Business Analyst (with experience in life insurance)
Rosebank, Johannesburg

The purpose of the job is to specify and maintain the detailed business requirements to support changes to the service offering and to analyse the performance of current business process models against business operational requirements and specify changes to close the gap in a Lean Agile environment.

Provide vision and direction to the Delivery team and stakeholders throughout the across initiatives and ensure that requirements are aligned and delivered according to the strategic intent.

• Provide leadership to the delivery team – providing vision, direction and a roadmap (to the team and stakeholders) for the product.
• Plan and prioritise the product backlog
• Assess value, develop cases, and prioritise stories, epics and themes to ensure that teams focus on maximum value that aligns with the strategy
• Provide backlog management, prioritisation, planning, and elaboration of the user stories
• Responsible for Stakeholder Management:
• Create and maintain a product backlog according to business value and benefits
• Co-create the release plans with the business and technology teams to manage expectation for delivery of requirements.
• Track release progress with the team and reprioritise work if needed and when required.
• Provide business with visibility of progress towards the release.
• Responsible for negotiating priority and aligning dependencies for the product across teams
• Engage the right business stakeholders and subject matter experts at the right time to provide input or provide feedback on the product.
• Identify & define business requirements for new business models or changes to existing models (including application requirements and any graphical user information (GUI) requirements) - produce the Business Requirements Definition (BRD) & Business Requirements Specification (BRS), prepare business use case diagrams & test cases
• Producing epic hypothesis statements, features and user stories in an agile working environment.
• Analyse & design new business processes & organisational structures to support business requirements
• Create business process models, analyse models & identify variances from operational & performance requirement
• Define & design changes to existing processes as required & ensure integration of changes into process environment and translate into features and stories
• Work with the project manager, architects, & other team members to define non-functional requirements (including metrics & performance goals) for the application
• Participate in transitioning the requirements & use cases to systems analysts & designers, and ensure a clear & complete understanding of the requirements
• Participate in quality management reviews throughout the BCL & SDLC to ensure requirements are fulfilled
• Conduct post implementation reviews to ensure that processes have been successfully implemented, are being adhered to and identify any refinements required.
• Review test approach & test cases to ensure coverage of relevant business scenarios, use cases & functionality defined
• Participate in testing to ensure that business requirements have been met
• As subject matter expert assist with investigations, business impact & benefits analysis, & updates of the business case

Qualifications, Experience, Knowledge and Skills

• Accredited, relevant Degree or Diploma
• Business Analysis qualification or equivalent
• 3 years Business Analyses (BA) related experience
• 3 years knowledge / experience within the Life Assurance industry (or broader Financial Services industry)
• Relevant Agile certification will be advantageous
• Previous Project Management experience will be to the candidate’s advantage
• Understanding of /experience with analyses methodologies, process disciplines, BCL & SDLC methodologies (Waterfall & Agile)
• In-depth knowledge of Agile process and principles (preferable CSM / CSPO accreditation)
• Outstanding communication, presentation and leadership skills
• Knowledge of business & understanding of IT & ability to converse in both domains
• Relationship development
• Changes to existing (even substantial) process changes & business initiatives
• Application of Project Management principles - coordination, consultation, facilitation and delivery of operational / strategic initiatives an advantage.
• Computer literacy (MS Word and Excel and MS Visio)
• Client journey mapping will be advantageous
• Sound knowledge of writing effective stories and the application of the appropriate agile techniques