County of Alameda

DESCRIPTION

This series specification describes classifications which contain four career tracks; Engineer, Systems Analyst, Business Analyst and Quality Assurance. Under direction, to provide thought leadership and operational support for the County’s information systems, to architect business solutions, and to serve as a liaison between department/agency representatives and third party service providers. Application Systems Engineer IIIs are responsible for designing, developing, analyzing, implementing, and maintaining software, including enterprise class, multi-tier systems; and perform related duties as required.


DISTINGUISHING FEATURES

The class of Application Systems Engineer III is a multi-disciplinary, senior level, class in the Application Systems Engineer series. This class is distinguished from the next lower level class of Application Systems Engineer II by the complexity of the systems supported. Positions at this level perform a significant portion of the work assigned to the Application Systems Engineer IIs, but with greater independence and full responsibility expected of positions at the senior level. Additionally, Application Systems Engineer IIIs may lead peers and lower level staff by prioritizing the day-to-day work and serving as a mentor toward their career advancement.

Engineer Track

Incumbents in the Engineer discipline are typically fully responsible for coding, testing and/or maintenance of all or part of an application. Incumbents analyze, define, design programs, and ensure that user department requirements are met. Engineers are responsible for implementing, programming, writing program design specifications, supporting database design, modifying existing systems, providing production support for users and their systems, and defining problems and recommending solutions.

Systems Analyst Track

Incumbents in the Systems Analyst discipline are typically responsible for analysis, documentation, and design of applications or subsystems of major systems.

Business Analyst Track

Incumbents in the Business Analyst discipline are responsible for aligning the business strategies of a County department or Agency with its technology.


Quality Assurance Track

Incumbents in the Quality Assurance discipline are responsible for verifying that enterprise applications meet customer requirements. This is typically done by reviewing customer requirements, creating test data and test scripts to validate application functionality. Other responsibilities include, but are not limited to, integrated testing, interface testing, system testing, regression testing, performance testing and obtaining approvals to move applications into the production environment.

EXAMPLES OF DUTIES

NOTE: The following are the duties performed by employees in this classification. However, employees may perform other related duties at an equivalent level. Each individual in the classification does not necessarily perform all duties listed.

Engineer Track

1. Develops programs and participates in defining the technical specifications to support documented business requirements.
2. Maintains applications as needed to support changes in business needs.
3. Prepares and updates program specifications and application documentation.
4. Designs, codes, and tests applications based on user requirements.
5. Installs and modifies purchased application software.
6. Assists with the preparation and execution of unit, system, and integration testing for new and modified applications.

Systems Analyst Track

1. Prepares and executes work task plans for all assigned work requests.
2. Reviews existing customer procedures and workflows to prepare recommendations for changes to departmental business processes.
3. Prepares requirement specifications, designs and other documentation for small to medium-sized systems or for subsystems of major enterprise systems.
4. Prepares test plans and develops test data and test procedures for those systems.
5. Participates in technical reviews and system walk-throughs.
6. Assists in the preparation of feasibility studies, cost/benefit analysis, product evaluation, requirements specification and other analysis activities under the direction of senior technical staff.


Business Analyst Option

1. Confers with County departments and agencies to define concepts.
2. Interprets Department/Agency business needs and translates them into application and operational requirements.
3. Follows the established Project Life Cycle for delivering technology services
4. Acts as a liaison between a County department/agency and the software development team.
5. Helps establish technical vision.
6. Develops a prototype for the proposed solution and seeks customer review/approval.
7. Identifies, analyzes, and documents business requirements.
8. Delivers relevant documentation throughout the project life cycle.

Quality Assurance Track

1. Establishes and documents the tests criteria for enterprise applications.
2. Implements quality assurance and change management procedures to verify that enterprise applications and systems projects meet customer requirements.
3. Responsible for the quality assurance of all assigned projects and the process of source code management.
4. Executes regression tests to ensure all current functionality is maintained.
5. Verifies that enterprise software applications can perform under high volume conditions, transacts county business efficiently, and follows Information Technology Department (ITD) quality assurance standards for development and documentation.
6. Works closely with the development teams to ensure best practices for quality assurance are followed.
7. Participates in projects related to assigned responsibilities by providing technical support to customer departments, designers, software engineers, and project teams.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Either I
Education:

Possession of a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university with a major in MIS, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a closely related field.

AND

Experience:

The equivalent of four (4) years full time experience designing, developing, analyzing, supporting and implementing complex software systems.

OR II
Experience:

The equivalent of seven (7) years full time experience designing, developing, analyzing, supporting, and implementing complex software systems.

NOTE: The Civil Service Commission may modify the above Minimum Qualifications in the announcement of an examination.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

NOTE: The level and scope of the following knowledge and abilities are related to duties listed under the “Examples of Duties” section of this specification.

Knowledge of:
• Methods and practices of computer systems design, programming and implementation.
• Information management platforms and systems.
• Structuring techniques for efficient program construction and maintenance.
• Standard application design methodology.
• Industry standard practices for the software development life cycle.
• Principles and techniques of systems analysis and design.
• Tools and methods used to standardize and facilitate systems.
• Systems design.
• Methods of software systems development lifecycle and business systems applications.
• Principles and practices of technical problem solving.
• Design, installation, and maintenance of enterprise, distributed, and client/server computer systems.
• Principles and practices of software release upgrades and data management systems, including testing and upgrades.
• Emerging technology trends and tools.

Ability to:
• Design complex system interfaces.
• Use appropriate utilities and available software products.
• Apply testing theory and quality standards to software development.
• Analyze and assess the impact of enterprise application production problems.
• Research potential solutions and make recommendations for implementation.
• Develop reasonable cost and time estimates.
• Understand and consider impact of organizational, management, administrative and personnel aspects of systems design.
• Create, analyze, and validate detailed functional specifications.
• Facilitate design sessions with the enterprise software development team to define the solution.
• Deliver elements of systems design, including data migration rules, business rules, wireframes, or other detailed deliverables.
• Define project scope, provide project estimates, establish high level delivery schedule, and prepare business proposals for business review.
• Perform risk assessments and help establish Service Level Agreements (SLA’s).
• Communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
• Coordinate and manage information technology related activities.
• Provide technical support to customers, users, and team members.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with management, internal support units, customers and vendors.
• Assess and evaluate alternate technology solution to address business needs
• Provide input and make recommendations to leadership teams in regards to the formation of the long-term technical vision of the organization.
• Prioritize and mentor the work of subordinate personnel.

CLASS SPEC HISTORY

Newspec: 1868
LC:cs 1/20/16
CSC Date: 2/17/16
EL:jf Revised 2/6/17
CSC Date: 4/12/17