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IIBA.org IAF & IIBA Strategic Alliance Explores Chapter Engagement
In early 2017, IIBA® formed a Strategic Alliance with the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) and our organizations are presently working together to provide additional value to both memberships. Both organizations share common interests, have a global Chapter network and offer professional certification programs. IAF and IIBA are encouraging Members of their respective Chapters to connect and begin exploring opportunities to collaborate in areas of common interest. More information on the IAF/IIBA Strategic Alliance. 
How can Chapters collaborate? 
Where there are Chapters in the same location, both organizations encourage Chapters to:
 
  • Hold joint professional development or networking events;
  • Invite members of each association to local events, meetups and conferences.
Where there is a Chapter of one organization, and not the other, Members without a current active Chapter of their association are encouraged to visit the Chapter of the other.  
 
Meet like-minded professionals who:
 
  • Act as servant leaders to their clients;
  • Ask the challenging questions to help the client arrive at a suitable solution;
  • Embody the spirit of collaboration and innovation to help teams improve their working lives;
  • Have a varied toolkit of methods and techniques to help groups arrive at a solution;
  • Seek to continuously learn and expand their skills.
mara-svennePerspective from an IAF & IIBA Member – Mara Svenne
Mara Svenne is a Facilitator, Group Process Consultant and Business Systems Analyst
I started my career as a Business Analyst (BA) and learned there were many ways to understand the client’s needs; my favourite way to do this was through facilitated workshops, brainstorming sessions and joint application development (JAD) sessions. Acting as a facilitator in these sessions it was my job to ensure the meetings ran smoothly and successfully. Bringing together professionals from different disciplines including product owners, solution architects, enterprise architects, software developers and management – each with their own points of view and common language was sometimes challenging. After taking a course from an IAF Endorsed Training Provider Program, I was surprised and delighted to learn that the facilitation profession extends much beyond applying tools, it’s about process-oriented leadership and leaving content leadership to the content owner(s). Currently, I am a Business Systems Analyst, looking to learn more from IAF as I branch out into more core facilitation work.
 
An IAF member can benefit from IIBA by learning about business analysis best practices, tools and techniques to describe and capture business problems, such as the business model canvas; process models to describe 'what happens' and how it might improve; requirements elicitation; and application and user experience design sessions.  
 
Facilitators help uncover the human aspect that is inherent in many complex 'systemic' problems. BA professionals help uncover the 'system/processes/applications' side of what are sometimes complex 'systemic' problems.
 
Lastly, A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® (BABOK® Guide) stresses facilitation skill as a core competency for BA professionals. Facilitation can be used as a way to elicit requirements, collaborate on an agile team, get consensus from stakeholders - all important skills for a successful, versatile BA professional. If you are a BA looking to enhance your facilitation skills many IAF Members offer meeting management, and facilitation skills training and coaching. An expert facilitator, with an expert BA professional could collaborate to serve a client's need to identify a problem, and find a solution. 
 
Learn more about IIBA at www.iiba.org and IAF at www.iaf-world.org.