In anticipation of her presentation at Building Business Capability in Las Vegas, Nov. 2 – 6, 2015, we asked Angie Doyle, Agile Consultant at IQ Business, a few questions about pursuing business excellence. Check out her interview in relation to her BBC presentation entitled Visual Facilitations for Agile BAs.

Q: How is your organization advancing the pursuit of business excellence and how does it impact your business units/departments?

A: As a consulting company, we understand that using our services may feel like a “grudge purpose.” Clients love the peace of mind that comes with using industry professionals, but don’t love the cost! To ensure that we focus on “doing the right things” and not just “doing the things right” we have established a Delivery Excellence team. This team ensures that we deliver value to our customers, not just “deliverables” – all the while focusing on teamwork and collaboration to deliver high levels of quality to our clients.

Q: Can you describe the challenges you face or have already overcome in establishing a more cohesive and productive company or organization?

A: As a company, we have adopted an agile mind-set and have moved towards an agile way of working. We know that our environment is changing continuously, and we want to embed a culture of radical as well as continuous improvement in order to stay relevant.

Q: What are your near term goals for creating a more agile organization at your business or company?

A: In South Africa, we suffer from a lack of skilled resources. To address this, we have started to grow an Agile capability from within the company. We offer internal training, engage with team members that are interested in learning more about Agile, and guide and coach them on their journey.

Q: What’s the most important goal/trend for business analysts to keep in mind?

A: Keep your end customer in mind. Too often, we focus on delivering functionality to “the business” instead of delivering value to the end customer.

Q: What’s the latest method/process/tool you have implemented to help your organization or business run more efficiently and effectively?

A: The Value Proposition Canvas. It is a tool to ensure that you are creating a product that your customers want, instead of what you think they want. We recently used the canvas with one of our client’s, who identified that their new product was going to “cannibalize” their existing market – not exactly what they had in mind! The outcome of this exercise was extremely valuable as the client adjusted their value proposition to target an entirely new customer segment, saving them a lot of money due to wasted effort!

Q: If you could give your five-years-ago self insight and advice about this industry, what would you say?

A: Be brave. It takes courage to question the way you have always worked. Challenge the status quo and make sure that what you are working on is valuable and useful.

Q: Sneak preview: Please tell us a take-away that you will provide during your talk at Building Business Capability.

A: Are you tired of using the same old boring PowerPoint presentations? Do you want to learn how to create stunning visual aids for your meetings and workshops? Do you want to increase participant engagement and help explain and solidify concepts visually? Join me as I share some visual facilitation tips and tricks (and pictures) for Business Analysts. No prior artistic experience required!

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Don’t miss Angie’s presentation, Visual Facilitations for Agile BAs, at Building Business Capability on Friday, November 6, 2015 from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm. Click here to register for attendance.