Thameslink Programme (TLP) was setup to tackle overcrowding on some of the UK’s busiest rail routes by increasing passenger capacity north-south to and through London resulting in several construction works projects. TLP is committed to improving its environmental performance inline with the CEP objective 1 of 2007-2008 to deliver sound environmental performance management as such an environmental management strategy was adopted by the Consents, Property and Environment Team (CEP) through which TLP works would be delivered.

A Business Analyst was required to produce a business problem statement (BPS) in order to highlight the business issue or opportunities directly linked to achieving the said objective.


Responsibilities and tasks:
• Identified stakeholders and carried out participation analysis using a power/interest matrix
• Carried out one-to-one interview sessions with primary stakeholders to establish problem scope as well as
o current business state
o current business challenges
o current business use case (System Architect)
• Established target business use case based on required performance management output
• Identified and documented the business problem statement subsequently approved by all parties
• Conducted a gap analysis between the current business state and target business state to highlight ways to bridge the gap including
o new business processes required to collate appropriate data to achieve the required output
o secure, scalable and verifiable automated information management system as a key business requirement

Major achievement(s):
An environmental management system (EMS) project is being initiated to include documenting and re-engineering current and required business processes to identify opportunities for automation with a view to implementing the EMS, an automated information management system currently being done manually. This work is being undertaken by Network Rail Information Management.

Coral Eurobet Ltd is one of the largest betting companies and boasts over 1024 betting shops around the UK. Many business processes were at the time manually performed which meant human error was a major issue within the establishment.
Responsibilities and tasks:
• Direct involvement in the development of Coral MIS system(developed by a team of 5 analyst developers); an OLTP data warehouse that monitors and constructs all coral history, current and antepost data. Comprehensive use of SQL Server 2000 and DTS packages.
• Modified and developed a new version of the MISWatcherService. A service that polls data from the betting shop tills around the country to the necessary server(s) for data processing by the MIS system

Documented business requirements, technical specification, designed, developed and wrote test plans for several other web/windows systems required by the business using VB.Net, ASP.Net and SQL Server 2000 database. Below is a brief summary of those systems

• MisWatcherAdmin Tool - A windows application GUI used in operating the MISWatcher service remotely by the support team.
• DailyFigures Maintenance Tool – Web based remote access system to modify any inconsistent data transferred from 1024+ betting shops. Instant updates to the database while maintaining audit trail.
• CostCentreMaintenance Tool – Web based system which updates and maintains a history record of the details for each cost centre (coral betting shop).
• Monitored Customer Tool – Web based system which records patterns of and tracking betting habits of customers within their controlled regions, enabling instant updates and remote access.

Achievement: Successfully automated several manual processes thereby freeing resources, saving time as well as the reduced risk of human error; a problem frequent encountered.

An IT solutions company focused on developing systems for the financial sector, its clients include corporations such as London Scottish Bank, Easy Loans, Yes Loans, Pacific Home Loans and more. With a desire to update its obsolete processes to cutting edge technology, they required a business analyst with .Net development skills to drive the business transition to .Net development.
Responsibilities and tasks:
• Pioneered the transition to development in .Net systems development with workshop facilitation
• Liaised between stakeholders/business and IT department (Offshore development).
• Client account management including SLA reviews, client liaison and solution proposal negotiations
• Project managed the development of a new loans system GEMINI from initiation to deployment. Feasibility, requirements analysis, brainstorming sessions, design, testing and system documentation.

Direct involvement with the design and development of web/windows/smart client systems required using VB6, VB.Net, ASP.Net and SQL Server 2000 database. Below is a brief summary of those systems

GEMINI - Complete sourcing and tracking loans system used for underwriting, alerts and escalation, built-in marketing module, loan application management, repayments calculations, etc. GEMINI is a broker’s complete toolkit. Other third party interfaces involved i.e. LandRegistry, credit searching, AFD.

LoanEdge - Windows based loans sourcing application. Used to capture information about applicants and track progress of applications. Generates letters, SMS messaging, automatic emails and more.

FAST - A smart client finance application signup tool used by field sales employees. Diary management and immediate signup facilities available. Use of Vodafone 3G / GPRS telephony, portable laptop / printer (Bluetooth enabled).

Content managed ecommerce website - business sells freephone and premium rate phone numbers, and is administered from a secure admin section. Including payment/sales, direct marketing and stock/price management.

Achievement; I devised a method of managing all developed and hosted loans & mortgage websites rate changes in less than 5mins instead of 2+days hence saving time, cost and resources available.

