ABOUT THE WEBINAR

Have you ever heard of a project, perhaps one of your own, that was successful in what it delivered, but caused unexpected consequences in other parts of the organization or collateral damage on other projects? Everyone involved in a project has the goal of completing the project on time and within budget and having the results solve the intended problem. If the project is being executed in an agile or scrum-like manner, the focus will be on completing the backlog items within the given timebox or sprint. Everyone is too busy focusing on the immediate results and meeting the immediate deadlines to consider the overall impacts of the work that is being done or the organizational impacts of the results of that work. And that is good, because that is the essence of tactical thinking: focus on achieving the immediate goal.

However, projects, and their results, do not exist in a vacuum and are always part of some larger system, not necessarily a computer system. While the business analyst typically engages in some impact analysis during the problem or requirements definition stages or when assessing potential solutions, once the solution has been adopted and the project set in motion, no further thought is given to the complex system interactions of the organization and its people.

Successful projects and initiatives have someone who keeps the Big Picture in mind to ensure the results achieve their intended goals without any negative impact elsewhere in the organization. The business analyst is the primary role that must apply system thinking to the overall solution. The business analyst can also look at the entire problem and solution domain and may suggest solution alternatives that require only a change in the way people think. This webinar will acquaint you with the fundamental concepts and principles of system thinking which you can apply at your current and future projects as well as other aspects of your work and social life.