Business Analyst at Discovery Limited

Key Purpose

To provide support to the business unit by assisting the business unit to define and develop business processes through questioning stated requirements, providing recommendations, and designing process diagrams.

Areas of responsibility may include but not limited to

• Acting as a ‘bridge’ between business needs and the Systems/IT department by translating working with the business to define requirements and thereafter working with the Systems/IT team to translate business requirements into technical specifications. Clarity in communication is an essential component of this function.
• Understand the business strategy and ensure requirements are aligned.
• Critical thinking skills, ability to sort through what information is important and what it is not.
• Analytical skills, ability to analyze the business and how the users need to work. Ability to understand both high level and detailed requirements.
• Written communication skills, ability to write clearly, simplify complex situations and produce documents that are readable and understandable to all stakeholders.
• Work in an Agile environment and be a part of all the agile ceremonies i.e Big room planning, Sprint planning, Sprint retro’s, Daily standup’s etc
• Taking ownership of the development process on behalf of the Business or Product owner by attending meetings with Systems/IT team, liaising with Developers thereby ensuring the development and testing is according to specification.
• Self-sufficient, takes accountability and manages deadlines and deliverables pro-actively with minimal supervision from immediate manager.
• Collaboration: To bring all the aspects and advice together for all parties in order to enable process implementation – automated or otherwise – in a manner that achieves business objectives.
• UML and Requirement Documentation: Ensuring that business needs are clearly documented by mapping changes to existing processes or developing new processes as required. The documentation of these processes in a clear manner using UML and bespoke business templates for consumption by developers, testers and business units.
• Prototyping: Able to wireframe high level concepts for understanding and agreement between developers and business to ensure agreement on flow and usability.
• Business Knowledge: Able to understand and consume business processes as well as document business processes in the flow of standard operating procedures – outside of the concept of functional requirements. The BA needs to ensure they understand the As is process and ability to document what’s required to get to the To be process.
• Development Support: To provide support during the development phase by being available for questions or clarification and providing feedback to Development teams as appropriate. To minimise the number of comebacks or rework required by the Developers through clearly articulating and communicating business specifications, using multiple channels (workshops, email etc) to facilitate understanding.
• Testing Support: Required to conduct own BA testing and ensure the development is aligned to the requirement. To provide support during the testing phase by reviewing and validating test cases.
• Guidance and advice to the business: To provide sound guidance and advice on planned changes to business by striving to clearly understand business needs and making considered recommendations as appropriate. The BA is not a scribe and needs to understand the business and ensure the desired solution is best fit for business.

Personal Attributes and Skills

Behavioral Skills

• Analytical and Conceptual (Advanced)
• Communication (written and verbal) (Advanced)
• Project Management (Basic)
• Multi-tasking (Advanced)
• Relationship Building (Advanced)
• UML (Advanced)
• Prototyping (Advanced)
• Test Management (Advanced)
• Agile Methodology (Intermediate)

Technical Skills

• Systems (Intermediate)
• Development (Intermediate)
• Software development Lifecycle (Advanced)
• Business (Advanced)

Education and Experience

Minimum

• Degree / Diploma in IT (Advantageous)
• Business Analyst course (Essential)
• 3 years Business Analyst experience (Essential)
• 1 year Insurance industry experience (Advantageous)
• 2 years UML experience (Essential)
• 2years Screen Prototyping experience (Essential)
• 1 year JIRA (Essential)
• 1 year Confluence (essential)