling tools act as a deterrent

This is a strong indicator that the Business Analysts and organizations are looking for a Cost effective , Easy to Learn and Comprehensive tool to address their needs.

Enterprise Architect is the potential tool to address the above demands with

Rich Feature Set

Enterprise Architect’s Requirements Management, Use Case Modelling, Business Process Modelling, End to End Traceability and Project Management capabilities helps organizations to eliminate usage of multiple tools.

Enterprise Architect 11 provides a number of features including the Specification Manager, Charts and Dashboards, Enhanced Docx documentation, OSLC support and much, much more.  Each of these features will address the needs of the Business Analysts.

Easy to use:

The intuitive IDE of Enterprise Architect enables ease of Use and quick learning, even for the non-technical associates.

Cost Effective:

Compared to other traditional Business Modelling tools, Enterprise Architect is less expensive and can address the cost concerns of Business Analysts.

With its rich feature set, ease of use and cost effective advantage, Enterprise Architect is the right choice for the Global Organizations who have their extended presence in India through outsourcing or subsidiaries.

Please click here for the details of the survey.