IT ARCHITECT - BUSINESS ANALYSIS (HITS - IT LIAISON)

Company: City of Houston
Location: Houston
Posted on: March 19, 2023

Job Description:

Applications accepted from: ALL PERSONSJob Classification: IT ARCHITECT - BUSINESS ANALYSIS (HITS - IT LIAISON)Posting Number: 29586Department: Houston Information Technology Services (HITS)Division: Project Management Office Reporting Location: 611 Walker St. Houston TX 77002 Workdays & Hours: MONDAY - FRIDAY 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Subject to Change DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES / ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONSThe purpose of this position is to establish and maintain business relationship with Houston Information Technology Services (HITS) customers. The position works with the customer's leadership to understand their business needs and challenges and leverage that information to identify how to integrate technology to achieve customer's goals. The position helps to ensure that technology services provided to the customer align with their overall business strategy. The IT Liaison provides direction and guidance to business partners to enable the best information technology (IT) solutions that meet the business needs. The position bridges the gap between business partners and technology solution providers. RESPONSIBILITIESSTRATEGY: Partners with business leadership to plan new initiatives, evaluate proposals, and determine how they fit into business capability roadmaps and priorities. Focuses on business value rather than solutions to develop ideas, including digital awareness, risk assessments, business continuity, and business capability requirements. Aligns overall HITS strategic plan and customer's technology roadmap. Identifies HITS service catalogue items that the customer can leverage to address existing business needs. Provides business case and rationale to customer leveraging HITS service catalogue to address needs. Assists business leaders and enables them to articulate their function's (i.e., technology, people, etc.) needs and requirements that will advance business objectives. Identify change management associated with technology initiatives to ensure effective business transformation. Identifies and integrates customers' long-range plans into business capability roadmaps and priorities, as appropriate. Briefs HITS stakeholders on customer's strategic plans. Advocates for an awareness and focus on customer strategic plans. Ensure that project/program managers of customer projects are knowledgeable about the customer and their objectives. Engage as a project/program stakeholder, including evaluating project efforts and progress against joint strategic plans and objectives.CUSTOMER SERVICE: Builds and manage the relationship team to ensure convergence and strategic partnering with the customer team, including working closely with customer leadership as executive sponsors for each customer. Advocate for an awareness and focus on customer strategic plans.TEAM EFFORT: Contributes to team effort by accomplishing related results and performing related responsibilities as needed. IT LIAISON KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Builds and maintains strong relationships with business partners and acts as a liaison between information services teams and the business partner
• Manages and mentors a Business Relationship Manager (BRM) team that builds and manages strategic relationships with business partners
• Acts as an advisor to business partners to shape their strategy with regard to technology and ensure they are aware of IT service offerings
• Promotes business projects and value to the IT leaders and community
• Works with business analysts to help their business units define new capabilities
• Defines, prioritizes, and manages program and project initiatives
• Tracks ROI for business initiatives including cost, benefits, and risk
• Helps define and communicate new services to support business needs
• Participates in development of business strategic planning and IT strategic planning
• Assists in the development of metrics used to track value delivery
• Provides details on cost, value, and opportunity to optimize IT spend (initiatives and support services)
• Communicates business needs with appropriate IT solution center to gain alignment between business needs and technical capabilities
• Gathers high-level business requirements and defines scope during initial discovery by conducting meetings/interviews, and facilitating large group/cross-functional sessions with partners
• Leads in the development of business cases requiring IT-based solutions
• Establishes initial vendor relationships and maintains a forward-looking view of vendor direction
• Interfaces with vendors to understand whether vendor products will meet business requirements
• Monitors that the solution center is meeting the partner's expectations
• Refines SLAs based on business need
• Maintains up-to-date awareness of industry and technology trends, and makes recommendations for implementation of new/upgraded systems and technologies
• Maintains knowledge of multiple business functions and initiatives to identify where conflicts/synergies exist between technologies and business functions.BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP MANAGER RESPONISIBILITIES: Serves as the business relationship connector between City departments and HITS.
  • Works closely with assigned business areas for planning, delivery, and sustainment of deployed solutions.
  • Schedules and performs regular review of SLAs with customer leadership.
  • Aligns SLA with HITS services and facilitates resolution of SLA breaches
  • Works with leadership to evolve culture and organization behavior, elevating HITS into a strategic partner.
  • Focuses on strategic initiatives and facilitates the planning execution of business changes using technology aligned with overall HITS strategic plan.
  • Builds both horizontal and vertical relationships with IT leaders to deliver business impact.
  • Coaches customers and enables them to articulate the technology needs and requirements.
  • Acts as a resource and single point of contact for the customer with HITS.
  • Ensures that strategies and key performance indicators are identified and leveraged for effective IT demand shaping.
  • Consults with departments and reviews IT usage, services, technology, and department specific projects to identify, forecast, and develop IT needs.
  • Coordinates the use and delivery of IT services throughout the customer's department.
  • Manages development of the business cases. Analyzes and reports operational and financial impacts of vendors, products, and services.
  • Serves as liaison between HITS, City departments, and City management to identify, forecast, and address IT needs. IT ARCHITECT KEY QUALITIES: Knowledge of business applications preferably in a large enterprise arena.
    • Skill in discipline, analytical skills, problem-solving abilities, and attention to details.
    • Skill in verbal and written skills with ability to communicate effectively with peers and executive leadership.
    • Skill in leadership and teamwork skills, including facilitating change, driving operational excellence, and striving for continuous improvement as a team.
    • Ability to interact with department executives to drive business value.
    • Ability to understand and explain technical or complex subject matter in business terms
    • Ability to work well with others in fast paced, dynamic environment.
    • Ability to communicate clearly, negotiate, listen, mitigate conflict, build alliances and achieve desired results using strong interpersonal and diplomacy skills.
    • Ability to lead and manage under conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty. Proven organizational skills in working across organizational boundaries and reporting lines.
    • Ability to develop department IT roadmap
    • Ability to understand and prioritize IT projects across the organization to benefit COH.ADDITIONAL SKILLS: Strong analytical skills to critically evaluate information gathered from multiple sources
      • Ability to distinguish presented user requests from the underlying true needs, and distinguish solution ideas from requirements
      • Ability to manage stakeholder expectations and resolve conflicts
      • Ability to lead requirements elicitation workshops
      • Ability to validate data obtained via other techniques and expose new areas for elicitation
      • Understanding of contemporary requirements gathering practices and the ability to apply them in practice
      • Familiarity with requirements engineering practices and resources
      • Knowledge of product management concepts
      • Application domain knowledge is a plus WORKING CONDITIONSThis position is physically comfortable; the individual has discretion about walking, standing, etc. There are no major sources of discomfort in a normal office environment.

Keywords: City of Houston, Houston , IT ARCHITECT - BUSINESS ANALYSIS (HITS - IT LIAISON), Other , Houston, Texas