Job Summary

• The overall purpose of the role is to act as a link between Business units, Technology, Vendor and Offshore support teams on testing and release management.
• To provide support to all Absa business units in coordinating User Acceptance Testing for all bank system changes/enhancements, periodic releases new products, and projects.
• To deliver a networks support service through the execution of predefined objectives as per agreed standard operating procedures (SOPs). Selecting this role has a compensation & benefit impact in Botswana. Please contact Reward for details.

Key accountabilities

Business Support

• Manage and maintain UAT environment   service availability.
• Oversee User Acceptance Testing of releases and fixes for deployment with business sign off.

Key Activities

• Avail 1st line support capabilities to in-country ITSM teams on incident resolution.
• Address business system bottlenecks and adherence to change management framework.
• Work closely with the Service and Change teams to ensure high level of service availability to the business units.
• Management of Technology incidents and change requests   within SLA.
• Main contact point for the testing within the Business (ITSM, Business units and Center) and outside with international testing team.
• Managing the User Acceptance testing for the releases and ensuring all fixes are tested on time by the business and signoffs received.
• Management of Release Review Board (RRB) meetings in addressing business pain areas.
• Working closely with project/change initiators to provide support in UAT.
• Track and report MI of project deployments and testing progress.
• Management of Change Incident & Change queues on the change management tool.
• Administration of Change Advisory Board (CAB) for change implementation reviews
• Co-ordinating live proving activities for changes raised in-country & Center affecting Kenya systems and applications.

Business Liaison

• Single point of contact for business units to represent ITSM services for UAT & Release management.

Key Activities

• Identify testing needs for the Business Units represented to ITSM.
• Engage business units to provide testers whenever required.
• Escalate Business unit issues to the Head of IT Service Management.
• Communication of UAT status and CAB decisions to Business stakeholders.
• Work closely and cross-sectorally with all Business units to achieve business goals.

Risk and Control Management

• Ensure that all activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with regulatory requirements, Enterprise-Wide Risk Management Framework and internal Absa Policies and Policy Standards. Understand and manage risks and risk events (incidents) relevant to the UAT and Release space.

Key Activities

• Build relationship with country Technology Risk and Compliance team and provide support wherever required.
• Contribute and deliver to the improvement of the risk profile by delivering improved governance, risk management, controls and compliance requirements.
• Devise and implement an effective plan to deliver a satisfactory risk and audit profile for Operations & Technology and achieve audit and assurance targets.
• Enhance the control framework and meet Financial Crime guarantees.
• Business Continuity Management and Resiliency.
• Schedule the CAB meetings to discuss the release schedules with the team and find roadblocks, if any.

Test Coordination

• Plan, monitor, and control testing activities and tasks. Facilitating regression testing and assisting business users with testing customizations.

Requirements

Key Activities

• Work with individual project teams and test lead to develop UAT approach and provide support in setup of UAT.
•  Ensure adequate test coverage and independent review of test scripts.
• Triage reported defects from test team members and forward to program test lead for resolution.
• Coordinate tracking of UAT progress and results management.
• Coordinate resolution and retest of defects.
• Training and /or guiding testing resources in use of Test management tools applicable in the business.

Preferred Qualification

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology/Computer Science (Undergraduate/Higher).

Preferred Experience

• ITIL v4 Certification
• Minimum 4 years’ experience in IT exposure.
• Minimum of 2-year service management, release management experience.

Knowledge and Skills

• Knowledge of UAT and change implementations.
• Strong Interpersonal skills
• Problem-solving and analytics skills
• Resiliency
• Translate Bus Requirements to Tech Solutions (Solid)
• Negotiation Skills (Solid)
• Strategic Thinking (Solid)
• ITIL – Governance Framework (Solid)
• Communication Skills (Written and Verbal) (Solid)
• Subject matter expertise (Solid)
• Understand the IT service delivery within a corporate environment (Advanced)
• Conceptual thinking skills (Solid)
• Ability to analyze, make decision and initiate act (Solid)

Behavioural Competencies

• Communication skills: Able to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences. Should be able to explain complex concepts concisely.
• Collaboration skills: Able to collaborate and work effectively with other teams and share ideas.
• Decision-making skills: Evaluate available options, consider relevant factors and potential consequences, and make informed decisions.
• Problem-solving: Able to identify and solve problems related to user access, permissions, and security in a timely and efficient manner.

Technical Competencies

• System Administration: Proficiency in system administration tasks such as user management, access controls, UAT system health checks, monitor performance, system troubleshooting and coordinate system enhancement and remediation.
• Change Management: Understands the principles of change management which includes planning and executing change requests while minimizing disruption to business operations. Manage all Tech system tests.
• Reporting: Proficiency in project and system testing reporting update. Ability to utilize project management and System testing tools to generate UAT status reporting

Education

• Further Education and Training Certificate (FETC): Physical, Mathematical, Computer and Life Sciences (Required)