A Technical Deadlock Breaker with 21+ years in utilities.

situation

The programme required automated task creation to achieve its efficiency goals. However, the vendor team insisted this was impossible without purchasing additional expensive software modules.

action

I built a functional logic prototype in Excel (incorporating a structured Task Catalogue and Decomposition Model) to demonstrate that automated task creation was possible within the existing architecture. I then defended this data-driven solution against Architects and Technical Teams.

result

Proved the solution could be done without extra software, breaking the vendor deadlock and saving the project from significant unbudgeted costs.

lesson

Data and logic are the best tools for convincing technical stakeholders that a solution is viable when a vendor says 'no'.

situation

The project involved navigating complex business processes for a new market platform that the internal team was still scaling up to manage.

action

I process-mapped every aspect of the Flexibility Market Team’s operations. I documented existing gaps and designed the future state of these processes to align with the new platform's capabilities.

result

The head of Flexibility Procurement adopted these process maps as the official training material for the rapidly expanding team.

lesson

Clear process documentation is as much a training tool as it is a technical requirement.

situation

The project faced a major technical hurdle: the instruction flow from Front-End Processors (FEPs) to substations had significant limitations, including serial line communications dependencies between AVC relays and SCADA and constrained power headroom per substation.

action

I optimised the AVC (Automatic Voltage Control) control sequence for 60 substations to achieve maximum power reduction. This required managing multiple constraints, including serial line comms dependencies and power headroom per substation.

result

Received praise from OT Architects and the vendor for the technical depth of the solution, even after the project was paused by NESO.

lesson

In OT environments, understanding low-level technical constraints like serial comms is critical to successful process design.

situation

Legacy data was in a 30-year-old flat structure that was incompatible with Maximo's modern hierarchical requirements, causing a migration standstill.

action

I devised new techniques to clean and translate data, including PM and Location translations. I also built a business case to restructure the Asset Hierarchy to 4 levels, overriding the previously approved 3-level design.

result

Senior management appointed me as the responsible person for the FCA migration. I also converted multiple single PMs into more efficient seasonal and cyclical PM schedules.

lesson

Don't be afraid to challenge an approved design if the data proves a different hierarchy is needed for long-term success.

situation

Multi-million pound infrastructure projects were failing to track how they actually delivered value to the business, creating a gap in stakeholder confidence.

action

I mapped technical requirements to business sentiments and designed a standardized Benefit Realisation tracking mechanism and Benefit Realisation Calculator from scratch to quantify tangible and intangible benefits.

result

Created a clear link between infrastructure spend and business value, which was adopted across the transmission portfolio and enabled cost-benefit justifications that previously relied on subjective narratives.

lesson

Senior BA work often centres on bridging the gap between a technical cost and a business benefit.

situation

The Defect Management process was too complex for the technical development team to translate into Maximo logic, and multiple legacy systems (IPS, CBRM, Chime, Oracle Fusion) had to be kept in sync.

action

I designed the core sections of the Defect Management Engine and a custom Defect Management Scoring system. I broke down monolithic specifications into modular, testable components using entity-relationship modelling, and created the programme's 'Benefit Realisation Calculator'.

result

The Maximo technical team praised the simplified business requirements, which allowed them to build a complex engine that successfully synced across multiple IT environments for 1,000+ users.

lesson

A BA's job is to simplify the complex so that developers can build with confidence.

situation

The contract was burning budget at an unsustainable rate because planners were manually collating data from multiple systems into spreadsheets.

action

I built a business case for an Excel-based planning system to speed up the process by 100%. My firm approved the case, gave me a dev team, and appointed me Product Owner.

result

The application was so successful it expanded into unit costing and became a global utility solution for my firm, delivering £1.6M/year in savings across Plant audit (£700k), Planning & Scheduling (£300k), Material tracking (£360k), and Tarmac redesign (£240k). I served as the customer, tester, trainer, and designer.

lesson

Internal product development can be the fastest way to solve a client's operational deficit.