In anticipation of their co-presentation at Building Business Capability in Las Vegas, Oct 31, – Nov. 4, 2016, we asked Susan Block, Program Manager at The Vanguard Group and Marie Brady, Business Analyst Manager at Vanguard, a few questions about pursuing business excellence. Check out their interview in relation to their BBC co-presentation entitled, Business Design Methodology: A Business Enabler.

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

A: Working in the chief technology and the enterprise shared services sub-divisions, we both help with developing practices to ensure excellence in software delivery that enables business value.

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

A: The amount of change in the IT organization; specifically we are defining new roles, new processes and implementing new technologies at the same time.  This much change can distract staff from focusing on their ability to be effective. 

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

A:  Increasing our speed to deliver software solutions to the business.

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

A: Need to constantly update your skill set to stay viable to the organization goals.

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

A: It’s the goal, not the role.  BA’s must update their skills sets to stay viable to the organization.

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: We’ve implemented Cucumber to manage requirements and test integration.

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

A: Preparing yourself for change by expanding your skills and influence.  Don’t be afraid to cross domain knowledge areas i.e. business and technical.

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

A: What are your next steps in your career?   Coaching others to embrace and prepare for change. Guiding legacy system testers and legacy BA’s to expand their mindset and bring value to the new agile teams.

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: There are many ways to solve a problem.  Keep in mind that a BA has a large tool kit and can select the appropriate method to fit the need at a strategic or tactical level.

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Don’t miss Susan and Maria’s co-presentation, Business Design Methodology: A Business Enabler, at Building Business Capability on Wednesday, November 2, 2016 from 11:35 am to 12:35 pm. Click here to register for attendance.