Emerging Business Analyst of the Year

The Awards are:
» Business Analyst of the Year
» Emerging Business Analyst of the Year

These are inaugural awards and will recognise two individuals who have made a difference to their organisation or who have made an exceptional contribution to the business analysis field.

Business analysts are the glue between ICT and the business. Good business analysts can spot a problem, analyse it and propose innovative change that will drive business efficiency and business success.

To do that, they need strong communication skills, fresh thinking and powerful methodologies. Computerworld and Redvespa are calling for entries to find New Zealand’s leading business analyst and also the emerging business analyst of the year.

Please contact Sue McIntosh at sue.mcintosh@ffxbusinessgroup.co.nz or call 09-926 9112 for more information.

Judges

Ann Schwass, Business Solutions Manager, NZ Transport Agency
Ann Schwass has spent almost 20 years in IT & T management roles within both public and private sectors. She is currently the IS Solutions Delivery Manager at New Zealand Transport Agency, created through the merger of Land Transport NZ and Transit. Her team consists of business analysts, test analysts and business intelligence analysts and developers.

NZTA outsources application development so it is critical that the analysts understand the business needs and drivers when assisting with document requirements and develop a solution or high level design.

Prior to NZTA Ann spent 3 years with Ericsson New Zealand as their Services General Manager, managing the end to end development of solutions and support of services through her teams of solutions architects, project managers and engineers.

Ann also spent time with Unisys NZ Ltd as Services Director and Inland Revenue where she held a number of roles from tax inspector to IT Applications Manager and contracts management via the relationship management role.

Ross Hughson, Chief Information Officer, Inland Revenue
Ross Hughson was appointed as the CIO for Inland Revenue in July 2005. Ross has over 25 years' experience in the IT industry and is passionate about the application of technology to deliver business value and enable the organisational goals of Inland Revenue.

The Inland Revenue IT team has a strong record of leadership and Ross aims to lead the team through its next phase of evolution. High on Ross' agenda is re-setting the IT strategy to ensure Inland Revenue optimises its investment in IT and IT enables transformation of the business.

Prior to Inland Revenue, Ross was the CIO of Westpac Bank in New Zealand, and has also held senior roles in AXA NZ, the ANZ Bank and IBM New Zealand.

In 2001, Ross was awarded the CIO of the Year award in the Computerworld Excellence Awards and he is now on the judging panel for this event.

Ross holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration (BCA) from Victoria University of Wellington. He is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors.

Chris Robb, Application Support and Development Manager, IAG New Zealand
Chris currently manages the IAG Application Development and Support teams for NZI, State, Lantern, NAC, MikeHenry, NAC and DriveRight. His previous experience has included senior roles with ASB, The University of Auckland, and Carter Holt Harvey.

He has extensive experience, having held senior roles managing large analysis teams across finance, consulting and education sectors. He has a particular interest in quality frameworks and in the application of analysis within Agile and SCRUM methodologies.

Category Definition and Qualification:

Category questions include;

1. Briefly describe your BA experience, qualifications and memberships/certifications.
2. How have you innovated for your organization? What new techniques have you used or developed to deliver superior insights and outcomes?
3. What has been the result of these initiatives for your business?
4. What leadership have you shown in your organisation to drive business change?
5. How, if at all, have your efforts contributed to the BA community in your organisation and beyond?
6. What influences have you had around highlighting and enabling business policy/approach or process change as a result of analysis that has resulted in significant benefits to your organization or innovative ways of solving a business problem?
7. BAs are negotiators and facilitators. How have you conducted communications with the business and with senior management to drive BA activity and positive, measurable change?
8. BAs are problem solvers. When you think about the business problems you have solved, which stand out and why?
9. Detail your ethics, policies or guidelines and how they are implemented and enforced?
10. What achievement are you most proud of and why?
11. Describe your technical or ICT skills if any.
12. Please list any supporting documentation that is available on request: