Business Analyst, Senior

We are the leading provider of professional services to the middle market globally, our purpose is to instill confidence in a world of change, empowering our clients and people to realize their full potential. Our exceptional people are the key to our unrivaled, inclusive culture and talent experience and our ability to be compelling to our clients. You'll find an environment that inspires and empowers you to thrive both personally and professionally. There's no one like you and that's why there's nowhere like RSM.

RSM is looking to add a Senior Business Analyst to our National IT organization. They will work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to elicit, analyze, communicate, and validate requirements for changes to business processes, policies, and information systems. The business analyst's primary responsibility is to understand business problems and opportunities in the context of the requirements and recommend solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals.

Essential Duties

• Requirements Gathering
  • Prepare for and conduct requirements elicitation sessions using a variety of techniques including but not limited to: brainstorming, interviews, surveys, requirements workshops, observation, task and workflow analysis, prototyping, storyboarding, document analysis, interface analysis, and focus group sessions
  • Document elicitation results and validate with stakeholders to ensure stated requirements align with stakeholders' understanding of the requirements.
     
• Requirements Analysis
  • Work with stakeholders, sponsor, and project manager to prioritize requirements and agree on assumptions and constraints
  • Organize, model, and specify requirements with the appropriate level of detail given complexity, risk, and audience
  • Work with stakeholders, sponsor, and project team to verify and validate requirements through review of requirements
     
• Requirements Management & Communication
  • Write requirements specifications according to standard templates, using natural language simply, clearly, unambiguously, and concisely
  • Decompose high-level business and user requirements into functional and nonfunctional requirements, specified in an appropriate level of detail suitable for use by project team members who base their work on the requirements
  • Represent requirements using alternative views (ex. models/diagrams) where appropriate
  • Communicate requirements to ensure all stakeholders have a shared understanding of the solution and to secure approval from stakeholders with the authority to approve
  • Manage issues and changes to baselined requirements by identifying business impact of the changes and through effective application of change control processes and tools
  • Manage traceability of requirements to ensure alignment to project goals and objectives as well as alignment to development and testing plans
  • Manage requirements documentation for reuse
     
• Business Analysis Planning & Monitoring
  • Work with project sponsor, stakeholders and project manager to document the product's vision, and the project's and product's scope
  • Conduct stakeholder analysis to identify any role or system that impacts or is impacted by requirements
  • Work with project sponsor, stakeholders, and project manager to identify appropriate representatives for each user group and discuss their involvement in the requirements process.
  • Determine the best elicitation techniques, requirements deliverables, and amount of time needed from stakeholders based upon knowledge of a given project or product; document that information in a requirements work plan that includes a clear business analysis approach and scope, requirements communication plan, deliverables to be produced, and business analysis tasks to be performed.
     
• Solution Assessment & Validation
  • Works with project team to ensures proposed solutions align with requirements and maximizes value to stakeholders
  • Defines requirements for solutions needed to transition from an existing solution to a new one
  • Define acceptance criteria, perform gap analysis on proposed solutions, and make recommendations
  • Work with project team to evaluate impact of defects and to develop plans for resolution or other mitigation

QUALIFICATIONS

EDUCATION

• Bachelor's degree in related field or equivalent experience.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Proficient in MS Office products such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Visio
• Knowledge of defect tracking processes and tools

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS SPECIFIC TO JOB

• Ability to work in a highly collaborative environment and consult effectively with employees at all levels
• General knowledge of business and IT systems
• Strong attention to detail, motivation, and initiative
• Interviewing skills, to talk with individuals and groups about their needs and ask the right questions to surface essential requirements information
• Listening, observation, and oral communication skills, to understand what people say and to detect what they might be hesitant to say
• Analytical skills, to critically evaluate the information gathered from multiple sources, reconcile conflicts, decompose high-level information into details, abstract up from low-level information to a more general understanding, distinguish solution ideas from requirements, and to distinguish user requests from underlying needs
• Facilitation skills, to lead requirements elicitation workshops
• Organizational skills, to work with the vast array of information gathered during elicitation and analysis and to manage rapidly changing information
• Excellent writing skills, to communicate information effectively to all levels of internal customers and technical staff as well as to external vendors
• Interpersonal skills, to help negotiate priorities and to resolve conflicts among project stakeholders
• Modeling skills, to represent requirements information in graphical forms that augment textual representations
• Time management skills, to manage multiple tasks and responsibilities   

EXPERIENCE

• Minimum of 7 to 10 years of business analysis experience working in a development environment
• Experience with financial systems preferred
• Experience in developing user based applications, GUI, and web based applications
• Knowledge of product management concepts and how enterprise software products are positioned and developed
• Understands project management methodologies
• Experience working with 3rd party and vendor relationships
• Experience with both structured and object oriented analysis techniques
• Proven experience in operational business process improvement
• Knowledge of Six Sigma methodologies and other tools supporting fact based decisions

MANAGEMENT

• Previous experience leading a group of 2-3 business analysts
• May lead a team of business analysts on complex projects or act as a mentor by providing guidance and instruction to other business analysts.
• May be asked to provide performance feedback as team lead

PREFERRED REQUIREMENTS

• Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP)
• Financial services or accounting industry experience

At RSM, we offer a competitive benefits and compensation package for all our people.  We offer flexibility in your schedule, empowering you to balance life's demands, while also maintaining your ability to serve clients.  Learn more about our total rewards at     

RSM does not tolerate discrimination and/or harassment based on race; colour; creed; sincerely held religious beliefs, practices or observances; sex (including pregnancy or disabilities related to nursing); gender (including gender identity and/or gender expression); sexual orientation; HIV Status; national origin; ancestry; familial or marital status; age; physical or mental disability; citizenship; political affiliation; medical condition (including family and medical leave); domestic violence victim status; past, current or prospective service in the Salvadoran Military/Veteran status; pre-disposing genetic characteristics or any other characteristic protected under applicable provincial employment legislation.  

Accommodation for applicants with disabilities is available upon request in connection with the recruitment process and/or employment/partnership. RSM is committed to providing equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities. If you require a reasonable accommodation to complete an application, interview, or otherwise participate in the recruiting process, please send us an email