Our story begins with a tweet: "BAs at Redgate are looking at setting up a Cambridge peer learning group, do you know of anyone who may be interested/helpful?" A year later, Cambridge has a vibrant, growing community that is going from strength to strength, and gaining visibility nationally. Let us take you on a journey of how we built the community and what we experienced. This is was a presentation given at Agile Cambridge 2017 by Ian Philips and Simon Marriott

1. How to start a thriving
Community
...in 3 tweets!
Ian Phillips
Simon Marriott
Cambridge Business Analysis Community

2. Today's Takeaways
Show how you can create an awesome Community of Practice
Sneakily introduce the role of the Business Analyst in Agile
Meet new people

3. What is a Community of Practice?
“A Community of Practice is a network of individuals with
common problems or interests who get together to explore
ways of working, identify common solutions, and share
good practice and ideas.”

4. Who are these guys?
Simon Marriott
Senior R&D Business Analyst
AstraZeneca
Ian Phillips
Business Analyst
Royal Society of Chemistry

5. “Build a network of Business Analysts from the Cambridge area, to provide a
platform for people to meet, learn, develop their skills and knowledge, share
information, and help grow the profile of Business Analysis as a function.”
1 8 32100+ 0
Year
old
Events Community
Members
Represented
Companies
Budget!

6. Today’s Session Format

7. Where to Start?
Challenge 1:
Hint: What’s your Minimum Viable Product?
You are an experienced professional, who is passionate about their job and wants
to connect with like minded people. You like the sound of a local Community of
Practice, but there’s not one in your area.
How can you see if there’s enough interest and what will you hope to achieve for
your first event?

8. Generating Interest Getting the message out there
● Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn
● National organisations (IIBA UK)
● Contacted local companies
Preparing for our first event
● Find a convenient venue (Redgate)
● Gauge interest with an Eventbrite
invitation (because it’s free)

9. Our first event
We had brainstorming session, on what they want from the community
● A brilliant session for me would be…
● A session I wouldn’t be so interested in would be…
● In 1 -2 years, the community is a success! What made this so?
● In 1 to 2 years the community is flagging! What went wrong?
● In a future session I could...
Created a relaxed environment
Created a safe space to talk about work

10. Insights, Lessons & Tips
Create a
Backlog of ideas
Use your
contacts
Seek volunteers
for 2nd meeting

11. How to keep it going
Challenge 2:
Hint: What Agile techniques can you apply?
Excellent! You’ve successfully held your first event, but how do you keep
people coming back for more?
What types of events will you run, how do you keep interest up?

12. Our event flavours
Lean Coffee Interactive Learning Speakers
Conference Takeaways Social Gathering

13. Keeping up interest
Dot Voting
Great for Backlog
Prioritisation
Be a Tourist
Use different local
companies and locations
Review and adapt
Get feedback and
attendance figures

14. Insights, Lessons & Tips
● Mix it up: Alternate between different types of events
● Keep it regular: We find 6 weeks between events works well
● Event Planning: Takes more time than expected.
● Networking is popular: Keep 1 hour free if possible after the event.

15. Running the Community
Challenge 3:
Hint: What do great Agile teams do?
Amazing! You’ve got several events under your belt, with a growing and
engaged community, but all that organising is taking its toll.
How do you keep it all going?...

16. How we run the community
Face-to-face
planning sessions
Open team of ‘inclusive activists’
vs
Steering Committee politics

17. Insights, Lessons & Tips
Don’t be too ambitious.
Focus on core value
Celebrate Success
with your community
Empower your
community to host
their own events

18. What did we gain personally?
● Gained valuable contacts & new friends
● Recognition from Peers, Directors and CEO’s
● Supporting evidence for professional qualifications
● Taken insights from other companies culture and ways of working
● Had fun!

19. What did we gain personally?
CBAC has allowed me to meet brilliant Business
Analysts from across Cambridgeshire, share our
experiences, insights and challenges and see
amazing industry leading speakers in a fun and
friendly environment.
CBAC allows me to step away from the pressures
of work and improve my craft. The community
feel of CBAC provides an environment which is
fun and engaging
CBAC has created a space where I can learn
how to become a better BA, share ideas
and connect me with a group of
enthusiastic and engaging people who
share my passion
“Networking with other Business Analysts at
CBAC has allowed me to explore our problem
space further than I ever could in my own
organisation, the wide range of experience and
perspectives in invaluable. I meet lots of
talented people, and through the content
delivered also learned new skills.”
Creating CBAC has been a fantastic experience. I
have met many brilliant people from varied
organisations that I would never have had the
chance to otherwise, learnt loads and had fun on
the way.
And although it does take a bit of time to run the
community, it’s well worth the effort and very
rewarding
CBAC is my power-up. A Rewarding, positive and
energising experience. The people , ideas and events
just grab you and make you want to take the ideas
straight back to work and wow people with them. The
recognition from leaders and peers is an added
unexpected bonus.

20. Want to know more?
Simon Marriott
Senior R&D Business Analyst
AstraZeneca
Ian Phillips
Business Analyst
Royal Society of Chemistry
marriotts@medimmune.com
@SimonmarriottBA
Look for our events
on EventBrite
phillipsi@rsc.org

21. We hope you enjoyed our talk.