Business Analyst - Crown Media (Studio City, CA)

Role

The role of the Business Analyst (BA) is to translate business system and user needs into requirements for designers, developers, engineers, and testers to consume in support of business initiatives, proposed projects, and corporate goals. This includes collecting, analyzing, documenting, communicating business requirements - including defining project scope, documenting business processes, and providing testing support, to achieve business objectives and goals.
The BA must have a solid understanding of the clients existing business processes, the key drivers and measures of success, and the short and long-term direction of the business and related technologies. To that end, the BA will use various requirements elicitation, analyses, and specification verification techniques. Based on the business needs and processes, the BA will collaborate with technology staff to determine if appropriate internal or external solutions currently exist, or whether new solutions are required and feasible.
At various scales ranging from minor defect fixes and enhancements to assistance with development of new applications and implementation of new systems, the BA may work on multiple projects simultaneously. The BA will also be involved in various types of solution approaches (custom development, off the shelf, etc.) and solution domains (business applications, web services, infrastructure, etc.).
The BA is also responsible for generating and compiling reports based on findings, complete with probable causes and possible solutions to systems issues. This individual will apply proven communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills to help maximize the benefit of IT system investments.

Essential Functions

Strategy & Planning

• Meet with decision makers, systems owners, and end-users to define business, financial, and operational requirements, including scope, goals, success criteria, milestones and deliverables.
• Participate in design sessions in prototyping new systems for the purpose of enhancing business processes, operations, information process flow.
• Identify systems and process risks and participate in establishing risk mitigation plans.
• Review and analyze the effectiveness and efficiency of existing applications, systems, processes, and workflows and help develop strategies and policies for improving or further leveraging these systems.
• Proactively identify technology solutions and opportunities that support the business goals and objectives and take a broad perspective to determine how such solutions will impact existing work processes and systems, and how to manage the integration of new systems.
• Participate as needed in IT design reviews to ensure compatibility and interoperability of systems and applications and to ensure that the proposed solution meets user needs and satisfies business objectives and initiatives.
• Assist with estimating resources and participants needed to achieve project goals.
• Participate in drafting and submitting budget proposals.

Liaison

• Help establish a relationship between IT, the business, partners, and vendors, and increase the value realized from IT assets, investments, and capabilities.
• Educate project team members on business unit goals and objectives and educate the business on the value of information technology.
• Continuously seek opportunities to increase client satisfaction, deepen relationships, and effectively manage client expectations.
• Adapt communication skills in order to translate between technical and business language to work collaboratively and negotiate requirements across business units, vendors, stakeholders, and senior management.

Operational Management

• Assess business needs utilizing a structured requirements process (gathering, analyzing, documenting, and managing changes), to understand strengths and weaknesses and to identify opportunities for improvement and determine business priorities.
• Develop a knowledge of capabilities and functions of assigned systems and applications. Use this knowledge to recommend optimal solutions to business requirements that best leverages the product.
• Develop, write, and communicate, business requirements and functional specifications that can be understood by the business, stakeholders, senior management, as well as the solution development and implementation teams.
• Document current and future business processes and models to visually depict sequence of business activities and information flows needed to complete a process.
• Create training and system documentation, conduct training sessions as necessary.
• Participate in post-mortems and recommendations reports.

Testing

• Establish detailed test scripts and validation plans mapped to documented requirements.
• Participate in the testing and validation of business solutions and assist in resolving issues and errors.

Required

• Bachelor's degree in related field from a four-year college or university preferred.
• 3-5 years experience as a business analyst or similar system/business support role.
• Experience with knowledgebase, defect tracking, and requirements related software systems (such as Service Desk Plus, JIRA, etc.)
• Proficient with core software applications, including Microsoft applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio).
• Some experience with design and implementation of technical environments using various technologies and languages.
• Experience in PM and SDLC methodologies, standards, and tools.
• Experience with ITSM and change control principles.
• Ability to understand and communicate/present detailed and advanced business solutions.
• Technically competent with various software and systems, such as Windows OS, networking, Office suite, etc.
• Strong leadership, relationship management, interpersonal, negotiation, and communication skills.
• Keen attention to detail.
• Excellent analytical and creative problem-solving skills.
• Excellent listening, interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills.
• Highly self-motivated and directed.
• Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks while under pressure.
• Strong customer service orientation.
• Experience working individually and, in a team-oriented, collaborative environment.
• Ability to conduct research into systems and application issues and products.
• Must be able to work the occasional evening and weekend for system launches, to accommodate various time zones, or to meet deadlines.
• Some travel may be required for the purpose of offsite training, conferences, and office visits.

Preferred

• Entertainment/Media Industry experience a plus