Organizational Resilience Explained: What it is & why should BAs care about it.

Description:

I will discuss how I got involved with Business Continuity, although I was not an eager participant initially. The premise is that Business Analysts have the skills and training to be incredible assets in helping their companies to become more resilient by participating in the business continuity analysis and planning efforts.

After a brief poll of the audience regarding their involvement and understanding of Business Continuity and what is happening in their organizations, I will give a brief definition from authoritative sources. I will highlight similarities between the tools and techniques discussed in the BABOK and in the Business Continuity Institute’s Good Practice Guidelines (GPG).

I plan to conduct one or two group exercises so that participants can apply skills they have in business impact assessment or other business continuity tasks for a fictitious company. It should be fun and engaging!

Speaker:

Susan Alexander, PMP, CBAP, AMBCI

Susan Alexander is a Business Analyst and Project Manager at National Public Radio (NPR) in Washington, D.C. She was Technical Project Manager and Business Analyst for the development of NPR's award winning new headquarters. The project was completed ahead of time and under budget. Since completion of the the new headquarters building, she is focusing on Business Analysis and Project Management for software development and technology implementation projects. She is also Business Continuity Manager at NPR, guiding NPR's departments in the development of Business Continuity Plans.

Susan transitioned to a career in technology in 1999 with the consulting firm, Perot Systems where she was a Developer, Team Lead, and Business Analyst. She was a Senior Business Analyst at Booz Allen Hamilton where she supported clients at Office of Personnel Management, Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, Department of Labor, and Defense Intelligence Agency.

Susan joined ICS-Nett in 2008 as Lead Business Analyst for the 2010 Decennial Census survey tracking system used to track 10's of millions of transactions per day, supported over 30,000 users, and 700,000 enumerators in over 400 locations. The project used Agile development and resulted in millions of dollars being returned to the government.

Susan is passionate about helping organizations, teams, and individuals to define and reach their goals and to become more resilient.

When: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 at 6:30 p.m. (see agenda below)

Cost: Free for IIBA DC members, $5.00 for non-members.

Sponsor: Thanks to Promontory for providing the meeting space and dinner.

Agenda:

6:30 - 7:00 Registration, light meal and networking

7:00 - 8:00 Guest speaker

8:00 - 8:30 Q&A and wrap-up

Can't make it this month?

We meet approximately every month, either the second or third Wednesday of the month. So if you can't make it this month, hopefully we'll see you at the next meetup. Also, if you have an idea, game, workshop, or story to share with the group, then please contact the organizer to setup a presentation for a future meeting.