In anticipation of his presentation at Building Business Capability in Vegas, Nov. 2 – 6, 2015, we asked Bob Prentiss, Principal Consultant at Bob the BA, a few questions about pursuing business excellence. Check out his interview in relation to his BBC presentation entitled, Brushes With Greatness:  The Power of Project Management and Business Analysis Collaboration.

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

A: As a Business Analysis training, mentoring and consulting company, I help companies pursue business excellence by taking the best of what they have, and determining how it could be better.  I look for opportunities where they are strong already and help them focus on maximizing that value.  I help companies look forward, not backward.  Fixing what you did wrong is not necessarily going to help you lead in the marketplace.

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

A: The biggest barrier I run into with companies is a lack of a change-driven mindset.  The “we have always done it that way” approach.  It can take a little longer but I get people to change.  Small incremental amounts of change that is acceptable to everyone.

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

A: I help companies understand how the business analyst fits into an Agile environment and show them how the BA can add value when everything else in Agile may or may not be working as expected.

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: Overlap of roles.  It’s back with a vengeance!  You will hear a lot about this in my session.

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

A: I help organizations learn how to get creative with what they have.  Often people get locked into doing things just one way.  My goal is to help them think differently about it, so they learn differently, which allows them to work differently.

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

A: Take more risks!  Most organizations are not taking enough risks.  If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.  Take… more… risks.  The worst that can happen is you can go back to the old way if it does not work.

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

A: A deep, candid, dynamic, fun, get ready to rumble, cut through the BS session on how to collaborate at a whole new level!

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Don’t miss Bob’s presentation, Brushes With Greatness:  The Power of Project Management and Business Analysis Collaboration, at Building Business Capability on Wednesday, November 4, 2015 from 4:50 to 5:50 pm. Click here to register for attendance.