In anticipation of her presentation at Building Business Capability in Vegas, Nov. 2 – 6, 2015, we asked Barbara Carkenord, Director, Business Analysis at RMC Project Management, a few questions about pursuing business excellence. Check out her interview in relation to her BBC presentation entitled, How Does an Introvert Work on an Agile Team?

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

A: Since we started our business analysis practice 5 years ago, I have seen significant improvements in our pursuit of business excellence. Everyone in the organization is thinking about business cases more than we did in the past and decisions are being made with more rational, logical analysis.

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

A: As with most companies the biggest challenge is change. Our company has been very successful over the years, growing every year of its existence so many people think we should just keep doing things the same way that we always have. Even when people see the value of change, it is hard to break old habits and build new ones.

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

A: We are constantly working on improving our communications. We are a very flat organization so communications don’t come top down but rather move laterally. We are using virtual tools like Trello to manage our projects and provide visibility to everyone in the organization.  Our primary goal is to be more agile for our customers, so we can meet their needs.

Q: What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned in 2015 thus far? What’s the most important goal/trend for [pick one or two: business analysts, business architects, business process managers and/or business rules managers] to keep in mind?

A: Interesting question! This challenges me to think about the past months and recap my learnings. One of the most valuable things I continue to learn is to meet people at whatever point they are and work together to make changes. Everyone learns at different rates so as an organization we’ve got to keep communicating and moving together towards our goals. If only a few people understand the end game, the organization won’t get there.

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

A: I mentioned Trello earlier – we are using this Kanban board to track customer requests and internal projects.

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

A: I thought business analysis would continue to grow as fast as it had been, I didn’t anticipate how much some agile advocates would be dismissive of BAs and our work. We are having to educate agile teams about our value just as we have had to educate managers. It is a slow process because, again, change is slow!

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

A: BAs are innovative, creative people who need lots of quiet time to think!

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Don’t miss Barbara’s presentation, How Does an Introvert Work on an Agile Team?, at Building Business Capability on Thursday, November 5, 2015 from 4:50 to 5:50 pm. Click here to register for attendance.