Career Options for Business Analysts and Project Managers

With over 25 years experience building and creating professional communities, Gregg Rock is recognized as an industry leader in professional training and education vital to helping enterprise organizations support their transformation initiatives. His work has been recognized in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, Financial Times, CIO Magazine, and New York Times. Throughout his career Gregg has developed communities, hosted executive networking forums and the formation of advisory boards on topics ranging from IT security and outsourcing to multimedia and Y2K, but is most widely associated with his accomplishments in the areas of Business Process Management (BPM), Digital Business (DBiz), Business Architecture (BA), and Cloud Computing. BPM in particular is a widely accepted approach for designing enterprise organizational and information systems. This focus on process-related skills is creating demand for BPM content, collaboration, and training resources by corporations—a niche Gregg has spent years to fill. In 1997, Gregg founded BrainStorm Group and the network of BrainStorm Communities, consisting of discipline-specific web portals for BPM, BA, and SOA practitioners to network and receive education, professional training online and through live in-person events. This has enabled over 100,000 practitioners from over 125 countries to collaborate and share best practices, online and face-to-face. BrainStorm Communities feature a comprehensive suite of member services including newsletters, discussion groups, blogs, virtual and live events, live and online training, certificate programs, and professional certification. During his tenure, Gregg has produced more than 100 industry events in North America, South America, EMEA, and Australia attended by over 300,000 professionals. He led the development of the Certified Business Process Management Professional program. Harnessing the collective intelligence of leading BPM subject matter experts, this certification establishes an objective evaluation of a BPM professional’s knowledge, skill, and ability. He recently led the launch of BrainStorm's newest Community, focused on Digital Business and Transformation - DBizInstitute.org. Gregg also earned his private pilot license in 1991 and remains an active member of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA). When not flying, he’s active in his community and enjoys coaching little league, soccer, and lacrosse for his children.

Linda is a senior consultant and coach working in all functional aspects of organizations, with specific expertise in strategy formation, leader assessment and development, and business architecture. Linda is a popular and active proponent of business architecture in her local professional community and globally over the last few years; launching the successful Twin Cities Business Architecture Forum in 2010 and continuing to serve as the Board Chair and leader of this thriving community of professionals. Linda is a member of the Advisory Board and former director for the Business Architecture Guild, an international Business Architecture professional association, and a primary author of the BIZBOK, a Guide to the Business Architecture Body of Knowledge. She serves on the Competency Modeling and Certification work groups and as the Collaboration Chair for the Business Architecture Guild. Linda is an instructor with the Institute for Professional Development at Metropolitan State University, teaching an 8 week certificate course she created focused on business architecture. She completed undergraduate degrees in Interpersonal Communication and Industrial Relations and graduate programs in Management from the University of MN, and today serves as a board member of the College of Liberal Arts Alumni Association. She completed a Master program in Leadership with the University of St Catherine, and holds certifications with the Adizes Institute and the John Maxwell Company; Linda is a frequent conference speaker, facilitator and writer. A consultant now, Linda worked with Prudential for 17 years; always in delivery-focused and leadership roles. She led efforts in new business planning and launch, new program and product introduction and Business Delivery. She joined Governor Ventura’s leadership team at the State of MN and after serving several years as the technology leader in MN, Linda became CIO for NOVON and then moved to Trissential to focus on Leadership, Strategy Formation and Business Architecture. Linda is owner and president of her own firm specializing in strategy formation, leader development, and business architecture.

Joanne Carswell is a Faculty Member of BPMInstitute.org and an IT Leader currently serving in the Enterprise Data Services area. She has over 15 years experience supporting a wide range of projects including waterfall and agile methodologies. She has led a wide range of successful high performing teams including Business Analysts, Data Analysts, Developers, Data Scientists, and Architects. Joanne has a BS in Computer Science and a Master's in Software Engineering and holds several industry certifications including Certified Business Analysis Professional, Certified Scrum Product Owner, Six Sigma Green Belt, A+ Troubleshooting in Hardware & Software, Certified Internet Webmaster, and i-Net+. In 2015, she completed 9 classes for Data Scientists taking courses in R-Programming, Statistical Inference, Regression Modeling, and Practical Machine Learning. Joanne is a recognized speaker and trainer who has presented at the IIBA BBC Conference in November of 2012 and at 2013 Project World & World Congress for Business Analysts event in September 2013 ("Building a Successful Requirements Re-use Program"), at the 2013 IIBA BBC Conference ("Fire and Ice: Blending Agile and Waterfall from a BA Perspective"), and at BA World in Atlanta 2014 ("Utilizing Six Sigma Methodology to Strengthen Your Requirements Analysis Skills"). In addition she has spoken at Manheim Automotive, UPS Supply Chain Solutions, SunTrust Bank, and at local Greater Atlanta IIBA Chapter meetings. During 2016 she conducted the CBAP study classes for the local IIBA Greater Atlanta Chapter. Specialties: Agile Methodology, Agile Transformation, BI Agile Implementation, Six Sigma Analysis, Reporting, Requirements Elicitation and Analysis, Requirements Re-use, Traceability, Solution Assessment and Validation