In anticipation of his presentation at Building Business Capability in Vegas, Oct 31, – Nov. 4, 2016, we asked John Jones, CBAP, Senior Business Systems Analyst at UPS Supply Chain Solutions, a few questions about pursuing business excellence. Check out his interview in relation to his BBC presentation entitled, Requirements Traceability – The Tie That Binds.

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

A: Our group of BAs review the work requests that arrive, but we don’t take them just at face value. It’s important we understand the impact of the request on existing process and connected processes and applications. It is this larger view that helps to keep out new defects.

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

A: The eternal challenge is having enough time to do more than just react. 

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

A: Because our organization is not agile, my first goal is to understand how a transition to agile works best. Next is to understand how, where, and when business analysis is performed when agile.

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

A: I have gained great confidence that agile is not the death of business analysis.

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

A: We must remain flexible and realize that the same tasks still need to be performed. The titles may be different. The techniques may change. But the task is still needed.

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 have used decision tables in several types of projects. This presentation of rules has been useful to business stakeholders, developers, and QA testers. All parties have appreciated the clarity of information in this form.

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 insist that I lift my head out of my current job and look around at the business analysis industry. I was a year away from my lay off at the time. The preparation would have been helpful.

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: Traceability keeps the team and focus of the project on track. No unnecessary work or missing requirements.

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Don’t miss John’s presentation, Requirements Traceability – The Tie That Binds, at Building Business Capability on Wednesday, November 2, 2016 from 3:10 to 4:10 pm.  Click here to register for attendance.