BBC 2017 Speaker Series – Practitioner:  Dagmar Cole, Business Process Analyst Senior Staff at Leidos Corporation

In anticipation of her presentation at Building Business Capability in Orlando, Nov. 6-10, 2017, we asked Dagmar Cole, Business Process Analyst Senior Staff at Leidos Corporation, a few questions about transforming the business. Check out this interview in relation to her presentation entitled, Negotiating Like A Pro.

Q: In what ways do you see your group helping your organization handle business transformation?

A: My organization supports government agencies, and we are always seeking ways to use innovation and technology to assist our government clients to achieve their business transformation goals.

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

A: Our company motto says it all, “We turn challenges into opportunities”.

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

A: We adapt tools and techniques to adapt to increase agility and flexibility for our clients to help them do more with less.

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

A: The past year has been dedicated to the delivery of a project with a very aggressive schedule.  Having the ability to mediate and negotiate among the stakeholders has been a critical success factor.

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

A: BAs are being recognized as strategic change agents, which means more executive exposure.  BAs will need to hone their facilitation, negotiation, and conflict management skills to work with this level of stakeholders.

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: I am always improving my conflict management, negotiation, and mediation skills.  I recently read Beyond Reason, Using Emotions as You Negotiate, by Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro, and integrated some of the techniques for managing the negative emotions that occur during negotiation.

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

A: I would have gotten my CBAP certification much earlier!   I had the attitude that I was good at my job, and why would I need certification?  However, I got involved with my local IIBA chapter, and realized certification is a statement regarding my commitment to my profession.  I had been a BA for many years, but going through the educational training and BABOK to get certification, I learned new tools and techniques.  I learn something new every time I attend my local IIBA chapter meeting and it energizes me.   It’s similar to attending the BBC Conference; there is an excitement that is generated when you are in the presence of other people who are equally dedicated to their profession.

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

A: Where do I believe Business Analysts will be in five years?  I predict the role is going to continue to change significantly as the BA role will be more involved in identifying the business transformation opportunities and will need be able to justify those opportunities with the use of analytics and metrics.  Even more important, BAs will need to have excellent soft skills. Having great ideas is useless unless the BA can communicate those ideas effectively.

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: I often hear BAs saying they want more executive exposure; if a BA has a reputation as a skilled negotiator, the executives will be coming to them.

BAs do not think of themselves as negotiators, but really, we are, as nearly every aspect of our work involves some type of negotiation.  Some BAs are born negotiators and do it well instinctively and others really struggle.  A few, like myself, have formal training.  What I have learned in my career is the ability to negotiate with stakeholders can mean the difference between the application being viewed as a disaster or a success.   Regardless of the BA skill level, there will be elements in this presentation to improve their negotiation skills as well as provide some tools for them to take back to the office.

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Don’t miss Dagmar’s presentation, Negotiating Like A Pro, at Building Business Capability on Wednesday, November 8, 2017 from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm. Click here to register for attendance.