Associate Business Analyst

Job Summary Expectations from this role: Assist Leads to understand and define enterprise goals and objectives Tailor the business approach based on the audience’s known preferences/needs Adapt the preferred verbal & non-verbal communication style to the needs of the situation and the individual Apply system analysis techniques to analyze requirements, system capabilities, workflows, and functional limitations Assess the complexity and size of the change and the overall risk factors for the change/solution/problem area/methodology etc. Use a holistic view of people, processes and technology to understand the enterprise Assist to ensure requirements traceability throughout the project Identify appropriate stakeholder communication needs to support the change. Ensure key stakeholders understand and agree to the business analysis approach. Plan and execute effective processes for definition and approval of requirements and designs Determine the appropriate level of abstraction for business analysis information for each stakeholder Plan for requirements reuse and traceability Follow effective requirements practices, such as change control process, defined by senior BAs Ensure use and continuous improvement of a requirements processes Learn about developing process flow diagrams, use case, current/future state diagrams, functional and technical requirements Assist in interpreting, evaluating and interrelating research data Successfully complete straight-forward tasks and smaller, well-scoped challenges independently Identify appropriate actions and modify guidelines that have been provided to address a challenge. Key Responsibilities Performance Areas: Business Value: Identification of business problems, constraints, dependencies early in the engagement Stakeholder Engagement: Strong written and verbal communication in and out of the client, specific to the engagement Negotiation within the team: (implicit coordination among team members) Requirements Engineering: Use of right set of tools, templates, and/or processes for aligning requirements and design as agreed Working knowledge of prominent business analysis tools to elicit, document and manage requirements Solution Evaluation: Be able to assist right stakeholders in evaluation and recommendation of appropriate solution options to business problems; Be able to influence and get a buy in for right solution options Process: Follow processes established by the Lead BA/Project stakeholders as required by the engagement and ensure adherence by the team BA artefacts maintenance: Documentation of the process plus project artefacts; Management and clear communication about project artefacts to the various stakeholder groups; Adoption of recommended tools, templates, and processes to help with effective decision making and approval processes Team Management: Assist Senior Business Analysts with mentoring Junior BAs in the organization/Portfolio on a need basis like preparation of training artefacts, assistance in logistics and execution of the mentoring programs Required Qualifications Skill Examples 1. Analytical, organizational and problem-solving skills: Use Analytical thinking and problem solving skills to analyse problems and opportunities effectively; Know to apply competencies like Creative Thinking, Decision Making, Learning, Problem Solving, Systems Thinking, Conceptual Thinking and Visual Thinking 2. Behavioural Characteristics – Use of right set behavioural characteristics like Ethics, Personal Accountability, Organization, Time Management and adaptation to gain the trust and respect of stakeholders. 3. Business Knowledge – Have a good understanding of the Business, Industry, and Organization, solution or methodology that the business analyst operates in. Good ability to recognize potential limitations and opportunities. Understand the risks involved in the area of work and make suitable decisions to manage risks. Good understanding of Current trends, market forces, market drivers, Key processes, Services, Products, definitions, customer segments, suppliers, practices and regulations 4. Communication Skills – Able to learn the art of different communication styles and techniques to suit the knowledge level and communication styles of recipients. Ability to speak the language of the stakeholders. Ability to use variety of communication methods – verbal, non-verbal, physical and written along with listening skills. Assist conversations to reach productive conclusions 5. Interaction skills – Ability to relate, cooperate, and communicate with different kinds of people including sponsors, colleagues, team members, developers, vendors, learning and development professionals, end users, customers, and subject matter experts (SMEs). Facilitate stakeholder communication, promote stakeholder support of the proposed changes. Good negotiation and conflict resolution 6. Tools and Technology – Skilled in various software application and tools to support communication and collaboration. Ability to assist in creation and maintenance of requirements artifacts and model concepts, track issues, to increase overall productivity. Skilled in the use of prototyping and simulation tools, tools for modelling and diagramming. Requirements management technologies required to support requirements workflow, approval, base lining, traceability, change control and management. Able to pick and use the right tools and technology including presentation software for communication and collaboration among the team and stakeholders. 