BUSINESS ANALYSIS DIRECTOR | AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE
James Millett
James Millett is business analysis director at the Australian Taxation Office with extensive experience delivering complex transformation initiatives across data, technology, and compliance functions. He brings deep expertise in strategic business analysis, program and product delivery, data governance, and service design, with a strong focus on aligning enterprise solutions to organisational objectives.
He is motivated by public value, continuous improvement, and developing sustainable solutions that improve outcomes for clients, staff, and government.
Presentation: What Happens When Business Analysis Grows Up? An ATO: Smarter Data reflection on maturity, judgment, and value.
Most organisations have business analysts. Far fewer have a mature business analysis practice.
In data‑rich, fast‑moving environments, traditional ideas of business analysis – capturing requirements, producing documents, staying “in scope” – start to break down. Problems arrive half‑formed. Data is abundant but meaning is contested. Certainty is rare.
In this session, James Millett shares a candid reflection on what Smarter Data has learned while growing its business analysis capability – lessons that didn’t come from textbooks or templates, but from doing the work.
This is not a success story. It’s a learning story.
Attendees can expect an honest exploration of:
- What we learned the hard way about relying on requirements when the real problem isn’t clear
- What surprised us about where business analysts create the most value in ambiguous, data‑heavy contexts
- How the BA role shifted from “requirements writers” to problem framers and value shapers
- What we would do differently if we were starting again – especially around expectations, language, and judgement
Rather than focusing on tools or processes, this session looks at maturity as a change in how we think, how we talk, and how we decide.
If you work as a business analyst – or alongside them – and want practical insights into how BA grows up when the problems get messy, this session is for you.