Business Analyst

Job description

Job Summary

Business analyst facilitates business process improvement via the methodical investigation, analysis, review and documentation of all or part of a business in terms of business functions and processes. They manage the requirements development process through the elicitation, analysis, specification and verification of multiple levels of requirements (business, stakeholder, solution) and support the ongoing management of the requirements. Business analyst creates viable and consumable specifications including acceptance criteria in preparation for the construction and testing of IT solutions.

Essential Functions of the Job

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Building the foundation for the development effort by capturing the business context - problem, current state, desired future state, objectives, business needs and impacted user groups

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Developing requirements (business, user and software requirements — functional and non-functional) and establishing traceability to the business vision

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Managing the requirements through the project lifecycle by establishing and maintaining agreements between the customer and the project team

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Playing a critical communications role by interacting with user (business domain) and with developers and testing personnel (technical domain)

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Ensuring the requirements are specified in a manner suitable for the intended audience and are understandable, unambiguous and capable of being implemented and tested

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Ability to navigate the IT team and business sponsors through a level of ambiguity including business process change; building organization and structure to requirements to drive out and define detailed requirements in an efficient manner

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Working with the project manager and the business customer(s) to define requirements stakeholders, requirements conflict resolution procedures and the requirements team structure

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Understanding the software development approach being used and defining how the requirements development will be conducted (i.e. elicitation, analysis, specification and validation)

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Proficient requirement meeting facilitator, demonstrated experience in facilitating sessions (20+ people) using techniques to help define scope and requirements during the lifecycle

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Writing and reviewing business, user and non-functional/system level requirements in the form of Use Cases, UML, and other similar structured requirements documentation

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Responsible for ensuring change control and change management procedures are followed within the project team as they relate to requirements

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Understanding the business case and project scope

·  Ensuring that quality business analysis standards are met as prescribed by IT Services through the effective implementation or use of approved processes, methodologies and deliverables

Analytical/Decision Making Responsibilities:

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Selecting the appropriate methods to elicit and document requirements

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Defining the procedures on how the requirements will be managed (i.e. base lining requirements, requirements change control and requirements traceability)

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Selecting the appropriate analysis and specification models and ensuring that requirements are of high quality

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Assessing change requests related to requirements to assess overall impact

·  Determining ‘fit for purpose’ requirements

Knowledge and Skills Requirements

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Business analysis role with personal accountability for delivering and managing requirements to time and cost for projects typically up to $5m in value and 12 to 18 months in duration

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Demonstrated experience writing and reviewing business, user and non-functional/system level requirements

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Comfortable dealing with difficult stakeholders and opinionated developers and architects during facilitated sessions and during the development lifecycle

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Adept at getting sign off of business (functional and supplemental) requirements from user community

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Experience in selecting and executing elicitation techniques such as Interviews, Exploratory Prototypes, Facilitated Workshops, Focus Groups, Observation, User Task Analysis, Documentation Study and Surveys and overall Process Re-engineering

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Experience of relationships with senior customer staff

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Development and deployment of formal business analysis methods and tools to govern and control programs

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Solid understanding of the following requirements models: Stakeholder Categories, Actor Tables, Glossary, Context Diagram, Data Model, Class Model, Data Dictionary, Event Response Tables, State Diagrams, Business Rules, Decision Tables, Process Maps, Use Cases, and Activity Diagrams

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Excellent written and verbal communication skills – must be able to communicate fluently in English both verbally and in writing

Supervision Responsibilities:

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Direct supervision provided by a Program Leader/Manager or Service Delivery Manager/Team Leader; frequency on a weekly or as needed basis

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Senior business analyst is expected to act independently to deliver and manage requirements to schedule, budget and scope; support provided as required and requested, and is self-driven and motivated

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Senior business analyst leads business analyst teams consisting of cross functional, global, and virtual groups; directly supervises staff; assigns responsibility to members; monitors progress

·  Senior business analyst coaches, mentors  and supports less experienced business analysts

Other Requirements:

·  National and international travel may be required

Job Requirements:

Education :

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A degree in Computer Science or a related discipline; or equivalent work experience

Experience :
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7 to 10 years in a corporate IT environment

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5 to 10 years experience in business analysis or related technical field (application development, deployment/implementation and infrastructure)

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Work experience in a professional services industry, preferred

Certification Requirements:
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Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) designation a plus

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Familiarity with ITIL v2 or 3 would be advantageous