7. Business Analysis techniques – Understanding of various BA techniques. Ability to use the right technique for carrying out the BA tasks as appropriate to the area of work, with some guidance from senior colleagues. Listing down all of the techniques commonly used by Business Analysts to execute their tasks. The following techniques are frequently used: a. Brainstorming b. Business Cases c. Document Analysis d. Business Rules Analysis e. Prototyping f. Data Mining g. Estimation h. Financial Analysis i. Functional decomposition j. Interviews k. Item Tracking l. Lessons Learned m. Process Analysis and Modelling n. Reviews o. Root Cause Analysis p. Risk Analysis and Management q. Survey/Questionnaire r. Workshops s. Mind mapping t. Scope Modelling u. Stakeholder maps v. Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) w. Benchmarking & Market Analysis x. Interface Analysis y. Data flow diagrams z. Use cases aa. User Stories bb. Backlog Management cc. Estimation dd. Prioritization ee. Acceptance and Evaluation criteria ff. Business Model Canvas gg. Concept Modelling hh. SWOT Analysis ii. Organizational Modelling jj. Vendor Assessment Knowledge Examples Skilled in various BA knowledge areas (recommended by IIBA or any other professional organization for Business Analysis). Be able to use common techniques while performing various BA tasks. 1. Business Analysis Approach – Tailor the business approach based on the audience’s known preferences/needs by adapting the preferred verbal & non-verbal communication style to the needs of the situation and the individual, use active listening and discovery skills to understand “real” issues/needs and build rapport. Determine the appropriate level of formality that is required for the business analysis approach. Identify the required business analysis activities. Consider the timing of business analysis work within the context of the overall change. Assess the complexity and size of the change and the overall risk factors for the change. Demonstrate capability in multiple analysis methodologies. 2. Stakeholder Engagement – Perform stakeholder analysis. Define the level of stakeholder collaboration that will be required to support the change. Identify appropriate stakeholder communication needs to support the change. Ensure key stakeholders understand and agree to the business analysis approach. Facilitate stakeholder meetings. 3. Business Analysis Information Management – Identify an effective decision making process. Invite feedback and opinions from others on the process. Develop an effective change control process for requirements and designs. Plan an effective prioritization process for requirements and designs. Plan an effective approval process for the deliverables that will be produced help others make the best decision based on appropriate criteria - business need, opportunities, risk, compliance, and the ability to achieve the desired outcome. Determine the appropriate level of abstraction for business analysis information for each stakeholder. Use appropriate business analysis tools for managing business analysis information. 4. Requirements Elicitation – Understand scope of elicitation effort and select appropriate elicitation techniques for stakeholders. Prepare supporting materials and set up required logistics for elicitation. Prepare stakeholders in advance of elicitation sessions to ensure activities run smoothly and everyone works toward a common goal. Organize activities and manage time efficiently to consistently adhere to commitments and changing priorities. Facilitate elicitation activity and capture elicitation outcomes. Adapt verbal and non-verbal communication style to the needs of the situation and the individual. Put all the pieces together to elicit information relevant to the change. Adapt to and embrace changing situations as an opportunity, rather than an obstacle. Compare elicitation results against source information and other elicitation results. Resolve conflicts and negotiate to reach agreements. Demonstrate well prepared, stakeholder-focused written communication. Validate that the elicitation results match the intention of stakeholder needs. 5. Communication and collaboration – Provide relevant information to stakeholders in a timely manner. Effectively work with stakeholders to ensure delivery of required outcomes. Use different methods to document and communicate information, based on stakeholder level of involvement and needs. Communicate the appropriate level of detail so stakeholders can understand the information. Provide the forums for stakeholders to ask questions and/or raise any concerns. Demonstrate well prepared, stakeholder-focused written communication. Set stakeholder expectations to ensure activities will run smoothly and they work toward a common goal. Gain agreement for required stakeholder commitments. Assess stakeholders’ level of participation and focus, and raise attention to high risk behavior (such as diversion to other work, delayed approvals, or lack of involvement). Encourage the free‑flow exchange of information, ideas, or innovation. Promote an atmosphere of shared effort to resolve problems and achieve desired outcomes. Encourage teamwork by working in collaboration with others to achieve goals and objectives. 