Systems Business Analyst at OPENCOLLAB

Job description

OPENCOLLAB is currently seeking a Systems Business Analyst (SBA) with team leading experience to focus on being a Product(s) owner to participate in enhancing, rolling out and potentially developing numerous software products in the post-school education sector.

The SBA is the champion for their product(s). They are focused on understanding business and market requirements, then prioritizing the work to be done by the development team accordingly. The SBA’s work has three broad categories:

• Introducing new product offerings (quite possibly already existing somewhere else) @ OC that can be offered as services to many clients;
• Assist with new product development or implementation of new offerings, plus ongoing support;
• Functional product support.
• Responsible to drive the team(s) to achieve their agreed upon outputs.

The balance of time between these types of tasks is difficult to determine. The incumbent will have to be agile and will need the ability to prioritize and work on multiple products at any given time.

Introducing new product offerings at OC (quite possibly already existing somewhere else)

• Works with MANCO (OPENCOLLAB’s management team) to assess the value of the potential new product offering to the market. This can be done via:
• Setting up an initial product prototype via a wireframe process or via setting up a demo instance of a product from a variety of sources (open source communities, partners, etc.);
• Understand interoperability of the product with other products.
• Regularly meeting with clients/potential clients to discuss the prototype, or conducting demos or facilitating pilots with the client.
• Assist the MD, Business Development Manager and Product Lead with:
• Developing standard documentation for the product;
• Developing product brochures - provide context and insight;
• Developing standard pricing templates for standard offerings;
• Developing proposals to potential clients.
• New product development or implementation of new offerings may require the following:
• The Systems Business Analyst will be responsible for the analysis and design of business processes and functionality for the implementation of client systems. Duties will include attending critical design sessions as well as focus groups and business design meetings with end users and key stakeholders.
• They will be responsible for requirements gathering and clarification with product experts internally or with clients or prospective clients;
• They will be required to do demonstrations and conduct pilots of said products to clients and potential clients;
• The SBA will document how to apply defined project standards and best practices and communicate this to the project team(s) ensuring they follow such standards and practices.
• They will provide clear problem definition and liaise with the necessary technical experts to resolve issues related to specific systems.
• They will participate in relevant meetings with business representatives and clients to establish, understand and document detailed business requirements to be met by the project.
• They will be involved in compiling scope definition documentation as well as full impact and functional specification documentation.
• They may be required to be involved in UI development.
• They will make use of the Jira tracking system for logging and tracking tasks on the project.
• They will define test strategies and perform functional as well as regression testing on completed product features.
• They will ensure issues are identified, tracked, reported on and resolved in a timely manner.
• They will coordinate client product rollout.
• Once the system is implemented, the Systems Business Analyst will be responsible for coordinating ongoing service support, product enhancements and customer satisfaction.
• The SBA will be required to develop good knowledge of system functionality and understanding the business processes and objectives of the end user;
• They will be required to ensure that the business conditions for the product have been met and, where applicable, that it adheres to architecture standards and principles;
• The SBA will be required to develop end user business documentation for software enhancements, modifications and interfaces. where applicable;

Team Leading responsibilities may include the following:

• The Systems Business Analyst will be responsible for mentoring the team members to ensure they grow their design competency and domain knowledge.
• They will contribute to the knowledge repositories on each project in the areas of domain knowledge, design standards and process improvement.
• They will be required to assist developers with the understanding of the design and requirements;
• They will ensure the project is delivered within the service delivery parameters, whilst monitoring the costs and hours as well as risks of the project.
• They will follow agile project methodologies and work procedures.
• The will be required to do sprint planning and grooming.
• They will manage any scope creep occurring on the project with the client.
• They will manage the risks of the project.
• They will provide input into the resource planning and training requirements for the team.
• They will be responsible for personal development reviews within the team.
• They will provide regular feedback to the Service Delivery Manager regarding project progress, risks, issues, scope creep, etc.
• The SBA is not a project manager: they focus on ensuring the development team effectively delivers the most value to the business and the clients.

General

The following will be required of the SBA:

• Drive continuous product improvement initiatives;
• Travelling to clients within South Africa as well as internationally;
• May be required to attend and participate in product user group meetings, relevant sub-committees and other community functions, keeping in mind that international communities may be in different time zones than South Africa.

Minimum requirements

• A Bachelor degree or similar qualification;
• Formal training in requirements analysis, services design, object oriented design;
• Systems Business Analysis experience in the post-secondary education (preferably Higher Education) arena.

Knowledge and skills required

• A passion for client focus and a good user experience;
• Excellent listening and communication skills;
• Having an open mind for fresh, new ideas;
• A good understanding of software implementation life-cycle and knowledge of industry standard methodologies for managing complex implementation projects;
• Business process design principles and concepts;
• Developing application and or data integrations;
• Ability to transform business requirements into workable designs at a functional level;
• Contribute to implementing workable designs on a technical level;
• Assist the technical team with advice on the product design;
• Knowledge of service design concepts;
• Knowledge of service oriented architecture;
• Knowledge of object oriented analysis and design;
• Partner closely with the business and the team to ensure everyone understands the work items in the product backlog;
• Give the team clear guidance on which features to deliver next;
• Prior experience on a project team;
• Exceptional written and oral communication;
• Ability to manage time effectively and work under tight deadlines;
• Adaptable to shifts in prioritization of projects;
• Experience in Scrum methodologies;
• Proficient in speaking and writing English;
• Able to read and understand Afrikaans would be advantageous.