Date: 12 Jul 2018
Where: Skipton

Recruiting from Within – Personal Experiences on Moving from the Business Area to the BA Role

Leaders often have a decision to make when recruiting - do I look for an external, experienced BA and recruit someone with no business knowledge and at a higher cost or could I recruit from within, investing instead, in time and effort to build on existing business knowledge. At Skipton Building Society we decided to invest in the time and commitment and, after an interesting Assessment Centre, recruited 2 colleagues from within, providing them with a structured progression scheme, internal training, support and a range of opportunities to develop their skills and show us what they were capable of. This was so successful, we have, in the last 18 months, recruited 3 more BAs from different areas of the business, only taking on 1 external, experienced BA in the same time. 

In this presentation you will hear:

  • Personal experiences of our journey from trainee to a fully-fledged BA
  • How a structured and measurable progression scheme was used
  • How ‘Growing your own BA’ can be successful and fun

 

 

Anna Burke joined the Skipton BA team in October 2015 following a successful Assessment Centre and after working in the Call Centre and Business Information. Anna journeyed through the progression scheme in 18 months and is now a fully-fledged BA, working alongside other BAs and PMs, delivering a range of projects whilst continuing her self-development and supporting others.


 

 

 

 

 

Danielle Meegan spent 10 years in the Call Centre environment before taking the plunge and applying to become a BA. Her journey through the structured progression scheme is underway, with support from her colleagues and continued hands on training, whilst working on digital and other projects. She has a personal development plan focussing on active listening and is looking forward to the day when she becomes an independent BA.

 

 

Are You Thinking What You Think You're Thinking?

So, you’re a Business Analyst. You know how to elicit requirements and analyse them. You are objective about your stakeholders’ needs, understand the project scope, can determine the cost benefit and still things don’t turn out as expected. It could be down to Cognitive Bias.

 - Why aren’t people coming up with new ideas in your workshops? It’s the anchoring bias, compounded by bandwagon bias
 - Are your problem solving sessions reaching the right solutions? If not, maybe it’s the curse of knowledge or loss aversion bias
 - Why is estimating seen as a black art? Blame the planning fallacy and optimism bias

This session examines these questions and others by drawing on the fields of psychology, neuroscience and behavioural economics and applying them to Business Analysis. We’ll also look at ways to overcome biases and help counter the natural tendencies of our brains.

You will take away from this session

  • What Cognitive Biases are
  • How they affect both you, as a Business Analyst, and your stakeholders
  • Approaches for overcoming biases, or even using them to your advantage

 

Dr Liz Calder’s experience ranges from leading cross functional and global teams in large organisations to being part of a small digital agency team, with clients from the science, life-science and education sectors.  Whatever the environment she knows that what makes a project a success is the combination of  good project practice and getting the best from the people in your project. She is passionate about making sure that all stakeholders get the most out of a new system or website and uses insights from the fields of psychology & behavioural economics to push for the best outcomes for all involved. Liz is Director of Blue Raccoon Ltd, a Business Analysis consultancy, and blogs at her site blueraccoon.co.uk/articles. She is also IIBA UK Communities Director for the North and Scotland.

 

 



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