6. Requirements Life Cycle Management – Leverage appropriate business analysis tools to align requirements and designs and effectively manage changes. Identify the relationships to track to effectively manage traceability. Put all the pieces together to align requirements and designs and effectively manage changes. Ensure approaches used to trace requirement relationships are acceptable norms by stakeholders. Maintain requirements so they remain correct and current after an approved change. Ensure that the content and intent of the requirement is maintained. Ensure approaches used to maintain requirements are understood by stakeholders. Manage requirements and attributes so they can be easily stored and accessed. Manage requirements in such a manner they can easily be reused in the future. Leverage appropriate business analysis tools to identify and maintain requirements and designs for reuse. Ensure that the basis of prioritization is followed, as agreed upon by relevant stakeholders. Guide stakeholders through the challenges of prioritization. Re‑evaluate priority with stakeholders as new information becomes available. Resolve conflicts and negotiate to reach agreements, during prioritization. Execute the defined change control process; complete impact analysis activities, as needed. Facilitate impact resolution activities. Understand stakeholder roles and authority levels in approving requirements and designs. Track and communicate approval and implementation decisions for requirements and designs. Maintain audit history of changes to requirements and designs. 7. Strategy Analysis – Understand the organization’s capabilities and processes, utilized technology and infrastructure, policies and business rules, business architecture, and internal assets. Understand external influencers. Articulate business goals and objectives. Determine the solution scope. Identify constraints and assumptions. Identify potential changes to organizational structure and culture required to support the desired change, new or modified capabilities and business processes that will be required to support the change, new or modified technology and infrastructure that will be required to support the change, new or modified organizational policies and business rules required to support the change. Identify unknowns and quantify the impact of risk factors. Perform gap analysis to understand missing or improved capabilities required for the change. Define solution scope to understand which new capabilities the change will deliver. Develop appropriate transition states and complete release plans. 8. Analysis and Design – Analyze, synthesize, and refine elicitation results into requirements and designs. Model requirements and designs. Analyze requirements and designs. Identify key information for requirements and designs, and their attributes. Ensure the requirements meet the characteristics to support quality requirements and designs. Perform verification activities throughout the work. Use appropriate checklists for quality control. Identify assumptions and utilize them to manage risks. Define measurable evaluation criteria to assess the success of the change. Evaluate alignment with solution scope to support value delivery. Make effective use of requirement viewpoints and views. Leverage templates to develop the requirements architecture. Ensure that the set of requirements is complete; it is cohesive and tells the audience the full story. Ensure that requirements relate to each other by identifying requirement relationships. Put all the pieces together to ensure that the requirements collectively support one another to fully achieve the objectives. Develop design options aligned with the desired future state. Identify costs associated and benefits of a solution option. Determine the value of a solution to key stakeholders. Assess design options and recommend the appropriate solution. 9. Solution Evaluation – Define performance measures and assess the data collected to evaluate solution effectiveness. Identify the appropriate measures to use to assess solution performance. Validate the performance measures selected with key stakeholders. Demonstrate proficiency in using office applications to document, track and communicate performance measures and the data collected to evaluate solution effectiveness. Leverage an understanding of the organization to identify the most effective means of implementing a change. Highlight risks identified through assessing the performance measures. Assess performance measures to identify relevant trends. Test and analyze performance measures to ensure their accuracy. Identify performance variances, their root cause, and recommend appropriate actions to reduce variance. Propose alternative solutions to problems or opportunities, and informed recommendations based on evaluation of the solutions’ merits. Identify internal solution component dependencies. Perform problem analysis to identify the source of solution limitations. Perform impact assessment activities to quantify factors that affect solution performance. Assess enterprise culture and how a solution impacts the organizational structure. Perform an operational assessment on processes and technology. Ensure appropriate solution performance measures are being used. Provide substantiated recommendations. 10. Demonstrate an understanding of the organization’s nuances and how to get things done. 11. Analyze and use a holistic view of people, processes and technology to understand the enterprise. 12. Demonstrate an ability to learn quickly and willingly. 13. Demonstrate the ability to incorporate business and industry knowledge into work. Preferred Qualifications Certifications #J-18808-Ljbffr