In anticipation of their presentation at Building Business Capability in Vegas, Oct 31, – Nov. 4, 2016, we asked Connie Quarnstrom and Debra Costanzo, Managers, Legal Editorial Operations at Thomson Reuters, a few questions about pursuing business excellence. Check out their interview in relation to their BBC presentation entitled, Creating a Community of Practice to Develop Business Analysis Skills.

Q: In what ways do you see your group helping your organization pursue business excellence?

A: The Business Analyst Community of Practice (BACOP) within our editorial department has provided training opportunities, created a forum to share experiences and challenges, and is working to identify and implement standard practices and tools for BAs. This allows for consistency in performing the BA role and strengthening the relationships with our technology partners, which ultimately improves the results of our departmental projects.

Q: Can you describe the challenges you face or have already overcome in establishing more robust business capabilities for your organization?

A: When first establishing a BACOP, we needed to form a persuasive and concrete plan to secure executive level support.  Short-, mid-, and long-term achievable goals were established and communicated to leadership.   Periodic reports of progress and achievements were also provided to leadership.  Through these efforts, we gained respect for the BA role and financial support for BA development and education.

Q: What are your short-term goals for becoming more agile?

A: The BACOP is currently creating a catalog of templates and forms for our BAs to use when working on projects.  The depth, breadth, and organization of tools and templates will allow BAs to find appropriate resources quickly and be more nimble when executing their BA responsibilities.

Q: What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned in the past year?

A: Acknowledging that success can come in small steps.  Forming a BACOP is large undertaking, and doesn’t happen overnight.  The BACOP was formed less than 2 years ago. Because of the member’s involvement in the BACOP, they are now being assigned new projects.  This may seem like a small event, but it is a big win for the BACOP.

Q: What do you see as the most important goal or trend for business analysts and other professionals to keep in mind?

A: Business analysts need to be part of the solution, not just provide options to the business.  Stepping back and viewing the business needs with a wider lens will benefit the BA and the business.

Q: What’s the latest method/process/tool you’ve implemented to help your business operate more effectively? Have you seen any results yet?

A: In the context of developing a BACOP, we have formed subcommittees to more rapidly advance our progress.  The subcommittees are focused on creating BA skill assessment criteria for our business; identifying best practices to identify relevant tools, templates and resources available; and defining specialization areas available and needed within our department.

Q: If you could go back 5 years in time and give some professional insight or advice to yourself, what would it be?

A: To have recognized the need for BA skills and to have advocated for the role in our department earlier.  In retrospect, there are so many past projects that could have been more successful had we understood the BA role and skills earlier.

Q: What’s one question you wished you were asked in this interview but were not? And how would you answer?

A: What’s the biggest challenge we are facing now?

A continuing challenge is proving the value of the BA skill set and ensuring consistent involvement of BAs on projects. The BACOP Steering Committee assigns projects to BA’s that we don’t work with on a daily basis.  One of the subcommittees we formed is bringing together criteria that will allow us to evaluate our COP members fairly and in a way that fits our business needs.  Our objective is to have this ready for rollout by year-end.

Q: Sneak preview: Please tell us a take-away that you will provide during your talk at the Building Business Capability (BBC) conference this year?

A: A description of one method to successfully establish a BACOP.

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Don’t miss Connie and Debra’s presentation, Creating a Community of Practice to Develop Business Analysis Skills, at Building Business Capability on Wednesday, November 2, 2016 from 10:25 to 11:25 am. Click here to register for attendance.