Scottish Business Analyst Named ‘Best in Europe’
An Edinburgh-based business analyst has won a major European award, becoming the first person from Scotland to win the prestigious title.
Linda Parker was presented with the Business Analyst of the Year Award 2019 – sponsored by AssistKD and IIBA UK – at a ceremony held in London last month. Linda, who works at Registers of Scotland received the title from 11-time Paralympic champion Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson.
The ceremony took place at the Business Analysis Conference Europe 2019 which is in its 11th year. The awards are open to analysts across Europe, and Linda beat nine finalists, including entrants from the Bank of England and insurance giants Aviva, to the coveted title. Judges described her as “an incredibly innovative and empathic analyst, leading the development of the profession in Scotland”.
Registers of Scotland (RoS) is the public body responsible for maintaining and managing Scotland’s land and property registers, including The General Register of Sasines, the oldest national public land register in the world.
Linda, who works for the Landlord Registration, said: “In the past, this award has been won by business analysts from Wales and England so it feels pretty good to see it come to Scotland this year.
“As a winner, I now have the opportunity to be involved in the London conference next year which means I can continue to give something back to the business analyst community. This is in addition to chairing a committee organising a business analysis festival in Edinburgh in June 2020. I was already very inspired by reaching the final last year, winning this year will help enormously with all of these projects and will hopefully inspire others.
“I submitted my application form back in July, this required me to answer seven questions covering various aspects of being a BA. This included providing background on the project I’ve been working on throughout the last year – Landlord Registration – my role within this project, new techniques, or concepts I’ve used and how I’ve provided support to others within the RoS BA community and wider within Scotland. It also included three questions based on personal qualities applied to supporting stakeholders, business understanding and analytical thinking – it was particularly important that I conveyed how I display these skills within my own role.
The application form is only the first part, this was followed by a panel interview which took place in London. Nine finalists were selected for interview this year and we all attended the BA conference in September, where the winner was announced. The award was presented by the first keynote speaker, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson (11-times Paralympic champion!), which was perfect for me given my recent found love for long distance running.
“Over the course of the three day conference I attended various workshops and heard from lots of inspiring key speakers, I event presented a couple of times myself. The conference is a great opportunity to network with other BAs, to learn from each other and share fresh ideas.”