Specialist: Business Analysis - Johannesburg at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

• The PMO requires a Business Analyst to join the BA Capability team to support and assist the team in delivering against the objectives of the BA Capability as well as fulfill a BA role and execute on allocated medium to complex project/s where required.
• As a BA, on projects (BAU or SI) you will act as a liaison between business stakeholders and technical teams to analyse business needs, identify opportunities for improvement and support the delivery of effective solutions. This role requires a solid understanding of business processes, data analysis and requirements gathering, with the ability to contribute to project planning and execution

Job Description

Project Support

• Assist in defining project scope, objectives and deliverables where it doesn’t exist.
• Understand the project scope, objectives and deliverables where this is available.
• Contribute to project planning and scheduling of the analysis tasks.
• Identify potential risks and uncertainties that may impact project success, and support the Project manager to develop mitigation strategies to resolve them
• Help ensure that project milestones and deliverables are achieved on time and within scope.
• Adhoc requests that the project team requires

Stakeholder Management

• Identify project stakeholders and define/understand their roles and responsibilities
• Work closely with business stakeholders to understand their needs, objectives and challenges
• Collaborate with cross functional teams including project managers, developers, change managers, testers and product owners.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders to ensure ongoing alignment and support.
• Facilitate regular status meetings, requirement walkthroughs and feedback sessions.

Requirements Gathering and Analysis

• Conduct stakeholder interviews, workshops and surveys to elicit business requirements.
• Analyse and document current business processes, workflows and systems.
• Translate business needs into detailed functional and non-functional requirements.
• Prioritise requirements based on business value and feasibility.
• Work closely with SME’s to clarify and validate requirements throughout the project lifecycle.

Data Analysis

• Analyse data to identify data sources, data relationships, identify trends, patterns and insights that can inform decision-making and solution design

Documentation and Communication

• Prepare clear and concise documentation including Business Requirements Documents (BRD’s), Functional Requirement Document/Specification (FRD/FRS), use cases, user stories, test cases etc.
• Assist in preparing feasibility studies where required.
• Create process models, data flow diagrams, mockups/prototypes as needed.
• Assist, support and possibly manage the creation of the Target Operating Model based on inputs from various stakeholders across functionalities, integration, processes, data etc.
• Identify gaps between current and desired states of processes, systems, or workflows, and proposing solutions to address them
• Serve as a main point of contact between business and Technical Teams.
• Communicate changes, decisions and updates to the relevant stakeholders in a timely manner.
• Maintain Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM)

Solution Assessment and Validation

• Participate in Solution Design sessions to ensure proposed solutions align with Business Objectives/Benefits.
• Review and validate proposed solutions to ensure they meet the desired requirements.
• Collaborate with architects and technical teams to design solutions that meet business requirements, considering factors such as scalability, security, and usability
• Ensure that proposed solutions align with the organizations strategic goal and technological capabilities and meets the business benefits
• Develop prototypes or proofs of concept to validate proposed solutions and demonstrate their feasibility and functionality to stakeholders, as required by the project
• Assist with the creation of Test Strategies, Test Plans, Test cases and UAT Close Out reports
• Facilitate and support in User Acceptance testing (UAT) to ensure business needs and requirements are met.

Roles and Responsibilities – Business Analyst within a Business Analysis Capability

Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a liaison between business units, other capabilities with PMO, project teams and BA Capability leadership.
• Help stakeholders understand the value of business analysis and structured approaches.

Continuous Improvement and Innovation

• Identify inefficiencies within the Business Analysis Capability and recommend solutions/improvements.
• Champion the adoption of digitization tools, automation or data driven decision making as part of improvements.

Capability Building and Knowledge Sharing

• Participate in training sessions, Centre of Excellence (COE) forums and Community of Practice (COP) knowledge sharing sessions.
• Share lessons learnt, case studies, reusable assets (templates, processes etc.)
• Contribute to mentoring and coaching.

Contribution to Best Practices

• Provide feedback on existing practices and suggest improvements to BA Methodologies, approaches, tools etc.
• Help test and refine new BA techniques, tools or frameworks before they are rolled out.
• Contribute to the knowledge repository i.e. BA capability sharepoint site

Adherence to Standards and Governance

• Apply standardized BA practices, frameworks and templates defined by the Centre of Excellence (COE)
• Ensure quality and consistency in deliverables across initiatives.
• Support compliance with organizational policies and procedures.

Education

Essential

• Matric
• Relevant Degree - Bcom degree Information’s systems or Industrial Engineering
• Certificate or Diploma in Business Analysis

Advantageous Qualification and Certification

• BA qualification from one of the IIBA endorsed educational institutes
• Other Business Analysis related training

Preferred experience

• 2-5 years’ experience in Business Analysis
• Financial Services and Banking exposure would be advantageous

Education

• Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Physical, Mathematical, Computer and Life Sciences (Required)

Date: July 28, 2025