This is the inaugural BCS Publishing online author festival – a week of themed webinars aimed at bringing our readers closer to BCS authors.
Synopsis
Welcome to the inaugural BCS Publishing online author festival - a week of themed webinars aimed at bringing our readers closer to BCS authors and providing deeper insights into the key challenges business and IT professionals are facing day-to-day.
The webinars are aimed in particular at those starting out or developing in their careers, and will cover key topics within Business Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, Data, Cybersecurity and Software.
Attendees will have:
- The opportunity to learn directly from BCS author expertise and experience.
- The opportunity to engage directly with BCS authors through Q & A.
- The opportunity to get insight into BCS books and their real-world application.
Individual webinar sign-up is essential! Please register here for access. For more context on titles, please visit the links below or the BCS Bookshop.
Programme
Monday 27 June - BA day
13:00-13:45 - Essential BA techniques - James Cadle and Debbie Paul
Business Analysis Techniques, 123 Essential tools for success is an encyclopaedia for business analysts, covering the essential techniques needed to establish an effective business analysis toolkit. In this webinar, James Cadle and Debra Paul will discuss the origins and development of the book, explaining how they and their fellow authors identified the new ideas, techniques and thinking approaches that have been added to form this latest edition. James and Debra will also answer questions about the book’s structure and content and will provide their views on why a toolkit of techniques is particularly relevant for professional business analysts.
18:00-18:45 - What do Digital Product Managers do..? - Sallie Godwin and Kevin Brennan
Building customer value requires infrastructure, systems and organisational capability, and increasingly a product management mindset. Business Analysts, Project Managers and Service Managers already deliver great business value – this talk will look at the role of digital product manager (DPM) and how it relates to and extends beyond existing business and IT roles, looking in particular at how DPMs enable teams to build products that add customer and business value.
Tuesday 28 June - AI day
13:00-13:45 - The Autonomous Enterprise... Hype or Reality? - Sarah Burnett
The journey towards the autonomous enterprise has begun; there are already companies operating in a highly automated way and AI solutions offering compelling returns on investment. In this webinar Sarah Burnett will discuss the concepts and real-world examples from her book, how AI is making it possible and how it is fuelling innovation, how a workforce of machines that are augmented by humans will turn the current organisational model on its head, the outlook for jobs and the ethics of AI.
The webinar will review how best to navigate the shifting competitive landscape on the way to enterprise autonomy.
18:00-18:45 - Artificial Intelligence and Software Testing - Adam Leon Smith
AI remains a hot-topic with regulations on how to manage the quality of AI systems expected to be agreed in the first quarter of next year. In this webinar Adam will explain why he became interested in AI and software testing. He will cover the key challenges that AI introduces for the discipline. why that is the case, and what the book covers. He will also point to some of the key requirements expected from the EU AI Act that quality management professionals will need to understand.
Wednesday 29 June - Data day
13:00-13:45 - Exploring data strategy: from definition to execution - Ian Wallis
In this conversation with Ian Wallis, author of Data Strategy, we’ll review:
- the importance data strategy, and the need to focus on value and benefits;
- the challenges of devising a successful data strategy aligned to corporate strategy;
- understanding the culture of the organisation and the critical role of stakeholder engagement;
- planning the data strategy - the role of agile, flexibility and communication;
- pitfalls to avoid in defining and implementing a data strategy.
18:00-18:45 - Does data need to be perfect? - Julian Schwarzenbach
Some people may view activities to manage data quality as attempting to produce ‘perfect’ data purely for the sake of perfection. However, it is poor quality data that has real impacts on the performance of organisations and on people’s lives and wellbeing. This presentation will:
- Demonstrate some real examples of the impacts of poor quality data;
- Explain the characteristics of the enterprise data asset and why it can be challenging to manage;
- Take a quick look at a process model for data quality management; and
- Consider how to implement these approaches in organisations.
Thursday 30 June - Cybersecurity day
13:00-13:45 - The ABCs of Cybersecurity - Jessica Barker and Adrian Davis
Cybersecurity might sound like a purely technical domain, but the overwhelming majority of incidents and attacks have a human element. Most of the cyber attacks to hit the headlines in recent years have centred on social engineering, with people targeted as a means to compromise technology, data and organisations. This session explores how we can better manage human risk. This webinar will review crucial awareness, behaviour and culture concepts from the ground up alongside practical tips and examples, providing a key resource for those looking to create lasting cybersecurity awareness, behavioural and culture change initiatives.
18:00-18:45 - Understanding the new attack methods cybercriminals use - Todd Wade
Cybercrime is the fastest growing form of crime in the world. Individuals and organisations are losing billions to cybercriminals yearly and its growing 30% every year with no signs of slowing. There are new and innovative ways cybercriminals attack victims that are a surprise to people. These attacks will be discussed along with ways to defend yourself. Many people are attacked via large Internet platforms. How these companies are complicit and helping cybercriminals will be shown. Understanding cybercriminals' methods are the first step in defending against them regardless of what new technology they use to attack you.
