Business Analyst

Must be within 1.5 hours of Harrisburg, PA, as they must be onsite at times.

The Bureau of Medical Marijuana (BMM) is currently working with a vendor to implement an Enterprise Licensing System (ELS). The ELS system is an enterprise-wide system where licensing, permitting and certifying functions of various Commonwealth Departments will be located. BMM is currently using paper-based, Access-based, and Excel-based methods to track the work of facility permitting. ELS will take current facility permitting functions and automate them for more efficient and accurate tracking and completion of permitting functions.
BMM needs an IT Business Analyst (BA) to lead the technical effort for our Enterprise Licensing System (ELS) implementation. This effort includes developing user stories; coordinating user testing; developing staff training materials; delivering staff training in virtual and real-world enviroments; working with internal and external teams on ELS system fixes; developing workflows for future ELS enhancements; and providing IT support for BMM ELS users.
Additionally, BMM's staff BA is currently deployed oversees until approximately October 2024. BMM needs a short-term BA contractor to fill in for projects until the staff BA returns. Those projects include support for digital accessibility of BMM website and web-based patient and care giver identity card applications. The BA would assist with SharePoint site management and potential conversion of existing BMM share drive files to SharePoint. The BA will also provide technical advice as needed on IT-related projects if necessary.
In addition to these duties, this person will also assist BMM in supporting its Seed-to-Sale and Registry applications as needed. BMM's primary resource for providing these services has indicated a desire to scale back hours in the coming months, and the BA will assist the support team in maintenance and operations functions. Anticipated duties for this effort include preparing analytical reports, resolving basic system issues identified via error queues, and assisting with daily system support tasks. Furthermore, with the Seed-to-Sale RFP scheduled for release and award, the BA position will be needed to aid in the transition. Anticipated duties for this effort include managing system documentation (requirements, specifications, defects, change orders, etc.), preparing test scripts, conducting pre- and post-production testing, and developing user training.
INCURRING COSTS:
• DOH is not responsible for any costs or expenses incurred by the service providers in the preparation of their quotes.
• The DOH is not responsible for any costs or expenses incurred by the contractor for parking.
• The HHS DC is not responsible for any costs or expenses incurred by the contractor for the carrying out of assigned duties.
• The DOH is not responsible for the costs or expenses related to Teleworking (working from home).

RESOURCES:

Telework (vi Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection) is permitted but office space for the contractor will be provided by the DOH. The HHS DC PMO area will also have "hoteling space" available at 2525 North Seventh Street, Third Floor in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. As requested by PMO Management and/or BMM Management, staff could be required to regularly report onsite for work. Based on the needs/requests from the PMO and/or Program area the contractor may be required to be physically present in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

DOH will supply all necessary hardware, software, network connection, and VPN necessary to complete all assigned work, as needed.

OBJECTIVES OF ENGAGEMENT:

The primary objective of this engagement is to serve as an IT Business Analyst for OMM projects. The individual will need to:
• Plan and facilitate requirement sessions with stakeholders to understand and capture requirements based on enhancement request.
• Comfortable working with various stakeholders which includes internal and external stakeholders.
• Possess strong analytical, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Produce all necessary deliverables and artifacts as defined by the project.
• Plan and facilitate other project related meetings as needed.
• Serve as the liaison between the technical teams and the stakeholders during the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
• Ability to drive the process forward and ensure all risks and issues are escalated appropriately.
• Possess strong understanding of IT Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK).

The IT Business Analyst 3 is a senior level resource with specialized knowledge and experience in requirements analysis and documentation, test case planning and testing, coordinating communications and project tasks, while acting as liaison between customer program areas and IT teams. This position will work with business analysts, application developers, and DBAs to achieve project objectives - delivery dates, cost objectives, quality objectives, and program area customer satisfaction objectives. The position is responsible for:
• Drive identification of requirements across business units and identify substandard systems processes through evaluation of real-time data.
• Construct workflow charts and diagrams; studying system capabilities and writing specifications.
• Serve as thought leader for technical business processes, developing forward-thinking systems prototypes that promote increased efficiency and productivity on multiple levels.
• Perform, evaluate, and communicate thorough quality assurance at every stage of systems development.
• Determine and develop user requirements for systems in production, to ensure maximum usability.
• Work with testing team to provide SME inputs to the testers and assist in testing when needed.
• Assist with development of training documentation and prepare for and/or conduct training when needed.
• Maintain documentation on project SharePoint site.
• Complete weekly timesheet reporting in VectorVMS by close of business (COB) Friday.
• Provide weekly personal status reporting by COB Friday.

OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

The primary objective of this engagement is to work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to understand the structure, policies, and operations of the organization, and to recommend solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals. Requirements for the position are listed below:
• Experience conducting Facilitated Workshops for requirements analysis.
• Experience creating workflows using formal notation such as the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN).
• Knowledge of formal requirements gathering methodologies.
• Experience developing Business Requirements - project initiation document, what the needed achievements will be, and the quality measures.
• Experience developing Functional requirements - describe what the system, process, or product/service must do in order to fulfill the business requirements.
• Experience developing User (stakeholder) requirements - are a very important part of the deliverables, the needs of the stakeholders will have to be correctly interpreted. This deliverable can also reflect how the product will be designed, developed, and define how test cases must be formulated.
• Experience developing Quality-of-service (QoS) (non-functional) requirements - re requirements that do not perform a specific function for the business requirement but are needed to support the functionality. For example: performance, scalability, QoS, security and usability.
• Experience developing Report Specifications - define the purpose of a report, its justification, attributes and columns, owners, and runtime parameters.
• Experience developing Requirements Traceability Matrix - a cross matrix for recording the requirements through each stage of the requirements gathering process.
• Strong organization and writing skills.
• Experience developing graphic representations of complex business processes.
• Ability to analyze data and perform statistical analysis.
• Knowledge and familiarity using Microsoft Office, Microsoft Visio, software design tools and structured query language (SQL) queries and tools.

CONTRACTOR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS:
• Seven (7) plus years of relevant experience working closely with stakeholders directly engaged with technical initiatives working with a large complement of team members throughout the various IT areas, technical complexity, and vendor involvement.
• A four (4) year college degree or equivalent.
• IT Analyst certification through the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) is preferred.
• The ability for the contractor to ramp up quickly and perform independently is essential.