Business Analyst Sr

Business Analyst/Child Welfare Expert (Product Owner/Product Manager)

1. REQUIRED AGENCY:

Department of Children and Families

Bureau of Strategic Planning

CTKIND Project

505 Hudson Street

Hartford CT 06106

2. PROJECT/SYSTEM/PROGRAM OVERVIEW

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 CTKIND (Kids Information Network Database) federal reimbursement and to update the technology used by agency staff to promote efficiency and improve family outcomes. The CTKIND 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 CTKIND. This work will allow Connecticut to continue work associated with the states expansion of the human services modernization effort of leveraging technical infrastructure and existing enterprise service infrastructure for integration with CTKIND and the sunsetting 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.

DCF works in collaboration with the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) Bureau of Information Technology Solutions (BITS) who provide technical expertise and services as well as an information systems infrastructure to the agency and its roughly 3000 employees. DCF IS strives to improve continually improving technology services that are costeffective and of the highest effectiveness and quality.

3. 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 CTKIND Project in support of business processes for CTKIND. This will require the candidate to analyze and complete documentation for CTKIND 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:

1. The analysis of business processes and change management and business organizational readiness initiatives to support the development and design of CTKIND.

2. 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.

3. Facilitation of meetings presentations and/or design sessions.

4. 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 proactive and selfdirected. Must be able to perform with minimal supervision.

Must have very strong abstract thinking and problemsolving 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 DCFs 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 webbased 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 businessrelevant conclusions