Job Description

Job Purpose (Job Summary): A Digital Business Analyst is a critical member of the Digital Distribution squads. The Digital Business Analyst (DBA) breaks the mould of what once was thought of as a Systems Business Analyst (SBA) - this is an evolution of the role to the new Agile work we live in. The SBA skills such as adaptability, goal orientation, innovation, leadership, empathy, business orientation and anticipation are no different than that of an DBA but with key differences that gravitate around a mindset shift to a new way of working as follows:

Adaptability

Clearly everyone associated with agile must be adaptable, since that is the essence of agility. However, the adaptability inherent in the agile software engineering approaches is focused on the flexibility required is a natural part of software engineering. The DIGITAL BA is not solely focused on software engineering or defining requirements for engineering teams. The DIGITAL BA defines improvements to business processes, assists decision-makers in gathering information to make decisions, helps quality assurance test solutions and products, designs user interfaces and even steps in as a product owner, scrum master, or project manager as the occasion calls for. The DIGITAL BA may define a set of requirements as a standalone document to outline what must be done by the organization to move to new facilities and then prepare the user stories in a just in time approach for an agile engineering team. The DIGITAL BA is not committed or bound by any specific process (software engineering or other). The DIGITAL BA is committed to solving business problems wherever they occur in the business however they may be solved. Therefore, the DIGITAL BA must be able to adapt to the business process, the software engineering process, or even a lack of process, and to any and all management directives, and not be focused on a single process or framework.

Goal Orientation

The DIGITAL BA's goal is to add value to the organization by solving business problems. While the engineers are focusing on producing new pieces of working software every two weeks, the DIGITAL BA has a focus on the overall problem that will be solved when the entire project is completed. The DIGITAL BA is also the weathervane indicating when a project has outlived its usefulness and is becoming a zombie project. The DIGITAL BA, always having the goal or the solution in front of her, is able to determine whether the project is still on track, the problem can be solved, or the problem has already been solved. This goal orientation is the result of the DIGITAL BA's system thinking capabilities and the business analyst's ability to see the big picture in addition to the detailed tasks necessary to complete the next Sprint.

Innovation

While the solution engineering team is focusing on completing the items on the backlog in a reactionary mode to be sure that software is engineered every two weeks, the DIGITAL BA is looking for new approaches to solving the business problem and improvements to the business processes in which the problem exists. The solution engineering team must follow the dictates of the product owner as reflected by the prioritized product backlog. The DIGITAL BA challenges the business manager, sponsor, problem owner and users to define the real business problem behind the expressed "needs" to ensure that the solution team is solving the right problem, and not providing the right solution to the wrong problem. Innovation requires a modicum of critical thinking that may generate conflict and change, moving people out of comfort zones, and taking risks. Such risks are not commonly undertaken when the driving force is producing releasable software every two weeks and the whole idea of the fixed time box approach to agile software engineering is to create a comfortable rhythm for the engineering team to produce software. Breaking out of this comfort zone is not a desirable activity.

Leadership

The DIGITAL BA is a leader providing solutions to business problems and continuous improvement to the organization. This leadership factor is not achieved through authority, but through influence and through facilitation and communication. The leadership of the business analyst on the agile team is usually focused on the team and the project, and the emphasis in agile approaches is on teamwork rather than individual leadership. While many business analysts see no need to look beyond their immediate project, outstanding ones will always have one eye on the organization they work within. They realize that, in order to make change stick, they need to understand and engage widely across their whole organization. This requires an understanding of the entire system, the ability to deal with power and politics, skills and working across boundaries of culture, and an understanding of both strategy and commercial realities. And this defines the DIGITAL BA

Empathy

Throughout all the DIGITAL BA dealings with the business sponsor, customers, process worker's, users, solution team, technical personnel and upper level management, the DIGITAL BA exhibits empathy and understanding and provides an intermediary who is a mediator, a calming center in the midst of the storm of controversy and confrontation that usually accompanies organizational change. A certain amount of empathy is needed on an agile team in order for it to function as a high-performing team. That empathy does not have to extend much beyond the team since, as defined by the agile frameworks, there is only one business person to talk to who represents the entire business organization. The DIGITAL BA is thinking relationship across organizational boundaries, and indeed outside the organization, empathizing with customers, both internal and external, which includes a wide range of personalities and attitudes.

