Enterprise Software Design

Organization: IBM Australia
Category: Design
When: February 2014 – October 2014

Roles & Contributions:
Business Analysis
UX Design
Testing

Summary:

IBM Global Business Services provides IT consulting and solutions to enterprise projects around the world. I joined IBM as a graduate and was placed on roles in the public sector, working on web-based software solutions for the Australian Government. I worked on the design, development, and delivery of two major updates to custom enterprise software. I conducted business analysis, developed design documents, and coordinated testing on these projects. I also took the initiative of streamlining and formalizing business processes to improve team communication and transparency.

Sample Work: Business Analysis & Design

For confidentiality reasons I can’t go into the specifics of the projects I worked on at IBM. However I am able to describe in general the type of work I was involved in and the approaches I took.

One large project I was a part of was to update a piece of custom web-based enterprise software used by the Australian Government. The update involved a large number of different desired changes of varying sizes. I worked directly with our client in the role of a business analyst, scoping out the goals and requirements of the changes. This process was iterative and connected directly to design as we took requirements up to the screen mockup stage.

An important part of my role was to comprehensively understand the client’s core requirements and to understand the capabilities and limitations of the technologies we worked with. My approach in discussion was often to work back to the original problem we were trying to solve. I also engaged with the actual users of the software, using user-first design principles to ensure the changes were actually positive and in-line with expectations. My deliverables included formal requirements, design documents (including wireframes and mockups), and testing frameworks for the changes. The project was a great success and the detailed up-front design process led to far less unexpected requirement changes or development issues than previous updates.