Achievement: A thing done successfully with effort, skill, or courage.^*

What Business Analysis achievement are you or your team really proud of?

Business Analysis encompasses a broad range of activities, and is valuable in a broad set of situations. Ultimately, it helps people and organisations through change. It helps establish a change that people care about and value.

What change did you or your team help establish? What success was achieved using your Business Analysis skills and experience? Which interesting analysis approach have you used?

Achievements can be related to projects, BA competence centers, dealing with a situation like COVID-19 in your BA work, …

Submit your proposal below by Friday 11 September and have a chance at becoming the first BA Achievement Award winner!

Who can participate? Any person and any team around the world that is proud of its achievement!

The jury will select a shortlist, the shortlisted entries will present themselves at DREAM20 on Thursday 1 October 2020. The award ceremony will take place during the BA & Beyond conference, which will be held in Brussels and online on 13 October 2020.

^* Oxford Dictionary on lexico.com

Timeline

• Friday 11 September 2020: Submission deadline
• Monday 21 September 2020: Publication of shortlisted submissions
• Thursday 1 October 2020: Pitch and Q&A with jury and audience at the online DREAM Event
• Thursday 1 October 2020 → Sunday 11 October 2020: Public voting by attendees of the BA & Beyond Conference, the DREAM Event, and the IIBA Brussels^* and Dutch Chapter members
• Tuesday 13 October 2020: Award ceremony at the BA & Beyond Conference

^* IIBA Brussels Chapter members are IIBA Global members that have selected the Brussels Chapter as their Chapter.

Evaluation

Submissions will be evaluated by

• a jury consisting of representatives of the organising parties: BA & Beyond, the DREAM Event, the IIBA Brussels Chapter, the IIBA Dutch Chapter;
• a public vote by attendees of the DREAM event and BA & Beyond Conference.

Up to 5 submissions will be shortlisted by the jury for public pitch and Q&A at the online DREAM Event.

The public pitch and Q&A will consist of

• a short explanation of the achievement;
• answers to a small number of jury questions communicated on beforehand, together with the publication of the shortlist;
• answers to additional questions by the jury and the conference attendees.

Both the jury’s and the public’s vote have a 50% weight. In case of an ex aequo, the public's vote will be decisive.

What will the jury be looking for?

We chose not to publish an exhaustive list of criteria, as we’d like to be surprised. However, here are some pointers that can help you to create your submission.

BA covers many grounds. Did you consider data, ethics, processes, new technologies, alternatives for technologies, stakeholder management, elicitation and facilitation techniques and approaches, …

Here’s what each jury member is interested to find out:

Geertje Appel — DREAM Event
"As I’m convinced that the human factor often makes the difference, I will pay extra attention to how this was handled, and how it has influenced the success of the initiative."

Robert Vissers — IIBA Dutch Chapter
"As the role of a Business Analyst is not always clear, I am curious to see if and how you managed to convince the stakeholders of the importance of BA deliverables to the organization, and your own contribution in particular."

Filip Hendrickx — BA & Beyond
"I’m keen to see how the achievement fits with the organisation’s strategy. I’m also interested in learning how the teams have measured their initiative’s success and if the first results have led to adjustments along the way."

Joris Bommers — IIBA Brussels Chapter
"I am particularly interested to see how you ensured, beginning to end, that the initiative would deliver value to the business, and what was done to guarantee the acceptance of the initiative by the organisation."

Award

• Shortlisted submissions will receive 2 free tickets for the DREAM Event and the BA & Beyond Conference.
• The winning submission will receive 2 free tickets for both next year’s DREAM Event and next year’s BA & Beyond Conference, and 2 free tickets for this year’s IIBA NL Jaarcongres, which takes place November 10th.
• The winning submission will receive a free copy of the BABOK guide, offered by the IIBA Dutch Chapter.
• Shortlisted and winning submissions will receive exposure in the organisers’ communications.

Participate