Feature Analyst (m/f)

Description

• The Feature Analyst is accountable for guiding the clarification of the business requirements, through in-work collaboration with the business stakeholders, and working within the Agile team to ensure these are delivered effectively end-to-end. The Feature Analyst will provide a comprehensive view of the features within an Epic, the functionality required to implement it, and the benefits it delivers to the business. Feature Analysts have broader end-to-end understanding of an Epic/project, can work across multiple Agile teams and Product Owners, and own the process from start to finish, while getting involved at a technical level of implementations

Duties

Responsibilities within the Agile Team

• Collaborate with the Product Owner to create and refine user stories and acceptance criteria
• Participate in PI Planning and create Iteration plans and Team PI Objectives
• Develop and commit to Team PI Objectives and iteration goals
• Estimate the size and complexity of features
• Use pairing and other practices for frequent review
• Determine the technical design in their area of concern, within the architectural guidelines
• Conduct research, design, prototype, and other exploration activities
• Implement and integrate changes in small batches
• Create and test the work products defined by their features
• Test the work products defined by their features
• Support operational business solutions
• Support and/or create the automation necessary to build the continuous delivery pipeline
• Continuously improve the team’s process

Prioritize and Plan work activities within the Agile Team

• Facilitate and participate in discovery/inception workshops to create a shared understanding of user needs and the potential technology solution required to deliver these needs
• Identify user journeys which map out how a user will go through the system
• Work ahead of the team to get clarity on some (not all) requirements before the next iteration
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams comprised of product management, UX, technology, support, testing, and other subject matter experts to gather and analyze functional needs and user story requirements
• Groom user stories through business interviews, workshops or procedures and map user stories ensuring they come together as a cohesive whole
• Provide the Product Owner with key information for prioritization and estimation
• Facilitate and participate in iteration meetings (product backlog grooming, planning meeting, daily stand-up, review meeting, and retrospectives
• Obtain sign-off during iteration review sessions
• Manage the stories, ensuring that all requirements are loaded as stories, and ensuring the stories are assigned to epics
• Support showcasing stories to stakeholders
• Work in collaboration with user experience team to ensure that processes, wireframes and content are optimally intuitive to end-users

Manage the Backlog for the Agile Team

• Ensure that the activities needed to fulfil each item in the backlog are identified, outlined and prioritized before the next sprint
• Identify missing requirements
• Clarify the goals and business value of Minimum Marketable Features/Minimal Viable Products
• Clarify any ambiguity until it is understood by the team
• Review user stories with the Product Owner with a strategic point of view
• Capture and keep the business and data rules up-to-date
• Ensure that where stories are blocked, these stories are prioritized to other iterations and new stories identified to replace them in the current iteration

Test cases for system

• Work with users to develop acceptance criteria or test cases for the system
• Produce acceptance tests from acceptance criteria
• Provide regular feedback by testing the deliverables against a user story’s acceptance criteria
• Provide regular feedback by validating that the product meets the business goals
• Provide support and input into system testing activities including participating in the development of the testing approach, development of test cases as well as the creation of testing scenarios

Collaborate with the team to deliver on backlog

• Wear different hats: designer, tester, facilitator, product owner, etc.
• Create a shared understanding of what the product is supposed to do
• Collaborate with the rest of the agile team to ensure that stories are delivered effectively and quality standards are adhered to
• Collaborate with developers, testers and user experience team to ensure that they are engaged ‘in the work’ to understand business context

Requisites

• Minimum requirements
• Core Competencies
• Critical Thinking
• Problem Solving
• Oral & Written Communication
• Teamwork/Collaboration
• Information Technology Application
• Leadership
• Professionalism/Work Ethic
• Career Management
• Experience/Knowledge & Skills
• Knowledge of Agile methodology
• Understand the impact of features across the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
• Have the relevant technical and business skills to communicate with a variety of stakeholders
• Good understanding and experience of IT terminology and processes
• Ability to prioritize workloads and work with minimum supervision
• Analytical skills for transforming defined business needs into technical requirements
• 3 - 4 years' Business Analysis and Design. Experience with requirements elicitation, gathering, documentation and management
• 3 - 4 years' Business Support. Understanding business needs and be able to analyze requirements
• 3 years' banking experience
• Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or equivalent
• Lean Six Sigma Certification will be an added advantage
• SAFe certification will be an added advantage
• Applicable knowledge of the technologies used by the team will be an added advantage

Notes

• Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted