Innovate or die. Organizations can no longer deny this simple truth in today’s economy.  How can companies achieve the innovation needed to survive in this environment?  What type of leadership is required?  How can business analysts, project managers and business stakeholders work together to reach this goal?  In this webinar, Jonathan Nituch will discuss how enterprise analysis can be used to face these challenges.  You will learn the type of environment necessary for innovation to occur and the style of leader that is needed to create and maintain such an environment.  Jonathan will also share a simple but powerful methodology to create, validate, and evaluate innovations for your business unit.

Jonathan Nituch, CBAP^®, PMP^® VP of Operations at Fortress Technology Planners

Jonathan Nituch is the VP of Operations at Fortress Technology Planners and has over 14 years of experience in business analysis and project management.  Through his work at Fortress, he has helped dozens of companies to identify their business needs, select an approach, and successfully execute projects to meet those needs.  A passionate and energetic speaker, Jonathan’s enthusiasm encourages audience members and motivates them to move forward with their goals. He has contributed some popular articles and podcasts to The BA Coach.com and teaches project management and business analysis at two community colleges in Ontario.

Key Content:

• Discussion of a key trend in leadership
• Examination of the myths surrounding innovation
• Exploration of the environment for innovation
• Quick review of enterprise analysis, portfolio management, and strategic planning theory
• A lightweight, bottom-up enterprise analysis (strategic planning/project portfolio management) methodology
• Results and pitfalls of the methodology.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe leadership as defined through understanding of needs.
• Identify the components of an environment for innovation.
• State the definition of enterprise analysis, portfolio management, and strategic planning.
• Employ a 5-step methodology to lead innovation through enterprise analysis.

This webinar was recorded on February 15th, 2012, and is now available below.

Enterprise Analysis involves determining business needs, identifying potential solutions and justifying the cost of implementing the solution.  Fortress facilitates these activities with all of our customers through out Cornerstone technology planning.  Jonathan Nituch, VP at Fortress Technology Planners, created this blog at The BA Coach to help business analysts to understand the reasons why they should be interested in enterprise analysis and some tips on how they can become involved in this exciting aspect of business analysis.

Through the not-for-profit group Round Square, Kerri and 20 other educators from around the world traveled to the rural village of Takeo to build a new school that would be free to the children of the community.  The volunteers completed the construction over a ten-day period.  The project generated lots of interest in the community.  Crowds of spectators gathered each day to watch the progress and the work was featured twice on Cambodian television.

While the school building was the focus of the project, many other donations contributed to the overall effort.  Being the only one in the area, the free school is expected to attract students from great distances away.  To enable these children to reach the school and obtain an education, the project also donated bicycles to children so that they could travel to the school.  Fortress proudly donated two bicycles to this effort.  These bikes will be handed down from child to child and over the years each bike will allow many children to attend the school.  The volunteers also contributed hundreds of toothbrushes, school uniforms, and school supplies.

This effort was part of Round Square’s Project Leader Training program.  In addition to building the school, the volunteer educators were also trained on leading service projects.  The educators are returning to their home schools equipped to lead their own students on international service projects.  Taking students on these projects allows them to see how fortunate we are compared to the rest of the world.  Some students are deeply affected by what they see and do while on projects.  As a result, they become true global citizens and advocates for the less fortunate.  Kerri was involved with a project at a Bolivian orphanage in 2009 and looks forward to leading projects in the future.

Terms of Employment
Full Time – Contract

Location
Montreal

Role Summary
This role offers the opportunity to document as-is processes and systems in a highly complex, billingual environment in the supply chain domain.

Desired Qualifications
Experience in a business analyst, systems analyst or data analyst position.
Education in a computer or business-related discipline. Alternatively, an appropriate combination of education and experience would be considered.
Membership in the IIBA is desirable, and candidate should be willing to pursue IIBA certifications.

Responsibilities/Expectations
Create a requirements work plan for the BA engagement.
Using various elicitation techniques to gather as-is process, system, policy, business rule and role documentation.
Using inteGREAT software, document all elicitation results.
Verify and validate elicitation results.
Professional Development –utilize information from web-based resources, colleagues, technical training courses and conferences, and computer-related publications to assess new products and developments in the IT industry

Required Skills
Above average client service skills, with the ability to create/cultivate trust relationships with clients and other employees, work well as part of a team, and to remain calm in stressful circumstances
Excellent verbal and written English skills, with the ability to communicate clearly to clients via phone, email, and in person
Good organizational skills, with the ability to work independently, work efficiently under pressure, and organize and prioritize in order to accomplish tasks
The candidate should have high ethical standards and be trustworthy in dealing with clients
Business process mapping, data modeling, screen prototyping, and actor maps.
The ability to think logically and analyze complex problems
Show confidence on the customer site
Understand customer needs and wants
Provide excellent customer communications
Maintain professionalism with customers
Demonstrate excellent research skills
Be proactive in decision-making
Knowledge of SQL, reporting and metrics considered an asset.

Experience
3 years to less than 5 years

Languages
Speak English, Read English, Write English
French considered and asset.

Work Setting
Consulting firm

Own Tools/Equipment
Internet access

Work Conditions and Physical Capabilities
Fast-paced environment, Work under pressure, Attention to detail.

Essential Skills
Reading text, Writing, Oral communication, Working with others, Problem solving, Decision making, Critical thinking, Job task planning and organizing, Significant use of memory, Finding information, Computer use, Continuous learning

How to Apply
Watch the video HERE for instructions.

