Senior Business Analyst

Methods Business and Digital Technology Limited Methods is a £100M+ IT Services Consultancy who has partnered with a range of central government departments and agencies to transform the way the public sector operates in the UK. Established over 30 years ago and UK-based, we apply our skills in transformation, delivery, and collaboration from across the Methods Group, to create end-to-end business and technical solutions that are people-centred, safe, and designed for the future. Our human touch sets us apart from other consultancies, system integrators and software houses - with people, technology, and data at the heart of who we are, we believe in creating value and sustainability through everything we do for our clients, staff, communities, and the planet. We support our clients in the success of their projects while working collaboratively to share skill sets and solve problems. At Methods we have fun while working hard; we are not afraid of making mistakes and learning from them. Predominantly focused on the public-sector, Methods is now building a significant private sector client portfolio. Methods was acquired by the Alten Group in early 2022. Requirements The Senior Business Analyst will typically play a leading role in a DDaT multidisciplinary team, within agile and waterfall project environments. They will apply analytical and problem-solving tools to assess situations and understand problems, eliciting, analysing, validating, and gaining consensus on business requirements and user stories. The role will involve leading business analysts in small to medium sized projects and supporting the analysis of more complex transformations. They will be responsible for leading a variety of business analysis tasks, working independently to deliver the required outputs, manging stakeholder relationships, and developing others through sharing best practice and mentoring.   The ideal candidate will have experience applying business analysis skills in digital transformations across a number of different styles of transformation.  They will have experience and knowledge underpinned by the tailored use of several frameworks and methodologies to perform as an effective analyst. They will understand the UK public services landscape, with knowledge in one or more sectors. In addition to business analysis skills, they will have experience in how emerging technologies and innovation can benefit the delivery of improved public services.   The role will be home based and will include work on client sites.  It is expected that the Senior Business Analyst will quickly acquire an understanding of Methods Portfolio offering to work effectively for our clients. The role will support the development of our Business Analysis Service and Community of Practice.   The Senior Business Analyst will have the following responsibilities: - Analyse and understand complex user and business needs, including where material is conflicting and drawn from multiple sources - Map complex processes and information flows into appropriate artefacts for communication with both stakeholders and the team - Translate user needs into system functionality requirements - Understand the internal and external situation and environment, eliciting and managing any non-functional requirements. - Track, review and manage requirements with appropriate stakeholders to maintain records of traceability and prioritisation. - Negotiate with and persuade stakeholders with a balanced consultative approach to ensure that the principles of user centred design are balanced against service requirements. - Write clear and concise user stories with clear and testable acceptance criteria. - Contributing to Methods Business Analysis Community of Practice and mentoring other business analysts Essential Skills and Experience: - Extensive Business Analysis or relevant knowledge gained from recognised bodies (BCS, BABOK, Agile PO). - Leading the analysis as part of a multi-disciplinary team. - Demonstrably able to select the appropriate business modelling techniques that are most effective to help people understand the situations, problems, and solutions. - Can recommend and influence improvements to business structures, processes and information flows supported appropriately with automation and technology. - Breadth of effective techniques to define and manage requirements, prioritisation, and scope with others in a range of different types of change methodologies and situations. - Defining or selecting standards and applying appropriate techniques to elicit and document requirements. - Managing traceability of, change to and the refinement of requirements, identifying issues and omissions and managing escalations. - Leading work that delivers effectively and efficiently in fast paced environments, in agile and waterfall project methodologies. - Extensive experience of working in different project methodologies and awareness of how to adapt their practice. - Excellent stakeholder management to understand objectives and resolve tension and conflict. - Good problem solving and analytical skills, including the ability to create clear observations, analysis and conclusions based on customer interviews, published requirements and data. - A confident written and verbal communicator. - Pro-active approach to personal and professional development, and mentoring of others in Business Analysis Best practice   Desirable Skills & Experience: - Practical experience and knowledge of Lean practices. - Systems Thinking. - Understanding of public services and technology marketplace with knowledge of products, platforms and emerging technologies. - Knowledge of Business Architecture (TOGAF, BIZBOK). - Specialist knowledge in a business domain or other digital specialism. - Specialist knowledge in security, data and privacy. - Knowledge and understanding of GDS Service Standards. - Knowledge and understanding of software development lifecycles. - Experience in managing story development in tools such as JIRA, Azure DevOps or similar. - Experience in collaborative and remote tooling (Teams, Slack, MIRO, Mural). - Ability to understand complex financial issues combined with deep analytical skills. - Experience of working in scrum environments with team definitions of ready and done. - Experience of working with APIs e.g. specifying API requirements / payloads, testing APIs - Experience of data modelling. Specifically, the ability to understand, create and update Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERDs). Experience of working with logical data models (LDMs). - Good understanding of data catalogues i.e. populating, maintaining them. - Excellent communication skills with the ability to liaise between multiple product teams and relay clients' data needs. - Knowledge on implementation of Housing Management systems. Am I the right fit? We're looking for: - Resilience - Strong collaboration and team working - Good Communication skills - Genuine passion/commitment to improving public services - A determined and tenacious approach to work - A creative approach to problem solving - Good listening and comprehension - Great stakeholder management Benefits Benefits Methods is passionate about its people; we want our colleagues to develop the things they are good at and enjoy. By joining us you can expect: ·        Autonomy to develop and grow your skills and experience ·        Be part of exciting project work that is making a difference in society ·        Strong, inspiring, and thought-provoking leadership ·        A supportive and collaborative environment   As well as this we offer: Development – access to LinkedIn Learning, a management development programme, and training Wellness – 24/7 confidential employee assistance programme Flexible Working – including home working and part time Social – office parties, breakfast Tuesdays, monthly pizza Thursdays, Thirsty Thursdays, and commitment to charitable causes Time Off – 25 days of annual leave a year, plus bank holidays, with the option to buy 5 extra days each year Volunteering – 2 paid days per year to volunteer in our local communities or within a charity organisation Pension – Salary Exchange Scheme with 4% employer contribution and 5% employee contribution Life Assurance – of 4 times base salary Private Medical Insurance – which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included) Worldwide Travel Insurance – which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included) Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Pay Travel – season ticket loan, cycle to work scheme   For a full list of benefits please visit our website (www.methods.co.uk/careers/benefits)