Meet Derek Konieczny- Business Systems Analyst III, Enterprise Applications Team

Position: Business Systems Analyst III, Enterprise Applications Team – University Technology Services

How long have you worked at McMaster? This December will mark my 10 year anniversary at McMaster and I’ve been in this role through that time.

Tell us a little bit about yourself: Even though I work in “IT” I don’t consider myself a very tech person. When I finished my studies at university I took a job at a mutual fund company because I was really interested in all things involving personal finance. My understanding of financial products and the investment landscape led to a Business Analyst job in the IT department of that firm and I’ve stayed in this space for more than 20 years now. I reside in Halton Hills with my family. We enjoy road trips and visiting interesting and unusual places.

In 3 sentences or less, describe your job and the best part of your job? I help support various modules in PeopleSoft for Finance and Research. My role is to be the liaison between the business stakeholders and our developers by analyzing issues and documenting requirements. I just love being able to help develop better processes out of a challenging situation.

What is your favourite thing to do when you’re not at work? I enjoy spending time outside in all seasons and all weather. Whenever I have time fishing or cycling are favourite pastimes. I volunteer with a local group that promotes good stewardship practices. This gives me an opportunity to plan and implement tree planting projects, stream restoration work, and education campaigns on various species at risk. I’ve done projects with local farmers, at community parks, in schools around my community, and with private land owners. This work is incredibly rewarding and I’m always keeping an eye out for the next project.

Name something you’ve been involved in at McMaster that you are particularly proud of. The Finance team here at McMaster has to send a yearly file to the Canada Revenue Agency detailing the taxable activity from payments made to our suppliers. Until recently PeopleSoft did not support the generation of this file. The process was incredibly time consuming and required a minimum of 5 weeks of dedicated effort by staff in Accounts Payable. Looking for a better option we engaged with them on a project to create a custom Finance Tax Tool. With the automation of this process we reduced the time to generate the file to under 5 minutes. Later we were able to demo this tool to Oracle and received considerable accolades for its creativity. We accomplished this with a very small team and my role was with analysis, requirements documentation, and testing support. It remains one of the most gratifying projects throughout my career.

The Division of Operations and Finance has identified the core values that run through all of our work: curiosity, accountability, quality, empathy, teamwork, inclusiveness, and integrity. Please tell us which value means the most to you and why, and any work you are doing that embodies or speaks to the value. Empathy is the one that speaks to me the most. There are times that a Business Analyst/Business Systems Analyst meets with a stakeholder that is particularly upset about a challenge with an application or software. We want to make sure that that person knows they are being heard. Showing empathy goes a long way in building trust that issues will be addressed.

What is a piece of advice you would give to someone embarking on their career at McMaster University? First off, welcome aboard to anyone new to McMaster that is reading this – McMaster is a great place to work. I would say to new staff to get out and explore as much of the school as possible as time allows. There are so many wonderful buildings and interesting staff and seeing what McMaster has to offer can open unexpected doors.