Story Author

Company: Cognizant United States, Cognizant Technology Solu
Location: Deerfield
Posted on: May 3, 2021

Job Description:

NAQualification:Engg / tech grad + MBA (preferred)Responsibility:Product Roadmap: Understand the overall product roadmap as articulated by senior story author/product owner and work closely with the scrum master and dev and testing team to translate roadmap into team specific release plan and sprint plan. Identify upstream and downstream interdependencies as uncovered during planning sessions. Assists with the elaboration of Epics, Themes and Features into user stories that are granular enough to be achieved in a single sprint.Requirements Management/Gathering: Understand existing and new functionality / system and seek clarifications with the senior story author/PO. Analyze impact of new features on current functionality. Perform gapanalysis for new functionality/features. Document requirements as user stories adhering to the standards. define effective standards whenever possible. Detail out elaborate acceptance criteria for all the backlog items as per project standards. Conduct review session with senior story author/PO for the drafted stories to ensure requirements are detailed. Map requirements (user stories) to sprints to maintain a healthy product backlog for the scrum team. Coordinate with senior story author/to manage prioritization of sprint backlog. Collaborate with senior story author/PO in sequencing prioritized user stories. Manage dependencies between stories within and across scrum teams. by collaborating with senior story author/PO. Review requirements planned for sprint with scrum team at beginning of each sprint. Groom the stories (ongoing) with scrum team including development/testing/solution architects/UIUX/DBAs. Provide clarifications to the dev, testing and other tech teams on expected system/product functionality. Ensure sprint readiness through development ready stories for the team so as to avoid loss in productivity. Uses tools like Jira, Rally, etc to manage the user stories effectively. Help team to complete committed stories within sprint and track stories at risk of completion. Track changes in requirements, priority, status and overall product performance in collaboration with the senior story author/PO. Identify nonfunctional requirements and create user stories for the same. Conduct additional grooming session on functional/nonfunctional stories and unresolved issues if required. Assist senior story author/PO in conducting workshops (Agile RM tools, life cycle of story etc) for scrum team. Maintain Requirement Traceability with user stories and assist in backlog grooming.Estimation: Help scrum team to evaluate suggested estimation techniques and adopt appropriate one. Provide supporting prototypes/wireframes to scrum team for better estimation. Ensure stories for sprint are estimated during sprint planning working with scrum team. Work with the dev and testing teams during the estimation exercise by elaborating scope of user stories and acceptance criteria.Requirements Validation: Assist QA team in reviewing the test cases and with story validation if required. Review stories completed by development team in a sprint against acceptance criteria and UX. Conduct amigo session with scrum team to complete sanity checks. Assist senior story author/PO in preparation/conduct of UAT. Ensure requirements/deliverables are unambiguous by collaborating with senior story author/PO. Ensure wireframes/UI layout are reviewed with senior story author/PO.Defect Management: Analyze the defects and do a RCA with the scrum team. Understand the priority of defects by discussing with senior story author/PO. Resolve any cross team dependencies by discussion with multiple scrum teams. Collaborate with senior story author/PO to identify whether defects are valid issues or new requirements. Work with PO/Sr story author to prioritize defects for sprints. Help testing team in understanding ALM (Application lifecycle management) tool for updating defect status.Develop Recommendations: Identify areas of improvement in requirement management/requirement gathering techniques used by customer. Adopt gapanalysis and modelling techniques for product improvement working with senior story author. Constantly perform research and assist senior story author for product features. Drive implementation of new features suggested for better usability.Thought Leadership: Create knowledge assets (whitepaper/article/PoV) on domain/Agile/business analysis(BA) for the group. Conduct reviews of artifacts towards preparedness for publishing to the larger audience across the organization. Actively participate in Industry forums/conferences and conduct research to gain insights on market/industry trends.BU Enablement: Develop solutions/content creation for identified initiatives. Participate in marketing initiatives for Agile practice. Participate in Yammer discussions, Knowhub and contribute to Cognizant blogs (Agile), articles, polls etc. Assist senior team members in developing content for webinars,. Assist senior team members to create and rollout role development plan(RDP).Learning: Identify focus areas in a particular domain and read up on trends so as to broaden knowledge. Understand different Agile methodologies and frameworks. Learn ways to improve requirement management in Agile (gathering, documentation, product backlog, story mapping). Identify and complete elearning, classroom trainings and certifications (internal and external) in the above areas. Participate in forum/webinar based knowledge sessions. Complete mandatory trainings and ensure compliance with org mandated learning plans.Training: Assist senior team members in identifying training needs for practice / project. Develop and conduct training/onboarding sessions for the practice/project in domain/Agile/business analysis. Collaborate with senior team members/ practice peers/academy to position oneself as a trainer (domain/Agile/business analysis).Leadership & Self management: Foster cordial work relationship with Cognizant colleagues and customers. Assist peers/team members in prioritizing tasks to achieve a common project goal. Be able to multitask and think out of the box to efficiently and effectively execute one's tasks. Proactively support team activities (project/practice) in the workplace. Meet expectations on quality, timelines and commitments for assigned work.Stakeholder Management: Identify and manage needs and expectations of various stakeholders (customers/scrum team/story authors etc). Interact with customer on an ongoing basis and provide status updates (delays, risks, challenges anticipated).Operational excellence: Be aware about personal billability. Ensure travel readiness update resumes on a quarterly basis. Submit timesheet on time and with accurate reflection of time against each project. Ensure consistent billability for self and the team in consulting engagements (direct or indirect revenue streams). Manage travel readiness of the team. Manage profile updates and tailoring resumes of the team. Understand usage of project & program management tools like ESA and its processes.People Management: Engage with scrum team. Engage with peer story authors across horizontals and verticals. Provide coaching/mentorship to team members and develop their capability. Set stretch targets and track performance against the same periodically.Contribution to RFPs: (Optional case to case basis only). Support areas of response document/presentation for Agile requirements management.Customer visits, conferences etc: Orchestrate and act as domain/Agile PoC during customer visits for account teams. Create Agile collaterals for project during customer visit.Must Have Skills AgileGood To Have Skills Scrum Master Associated topics: article, compositor, draft, editor, editorial, newsgathering, newswriter, proofread, screenwriter, writer

Keywords: Cognizant United States, Cognizant Technology Solu, Arlington Heights , Story Author, Other , Deerfield, Illinois