May 21, 2024 •Samuel Dugger
I recently had the pleasure of attending the Project Summit Business Analyst World Conference, held in Arlington, Virginia, from May 6 to 8, 2024.
I attended many of the business analyst presentations, which focused on business analysis tools, facilitation (including facilitation, analysis, collaboration, and elicitation techniques), artificial intelligence (AI), and the future of the business analyst profession. What stood out to me the most other than the many tools available was the emphasis on AI and its impact on decision-making with proper prompting.
There are numerous iterations of AI tools available that are customizable to ensure what’s fed into them will stay within your network environment. This means that proprietary and personally identifiable information can be shielded from open platforms that are shared globally. Given the importance today of protecting such information, this option allows for further exploration of what AI can really do for an organization’s growth and productivity.
Summit director Samuel Dugger (right) with Project World Business Analyst World vice president Amy Ruddell.
With the use of an applicable AI, the business analyst has the power to provide analytics that help move the needle toward less time wasted and an enhancement in facilitation required for soliciting unknown potential or invaluable insight from stakeholders.
It is widely known that AI can be impactful; you have to provide sanitized data as well as refined queries. Do not stop at the first request if the results are not as precise as you would like. You must rephrase the query and continue to do so until the results are more satisfactory to your intent.
Thus, it goes without saying that the professional need for business analysts will not go away due to the advancement of AI. In fact, the need for business analysts is projected to increase due to AI’s use. Like any dataset produced, there has to be an associated analyzation provided either for its production or afterward in explanation.
Dugger (left) with International Institute of Business Analysis DC chapter president Mindy Bohannon.
Other than the insight gained from the presentations, which I will use to broaden our Summit program and business modernization offerings and team knowledge, I had the opportunity to network with individuals from around the United States and Canada. Their affiliations include local, state, and federal government, as well as the private sector, in professions such as consulting, medical, project management, and inspector generals.
In this post are pictures taken with the Project Summit Business Analyst World vice president Amy Ruddell and International Institute of Business Analysis DC chapter president Mindy Bohannon. They allowed me to bend their ears a bit and were very welcoming. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting both Amy and Mindy as well as the conference organization and wealth of information shared.