Organisation:Department of Veterans’ Affairs
Job Title: Junior Analyst System
Word Limit: Max 350 words per criterion
Location: Canberra ACT
- Connecting with Clients
Good interpersonal skills with demonstrated ability to liaise with internal and external stakeholders including the ability to communicate complex IT concepts to Business stakeholders accurately and sensitively, facilitating cooperation and partnerships.
My excellent interpersonal and liaison skills with internal and external stakeholders are well demonstrated during my tenure with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) where I managed critical mission application incidents and provided 24×7 support for Australia’s search and rescue team. This called for quick and efficient liaison and the imparting of sometimes technical information in a way that was easily understood by non-technical personnel with speed and efficiency. An example of my communicating complex IT concepts is well demonstrated with the application of the Shipsys software (Ship Initial Inspection Checklist), a shipping and inspection system that is somewhat complex and hard for many to understand with all the documentation written in Word format. In order to speed up production, while reducing confusion and errors, I set about explaining the context and data flow of the system with diagrams and pictures. I avoided using formal business and technical terms to make it easier for the reader to understand. As a result, I received extremely positive feedback from many managers and other stakeholders on the quality and clarity of the information. During the management of Commercial off the Shelf Software (COTS) I communicate directly with the provider, internal software users and managers to ensure a full understanding of the product. An example is Squiz Matrix, a content management system used by all business units. Working face to face with the web content coordinator and publisher in such areas as system updates, changes and outages, we have regular meetings to share information and solutions to issues arising to ensure continuity and reduced downtime. This liaison is very effective and I have been complimented many times on my contribution to the group.
- Building our Skills
- Ability and willingness to learn and adapt to changing technologies, roles and responsibilities within a transformative environment.
- Good organisational and time management skills;
- You will demonstrate public service professionalism, resilience; initiative; self-awareness and a commitment to personal development.
My ability and willingness to adapt to changing technologies is well illustrated during my roles at AMSA. As the technical lead of the Intranet Web Content Migration Project, I quickly learnt the complexity involved in migrating the live web content from one system to another, building automatic scripts to facilitate the process and keeping business managers and stakeholders up to date and appraised of progress. My versatility and adaptability is well demonstrated during my career where I have provided support in various roles according to business needs, such as application support specialist, system designer, system analyst, system support on call officer, and technical writer. I have also filled the roles of software programmer, help desk support and, in the ASG Team, managed a Unix platform and operated as an Atlassian (software) Application Specialist Part of my operating procedure is to have an open diary on my desk which assists me to maintain a work log, ensuring priorities are planned, set and allocated time frames, to make sure project deadlines are met. During my on call duty I am often confronted with conflicting priorities and then I use my sound judgement to allocate priorities accordingly. Where incidents with different symptoms occur simultaneously, I record the information and then start working on the cause using a root cause analysis technique.
As an experienced and capable worker, I am able to adapt to whatever role I am performing, from highly client-facing technical roles to acting management positions and have demonstrated an excellent ability to provide ICT services at all levels. Throughout my career thus far, I have been effective in putting my exceptional skills into practice, drawing on my personal and academic experiences in all situations, aiming to identify and implement possible improvement and striving to continue to grow my knowledge base
- Searching for Solutions
- Demonstrated ability to analyse business requirements, design and implement solutions.
- You will have a good understanding of Incident and Problem management in a Service Delivery context. Demonstrated skills in the systems analysis including diagnosis, impact evaluation and ensuring documentation is maintained according to quality requirements.
As an Atlassian Specialist, I have an extensive appreciation of incident and problem management and this is expressed where I manage the Confluence and JIRA applications in terms of business requirements. This involves gathering, researching and developing solutions using various testing sessions and eventually releasing a deployment that fits the business requirements.
An example of this is where I created a CIO (Chief Information Officer) forum, a gathering of executive level IT practitioners. I designed the prototype in a development environment to showcase the features to CIOs and other senior managers and executives and tested it in a test environment prior to full deployment as a live system. This was a great success and eventually taken up as a live forum.