Business Orientation

The agile software engineering team is focused on the technological issues of producing working software every two weeks. This working software must be oriented toward the business because it must produce value to the business, but many agile teams depend on the Product Owner or similar role to provide the business justification so they can focus on the production of software. The DIGITAL BA is unashamedly business oriented, thinking continuously about what can be done to improve the business, and the business processes which drive the business. The DIGITAL BA is thinking about what the business needs to do to solve the business problems in addition to what the solution team needs to do. The DIGITAL BA is as comfortable talking to senior executives about business matters, the marketplace and competition, as to the engineering team about user stories.

Anticipation

The DIGITAL BA is completely familiar with the problem domain, the business area in which the problem exists and is able to anticipate positive and negative impacts to other areas of the organization. However, the solution should be the best for the whole organization, and not just a particular business area. Therefore the DIGITAL BA has to retain enough independence to evaluate potential solutions based on the overall impact to the organization rather than the influence of the particular business area and its managers. Solving a business problem solely for the business unit might have immediate benefits; solving a business problem from the perspective of the whole organization brings much more lasting value.

In summary, we are transforming the way we operate and to that note, we are looking for a super-strong and super-passionate Digital Business Analyst. One of our main focuses is on a maturing implementation of Adobe Experience Cloud (AEC) - specifically Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), Adobe Campaigns Standard (ACS), Adobe Target (AT) and Adobe Analytics (AA). However, the main scope this role is understanding how to integrate into AEC by providing microservices via enterprise services buses while integrating onto Enterprise Content Services (ECM), Data Fabrics via modern API strategies such as MuleSoft and GraphQL. The Digital Business Analyst is a critical part of this continued transformation.

Key Responsibilities / Duties:

• Provide a Service to the Digital Product Owners as a key partner:

• Ensuring that goals, scope, and product domain are understood by everyone on the Scrum Team as well as possible.
• Finding techniques for effective Product Backlog management.
• Helping the Scrum Team understand the need for clear and concise Product Backlog items.
• Understanding product planning in an empirical environment.
• Ensuring the Product Owner knows how to arrange the Product Backlog to maximise value.
• Understanding and practicing agility.
• Being a proxy for the PO as/when necessary with the potential to grow into the PO role as/if desired
• Provide a Service to the Engineering Team:

• Helping the Development Team to create high-value products.
• Removing impediments to the Development Team's progress alongside the PO and Scrum Master
• Facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed.
• Coaching the Development Team in organizational environments in which Scrum is not yet fully adopted and understood.
• Provide a Service to the Organisation:

• Recognizing the Business Needs
• Analyzing the Business Domain
• Fill & Groom the Product Backlog
• Helps the Team Understand the Big Picture

• Proven experience of working in the Adobe Experience Cloud environment a distinct advantage
• Must have knowledge of and experience of Agile at a deep level.
• Must have proven experience in the areas for Digital Based teams i.e. where the impediments are, where urgency is required, etc.
• Leading and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption.
• Excellent communication skills
• In-Depth Business Knowledge and advantage but with an appetite to learn essential

• Must have strong experience in web development.
• Must have strong experience in ecommerce development.
• Must have strong knowledge of DevOps practices.
• Flexibility & Adaptability
• Knowledge of project management techniques is required (cross-functional experience is highly desirable).
• Experience with structured design, development, and implementation of new and established computing architectures.
• Experience with multiple, diverse technical configurations, technologies, and processing environments.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills, including teamwork, facilitation, and negotiation.
• Communicates IT requirements and guidelines to vendor partners.
• Quickly comprehends the functions and capabilities of new technology.
• Excellent written and oral communications skills.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, Business Information Systems, Engineering or related discipline or equivalent work experience and technical training is required.
• Any SAFe certification (SSM, SASM, SA, SPC, SPMPO) would be an advantage.
• ITIL Foundations certification would be an advantage.

• The position will have the opportunity to leverage flexible working via a hybrid work-from-home and in-office split