Senior Business Analyst

Job description

Interfaces with client and internal business teams regarding business problems, issues and opportunities in the context of business requirements throughout the delivery lifecycle. Analyzes business information, translates requirements into functional specifications and champions client and/or internal business needs while balancing climate, priorities, capabilities and constraints of client and Acxiom environments.

JOB ROLE SUMMARY

Interfaces with client and internal business teams regarding business problems, issues and opportunities in the context of business requirements throughout the delivery lifecycle. Analyzes business information, translates requirements into functional specifications and champions client and/or internal business needs while balancing climate, priorities, capabilities and constraints of client and Acxiom environments.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

+ Utilizes expertise to lead project teams to select the approach that best fit requirement initiative needs, and obtains stakeholder and project team buy-in to the approach selected. Able to determine how and when to modify a selected approach as necessary in order to apply an appropriate level of rigor.

+ Effectively manages internal and external stakeholder relationships and expectations, keeping them engaged, responsive, and proactive in working toward project goals and objectives.

+ Recognizes opportunities beyond the underlying business needs and issues, consulting the stakeholders in exploring these areas of opportunities.

+ Establishes metrics and measurements to track, assess, and report on the quality of business analysis work, to help identify opportunities for improvement and possible solutions within the Requirements Management practices and processes.

+ Able to conceptualize a recommended solution, enabling stakeholders to understand the new capabilities, boundaries, dependencies, constraints, and assumptions from a business perspective. Collaborates with the Solution Architect to validate solution also meets the client's technical needs.

+ Understands the business architecture (structure, people, processes, technology) that supports an organization's strategy, and can assess enterprise business capabilities and gaps that may prevent the organization from achieving desired outcomes.

MENTOR: Consistently provides proven, formal mentorship. High complexity assignments - owner. Moderate complexity assignments - owner (1 or >) Low complexity assignments - provide oversight/review. Regularly leads self and others and/or established as SME and/or established as specialist. Understands how whole picture aligns to overall Acxiom strategy.

PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: Develops, maintains and demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of clients' and Acxiom's technical and business environments. Considered necessary by the customer to their business success. Considered extremely knowledgable on use of Acxiom Delivery Methodology Requirements Engineering and Change Management procedures. Considered extremely knowledgable on Acxiom organization structure and culture and typical Delivery Tools. Considered knowledgeable of Acxiom products, services, and solutions. Ongoing Certified Business Analysis Professional Certification requirements to maintain certification. High level understanding of typical industry process certifications or methods (ISO, CMMI, LEAN, etc.)

REQUIREMENTS PLANNING AND ELICITATION: Identifies requirements scope and deliverables and plans for requirements gathering accordingly. Determines and utilizes appropriate requirements elicitation and management techniques based on scope and nature of project. Forms and presents probing questions to elicit information necessary to define requirements. Identifies and accurately captures information pertinent to solution requirements. Determines when and how to modify approach and/or use alternative elicitation techniques. Effectively describes the importance and value of requirements elicitation process mapping, JAD sessions, use cases, storyboards, prototyping, etc. Leads internal knowledge sharing discussions related to requirements planning and elicitation. Develops and assists in implementation of process improvements related to requirements planning and elicitation techniques, Provides mentorship to BAs and Jr Bas. Engages on Projects with Project Complexity = 4-5

REQUIREMENTS WRITING AND MANAGEMENT: Self-directed during requirements management and/or documentation. Organizes and synthesizes complex information to formulate business, functional, and non-functional requirements. Documents requirements into an accurate, clear, concise, comprehensive, and cohesive work package. Ensures functional requirements address the business needs. Appropriately prioritizes requirements based on factors such as business value, cost to deliver and time constraints. Presents requirements in an understandable format to validate with stakeholders. Provides mentoring to peers, BAs and Jr BAs. Reviews Requirements Documents written by peers, BAs and Jr Bas. * Coordinates contributions to ongoing improvement of requirements standards, reusable requirements and requirements management techniques.

MEETING MANAGEMENT: Prepares agenda and materials to ensure meetings are effective. Facilitates meetings and communicates effectively. Uses proficient meeting management skills to keep discussions focused and organized. Identifies areas of common agreement and use negotiation skills to reach agreement in areas of conflict. Recognizes subjects which have political implications and uses politically sensitive approach to discuss such subjects. Mentors BAs and Jr BAs on meeting management.

BUSINESS AND SOLUTION CONSULTING: Understands client's business issues and goals related to marketing databases/solutions and makes recommendations related to new/enhanced solution. Frequently recognizes opportunities beyond the underlying business needs and issues, and consults the stakeholders in exploring these opportunities. Able to conceptualize a solution and enable stakeholders to understand the solution's capabilities, boundaries, dependencies, constraints, and assumptions from a business perspective. The associate is expected to be able to frequently interface with upper-level internal or client stakeholders and communicate effectively. Contributes to creation of tools and templates to support BAs in being more consultative. Mentors BAs and Jr BAs on business and solution consulting.

BUSINESS ANALYSIS: Understands and effectively utilizes appropriate business analysis techniques to organize and synthesize large amounts of information into a simplified view. Captures and illustrates stakeholder desires and/or current state using a combination of textual formats, models, diagrams, and matrices. Ensures business goals are aligned to the underlying business needs and identifies gaps that may prevent the business from reaching goals. Evaluates business processes based on a "big picture" view while also understanding the details related to each process step. Demonstrates broad understanding of general business functions and the relationships between them; broad knowledge of marketing is desired. Identifies and defines key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure business operations.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

This position does not have direct reports but may mentor less experienced associates in the role.

RECRUITING INFORMATION

Specific hiring needs may vary by location, industry, client, internal department and other business related factors. The qualifications section lists examples that may be used as guidance when populating required and preferred skills sections of recruiting requisitions / job postings.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

+ None

Preferred

+ Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 3 years and a Master's degree; or equivalent work experience

+ Bachelors Degree Desired

+ Certified Business Analysis Professional Certification and requirements to maintain certification

_Any reference to years of experience should be disregarded in the UK_

**Primary Location City/State:**

Homebased - Conway, Arkansas

**Additional Locations (if applicable):**

Acxiom is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer (AA/EOE/W/M/Vet/Disabled) and does not discriminate in recruiting, hiring, training, promotion or other employment of associates or the awarding of subcontracts because of a person's race, color, sex, age, religion, national origin, protected veteran, military status, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetics or other protected status.

Who is Acxiom?

We are leaders in helping brands achieve the number one mantra for every business - know your customer. For fifty years, we've helped marketers deal with a fast-changing future of growing channels, data and technology. By understanding the customer, marketers can communicate with relevance everywhere and drive better customer experiences that build a better brand and, in turn, better business.

We're one of the marketing industry's most experienced, respected and forward-thinking leaders. For nearly fifty years, we've helped the world's best marketers understand their customers so that they can reach people with relevance rather than randomness. Our products and solutions form the data foundation that make it possible for marketers to drive better customer experiences and meaningful interactions at scale across every channel.

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