Edward Ngubane

Edward Ngubane

Position: Head of Business Analysis
Company: DVT (Dynamic Visual Technologies)

Biography
Edward Ngubane, the current President of IIBA South Africa Chapter and Head of Business Analysis at DVT, has been in the IT industry for over 20 years. During this period, he has worked as a systems developer, systems analyst, business analyst, business analyst manager, Head of PMO, Practice Lead (Business Analysis and Architecture) and Head of Business Analysis. He has set up and ran business analysis CoP’s, developed and mentored a number of business analysts. He holds five degrees, two of which are at the Masters level – the M.Ed (Maths Education) and the MBA (Cum Laude) – both from the University of the Witwatersrand. Over the years he has received numerous awards both as an employee and as a leader. He is passionate about business analysis and has written articles on the discipline (mostly published on modernalyst.com). He has been on the IIBA South Africa Chapter Board of Directors for the past three years. He is also a former high school mathematics teacher, secretary and treasurer of the IIBA-SA Board of Directors. He is in his 2nd year of PhD (Business Management) study at the University of the Witwatersrand. His thesis is Cloud Computing adoption and SMME development in South Africa. He is also a certified leadership coach, holding a Leadership Coaching Certificate from the University of the Witwatersrand.

So often we treat the ‘Agile’ methodology as an ‘outside-in’ phenomenon, an external change that needs to be imposed on us by the ‘powers that be’. We ‘objectify’ it and perceive it as something that lives outside of us as individuals. We never see it as part of who we are, but as something owned and driven from the top to the bottom. While the latter statement might hold to some extent, because executive buy-in, direction and behaviour is instrumental in dictating the culture of any organisation, individual behaviour within an organization is the lifeblood that sustains its culture. Individuals have the power to sabotage Agile transformation through passive resistance. However, they also have the power to make this change meaningful and real. The truth is that the success of Agile transformation rests on the ‘inside-out’ approach. And this is where our characteristics towards agility need to be examined closely.

BABOK V3 Alignment: Chapter 9: Underlying Competencies