In another example, there was a situation with repeated JIRA system outages. Working with the problem, change and release manager to locate the actual problems with the standard of ITIL technology, we recorded all works in HP’s Service Manager 9. Here, each symptom and issue was identified with a possible solution recorded. We then set a time frame for each job with progress reported to management on a regular basis.
My incident management skills are well illustrated in the search and rescue environment of AMSA. Here all incidents are considered urgent with immediate attention vital. During my on call service I worked quickly and efficiently through a basic mind flow when an incident was first reported, analysing the problem and symptoms surrounding it. I would then apply a quick root cause analysis followed by either a work around or permanent resolution. All incidents are recorded in an incident report and issued to all relevant stakeholders and the incident is only considered closed when a permanent solution is found and fully applied with success.
- Taking Care of Business
- Experience in systems analysis, problem investigation and research skills in an application development environment.
- Understanding and appreciation of best practise software development processes, procedures and tools, deployment activities including changes and release management, and the ability to review and refine processes to achieve continuous improvement.
As an experienced and highly skilled systems analyst, I specialise in problem investigation and the utilisation of research when developing applications. The full range of my experience is covered in my resume but extends to almost all platforms, applications and commercial software. On a routine basis I conduct a number of ad hoc system analyses in system improvement and feature enhancements as requested by business stakeholders. For example, I made a number of improvements in JIRA and Confluence (a software platform that the power to create anything – meeting notes, project plans, product requirements, etc. due to a simple, but powerful editor). and the interconnectivity between them. This included providing a road map in the JIRA and Confluence lifecycle in order to allow an enterprise architect to incorporate into the enterprise application roadmap. For example, frequently conducting research on the latest trends and technologies, I recently wrote a wiki collaboration paper for CIOs describing the current market for wiki products and the approach of adopting a wiki collaborative tool. This has resulted in my becoming a subject matter expert in enterprise wiki products. Other areas I have worked to develop and refine applications are: · The redevelopment of Air Transport Statistics System· Design, development and maintenance of a records management system· Design and coding of procedural programs on data analysis· Development of multi-dimensional database projects In addition, I have participated in an agile software development cycle where I developed a levy management application, including the test phase on each sprint. On each iteration a refinement is made and lessons are learnt and the quality of the process is then refined accordingly.
- Collaborating with colleagues
- Excellent oral and written communication skills.
- Embrace diversity, the APS Values, and the Code of Conduct to build a positive working relationship within the team.
In all my roles I work within a team as required. Even when I am working on a client site alone, I am still working with an off-site team and communicating with the client on-site and understand and value the importance of teamwork and what it means to be a team member. I see great value in collective intelligence as it can result in positive outcomes and expose knowledge and process gaps. I use this as an opportunity to provide and receive positive feedback. An open and effective communicator, I am driven to provide clear information to my colleagues about competing deadlines and time availability. My organised approach in any environment makes me accessible to colleagues and assists me to monitor personal workload deadlines. In addition to my experience and personal qualities, I have a solid educational foundation and a passion for maintaining efficient and profitable operations.
As an example, I often use diagramming when writing administrative and user documentation. Offering context diagrams, cross-functional diagrams, flowcharts, and physical diagrams to those not of a technical background facilitates their easier understanding and comprehension. Plus, building online documentation for corporate systems such as levy management system and pilotage assessment with context search ability on Confluence platform provides quick access to vital information. As a result of my work in this area, I was assigned as a documentation and administrative resource for 12 months in managing an online publication related to the development of a national system for domestic commercial vessel safety.
In addition to acting in line with expectations, I also encourage compliance with APS Code of Conduct, APS Values and Department of Human Service’s Expectations Statement by staff. By adhering to our guidelines we are creating an environment of open learning, forward movement and mutual respect for internal and external stakeholders. On numerous occasions, I have asked staff to respect the Government property they are using for their jobs and believe that a mutual respect is required in any workplace.
