Deena Chadwick | SpeakerHub

Personal Details

Bio

Deena has built a solid reputation for delivering award-winning work, through more than 20 years of diverse experience in the ever-changing digital marketing arena. Deena manages and leads teams in scope definition, requirements management, architecture, design, development, deployment, and optimization. She is known for her ability to infuse common sense techniques that facilitate strong collaboration between Technology, Business, and Creative teams. For more than 10 years Deena has shared her passion for bringing CommonSense back to the conversation. She has been proud to present at Refresh Detroit, SE Michigan IIBA, Project Manager Summit/Business Analyst World Conferences, BADD (Business Analysis Development Days) and more. She is the author of the Commonsensical Series: A Guide for Project Managers, Business Analysts, and Product Owners. This is a series of eBooks, eCourses, and presentations that focus on bringing some much-needed Common Sense back into the complex world of interactive product and project delivery.

Current position (2)

Owner

CommonSensical BA

Lead Business Analyst

GSTV (Gas Station Television)

Degrees (2)

Bachelor of Science in Information Technology with a Concentration in Business Systems Analysis

University of Phoenix

2005 to 2006

Secondary Education

Nicholls State University

1990 to 1992

Presentations

Presentations (4)

CommonSensical Documentation

Commonsensical Documentation is a guide to simple, lean, and agile technical writing. This course is about blending the best practices of communication and technical writing with a little common sense. By combining these principles Technical Writers and Business Analysts can produce documentation and technical communication that will be valuable and appreciated.

Learning Objectives:
• Why Technical Documentation & Communication Are Vital To Any Project
• How To Turn Complicated Ideas Into Simple, Lean & Agile Communication
• How To Avoid Common Pit Falls & Mistakes

CommonSensical Approach To Scope Creep

A CommonSensical guide to managing Scope Creep for Project Managers, Product Owners and Business Analysts. Scope creep is one of the most common problems faced by Project Managers, Product Owners and Business Analysts. Even in Agile and Iterative Development, there is no way to completely avoid Scope Creep. It stands to reason that the best way to deal with scope creep is to meet it head-on with logic and common sense at your side. This course will outline techniques or ways to approach scope creep in a CommonSensical way. You will leave this presentation with either new ideas or refreshers on the following:
• Communicating Scope Creep is like Delivering Bad News (Tips and Tricks on Delivering Bad News)
• The 5 Ws of Scope Creep (Who, What, When, Where, & Why)
• Approach Scope Creep the way you Approach Risk (How to Accept It, How to Avoid It & How to Mitigate It)

Elicit Requirements Like a Curious 2 Year Old, Mother of a Teenager, or FBI Agent

Requirements elicitation is not simply gathering requirements. Requirements are not just laying around waiting for you to pick them up and write them out. Many times the users or clients themselves are not sure of what they want. All too often the most obvious requirements are wrong or incomplete. Requirements elicitation is all about learning & understanding what business needs by seeking, uncovering, acquiring, and elaborating.

CommonSense tells us if we want to elicit the requirements like the best of them, we need to learn from the experts at asking questions and getting answers:

Who are the experts at asking questions and getting answers? The top three answers:
• FBI Agents
• Mothers of Teenagers
• Curious 2 Year Olds

This presentation focuses on the 2nd BABoK Knowledge area: Elicitation and Collaboration. Specifically sections 4.1 to 4.3 Preparing, Conducting, and Confirmation Elicitation.

Stakeholders Are People Too!

Stakeholders & SMEs Are People Too! CommonSensical Communication & Collaboration focuses on something we always need to improve our skills for interacting with our stakeholders and subject matter experts. Learning how to identify and engage with the key people who influence your project will improve every other aspect of product delivery. It will help you turn requirements workshops into a conversation, turn scope requirements prioritization into collaboration, and turn a status or executive report into an interactive show and tell.

Learn How to Identify Key People (Stakeholders / SMEs)
- Key People Matrix vs. Stakeholder Matrix
- CommonSensical RASCI
Learn How to Effectively Communicate With Key People
- Identify Preferred Communication Styles
- Identify Needs Vs Wants
Learn How to Activate Key People Who Are Not Engaged
- Determine If an Inactive Key Person Is Neutral, Disinterested, or Obstinate
- Customer Collaboration Over Contract Negotiation

Workshops (4)

Don’t Get Drowned In Your Data Lake!

Full day

A CommonSensical Approach To Data Analysis

Forward (NOT Backward) Thinking

4 hours

Want to know the secrets for being a forward-thinking delivery agent? Today’s successful product owners, project managers, and business analysts use forward-thinking solutions to solve complex problems. The processes for creating vision and strategy had to evolve to catch up with the speed of technology. They are also no longer used simply for business cases and executive board decision making. Visions and Strategy are being used for project and scope prioritization. Unfortunately, many of us are still using outdated techniques or just winging it.

Introduction To CommonSensical Business Analysis

Full day

The CommonSensical Approach is a simple, lean, agile and commonsense guide to business analysis, project management, and product delivery. It encourages you to use your own good judgment, skills, and experiences to make good choices. It will focus on tips, tricks, and how-tos for simplifying elicitation, analysis, and requirements management, but it also covers time management and effective communication.

Decisions | Decisions | Decisions

1 hour

Do you second guess your decision or avoid making them because you fear to make the wrong choice? This session will help you be more confident and learn how to make decisions faster with no regrets.

Past talks (8)

Elicit Requirements like an FBI Agent, Mother of a Teenager, or a 2 Year Old

IBADD 2019 - Iowa Business Analysis Development Day

Meadows Events & Conference Center in Altoona, IA

May 10, 2019

CommonSensical Documentation

IBADD 2019 - Iowa Business Analysis Development Day

Meadows Events & Conference Center in Altoona, IA

May 10, 2019

CommonSensical Approach To Scope Creep

BusinessAnalystWorld Chicago, 2018

Chicago, IL