Business Analyst - onsite in Frankfort, KY - SSP

We have a BA position open to join our team in Frankfort, KY. The IT Business Analyst (BA) will assist the Project Manager (PM) in the management of the project work by facilitating communication with the business unit/customer, project team, and other stakeholders as necessary related to requirements and proposed solution for the project. The BA will elicit business requirements (features & user stories) for assigned project requests, and manage the product backlog. For each upcoming sprint, the BA will decompose the user stories to a consumable level that is understood by the developers. The BA will lead the team in the identification of acceptance criteria for the decomposed user stories. The BA will ask business stakeholders probing questions and communicate that information to the development team to ensure they understand the requested work.

The BA is expected to understand the business processes and to use that knowledge to make recommendations for business process improvements as well as improve the value to
the end user and the project.

An ideal candidate will support the Client project management lifecycle by:
Driving the adoption and integration of the BA roles and processes
Assess customers current capabilities and needs and identify potential products as solutions
Act as a liaison between project stakeholders
Identify business needs and drivers of value and success
Work with technical teams to determine and justify a solution approach that maximizes customer value through improvements to workflow, production, efficiency and/or effectiveness
Provide technical and non-technical assistance to the PMO to develop project documentation
Work with project/business stakeholders and/or users to gather, document, vet and validate solution (system and software) requirements
Work with the development team on task creation and estimating
Work with the technical development team to ensure that requirements are effectively implemented
Work with project/business stakeholders and/or users to facilitate user acceptance testing
Work with customer contacts after solution delivery to understand ongoing needs and issues along with associated business drivers, and assist in triaging within Client to engage resources to provide the appropriate response/resolution
Assist the Project Manager with management of the project by owning the analysis and testing components of the project.
Lead the development team through the Working phase of the project by researching and answering questions about the defined work, identified bugs and assisting in technical roadblocks - escalating as defined in the project s technical escalation process.
Create and maintain the testing plan for the project following an iterative development methodology.
Employ an iterative development methodology and lead the effort in defining features, user stories and acceptance criteria.
Manage user story (requirements), use case, and artifact gathering processes and clearly communicate to the business and technical team members what is needed.
Ask probing questions to fully understand user stories with the ability to provide feedback on possible implications of any and all requests.
Accurately and concisely articulate issues, questions, and recommendations to business stakeholders, team members, and management.
Work with the business unit to manage the expectations for project completion.
Understand the as-is and to-be business processes to ensure all parties are working toward the same goal.
Model the expected system interactions, particularly when software is being developed.
Look for gaps in data requirements between what is in place and what is needed.
Model the data requirements or work with the appropriate people to ensure that the data will support the new solution.
Create mock-ups of the new user interfaces as needed.
Support the business unit and development team by discussing business and technical impacts of and dependencies related to priority decisions.
Work closely with stakeholders in developing user scenarios as needed.
Work with continuous improvement in mind in order to identify and document system recommendations for current and future development.
Work with users to update business processes and procedures guidelines.

Minimum Requirements
Bachelor s Degree with a focus in IT or equivalent combination of experience/knowledge
2-3 Years experience working with businesses to identify and document IT needs and facilitate solutions
Experience and comfort with business analysis, requirements definition & vetting
Knowledge of and experience with agile process
Strong analytical, design and problem solving skills
Ability to work independently/self-reliant and show initiative with minimum supervision
Ability to quickly learn new technology and apply appropriately to business situations
Strong team player who enjoys working in a fast paced team atmosphere
Ability to work under pressure; meet strict deadlines
Ability to listen effectively and seek clarification
Ability to build a rapport with clients
Excellent written and oral communication skills in English. Must be able to effectively and comfortably communicate with all types of individuals from the customer technical expert to the customer executive management