19:00-19:45 - Cybersecurity for small businesses - Mike Sheward
As a small business owner, you likely wear many hats. Including, regardless of if your head is a willing recipient of them or not, Chief Information Security Officer and Data Protection Officer. While larger organisations can afford to have dedicated teams working around the clock on cyber security issues, how can smaller companies compete without dedicated resources? Is it even possible? The answer is yes, and in many cases, small businesses can have a cybersecurity advantage when compared to their larger counterparts. In this webinar, we’ll explain how, and what steps you can take to ensure that your small business stays secure.
Friday 1 July - Software day
13:00-13:45 - Computational Thinking, or How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jam Sandwich - Karl Beecher
Understanding and bending computers to our will is a critical skill in our increasingly digital personal and working lives. However, the way we think is often very different to computers. This talk introduces Computational Thinking as a key skill to bridge that gap. Inspired by insights from Computer Science, it is an approach to problem-solving where solutions can be executed not only by other people but also by computer. Whether you’re learning to program, teaching others to program, newly embarking on a computing career, or new to applying computers and automation in your work, this talk will demonstrate the benefits of thinking computationally.
About the speakers
Dr Debra Paul CITP FBCS is the Managing Director of Assist Knowledge Development Ltd, a training and consultancy company specialising in business analysis. Debra jointly edited and authored the publication, Business Analysis, and is also the co-author of Delivering Business Analysis, Agile and Business Analysis, Business Analysis Techniques and The Human Touch. Debra created the Business Analysis Service Framework as part of her doctoral research.
James Cadle CITP FBCS has spent his career in the management services field. He has been a systems analyst, business analyst, consultant and project manager and, more recently, he has developed and presented training courses in his chosen fields. He is the co-author of five books: Project Management for Information Systems; Business Analysis; Business Analysis Techniques; The Human Touch; and Developing Information Systems.
Kevin Brennan is a product management and business architecture consultant and trainer. Kevin helped to launch IIBA and led the development of IIBA’s Business Analysis Body of Knowledge. He is a Professor at George Brown College and will complete his Master’s degree in Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship in August 2022.
Sallie Godwin is a Product Manager at Riskhub, helping to develop property compliance software that makes risk management simple.
Sarah Burnett FBCS is a technology industry analyst who advises enterprises on intelligent automation technologies, competitive strategies and market trends and their commercial significance. To make AI accessible to more people, Sarah founded and runs AI Accelerator, a programme of free AI events and webcasts by experts to inform and educate participants.
Adam Leon Smith FBCS is Chief Technology Officer of Dragonfly, a European consultancy, training and products firm that specialises in the intersection of AI and quality. He is the current Chair of BCS Special Interest Group in Software Testing (SIGiST), the biggest non-profit testing group in the UK. He is very active in ISO/IEC’s Artificial Intelligence standardisation community, where he leads the ISO/IEC projects on AI bias, and a standard for extending systems quality models to cover AI.
Ian Wallis is a senior data and analytics leader, experienced programme manager and frequent conference speaker on data and analytics. He has delivered some of the largest data programmes in the UK.
Julian Schwarzenbach CITP FBCS is a ‘data evangelist’ who has been helping organisations improve how they exploit data for many years and across many sectors and contexts. He is currently supporting clients in rail, distribution, finance and media to increase the benefits of managing and exploiting their data. Julian is also Chair of the BCS Data Management Specialist Group and is involved in international activities to develop standards for data quality and asset management.
Jessica Barker is Co-Founder of Cygenta, former Chair of ClubCISO, bestselling author and award-winning cybersecurity professional.
Adrian Davis CITP FBCS is a consulting COO & CIO, as well as a Visiting Professor in Cybersecurity for University of Sunderland.
Todd Wade is a chief information security officer. He has over 20 years’ experience working with cybersecurity and technology. He has led the information security departments for multiple financial services and technology organisations. He is passionate about championing cyber risk governance and empowering organisations to protect themselves against cybercriminals.
Mike Sheward is Head of Security at Particle and runs a cybersecurity company with a focus on people, Secure Being LLC. He has worked in information security in the UK and USA, and has written a mixture of fiction and non-fiction books about information security including, 'Digital Forensic Diaries’, 'Hands-On Incident Response and Digital Forensics’, ‘Security Operations in Practice’ and ‘Pen Test Diaries’.
Karl Beecher is an author and software specialist. He has worked in software engineering since 2004 and was awarded a PhD in Computer Science in 2009.
This event is brought to you by: BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