Terms of Employment
Ad Hoc, this is a position for a contractor who already has existing clients. We may call on the contractor from time to time.

Location
Canada

Role Summary
This role offers variety and challenge in proving database support to our clients including Oracle, Postgres, MySQL and MS-SQL.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience in database support and development roles. Specifically writing large and complex queries.
• Education in a computer-related discipline. Alternatively, an appropriate combination of education and experience would be considered.
• Database certifications are desirable.

Responsibilities/Expectations

• In consultation with the client, define query needs including calculations, criteria, and result fields.
• Support and troubleshooting database query and database server performance.
• Professional Development – utilize information from web-based resources, colleagues, technical training courses and conferences, and computer-related publications to assess new products and developments in the IT industry.

Required Skills

• Above average client service skills, with the ability to create/cultivate trust relationships with clients and other employees, work well as part of a team, and to remain calm in stressful circumstances
• Excellent verbal and written English skills, with the ability to communicate clearly to clients via phone, email, and in person
• Good organizational skills, with the ability to work independently, work efficiently under pressure, and organize and prioritize in order to accomplish tasks
• The candidate should have high ethical standards and be trustworthy in dealing with clients
• Technical skills to implement and troubleshoot desktop technologies
• Proven troubleshooting skills – the ability to think logically and analyze complex problems
• Manage groups and rights in a database environment
• Demonstrate an understanding of database concepts and troubleshooting
• Perform regimented and structured troubleshooting
• Perform daily database administration
• Reporting and OLAP tools
• Data transformation tools
• Bulk integration or SOAP tools
• Maintain detailed product knowledge and awareness
• Support other technology groups
• Show confidence on the customer site
• Understand customer needs and wants
• Provide excellent customer communications
• Maintain professionalism with customers
• Show strong technical skills
• Demonstrate excellent research skills
• Be proactive in decision-making

Experience
Over 5 years of database-focused experience.

Languages
Speak English, Read English, Write English

Work Setting
Consulting firm

Own Tools/Equipment
Internet access

Work Conditions and Physical Capabilities
Fast-paced environment, Work under pressure, Attention to detail.

Essential Skills
Reading text, Writing, Oral communication, Working with others, Problem solving, Decision making, Critical thinking, Job task planning and organizing, Significant use of memory, Finding information, Computer use, Continuous learning

How to Apply
Watch the video HERE for instructions.

Terms of Employment
Ad Hoc, this is a position for a contractor who already has existing clients. We may call on the contractor from time to time.

Location
Calgary

Role Summary
This role offers variety and challenge in proving consultative IT solutions to our clients, primarily in Windows based environments.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience in a technical support role—desktop support, network support, troubleshooting, hardware, software, printers.
• Education in a computer-related discipline. Alternatively, an appropriate combination of education and experience would be considered.
• A+ and Microsoft certifications are desirable, and candidate should be willing to pursue further Microsoft certifications.

Responsibilities/Expectations

• In consultation with the client, define system needs and specifications for new implementations based on analysis of business needs regarding work flows, access, information and security
• Implementation of hardware including setting up computer hardware; PC’s, monitors, servers, hubs, routers, printers, etc.
• Installation of software including desktop operating systems, standard desktop applications, productivity software, Windows 2003-2008 Server, Terminal Services, DNS, DHCP, Active Directory Management, basic firewall configurations, and wireless networks
• Support and troubleshooting of hardware and software for desktop, server, and network technologies
• On-Site Response. IT Consultants spend much of their support time delivering services on the site of the clients.
• Provide and maintain an all-weather vehicle – mileage is reimbursed by clients outside of city limits
• This role can be physically demanding in regard to the carrying, setting up and servicing of hardware in a variety of office environments
• Professional Development –utilize information from web-based resources, colleagues, technical training courses and conferences, and computer-related publications to assess new products and developments in the IT industry

Required Skills

• Above average client service skills, with the ability to create/cultivate trust relationships with clients and other employees, work well as part of a team, and to remain calm in stressful circumstances
• Excellent verbal and written English skills, with the ability to communicate clearly to clients via phone, email, and in person
• Good organizational skills, with the ability to work independently, work efficiently under pressure, and organize and prioritize in order to accomplish tasks
• The candidate should have high ethical standards and be trustworthy in dealing with clients
• Technical skills to implement and troubleshoot desktop, network, and server technologies
• Proven troubleshooting skills – the ability to think logically and analyze complex problems
• Manage groups, rights, and network devices in server OS discipline
• Demonstrate an understanding of networking concepts and troubleshooting
• Perform regimented and structured troubleshooting
• Be prepared to oversee major projects
• Participate in overall network design.
• Perform complex network administration
• Install and maintain major networking products
• Maintain detailed product knowledge and awareness
• Support other networking groups
• Show confidence on the customer site
• Understand customer needs and wants
• Provide excellent customer communications
• Maintain professionalism with customers
• Show strong technical skills
• Demonstrate excellent research skills
• Be proactive in decision-making

Experience
3 years to less than 5 years

Languages
Speak English, Read English, Write English

Work Setting
Consulting firm

Own Tools/Equipment
Internet access

Work Conditions and Physical Capabilities
Fast-paced environment, Work under pressure, Attention to detail.

Transportation/Travel Information
Own transportation, Own vehicle

Essential Skills
Reading text, Writing, Oral communication, Working with others, Problem solving, Decision making, Critical thinking, Job task planning and organizing, Significant use of memory, Finding information, Computer use, Continuous learning

How to Apply
Watch the video HERE for instructions.