In anticipation of her presentation at Building Business Capability in Vegas, Nov. 2 – 6, 2015, we asked Melanie Kingwill, Head of Business Analysis of Barclays Africa Group (CIB), Africa Group, a few questions about pursuing business excellence. Check out her interview in relation to her BBC presentation entitled, Are Business Analysts Heading for Extinction?

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

A: The organization is empowering people to change and to do the right thing. It gives us the freedom to be creative and make mistakes. However the motto is make the mistake quickly, learn and fix.

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

A: Changing the mindset of business analysts, business and IT about the value a business analyst can bring to an organization. Empowering business analysts to add value; that it is ok that the questions you ask will make business and or IT feel uncomfortable. The business analysts must be a specialist in process and requirements and generalists in all other domains. Agile projects still need analysis to be successful and that a user story does not always give the right level of analysis.

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

A: The entire organization is changing towards data, design, Lean and Agile. There are a lot of knowledge sharing sessions, training and mentoring to help the people change and deliver.

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: Understand the business customer needs, and then the business needs. Articulate it in a way that people understand and want to share. The idea is only half the solution. Without timely delivery, it means nothing.

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

A: We are busy rolling out Agile, Lean, and Steven Towers CPP methodology.

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

A: Don’t take any requirement at face value. Stop, analyze, and think before you document. Business value is not about implementing exactly what the business wanted but rather understanding the business need to make it successful in the 21^st century.

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

A: If we as business analysts do not change, our careers will become redundant. What is this paradigm shift and how do we achieve it?

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Don’t miss Melanie’s presentation, Are Business Analysts Heading for Extinction? at Building Business Capability on Thursday, November 5, 2015 from 3:20 to 4:20 pm.  Click here to register for attendance.