Business Analyst / Scrum Master

 Vitamin Software
 June 25, 2020
 Remote - Worldwide
Vitamin Software is an international software consulting firm specialised in the full product lifecycle: from inception and development, to maintenance and beyond. Our globally-distributed team work with entrepreneurial organisations across 4 continents.
We have a solid roster of clients with growing businesses in different verticals, including legal, healthcare, retail, and open data. For each client, we build, operate, monitor and support either their whole software system, or a well-defined subsystem. 
 
We’re looking for a full-time Scrum Master to handle two of our projects. The Scrum Master will also fill in the Business Analyst role on the projects they manage and they will be in charge of the client relationship management, the success of the project delivery and the day-to-day management of team members’ activity.

Responsibility: Communicate with the client

  • Reply to their queries in a timely manner (within 2 business days).
  • Prepare the agenda for the meeting with clients.
  • Document meetings with the client and make them transparent to the team.
  • Send a summary and conclusions after each meeting with the client.
  • Identify priorities together with the clients. Use pushback as a tool to identify priorities.
  • Advise client on priorities based on internal team’s input and industry best practices
  • Negotiate implementation deadlines
  • Engage the client constantly, on a weekly basis at a minimum. A minimum of a weekly 30 min meeting is needed for sync. Interactions to update the client on status and progress are also needed.

    • Responsibility: Communicate with the project’s internal team

  • Make sure the team is briefed on the priorities for the short term (1-2 weeks) and medium-term (1-3 months)
  • Reply to their queries in a timely manner (within 1 business day)
  • Support Technical Lead in decision making
  • Ensure the team adheres to Vitamin company-wide best practices and procedures. 
  • Ensure the team updates company-wide best practices and procedures when needed.
  • Ensure team meetings are documented and made transparent to the team.

    • Responsibility: Communicate with the Vitamin management team

  • Raise issues of understaffing or overstaffing
  • Raise issues with team member productivity
  • Raise issues with the client that require special attention
  • Raise issues with a project having the potential to go over budget in order to accomplish the goals.
  • Adapt the project plans according to the company’s general strategy. Example: If we are transitioning to having OLAs for our SLAs, draft an OLA and implement it with the team
  • Participate with own input in drafting any sales proposals related to the client

    • Responsibility: Maintain an up-to-date roadmap of the project

  • Clarify project specifications together with the client and the product manager aid.
  • Document project requirements and specifications.
  • Write, review and update OKRs and share them with the client (if applicable)
  • Update the plan for the current week and next week on a weekly basis
  • Update the high-level initiatives list with any problems identified together with the client and product manager aid.

    • Responsibility: Ensure work continuity

  • Write proposals for projects with assistance from the account manager.
  • In projects where proposals or OKRs are used, next priorities are defined and agreed on with the client  in advance, in order to avoid a break in team activity – the team having no work on the project for 1 week or 2 is disruptive. However, 1 week might be necessary to evaluate the past OKRs/project.

    • Responsibility: Ensure delivery

  • Work with the project’s internal team to identify blockers and remove them
  • Identify items on the project’s critical path and plan them accordingly.
  • Keep the client updated on the status of the delivery
  • Ensure that the delivery is in line with the signed contract
  • Make the most out of each team member’s time (deliver efficiently) – ensure team members do the activities they are supposed to

    • Responsibility: Administrative

  • Know the contents of the contract with the client
  • Provide timesheets / billing information to our administrative team in the first 5 business days of each month
  • Maintain a list of all vendors we disburse to the client along with their associated costs
  • Compute the effective hourly rate of the project
  • Setup and keep track of budget; take budget into account when maintaining the project roadmap. 
  • Designate an acting PM while away; communicate plan to both the internal team and the client

    • REQUIREMENTS

  • Fluency in English (CEFR C1 level)
  • Excellent communication skills; experience working in cross-cultural settings a plus
  • Adaptability and interest in innovating
  • Excellent work ethic and team spirit
  • Minimum 5 years of experience as a Scrum Master and/or Business Analyst working with Agile methodologies
  • Willingness to travel to Bucharest for 3 times a year for team retreats (when safe to do so) 
    • Recruiting Process
    Step 1: Phone Screen – 60 mins
    Step 2: Scoping Meeting with Customer – 60 mins (not a real customer, it’s an exercise)
    Step 3: Planning Meeting with Engineering Team – 60 mins (discuss customer request with an engineer)
    Step 4: Offer Discussion – 60 mins