What conferences are worthwhile?

[gescober]

I'm doing some planning with my manager as to what conferences I'll be going to in the coming year, and was looking for feedback on what conferences analysts find worthwhile. The major ones I know of are:


World Congress of Business Analysis
Business Analyst World
IEEE Requirements Engineering Conference


I guess the World Congress does their conferences in conjunction with Project World. BA World looks like they do the IIBA certification tests. And, the IEEE RE Conferences are a bit academic in nature, but are probably in the best locations. ;)

I may request the IEEE conference next year when it's in Barcelona. ;) But, how do people rate the other conferences? Are they worth doing? What are they like?

I'm also considering attending the Agile Conference since that seems to be the direction we're headed. And, I just got a flyer for the Better Software Conference and Expo - which seems fairly generic with regards to focus. Are there any non-analyst specific conferences you would recommend for a business/systems analyst?

[achen]

I'm doing some planning with my manager as to what conferences I'll be going to in the coming year, and was looking for feedback on what conferences analysts find worthwhile. The major ones I know of are:


World Congress of Business Analysis
Business Analyst World
IEEE Requirements Engineering Conference


I guess the World Congress does their conferences in conjunction with Project World. BA World looks like they do the IIBA certification tests. And, the IEEE RE Conferences are a bit academic in nature, but are probably in the best locations. ;)

I may request the IEEE conference next year when it's in Barcelona. ;) But, how do people rate the other conferences? Are they worth doing? What are they like?

I'm also considering attending the Agile Conference since that seems to be the direction we're headed. And, I just got a flyer for the Better Software Conference and Expo - which seems fairly generic with regards to focus. Are there any non-analyst specific conferences you would recommend for a business/systems analyst?

I have only been to the IEEE conference, but will try to attend some of the others this year. The IEEE is definitely academic, but they are making stronger links to the commercial world and you can have the opportunity to meet some of the more famous people in the requirements world.

I think the IEEE conference is definitely worth attending at least once to get a feel for "state of the art" which really isnt that state of the art :)

[MAlexander]

Anybody have updates to this list? Has anyone attended a more general software development conference and focused on the RE "track"? How about conferences in other areas like management or communications or usability?

[gescober]

I've posted my report about my trip to BA World in this forum. I'm also scheduled to attend Software Development Conference and Expo West (SD West) in March, so I'll post a report if I have anything worthwhile to say.

I've also got a 1-day seminar by Edward Tufte coming up, which I think will be worthwhile.

[OneEyedJack]

wherever the good (great, is better) golf and/or SCUBA is. :D

[jbeatty]

I'm doing some planning with my manager as to what conferences I'll be going to in the coming year, and was looking for feedback on what conferences analysts find worthwhile.

What are your requirements for deciding which are good? What are you hoping to get out of it?

For example - is it to meet experts? To find business? To learn about the RE community? To learn about RE?

[gescober]

What are your requirements for deciding which are good? What are you hoping to get out of it?

For example - is it to meet experts? To find business? To learn about the RE community? To learn about RE?

Heh - my requirements are undefined - I don't know what I want. At least, I didn't know what I wanted when I originally wrote the post. Despite 14 years as an analyst, I had never attended a requirements conference (or any conference, for that matter). I used to work for a publisher and it's a notoriously cheap industry.

So, I've attended two so far, and am scheduled to attend the RE '08 conference in Barcelona. What are my requirements now?

Well, I'm at the point in my career where I'm not looking for basic classes or topics of discussion. I'm looking for conferences where mid-level to advanced topics are discussed - maybe some solid courses on RE challenges in Systems Engineering or Product Line Architecture. I'd also like to take seminars/workshops/whatever on the cutting edge of RE - User Stories, Agile methods, etc. Some other courses I'd like would be how to integrate/interface UI Design processes successfully into RE, perhaps some project planning/resource management courses for requirements gathering efforts, and some information on RE metrics (defects, productivity).

Community-wise, I'd like to meet other analysts at the same level of ability/experience and see some case studies from their industries. General discussions on specific topics would also be welcome - the BA World conference I attended did this well.

[jbeatty]

...maybe some solid courses on RE challenges in Systems Engineering or Product Line Architecture...
Look at INCOSE's international symposium. I went last year and am planning to go this year (netherlands!) - it's in June. They have a good requirements working group (RWG) that seems to have a presence. A lot of the RWG is from Europe and traveled to the states last year, so I'd expect they will attend this year since this one is closer to them.


Community-wise, I'd like to meet other analysts at the same level of ability/experience and see some case studies from their industries.
We should meet up in Spain!