Business Analyst

BACKGROUND/PROBLEM STATEMENT

OCYF has a specific need for highly skilled staff augmentation to assist in supporting the transition to a new statewide Child Welfare Case Management System (CW CM). This project is in alignment with the Governor’s Executive Order issued on July 31, 2019 to procure a statewide child welfare case management system. Current IT and data management systems must be supported until they are replaced in full by the future CW CM. OCYF expects to deploy the full CW CM solution in a modular fashion, with discovery for the first module beginning in summer of 2025. OCYF is also expected to engage in activities such as data clean-up and conversion, discovery, system design/configuration, etc. as part of this project.    

OVERSITE/CONTRACTOR MONITORING

The Office of Children, Youth and Families, Systems and Data Management Division will oversee the work assignment.

TRAVEL

IT System planning, implementation and testing activities for current applications and the CW CM may require travel outside the Harrisburg area. OCYF provides assistance to the 67 County Children and Youth Agencies (CCYA) and four OCYF Regional Offices in Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Scranton.

CONTRACTOR REQUIREMENTS

1.  Points of contact

2.     Criminal History Background Check

3.     Child Abuse History Clearance

4.     Security access

OBJECTIVES OF ENGAGEMENT

The contractor’s primary responsibilities will be to support the Systems and Data Management Team, as well as relevant subject matter experts for the future Child Welfare Case Management (CW CM) System. As part of this work, this contractor will also assist the Systems and Data Management Division as needed to manage functionality of IT and/or Data Management systems which are currently overseen by this unit, and are anticipated to become part of the future CW CM solution. This includes but is not limited to, the Chile Welfare Information System (CWIS), the data collection system utilized for providing data for the Federal Adoption and Foster Care Reporting System (AFCARS) requirements, and the Title IV-E QA Invoicing System. The contractor is responsible for supporting subject matter experts in development user requirements, reviewing project deliverable and performing user acceptance testing as it pertains to legacy systems and the future CW CM system, as a thorough understanding of the current IT systems that will be replaced by CW CM will be essential to the success of the CW CM effort.

 TASKS TO BE PERFORMED

 Specific tasks for the contractor are:

1. Plan, organize, prioritize, and manage multiple initiatives as requested, across the OCYF project team.
   
2. Manages submission and tracking of system defects and change requests related to assigned system components.
   
3. Manages processes and timelines in a manner necessary to meet program office specifications, and/or state or federal compliance requirements.
   
4. Provides regular status reports for projects and/or tasks as assigned.  
   
5. Manages work associated with addressing data quality needs identified by the program office, federal compliance needs, and/or those identified within the CCWIS data quality plan.
   
6. Reviews user requirements/user stories and functional specifications for system development, enhancements or configuration and supports associated system user acceptance testing, deployment, problem resolution, and end-user support activities.
   
7. Responsible for compliance with standards and procedures specific to assigned initiatives.
   
8. Manage and track progress against the project schedule and scope.
   
9. Anticipate issues and proactively address them. Identify and track issues, and report issues using the appropriate chain of command.
   
10. Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders and customer representatives.
    
11. Provide support to business operations and end users for OCYF and/or DHS software applications regarding business operations and technical issue evaluations and resolutions.
    
12. Investigates and resolves business operational and software issues identified and reported by users.
    
13. Communicate effectively with customers, stakeholders and software / hardware suppliers supporting the commonwealth as appropriate.
    
14. Establishes and maintains effective working relationships with the network of county children and youth agencies, other Department staff, and other contractors.
    
15. Uses Microsoft programs (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook) for documentation and communication purposes. Uses Team Foundation Server (TFS), Microsoft Azure (projects currently managed using TFS are anticipated to be migrated to Azure in the near future), and Microsoft Test Manager (MTM). 
    
16. Conducts meetings and/or follow-up sessions with stakeholders as needed in order to gain necessary detailed understanding of relevant business processes.
    
17. Able to use the Commonwealth Service Now incident reporting system for incident and request tracking and processing.
    
18. Maintain a comprehensive understanding of current Federal Reporting requirements relevant to assigned tasks.
    
19. Able to assist with data management related tasks as needed (data quality, data conversion, etc.)
    
20. Able to lead/facilitate meetings or workgroups in-person and/or virtually as assigned.
    
21. Able to develop and facilitate presentations in-person and/or virtually as assigned.
    
22. Able to develop responses to public/media/stakeholder/federal inquiries as assigned.
    
23. Able to work in a team environment.
    
24. Travels as needed.
    

CONTRACTOR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS

·       Knowledge of data processing and analysis.

• 7 years’ knowledge of business analysis process, principles, practices, and techniques.
  
• Knowledge of software development lifecycle with focus on the user requirements and UAT. 
  
• Contractor must have excellent written and verbal communication skills and must be capable of communicating highly complex and technical concepts to a broad variety of individuals, many of whom do not possess technical knowledge.
  
• Contractor must demonstrate good interpersonal skills and the ability to work with diverse user groups.
  
• Contractor must have the ability to remain flexible and to learn new processes, as the contractor may be shifted between the systems versus data management units as needed in order to support the needs of the project.
  

·        Contractor must be fluent in English and be able to be clearly understood over the phone and in writing.

• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships.
  
• Highly Desired – 2 years’ experience performing similar work in the Child Welfare or other Human Services Field.