As well as assessing current logical model and proposing a required logical model, a business analyst with development skills was required to complete, test and deploy DNx V2 (bespoke data processing system) and FODI (data upload engine) used in collating delivery times and reports information from the delivery drivers PDA’s into the data warehouse. A 3 tier windows forms system with a SQLServer2000 database back end developed in VB6
Responsibilities and tasks:
• Business process model using UML.
• Completed, tested & documented changes in version 1.2 of the data processing system
• Managed project schedule using MS Project and delivered to time and budget
• Gathered and defined business requirements using QA sessions and process modelling with MS Visio
• Coordinated interdependencies with other project areas and resolved issues with brainstorming sessions
• Produced problem definition and feasibility study reports

Dawson News used several systems in tackling different areas of business which needed to integrate with one another. None of their systems could communicate which forced the business to once again develop several systems which enabled their several systems communicate.

Achievement; Amongst other achievements, I suggested the use of Biztalk Server for the purpose of integrating systems and over time, a new scalable modular based system which would cater for key areas of the business. Dawson News adopted Biztalk Server for this process.

The business had a 24hr turn around on applications processing because its systems were outsourced to a hosting agent. They received application data the morning after in an excel spreadsheet format which meant more resources were assigned to analyse and manually input data into the front office system. I led a team of 3 business analysts in data management and improve/change business processes to suit new requirements.

Loans sourcing & tracking system; a web based system used to process secured loans, mortgages, commercial mortgages and right to buy. It includes a client facing web front end, SQL Server 2000 database back end, admin portal, B2B portal, built-in direct mail advertising, reports, query management and more.
Responsibilities and tasks:
• Produced problem definition and solution proposal documents
• Carried out Process Mapping and modelled business model enhancements using UML semantics.
• Assessed systems compatibility with partner’s business models.
• Process improvement and risk analysis through user validation workshops and process modelling sessions
• Liaised between the business/third parties and IT to resolve gap analysis issues
• Defined project scope and structure using UML
• Analysed and documented current business activity and requirements specification using use case models
• Managed process change requests and traced requirements by using a traceability matrix
• Produced UAT/system test plans and a user manual covering admin and B2B portal

Achievement: There was an immediate turn around on applications processing. Hence a reduction in monthly costs by 5%, resources used and lost deals as all sites are now being hosted in-house and linked directly to the front office system.

I began working with SCEE specifically to produce a functional specification and have since been engaged in several other projects some simultaneously involving systems and business driven tasks. Listed below are a few of the projects I have been involved with so far.

PlayStation Account: PlayStation has several websites under the SONY umbrella where its customers may wish to register for a wealth of services encompassing PS2, PSP and PS3. With several databases storing the same information such that multiple registration is required by a consumer per SCEE website/mini site or service. PlayStation Account is a web based single point registration/authentication for all its consumers.

World Wide Studios Game Release Lifecycle: The game release lifecycle had not been previously documented and the process was known to one business oracle. I was required to map and document the current process with slight improvements specifically to ensure the ‘Resistance: Fall of Man’ game title release is better managed.

Transforming Online Delivery (TOD): Previously known as New Ways of Working, TOD was initiated to define and focus the strategy of Online Delivery, a relatively young SCEE business unit key to the PS3 launch operations. The objective was to prepare operations for the PS3 launch through BPR at phase 1, including documenting business processes, responsibility identification using RACI technique and timeline estimation. Phase II, post launch included identifying, managing and reporting on key performance indicators with the aim of implementing the Online Delivery balance score card.

PLAYSTATION®Network Programme: As one of several analysts directly involved with the global programme pre and post PS3 launch, I was pulled in to analyse, impact assess, process map and document as and when required for the business.

Responsibilities and tasks:
• In a team of three BA’s, I worked closely with the project manager reporting directly to the director of Online Delivery to ensure timely and quality deliverables
• Liaised with technical architects to design a working solution to suit the business and current systems on the PSA project
• Documented the functional specification used by the development team to produce the solution
• Facilitated requirements gathering workshops and final walkthrough ensuring that definitive decisions were made by stakeholders where required while allowing for an iterative approach to the business requirements until the agreed deadline
• Carried out analyses to assess the impact of change to the existing processes
• Defined framework/outline of documents to extract actual current physical process models from key resources
• Gap analysis; Identified and bridged gaps between current and logical process models
• Facilitated brown paper workshops to brainstorm and map to be processes
• Supported the Change manager in implementing the new ways of working project
• Documented and implemented process RACI and timelines
• Documented several internal and external facing guidelines for the PLAYSTATION®Network
• Documented PSN CMS (PMT) user manuals in preparation for PS3 launch

Major achievement(s):
All work stream processes (end to end) within online delivery are currently documented and communicated to both internal and external parties involved ensuring; business continuity, clear point of reference, ease of training new employees as well as mitigating risk of dependency.

Identified business unit KPI’s, PI’s and KRI’s by team, ensuring the KPI’s directly align with team objectives as well as implementing the business unit dashboard.

All PLAYSTATION®Store guidelines documented and communicated to both first and third party publishers standardising content delivery for the PLAYSTATION®Store.

Leaving behind a legacy for process mapping and documentation as a start to understanding day to day business functions, the method used has slowly been adopted by SCEE as a standard.