The Value of Being Agile

Joel Joshu (MSIT '20) spent more than seven years working at consumer credit reporting agency TransUnion, where he most recently was a project manager. In that role, he served as a scrum master and informal coach, teaching ways to incorporate agile workflows for information security in the identity governance and privileged access space. 

Then a job opportunity came up that Joshu felt he couldn't turn down. In October 2021, he left TransUnion to become a program lead at NielsenIQ, a multinational company working with the world's largest brands to inform them about where and how their best customers are shopping. 

NielsenIQ was previously known as Nielsen’s Global Consumer Business before separating from Nielsen in January 2021 to become its own standalone company.

"The opportunity to start with a company that is still relatively young and help build a culture that I am confident in was the main draw for me," Joshu said. "After seven-plus years at my former employer, I felt the opportunity to take what I learned there as well as with my time at Northwestern was too valuable to pass up." 

It was in Northwestern Engineering's Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) part-time program where Joshu honed his knowledge of agile project management. He had previous experience working in agile environments, which focus on adapting to change rather than following a more traditional step-by-step, waterfall methodology, but it was the opportunity to focus on agile within an IT program that drew Joshu to MSIT. 

"With the ever-changing climate of IT, agile is the ideal methodology to plan and execute project plans," he said. "Agile principles are an imperative skill set when dealing with a global company that is growing exponentially. In order to deal with everything from global teams, changing needs, resource constraints, and timelines, being agile is necessary for continued success." 

In addition to focusing on agile, Joshu looked to MSIT to grow professionally and prepare him to take on leadership responsibilities. Joshu was an engineer at TransUnion when he began MSIT. By the time he graduated, he was a program manager.

Taking graduate classes while working full-time can be a challenge, but Joshu appreciated the opportunity to take lessons learned on the weekend and apply them at work the following week. In one instance, Joshu took a question presented in IT Management Topics by adjunct lecturer Dimitra Kane and now incorporates it in all of his project kickoff meetings.

"It helps greatly with team cohesion," Joshu said. 

Joshu also appreciated Marketing Strategy and Analysis, where he learned to examine problems and opportunities with a long-term, solution-oriented perspective.

"Sometimes this can be lost when grinding through a long project, and it is good to remember the overall goals when making project-related decisions," Joshu said. "The MSIT program and what I learned during my time at Northwestern continues to come into play for me as I learned to look at IT as a whole for the entirety of the enterprise, whereas prior to completing the program I tended to see things with a siloed view."