BUSINESS ANALYST, IT STRATEGIC PROJECTS

At McMaster University, our people are our most valuable asset. We strive to attract, develop, and retain talented faculty and staff, and to foster inclusive excellence which values the strengths, perspectives, and contributions of each individual. McMaster’s profile and stature has evolved to one of the Top 70 Universities in the World and we are recognized as Canada’s Most Research Intensive University. McMaster is also recognized as one of the top employers in the Hamilton/Niagara region and has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top Diversity employers for the past 6 years. 

Our University Technology Services team mission is to provide exceptional customer service and a high level of support to the McMaster community. Critical to the success of this role we stand by and value integrity, mutual respect, collaboration and cooperation in support of the University’s IT Strategic Vision of a connected One IT community.   

For more information about UTS, please visit our website https://uts.mcmaster.ca/. 

About the position 

The Business Analyst reports to and works closely with the Manager IT Strategic Project Portfolio Management as a member of the IT Strategy Implementation Team within the office of the Associate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.  This role will be responsible for completing the analysis for Projects and will ensure that a full and robust analysis framework and processes are undertaken to ensure the success of all projects.  

Are you the right candidate? 

This role requires a professional with a demonstrated record of solid Business Analyst experience and skills set and will be responsible for analysis for strategic enterprise level projects identified during the McMaster IT strategic plan and approved through the IT Governance process. The IT Governance process is a framework for aligning IT resources with the strategic direction of the University; ensuring that projects are evaluated against a common framework, a broad group of stakeholders are involved in the proposal and evaluation process and that projects are monitored and measured.  

Key Responsibilities: 

Analysis and Solution Definition 

• Facilitate large group information / requirement gathering sessions, and training workshops. 

• Work closely with business owners to determine business requirements, eliciting requirements through interviews, document analysis, workshops, surveys, business process descriptions, use cases, scenarios, business analysis, and task and work flow analysis. 

• Analyze and critically evaluate information gathered from multiples sources, reconciling conflicts and deconstructing high-level information into details. Translate abstract concepts into concrete ideas that are easily understood by non-specialist audiences  

• Conduct in-depth Interviews with project sponsors to gather their user requirements, identify potential strengths and weaknesses of current solution and environment, and work with a team to provide a solution. 

• Document technical requirements in support of infrastructure technology projects.  

• Current state, future state gap analysis 

• Develop and document business requirements according to standard templates, using natural language. Document business process descriptions and analysis including business rules and workflow. Write business cases. 

• Provide timely and comprehensive reports on institutional business requirements 

Manage Relationships 

• Collaborate with project managers, project team members and sponsors to determine the scope and vision of the project. 

• Liaise with vendors and suppliers in assessing applications and systems under consideration for purchase. 

• BA acts as the conduit between the client community and the development and business process re-engineering team, or vendor through which requirements flow.  

• Provide expertise to clients with respect to the objectives of business process design. 

Organizational Responsibilities 

• Identify project stakeholders and establish user classes and their characteristics. 

• Identify and establish the scope and parameters of requirements analysis on a project-by-project basis to define project impact, outcome criteria, and metrics. 

• Work with stakeholders and the project team to prioritize collected requirements. 

• Review and analyze the effectiveness and efficiency of existing requirement gathering processes. 

• Translate and promote conceptual user requirements into functional requirements that are comprehensible to developers and the project team. 

• Request for Proposal, Request for Information and Request for Quote development (RFP/RFI/RFQ) 

• Communicate changes, enhancements, and modifications of business requirements to project managers, sponsors, and other stakeholders.  

• Complete estimates of time and resources required for the analysis of new processes and implementation. 

• Conduct cost-benefit analysis which may involve complex calculations of service levels and benefits including present value calculations, mean and standard deviation, and estimating business volumes. 

• Support policy creation and policy documentation.  

Technical Recommendations, Training and Systems Testing  

• Develop and conduct peer reviews of business requirements to ensure that the requirement specifications are correctly interpreted. 

• Gather and compile information on hardware and software products that meet predetermined specifications. Analyze and verify requirements for completeness, consistency, comprehensibility, feasibility, and conformity to standards. 

• Provide training to others when new business processes are implemented. 

• Develop prototypes of interfaces and attributes based on user requirements. 

• Lead al types of testing efforts (i.e. System, UAT) 

• Remain current with frequent updates and changes to technology. 

Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Sciences, Business or a related field of study or work experience 

• Preferred: Certifications – CCBA, CBAP in addition to technical certifications from vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco, and ITIL 

• Preferred: Experience working within the Microsoft ecosystem; Microsoft 365 services applications (i.eTeams, Sharepoint) delivery  

• Preferred: Experience in working with policy development and governance  

• 7 years of relevant experience 

• In depth understanding of business process and practice 

• Working knowledge of project management methodology and scheduling techniques 

• Strong documentation development capabilities 

• Comfortable working on multiple concurrent projects at one time 

• Knowledge of commercial information technology standards  

• Use standard analysis techniques for future state, current state and gap analysis   

• Use of testing methodologies (trace, usability) from the business perspective. 

Qualified candidates are encouraged to apply online on the McMaster website. We thank you for your interest; only candidates moving to the interview stage will be contacted.