In anticipation of his presentation at Building Business Capability in Vegas, Oct 31, – Nov. 4, 2016, we asked Todd Britton, CBAP, Director of Business Analysis Center of Excellence, NY State Office of the Comptroller, a few questions about pursuing business excellence. Check out his interview in relation to his BBC presentation entitled, BA Center of Excellence:  A Strategic Position Within State Government.

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

A: We are leading the effort to enhance existing BA skills and building BA talent through training and mentoring. This helps the agency BAs better the business areas that they serve.

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

A: In the past, we have faced challenges in getting buy-in. The best approach to address this challenge has been to establish our expertise in proper business analysis and demonstrate our value. We have gained a lot of traction from the “build it and they will come” method. Once various areas, particularly our IT shop, saw the value we added, they increasingly requested our services.

The continued challenge we face is the work environment in a government structure. Work tends to occur in silos and a lot of importance is placed on the perceived value – more the people you have under your control the more valuable you appear, overall number of staff and salary over quality, etc. With the introduction to a BA Center of Excellence, this mindset leads to a perceived loss of control and increased resistance or reluctance to make changes.

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

A: We would like to begin with an enterprise-wide effort to educate the agency on what it TRULY means to be Agile. Simultaneously, it is important to develop an Agile/LEAN champion who can support the change to an Agile work environment.

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

A: Change is hard even if people think it’s the right thing to do. You have to take a slow approach with individuals, so that they can realize the benefits they can get from these changes.  To paraphrase Harry Truman, you are more likely to reach success if you don’t care who gets the credit.

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

A: Trends: Constant improvement. Training and growing your capabilities are important for all individuals regardless of your level achieved.  And, Do what’s right for the profession.  Continue to grow, promote, and support your profession.

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: Most recently, we have developed a more standardized approach to business analysis, which makes it easier to transition from project to project. We have also ensured that there is clearer traceability and demonstration of interrelationships between work products. Producing better, more robust documentation that can be leveraged by the business in their day to day work has proven to be highly effective and appreciated.

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 definitely take the time to develop and grow, to focus on refining my interpersonal skills as it is one of the most important attributes to developing your success as a Business Analyst.

Q: What changes do you want to see in the next five years that will validate that you have been successful?

A: A business model that has a centralized BA shop, where collaboration and mentoring is a daily occurrence and networking is supported to help foster the growth of individual skills and knowledge. This model would also support a more LEAN and Agile approach.

Q: What is one question you wish you were asked in this interview but were not? And how would you answer?

A: What changes do you want to see in the next five years that will validate that you have been successful? A business model that has a centralized BA shop, where collaboration and mentoring is a daily occurrence and networking is supported to help foster the growth of individual skills and knowledge. This model would also support a more LEAN and Agile approach.

How do you consider Lean and Agile impacting the future?  LEAN and Agile are more iterative, adapting to constant change that is based on proper analysis. These two methodologies are striving to deliver small, incremental changes, breaking efforts down to be more impactful.

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: How to develop a Roadmap to create a COE that will provide true value to your company.  This roadmap will develop a successful, centralized COE that delivers value.

On your journey to excellence, don’t get so hung up on looking toward your target and future that you forget to look back and see how far you’ve come.  Sometimes, it’s the smallest changes that make the biggest difference.

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Don’t miss Todd’s presentation, BA Center of Excellence:  A Strategic Position Within State Government, at Building Business Capability on Thursday, November 3, 2016 from 11:50 am to 12:50 pm.  Click here to register for attendance.