Lead Business Analyst

When appointing to this role the University must ensure that it meets any applicable immigration requirements, including salary thresholds which are applicable to some visas.

Please note, applications will be reviewed as they are received therefore early applications are strongly encouraged.  The advert will be removed once the post is filled.

Introduction

A globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence, a collegiate community of extraordinary people, a unique and historic setting – Durham is a university like no other. We believe that inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham enables Durham people to do outstanding things in the world.

We find it easy to be proud of the extraordinary people we have at Durham. We offer the inspiration, they achieve the outstanding. We invite you to join our fantastic team.

Durham University is committed to promoting equality and diversity

At Durham University, our aim is to create an open and inclusive environment where everyone can reach their full potential and we believe our staff should reflect the diversity of the global community in which we work.  We welcome and encourage applications from members of groups who are under-represented in our work force including people with disabilities, women and black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.

As a University we foster a collegiate community of extraordinary people aligned to the University’s values .  Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) are a key part of the University’s Strategy and a central part of everything we do.  At Durham we actively work towards providing an environment where our staff and students can study, work and live in a community which is supportive and inclusive. It’s important to us that all of our colleagues are aligned to both our values and commitment to EDI.

Durham University’s Athena Swan institutional award recognises and celebrates good practice in recruiting and supporting the development of women. We have also signed up to the Race Equality Charter, a national framework for improving the representation, progression and success of minority ethnic staff and students within higher education.

If you are a candidate with a disability, we are committed to ensuring fair treatment throughout the recruitment process. We will make adjustments to support the interview process wherever it is reasonable to do so and, where successful, reasonable adjustments will be made to support people within their role.

The Department and role purpose 

The Computing and Information Services (CIS) has an annual operational budget in the order of £10m, multi-million pound programmes of change within year, and approximately 185 staff. The Senior Leadership Team report directly to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) with the following portfolios: Strategy and Change; Operations; and Information Systems. CIS provide academic, teaching and administrative services across the organisation that underpin the day-to-day activities of the whole organisation.

Recent infrastructure improvements include investment in a new network backbone, including new cable runs throughout the city to all of the Universities core buildings, network virtualisation, new scalable user facing storage, and a new hosting environment. Corresponding business led investment also continues to be made with a new web programme, training platform, student relationship management system, investment in research administration, and maximising the breadth of opportunities available to the University through Office365, alongside numerous other important initiatives. Investment is aligned to the University’s Digital strategy which seeks to provide a clear vision for how digital services can be an enabler to the overall University strategy and objectives.

CIS is a friendly, but demanding department, where much is expected and can be achieved by competent, self-motivated individuals who are demonstrable in their teamwork ability. 

The Business Analyst takes responsibility for investigative work to determine business requirements and specify effective business processes, through improvements in information systems, information management, practices, procedures, and organisation change. The post holder applies and monitors the use of modelling and analysis tools, methods and standards, giving special consideration to business perspectives. They collaborate with stakeholders at all levels, in the conduct of investigations for strategy studies, business requirements specifications and feasibility studies and prepare business cases which define potential benefits, options for achieving these benefits through development of new or changed processes, and associated business risks. 

Core responsibilities: 

• Recognised professional Business Analyst and service specialist. 
• Plan, coordinate and implement changes to the design and development of service processes, techniques and deliverables for one or more service strands or project streams. 
• Provide specialist expertise and support with complexity of data and information sources, interpretation and analysis. 
• Contribute to development of operational strategy and service activities to ensure excellence in the stakeholder experience. 
• Collect and analyse stakeholder feedback to help define needs and requirements and the design and planning of services. 
• Internal and external relationship development and partnership working, networking and participation to engage and influence future services and the University reputation. 
• Identify and design activities to meet business analysis objectives and outcomes. 
• Maintain an awareness of current policy for University business goals such as widening participation and access, and provision of advice using specialist knowledge. 
• Contribute to and lead business meetings, workshops and focus groups at all levels in the University. 

