Product Owner

Job Title: Product Owner / Product Manager (Business Analyst / Child Welfare Expert)

Location: Hartford, CT

Duration: 12 Months

Note: Hybrid Onsite role - Candidate Must be Local

Pay Rate: $60/hr

Job Description:

The Department of Children and Families is in the process of replacing their current system, LINK, in order to comply with the federal rules for a Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) herein referred to as CT-KIND (Kid's Information Network Database), federal reimbursement, and to update the technology used by agency staff to promote efficiency and improve family outcomes. The CT-KIND Project Team is a collaboration of Business, technical and vendor staff who are in the process of system planning, design, development, testing, conversion, implementation, and initial maintenance related to the replacement of LINK with CT-KIND. This work will allow Connecticut to continue work associated with the state's expansion of the human services modernization effort of leveraging technical infrastructure and existing enterprise service infrastructure for integration with CT-KIND, and the sun-setting of LINK. The agency is currently committed to developing the next generation CCWIS and has invested significant resources to ensure that Connecticut has efficient, economic and effective tools to aid our Child Welfare Staff, Providers and the children and families of CT.

The agency exited a federal consent decree in 2022 and there are currently a number of initiatives that will help support sustaining the progress and achievements made by DCF. DCF is shifting to a prevention framework under the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) and has also developed a CT Child Safety Practice Model. The project is using a hybrid version of the Scaled Agile Framework for enterprises (SAFe) agile methodology for development efforts.

SCOPE OF WORK

The candidate will serve in the capacity of a Product Owner/Product Manager (Business Analyst/Child Welfare Expert), collaborating with the technical and business staff on the CT-KIND Project in support of business processes for CT-KIND. This will require the candidate to analyze and complete documentation for CT-KIND in the area of child welfare; work collaboratively with the technical staff, regional and central office staff, and community partners, including the Judicial System; participate in LEAN events to map out business processes to streamline and reduce inefficiencies; assess business readiness and participate in organizational change management activities; coordinate with social work staff for system development and design; assistance with training plans for new development; coordinate closely with internal and external users; and, may assist in testing, training plans, communications and business readiness plans.

The candidate may also be required to analyze and document policy/practice changes and work with the policy and/or change management division at DCF; participate in time studies in preparation for caseload weighting changes in the new system; and, assist in documentation for vendor procurement and federal compliance/reimbursement.

Specifically, the candidate will be responsible for working with the team to ensure any new development meets the business needs and criteria necessary for Child Welfare staff including but not limited to:

The analysis of business processes and change management and business organizational readiness initiatives to support the development and design of CT-KIND.

Working with the project team and sprint teams to fully engage the business partners to ensure a proper business functionality in the new system as a Product Owner/Product Manager.

Facilitation of meetings, presentations and/or design sessions.

Outreach to community partners/providers including data exchanges/interfaces.

Specific Services Required:

In the role of the Child Welfare Expert, the following services are required:

Assistance in the preparation and facilitation of LEAN Events, business process mapping and requirements gathering.

Assistance in developing project documents.

Excellent communication, presentation, collaboration, writing and interpersonal skills.

Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively to deliver business and technical value, including collaboration with community partners/agencies.

Must be very organized, pro-active and self-directed. Must be able to perform with minimal supervision.

Must have very strong abstract thinking and problem-solving skills.

Provide guidance and training to agency staff as needed.

Coordinates with the other project team members on issues dealing with matters that cross domains and have dependencies, and helps define, document and communicate with the entire team.

Interface with the user(s) and sponsor(s) and other stakeholders in order to determine their (evolving) needs.

Reviews documentation and collaborates with development group, Product Owners, System Teams, and stakeholders to ensure best overall documentation is always available.

Generates products such as business cases, feature/requirement documents, user stories, acceptance criteria, lean notes, meeting notes, decisions, action items, risks, presentations, and training materials.

Identifies business trends and needs utilizing real data and staff feedback.

Constantly be on the lookout for ways to improve monitoring, discover issues and deliver better value to the customer.

Communicates key insights and findings to team members.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

For this position, the candidate shares experience and intelligence in the field of child welfare/human services with the team to plan and accomplish goals, elicit customer/business feedback, as well as a participation in trainings. In addition, the agency requires an experienced professional demonstrating the following knowledge and skills:

5+ Years' Experience in Child Welfare or related field

Product Owner and/or Product Manager certification a plus

Knowledge of DCF's mission, policy, practice, state agencies and community partners/service providers

Knowledge of agile development methodologies, including developing acceptance criteria

Knowledge of case management systems and modern web-based capabilities/applications

Knowledge of Business Process Mapping, requirements gathering and documentation processes

Experience in facilitating large groups for presentations, LEAN Events and trainings a plus

Experience in analyzing data to draw business-relevant conclusions

Skill Matrix

Type

Category

Qualification

Competency

Required

Skills

Others

Problem Solving Skills

Proficient (4-6 Years)

No

Skills

Others

Communication skills both verbal and written

Proficient (4-6 Years)

No

Skills

Tools

MicrosoftOffice

Proficient (4-6 Years)

No

Recruiter Details:

Recruiter Name: Rashid at gsksolutions dot com

Contact Number: Eight three two- Two one nine-Three two six three

About GSK Solutions Inc:

GSK Solutions Inc is a leading information technology (IT) Services Company that specializes in providing complete consulting solutions and staff augmentation to its clients. We provide on-time, on-budget, and quality service to our clients and consistently meet their expectations. We are known for our superior execution on a sustained basis.

GSK has been in the business of providing both commercial and custom product development services, including, Information Security, Software Development, Consulting and IT Audit. GSK implements highly critical and time-sensitive projects for their Fortune 500 clients located across the country.