Overview:
Business needs are arguably the most important input to any project. Given their impact, it is critical for project team members to have tools and techniques to get to the root cause of business problems and opportunities. This practicum is a follow-up to the presentation “Five Proven Techniques for Understanding Business Needs.” It features practice with some of the root cause techniques for uncovering and understanding needs. You will leave the session feeling better able to get to the root cause and analyze the current state for your next effort.
Abstract:
Needs are arguably the most important input to any business analysis effort. Why is that? For one thing, the BA Body of Knowledge from IIBA literally starts with needs as the core input when planning the BA approach. Needs are also the primary input when eliciting requirements, which leads to virtually every other task in the BABOK.
The PMI Standard for Business Analysis includes Needs Assessment as its initial domain. Outputs of that domain are key inputs to all but one of the other domains: the situation statement, business case, and project charter. Why do we then struggle with understanding business needs?
Given the impact of business needs, it is critical for project team members to have tools and techniques to get to the root cause of business problems and opportunities. This practicum is a follow-up to the presentation “Five Proven Techniques for Understanding Business Needs.” It features practice with some of the root cause techniques for uncovering and understanding needs. You will leave the session feeling better able to get to the root cause and analyze the current state for your next effort.
Learning Objectives:
Attendees will be able to:

• List and describe the 5 root cause analysis techniques that will help uncover business needs.
• List which techniques apply best to certain situations.
• Use one or more techniques to uncover and understand business needs.

Speaker Bio - Richard Larson PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA
President and Founder of Watermark Learning, Richard Larson is a successful entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in business analysis, project management, training, and consulting. He has presented workshops and seminars on BA and PM topics to over 10,000 participants on five different continents.
Rich is a frequent speaker at Business Analysis and Project Management national conferences and IIBA^® and PMI^® chapters around the world. He has contributed to the BA Body of Knowledge version 2.0 and 3.0, was a lead author for the Needs Assessment chapter of the PMI publication Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide, and was an author of the PM Body of Knowledge, 4^th edition. He and his wife Elizabeth Larson have co-authored five books on business analysis.

Please Register so we have a count for food! 
If you are interested in future speaking opportunities please contact Wendy Weathers, V.P. of Programs at Programs@Phoenix.IIBA.org.