Functional Analyst - Brackenfell at Shoprite Group of Companies

Purpose of the Job

• The purpose of this role is to ensure that efficient and cost-effective business solutions and processes are in place to address business needs/requirements.
• The role facilitates effective and competitive business processes by eliciting, analysing, validating, and documenting business organisational and/or operational requirements.
• The role acts as a bridge between the business unit, organisational stakeholders, and the solution team.
• The Functional Analyst works closely with a cross-functional team and supports the system designers with co-creating sustainable new solutions.
• Specialised knowledge of systems analysis, and the creation and testing of low to medium complexity applications, will be a key success factor in providing relevant technical solutions and practical configuration execution.

Job Objectives

• Execute systems analysis of technical application requirements and participate in the planning and design process and fit-for-purpose specification documentation and solution assessment and validation of low to medium complexity solutions to business requirements and processes using appropriate tools. Specify testing, training, definition, and implementation of standardised procedures for support of practical business solutions.  
• Performing assigned gap analysis to determine and understand the functional business requirements and changes as defined by the Business Analysts, Product Owners and other stakeholders. Identify problem areas, measure various areas of performance, propose changes and develop process improvement initiatives. 
• Perform systems integration of low to medium complexity and provide support to the systems designer in the identification of data conversion and reporting requirements.
• Work collaboratively within and across functions, building and maintain a trust relationship with business and IT stakeholders by delivering what was promised and providing technical support to the team as well as system users.
• Estimate, schedule and prioritise discrete pieces of work and deliver consistent, quality, and accurate results on business-critical projects. This includes accurate and justifiable effort estimations for completion of work, identifying business and functional dependencies to effectively prioritise and schedule delivery of assigned work packages and providing accurate and concise feedback to team leads, highlighting task status, issues and risks.
• Assist with the preparation of test scripts and execute testing of the configured scenarios, in accordance with systems and unit test standards. Participate in execution and documentation of tests. Provide input into training, testing and related procedures and processes to support delivery of the solution(s). 
• Execute / perform QA handovers and assist test data and go-live support activities. Maintain test case repository.
• Troubleshoot system related issues and channel transactional data. Track and report on systems/software defects. Assist with and provide timeous feedback on ad-hoc queries from business stakeholders. Gather user issues, analyse, prioritize and document using JIRA.
• Provide input into the scope of a solution and ensure an understanding of the scope by relevant stakeholders. With support from Senior Functional Analyst present functional designs to functional areas on assigned projects to facilitate agreement and sign off from all concerned users and stakeholders on the suggested design and solution.
• Execute solutions according to the requirements of the respective business area, ensuring the system reacts and operates within the confines of the request.
• Support the deliverables throughout the system lifecycle and complete assigned deliverables for compliance according to agreed plan, supporting the delivery of projects in assigned area, while consistently reviewing and analysing accuracy and quality of own deliverables.
• Maintains clear communication channels with project team on work status. Raises issues with manager as identified in area of focus that may affect the quality of delivery or timelines of the project.
• Continuously support the business environment, through maintaining an understanding of initiatives and objectives, its various line portfolios, and the current trends and developments in the technology field. 
• Work within the framework Agile methodologies and/or other agreed cross-functional team ways of working and help foster a culture of collaboration, commitment and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• 3-year IT qualification.
• MS SQL fundamentals (Introduction to SQL) Certification.
• Business Analyst / Functional Analyst course or similar.
• MS SQL - Querying data with Transact Certification.

Experience

• +2 years’ experience within a functional analyst or equivalent support role in IT.  
• Relevant and demonstrable experience in functional analysis, configuration, and user testing.
• Experience in software testing.
• IT Support and Operations knowledge.
• Working knowledge of different operating systems and Internet technologies.
• Incident management system knowledge.
• Experience in a Retail and or Financial Services industry.
• Experience of working on projects within the Software Development Life Cycle.
• Experience in cloud solutions.  
• Change management experience.  
• Exposure to vendor management. 
• Exposure to Project Management. 
• Foundation knowledge of Cloud technologies.
• Foundational knowledge of core programming technologies.

Knowledge and Skills

• Collaborative partner – Builds strong relationships with stakeholders while working collaboratively across work teams and projects. Open, honest, and direct, comfortable giving and receiving constructive feedback. Thinks and acts independently as well as collaboratively.
• Strong technical orientation with the ability to translate functional requirements into technical requirements. Is curious and adaptable and able to quickly apply new insights and learnings.  
• Analytical and detailed - Readily grasps new concepts and information, investigates various courses of action and integrates multiple sources of data to guide decision-making and identify optimal solutions.
• Innovative and solution-orientated – Open to new ideas and possibilities and proactively contributes ideas and solutions that serve the flow of work and meeting deadlines.
• Results-driven – Efficiently executes priorities tasks and priorities, setting stretch goals for self, while remaining focused and working tenaciously to meeting and exceeding expectations within quality standards.  
• Quick learner - rapidly learns new tasks relevant to their own job and quickly commits information to memory. Also, shows a rapid understanding of newly presented information and applies it to their own role.
• Planning and organising – Able to timeously and efficiently prioritise and execute multiple and competing demands in a fast-paced environment. Identifies urgent and important tasks / priorities to ensure delivery.
• Communication skills – Strong verbal and written communication skills. Able to simplify technical concepts and convey messages and ideas to users across organisational levels.  
• Ability to work under pressure and under tight time constraints, managing multiple demands while organizing, prioritising, and reordering workload in a rapidly changing and fast-moving environment. 
• Digital centric and savvy - Passionate about the possibilities of digital technologies and its value for the business. A self-starter who can come up to speed quickly on our applications, technologies, and processes.