Job Description
MISSION: The Texas Education Agency (TEA) will improve outcomes for all public-school students in the state by providing leadership, guidance, and support to school systems.
Core Values:
• We are Determined: We are committed and intentional in the pursuit of our main purpose, to improve outcomes for students.
• We are People-Centered: We strive to attract, develop, and retain the most committed talent, representing the diversity of Texas, each contributing to our common vision for students.
• We are Learners: We seek evidence, reflect on success and failure, and try new approaches in the pursuit of excellence for our students.
• We are Servant Leaders: Above all else, we are public servants working to improve opportunities for students and provide support to those who serve them.
The posted salary range budgeted for this position is between $5,521.58 and $7,288.58 monthly. New hires will be typically brought into the agency at a starting salary between the posted minimum and the average pay of employees in their same classification in the Office of Technology unless the average pay exceeds the midpoint for the state position’s classification salary group. Offers will be commensurate with the candidate’s experience and qualifications and will thoughtfully consider internal pay equity for agency staff who perform similar duties and have similar qualifications. The top half of the posted salary range is generally reserved for candidates who far exceed the requirements and qualifications for the role.
POSITION OVERVIEW:
The Senior Business Analyst works on applications that serve teachers and school districts, gather student and school data, manage funding, and provide compliance oversight (such as the Texas Student Data System, Foundation School Funding, and Educator Certification) for all Texas public schools. These applications help TEA improve outcomes for all of Texas’ 5 million plus students. The analyst serves as the conduit between the program/customer community and the software development team. The analyst also supports projects through the software development life cycle, to support the agency initiatives by:
- Reviewing, assessing, and developing business processes
- Assisting with user acceptance testing
- Implementing post-implementation support of systems
- Providing research and special project support to users
Upon establishment of the baseline requirements, the senior business analyst will manage and verify the fulfillment of all these requirements, including post-implementation enhancements. For students to succeed in college, career, or the military, we seek high-performing staff who will increase transparency, fairness, and rigor in district academic and financial performance; ensure compliance; and effectively implement legislation.
Flexible work location within the state of Texas may be considered for qualified candidates.
Please note that a resume, tailored cover letter, and short answer responses are required attachments for applying to this position. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Applicants who are strongly being considered for employment must submit to a national criminal history background check.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:
- Elicitation – Elicits requirements using joint application development (JAD), requirements workshops, interviews, document analysis, storyboards, surveys, site visits, use cases, scenarios, competitive product analysis, and task and workflow analysis.
- Analysis – Uses sophisticated analysis techniques to identify user needs, business processes, pain points, and computer system capabilities to automate or improve existing systems.
- Requirements Writing – Transforms information from elicitation sessions into business requirements and functional requirements, use cases, user stories, and software requirements specifications documents. Uses standard templates and simple, unambiguous, and concise natural language.
- Visual Output – Visually transforms information from elicitation sessions into process flows, context diagrams, UML diagrams, wireframes, and mockups.
- Managing Work – Uses initiative and independent judgment to actively participate in the software development lifecycle, including managing deadlines, following change control procedures, tracking requirement status, coordinating UAT, and maintaining requirement traceability.
Qualifications:
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
Education: Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university
Experience: At least five [5] years of experience as a dedicated business analyst:
• eliciting requirements from interviews with customers
• writing system requirements documents based on the interviews
• leading a complete and detailed analysis of business processes is required.
Substitutions: Each additional year of related experience above the required minimum may substitute for education on a year-for-year basis
OTHER QUALIFICATIONS:
• Share the belief that all Texas students can achieve at high levels and are able to succeed in college, career, or the military
• Senior-level experience with implementing current business analysis practices for elicitation, analysis, specification, verification, and management.
• Advanced writing skills to communicate information effectively to program area customers, managers, and technical staff
• Senior-level interviewing, facilitation, and observation skills for understanding customer needs and building relationships
• Analytical skills to critically evaluate the information gathered from multiple sources, reconcile conflicts, decompose high-level information into details, and abstract up from low-level information to a more general understanding
• Senior-level experience with software development life cycle and systems development life cycle concepts
• Understanding of requirements engineering according to software lifecycle methodologies in a team environment, including Agile
• Experience and skill in analyzing and evaluating complex information technology programs, policies, and issues and developing workable solutions
• Organizational skills to work with the vast array of information gathered during elicitation and analysis and to cope with a rapidly changing environment
• Interpersonal skills to help negotiate priorities and to resolve conflicts among project stakeholders
• Proven experience developing use cases
• Ability to work on multiple projects in parallel and work constructively as part of a team or teams to coordinate with developers and business users to analyze system characteristics
• Ability to verbally communicate technical concepts to professional, non-technical clients or program areas
• Belief that all Texas students can achieve at high levels and are able to succeed in college, career, or the military.
• Business analysis certification from industry standard organizations, such as International Institute of Business Analysis, is beneficial.
As an equal opportunity employer, we hire without consideration to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, disability, age or veteran status, unless an applicant is entitled to the veteran’s preference.
To review the Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) codes from each branch of the U.S. Armed Forces to each job classification series in the State’s Position Classification Plan (provided by the State Auditor’s Office), please access the Military Crosswalk (occupational specialty code) Guide and click on the military “occupational category” that corresponds with the state classification in this job posting title.
This position requires the applicant to meet Agency standards and criteria which may include passing a pre-employment criminal background check, prior to being offered employment by the Agency.
No phone calls or emails, please. Due to the high volume of applications, we do not accept telephone calls and cannot reply to all email inquiries. Only candidates selected for interview will be contacted.