SoftServe Holds Second Online International BA Conference – Thinking Outside the BAX

LVIV, Ukraine—September 7-17, 2021—SoftServe, a leading digital authority and consulting company held the second Thinking Outside the BAX online conference as part of the Business Analysis Strategic Session (BASS) in cooperation with SoftServe University and the Business Analysis Community. The event was organized by SoftServe’s Business Analysis Office to bring together recognized speakers from Ukraine, Canada, UK, USA, Poland and around a thousand BAs both from SoftServe and other companies internationally.

“As we wanted to go beyond Business Analysis and think about our work in a broader perspective, we came up with THINKING OUTSIDE THE BAX, where BAX stands for business analysis plus eXtra,” says Nadiya Trub, BAO Associate Director at SoftServe. “We believe all the areas such as Business Analysis trends, Strategic Planning, Problem Analysis, Business Architecture, Digital Strategy, discussed during the conference, immensely contributed to Business Analyst profession; therefore, by the cross-disciplinary approach we created, innovated, and thought outside the BAX together.”

During the conference, the speakers presented cutting-edge topics from business analysis and adjacent domains, and the analysts were able to watch live sessions, interact, ask questions, and participate in the panel discussion. The conference was wrapped up by the BAX AWARD CEREMONY, during which the attendants celebrated the introduction and recognition of BA THOUGHT LEADER AWARD and other annual awards already established in the BA Community.

Among the international guest speakers were:

• Delvin Fletcher, President and CEO at IIBA® (International Institute of Business Analysis), who has equipped the audience with both invaluable and practical advice on how to work efficiently in the new reality.
• Barbara Carkenord, Board Chair of IIBA, Consultant at Carkenord Consulting, who elaborated on the importance of BAs’ enrollment in strategic planning.
• Adrian Reed, Principal Consultant at Blackmetric Business Solutions, who explained how to avoid rabbit holes and maximize expertise in BA Wonderland and beyond.
• Elizabeth Larson, Consultant at Watermark Learning, who spoke about the AI trends in Business Analysis.
• Debra Paul, Managing Director at Assist Knowledge Development, who showed the way from customer-centric ‘talk’ to customer-centric action.

“I just wanted to say thanks again for inviting me to be part of your conference, I very much enjoyed presenting,” said Adrian Reed, Principal Consultant at Blackmetric Business Solutions. “There were some very good and thoughtful questions, which is a sign that the attendees enjoyed it.”

SoftServe was represented at the conference by the following speakers:

• Igor Bobryshev, Business Analysis Cluster Lead, who told the story of client transformation, starting from Junior BA to Product Manager.
• Dmytro Zubets, Enterprise Solutions Principal, & Oleksii Babachenko, Business Analysis Cluster Lead, who together showed the key role BAs play in digital transformation advisory.
• Tetyana Lisovska, Business Analysis Practice Lead, who provided invaluable advice on conducting enterprise value proposition research.
• Nati Nazar, Service Excellence Director, who went behind-the-scenes of product ownership uncovering the tricky conspiracy behind Product Ownership Analysis.
• Oleksandr Yavlinsky, Retail & Supply Chain Practice Lead, who shared advice on how to unlock BA-value-delivering superpowers.
• Elena Sheludko, Business Analysis Lead, who demonstrated how business architecture can significantly influence the change.
• Ioanna Pona, Director, Product Management & BA CoE, who led us into a new approach on improving business outcomes using technologies.
• Krzysztof Kolosowski, Business Analysis Cluster Lead, who masterfully dealt with the goldsmith technology commercialization model.

The panel discussion aiming to answer the core question – Is there life after BA? –was coordinated by Kyrylo Bieliavskyi, Business Analysis Office Competence Manager, with the participation of Dmytro Zubets, Enterprise Solutions Principal, Andrii Bereziuk, Senior Client Partner, Rustam Magomedov, Associate Delivery Director, and Anastasiia Syniepol’s’ka, Product Management Lead.

The conference has received high praise for the diversity of perspectives, highly engaging discussions, and the opportunity to spend quality time with the international BA community.