Business Analyst

ROLE PURPOSE

The Business Analyst is accountable for converting operational, commercial, and workforce data within the Service Delivery Manager's client portfolio into decision-ready analysis — surfacing signal from noise so that client service reviews, commercial positions, and escalation responses are built on verified fact, not assumption. This role exists to remove the gap between "data exists" and "the position is defensible" at the account level, ensuring the SDM can walk into any client or ExCo conversations with analysis that has already been stress-tested. The role does not own service delivery, client relationships, or supplier governance. It owns the integrity, structure, and clarity of the information the SDM's decisions and client-facing positions are built on.

What This Role Owns (Outcome Commitments)

• Data Integrity & Structure — Clean, reconciled, account-level data across contract, workforce, and performance sources within the SDM's portfolio — no conflicting totals, no stale figures presented as current.
• Analytical Clarity — Translation of raw operational and commercial data into RAG-framed, business-impact analysis for the SDM's accounts — signal vs noise, not data dumps.
• Fact/Assumption/Risk Separation — Every analytical output explicitly labels what is confirmed, what is assumed, and what constitutes risk — never blended.
• Process & Documentation Ownership — Business Requirement Documents (BRDs), process documentation, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) across the SDM's portfolio are current, accurate, and controlled — not fragmented, outdated, or dependent on institutional memory.
• Decision Support for the SDM — Analysis structured to anticipate Delivery, and HR scrutiny before it's raised, supporting client service reviews, escalation responses, and commercial reconciliation.
• Reporting Consistency Across the Portfolio — Standardised analytical methodology and templates applied consistently across the SDM's accounts, enabling like-for-like comparison across contracts and time periods.

What Success Looks Like:

Any analytical output this role produces can go directly into a client service review or SDM escalation response without the SDM needing to re-verify the underlying data or re-separate fact from assumption.

ROLE REQUIREMENT

• Data Integrity & Reconciliation

Accountable for: Ensuring all data feeding into SDM decisions and client-facing reporting is clean, reconciled, and current. Consolidate contract, workforce, and performance data across the SDM's accounts from source systems (e.g. ticketing/ITSM platforms)

• Identify and resolve conflicting figures, stale dates, and version discrepancies before data is used in any output — flag unresolved discrepancies explicitly rather than picking one version silently
• Maintain a single source of truth per account for recurring reporting cycles, eliminating the risk of the SDM presenting two different numbers in two different forums
• Cross-check data sensitivity — flag where cross-client confidentiality exposure exists in shared workbooks or files before circulation
• Analysis & Business Impact Translation

Accountable for: Converting raw data into RAG-framed analysis that reads as business impact, not a data dump.

• Produce RAG-status health views per account, identifying trends, anomalies, and deterioration before they become client-visible
• Translate SLA/utilisation/commercial data into business-impact narrative (e.g. under-recovery, margin exposure, capacity risk) — never present raw metrics without interpretation
• Support root cause and trend analysis for recurring incidents or performance issues within the SDM's portfolio, distinguishing signal from noise
• Build and maintain reusable analytical templates so that reporting is comparable across accounts and time periods, not rebuilt ad hoc each cycle
• Fact, Assumption & Risk Discipline

Accountable for: Every analytical output explicitly separating what is confirmed from what is assumed or at risk.

• Label all data outputs as confirmed, assumed, or at-risk — never blend the three into a single clean-looking number
• Surface sensitivity ranges where projections or forecasts are involved, rather than presenting single-point figures as certain
• Maintain an audit trail of data sources and assumptions behind each analytical output, so the SDM can defend the position if challenged
• Flag where data gaps exist rather than filling gaps with unstated assumptions
• Decision Support for the SDM

Accountable for: Ensuring the SDM enters any client, ExCo, or CFO conversation with pre-stress-tested analysis.

• Prepare analytical input for client service reviews — health and risk on page one, no chronological reporting or SLA table dumps
• Support escalation responses with reconciled data and clear risk framing, turning around analysis within timelines that match escalation urgency
• Anticipate CFO, Sales, Delivery, and HR objections in how analysis is structured and presented — pre-answer the pushback before it's raised
• Support commercial reconciliation work (utilisation vs billed effort, under-recovery identification) feeding into the SDM's contract-level accountability
• Reporting Consistency & Process Discipline

Accountable for: Standardised, repeatable analytical processes across the SDM's account portfolio.

• Apply consistent reporting cadence, format, and methodology across all accounts within the portfolio — controlled consistency, not one-off formats per client
• Maintain documentation and version control on analytical templates and source workbooks, ensuring reproducibility
• Support internal and external audit requests with a clear, traceable data lineage
• Continuously refine analytical templates based on recurring stakeholder objections or reporting gaps identified in prior cycles
• Process, BRD & SOP Ownership

Accountable for: The department's process documentation, BRDs, and SOPs within the SDM's portfolio being complete, current, and audit-ready — not informal knowledge held by individuals.

• Own the creation, version control, and maintenance of BRDs for any new process, system change, or client requirement affecting the SDM's accounts
• Maintain SOPs for recurring operational processes (e.g. change submission, escalation handling, reporting cycles), ensuring documented process reflects actual practice — not stale or aspirational process
• Conduct periodic review of existing process documentation and SOPs to identify gaps, contradictions, or drift between documented and actual process
• Ensure BRDs and SOPs are structured to withstand audit and compliance scrutiny (ISO 20000 process governance alignment), with clear version history and approval trail
• Act as the point of control for process documentation requests — preventing multiple, conflicting, informally-maintained versions of the same SOP circulating across the account team
• Flag where the absence of documented process constitutes an operational or audit risk (e.g. reliance on a single individual's knowledge), and drive closure of that gap through documentation

COMPETENCIES (KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES)

Technical & Domain Competencies

• Business Analysis Methodology — Structured application of requirements gathering, process mapping, and data analysis techniques — not informal notetaking dressed up as analysis
• Data Reconciliation & Reporting — Fluency in consolidating and reconciling data across multiple source systems (ITSM, commercial workbooks, HR/staff registers) into a single defensible view
• Process & Documentation Control — Working knowledge of BRD structuring, SOP documentation standards, and version control discipline sufficient to withstand audit
• ITIL 4 Awareness — Understanding of Continual Improvement, SLM, and Change Management practices sufficient to translate operational activity into