Role responsibilities: 

• Provide internal consultancy for stakeholder service areas and/or processes ensuring a high-quality and timely service to all stakeholders, including prospective, existing and past students and staff. 
• Contribute to operational leadership teams and decision making to shape the nature and level of support services. 
• Analyse business requirements / data and provide reports to Service Heads making recommendations for improvement as appropriate. 
• Provide proactive and comprehensive input and support to Strategic Leads, Head of Services, School and/or Department to achieve strategic and operational priorities. 
• Provide advice to stakeholders in relation to business analysis approach around service / process improvement and requirements management. 
• Ensure the review and improvement of systems, processes and procedures in line with University, School, Department or unit frameworks. 
• Distribute service information and provide advice to stakeholders regarding business analysis approach to process improvement and requirements management. 
• Ensure process and procedures are updated to take account of internal and external changes. 
• Coordinate and oversee business analysis workshops/focus groups and deal with complaints. 
• Provide instruction to stakeholders in relation to business analysis techniques and conventions such as Requirements Management and process improvement. 
• Awareness of the external environment and sector best practice to support high quality services.   
• Eliciting, analysing, validating and managing stakeholder requirements (both functional and non-functional). 
• Stakeholder identification, analysis and selection of appropriate engagement methods to optimise effectiveness of business analysis work. 
• Facilitating Business Process Improvement (BPI) or Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) through process modelling, analysis and proposal of to-be states, contributing to the identification, recording, and measurement of realistic and achievable IT and business benefits presented through benefit maps. 
• Develop of business cases by working collaboratively with stakeholders to ensure strategic alignment, the identification and evaluation of potential solutions, the provision of options appraisals and the validation the recommended solution to address the business requirements. 
• Any other reasonable duties. 

Person specification - skills, knowledge, qualifications and experience required

Essential Criteria

• Excellent oral and written communication skills, proven ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical staff operating at all levels. 
• Very strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to negotiate and to build and maintain good working relationships both internally and externally, up to and including senior management level. 
• Proven IT skills, including use of Microsoft Office, SharePoint, MS Visio (Or other Business Process tools). 
• Educated to degree level (or equivalent experience). 
• Working knowledge of industry standards, techniques and best practice in the field of Business Analysis .
• Practical experience of business analysis methods, tools and techniques in a complex organisation.
• Demonstrable involvement in a business process review that resulted in a change to a key business process.
• Experience of providing specialist advice and guidance to a range of customers and colleagues, including more senior colleagues. 
• Experience of working on projects managed using a recognised project methodology e.g. PRINCE2.
• Participation in a business project feasibility study and compilation of the resulting business case. 
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and critical thinking skills. 
• Works effectively as part of a team or on own initiative, can demonstrate strong leadership skills in leading and facilitating both large and small group activities.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of participation in structured functional and user testing.
• Experience of constructing fully costed Business Cases.
• A recognised professional Business Analyst qualification e.g. BCS International Business Analysis Diploma.
• PRINCE2 accreditation.
• Good IT Knowledge – It is important to know how hard or easy a given requirement is to satisfy, and where requirements bring added risk or complexity.

Recruiting to this post

In order to progress to the assessment stage of the recruitment process, candidates must evidence each of the essential criteria required for the role in the person specification above. It will be at the discretion of the recruiting panel as to whether they will also consider the desirable criteria, but we would urge candidates to provide evidence for all criteria. 

Please note that some criteria will only be considered for those candidates who proceed to the assessment stage.  

How to Apply

We prefer to receive applications online.

Please note that in submitting your application Durham University will be processing your data. We would ask you to consider the relevant University Privacy Statement https://www.dur.ac.uk/ig/dp/privacy/pnjobapplicants/ which provides information on the collation, storing and use of data.

What you are required to submit

• A CV, which evidences your experience, strengths and potential against the criteria set out above.

Please ensure that you submit all documentation listed above or your application cannot proceed to the next stage.  

Contact Information

For further information please contact: Claire Henderson, Head of Project Delivery. Email: [email protected].

We will notify you on the status of your application at various points throughout the selection process, via automated emails from our e-recruitment system.  Please check your spam/junk folder periodically to ensure you receive all emails.