Senior Business Analyst

Senior Business Analyst

Job Summary:

As a Senior Business Analyst, you will play a pivotal role in our Target Operating Model (TOM) Programme and various other initiatives such as Student Experience and Continuous Improvement programmes. Your responsibilities will encompass utilizing high-level analytical, process, and service design skills in a dynamic environment. The ability to operate efficiently under pressure and autonomously is imperative for success in this role. You will collaborate with internal stakeholders, professional service teams, internal IT, and BI resources to contribute to the design of the Target Operating Model and ensure the success of the programme.

Key Responsibilities:

• Guide business users through a structured engagement process to enact necessary changes.
• Undertake Business Analysis tasks and projects, particularly focusing on process mapping and eliciting business and functional requirements through techniques like interactive design sessions, SME Interviews, and requirements workshops.
• Employ various tools and methodologies including Lean, Systems Thinking, Business Analysis, and Business Process Reengineering to identify enhancements in customer experience and cost reduction.
• Review services/processes independently, as part of a team, or leading a workstream.
• Identify and analyse problems and obstacles that may impede the successful adoption of change initiatives.
• Demonstrate experience in implementing operational improvements across public or private sector services industries.
• Articulate complex business problems persuasively across all levels of the organization, bridging the gap between business users and technical design/development teams.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders to elicit, analyse, communicate, and validate requirements and processes.
• Quantify benefits and address issues that could hinder the delivery of business benefits.
• Communicate effectively, analyse situations, and solve problems to ensure the achievement of programme objectives.
• Coordinate with other Business Analysts, Business Architects, and Project Managers to understand and manage project dependencies, plan analysis work, and highlight risks and issues.
• Participate in and facilitate project team and business meetings.
• Enhance client capability through collaborative efforts, training delivery, and coaching/mentoring.

Key Behaviours:

• Punctuality and meeting deadlines.
• Effective communication and networking skills.
• Proficiency in negotiation and influence.
• Ability to plan and organize workload effectively.
• Adaptability to accommodate changes in priorities.
• Promote teamwork and communication among stakeholders.
• Demonstrate respect and dignity towards all individuals.

Key Outputs and Deliverables:

• Assess and report on existing business processes and stakeholder needs.
• Document business processes using recognized modelling notations such as BPMN 2.0.
• Define operational and system requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Analyse workflows and propose strategies to facilitate business processes.
• Clearly define the scope of change, identifying and prioritizing new requirements or change requests.
• Support business users and the testing team during user acceptance testing.
• Produce training needs analyses for selected solutions, including identifying training needs for all stakeholders.

Essential Role Criteria:

• Bachelor's degree or higher education level.
• Relevant professional qualification (e.g., BCS or IIBA Certification, Lean Six Sigma).
• Experience facilitating business and project team workshops.
• Previous work experience in a formal project management and change delivery environment.
• Familiarity with higher education (HE) environment and university operations and processes.
• Broad understanding of technologies and services.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, both written and verbal, along with good presentation skills.
• Strong personal presence, self-awareness, and ability to work independently.
• Extensive experience as a Business Analyst in reshaping business processes.
• Ability to fully comprehend business needs and communicate them succinctly and accurately.
• Experience with application/system development lifecycle.