The Thomson Reuters’ case study illustrates the path a large editorial operations department has taken to form a business analyst community of practice. Business resources functioning as business analysts, with or without the title, were highly valued by IT partners and business leadership.  However, there were no standards for identifying the right business resources, for engaging those resources, or for how those resources operated and were trained and assessed.  Often, the business analyst role was performed by IT if the business did not or was unable to provide a person to perform that role.  The business objectives of creating a BA COP were to identify additional business analysts within the business, formalize the engagement of business analysts, strengthen the business analyst skill set, enhance the business partnership with IT, and improve the results of IT and non-IT related projects.  

Attendees of this session will be provided with the process the editorial operations department took to form a BA COP including:

• Recognizing the need and illustrating current state of the organization at time of inception
• Securing executive level support
• Identifying business analyst candidates
• Defining format, goals, baseline training
• Establishing operating procedures
• Developing the members of the COP
• Addressing challenges and proving value

What Attendees Will Learn:

• How to secure executive level approval to develop a COP
• How to structure and operate a new COP
• How to develop skill sets and a BA practice