Distribution Change Analyst - BA
Team overview
As Distribution builds out its operational, change and middle office functions, the Distribution Change team has been established to focus on the definition and delivery of change across the Division. Focusing mostly on cross-organisational and cross-regional change, this group reports to the Distribution COO and partners with Distribution stakeholders and Distribution Technology to ensure that:
• The Distribution change portfolio is aligned to divisional strategy
• Change initiatives are appropriately prioritised, managed and governed
• Resources working on projects are appropriately skilled and equipped (including in their use of appropriate best practice tools and methods)
• The broader divisional stakeholders are skilled and equipped to manage change
Key responsibilities
As a Change/Business Analyst within the Change team, you will be responsible for defining operating models and requirements and delivering improvements to Distribution’s operational platforms. Distribution incorporates Sales, Business Development and Client Servicing.
In late 2016 Schroders implemented a bespoke agile operating model based on the SAFe methodology and as a result, large programmes of work are now managed differently. Projects have been mostly replaced by Epics which are similar to projects in that they describe the business outcome resulting from a series of change activities. Epics are broken down into smaller features which are delivered by individual, capability-aligned, agile teams. Change Managers and Analysts take a holistic view of an Epic and manage the non-technology aspects of the change.
General business analysis and change support
• Support internal business customers at Schroders to help manage large scale change by performing analysis, contributing to drafting the business case and coordinating delivery of multiple features by a number of capability-aligned agile teams.
• Provide business analysis and project management to ensure effective delivery (as measured by time, cost and quality) of agreed projects/epics, covering activities such as:
- Impact assessment of changes
- Analysis and documentation of requirements
- Identification and analysis of solutions
- Design of the implementation of process and organisational changes
- Specification and development of test scenarios and testing support
- Operational readiness planning
- Post go-live support to business teams
Epic analysis and epic ownership
• Responsible for supporting Epic sponsors in preparing the business case
• Responsible and accountable for high level analysis of proposed epics to identify scope, size and value of Epics and work with Capability Owners and Leads to break Epics down into Features
• Assist Capability Owners and Managers in preparing user stories
• Responsible for maintaining relationships with vendors and other parties and ensuring alignment with Global Technology agile teams where necessary
• Responsible for implementing non-technology change (e.g. process, vendor engagement, procurement)
• Responsible for informing and influencing Capability Owners to ensure Epic is prioritised effectively
• Accountable for ensuring that the value of the Epic is realised and de-prioritising further work once value has been delivered
• Contribute to defining and continuously improving best practice for Epic Business Analysis
• Provide input into strategic product selection and target operating model definition
• Help users define user acceptance testing criteria and assist the user testing process
Technical and professional competencies and experience
• Extensive experience (5 years minimum) of working on significant business change projects across both functional and geographic boundaries
• Good understanding of asset / fund management business and processes - basic professional qualifications relating to the asset management industry (such as IMC) are preferred
• Familiar with CRM, marketing, client reporting and client servicing tools
• Experience in re-engineering business processes and successful implementation of new workflows and able to negotiate pragmatic solutions that meet conflicting business requirements
• Good understanding of the processes and methods used to engage teams in preparing for change, e.g. end-to-end model office, UAT, training, business process documentation.
• Experience with the appropriate methods and tools (i.e. workshops, process flows, Visio, BPML) to achieve requirements capture and definition
• Knowledge and experience of delivering change using Agile methodologies, preferably SAFe
General competencies
• Good problem solving skills, able to demonstrate initiative as well as logical, structured thought processes and able to deal with ambiguity and change
• Strong communication and excellent relationship management skills – able to engage with and gain confidence of others and maximise their contribution to the process.
• Confident and capable workstream lead, self-starter and comfortable working independently, but a good collaborator.
• Flexible and adaptable while at the same time maintaining focus and a drive to deliver.