Applying to the Scottish Government: Writing Your Essays

When applying for roles, say Business? Analyst or Project Analyst, within the Scottish Government, the job descriptions always have a section themed essential criteria. Next, an applicant is asked to write a 750-word personal statement, or a 200-word essay on each prompt, on how they meet these essential criteria.

In my instance, below are the four essential criteria. Having reviewed a few people’s work and noticed a consistent mistake pattern, I have decided to share this guide

1. Proven experience in conducting business analysis on diverse projects and change programs. This includes identifying and evaluating options for improving business activities using investigative techniques to gather requirements and assessing potential solutions.

During my remote internship with Franoft Consulting located in Canada, I was assigned to work with a client that aimed to purchase a Learning Management System (LMS) for her EdTech start-up. My assignment to work on this was based on my excellent delivery of previous projects. For a task that seemed to be just about recommending an LMS without much work, I started by conducting three elicitation meetings with the client and senior staff members about what they are looking for in a choice LMS. This was done to understand the needs and requirements and prioritize them hierarchically.?

After that, I validated the requirements with the client by sending the documents that contained the important criteria mentioned during previous discussions. These were afterward prioritized using a range of techniques such as MOSCOW Analysis, Ranking Technique, and KANO Analysis – all of which helped to know what requirements are the most important down to the least when researching the appropriate LMS.?

I went further to research different types of off-the-shelf LMS, identified the top players, and shortlisted the top three. To gain further clarity, I scheduled a product demo with the vendors to review the capabilities of the LMS. Afterward, I created a spreadsheet to compare the LMS using a wide range of features and then translated my analysis and recommendation into a PowerPoint using Canva. I went further to model how the recommended LMS would work using Lucid Chart and these helped the client to follow my recommendation which increased learners' engagements, boosted efficiency, and increased revenue by 20%.

2. Demonstrable experience in capturing current ‘as-is’ state processes and developing future ‘to-be’ state process options, in collaboration with subject matter experts. This includes business process mapping of current activities to analyze, evaluate, and recommend ways of optimizing business activities.

Recently, I worked on a Property Management System (PMS) project. In the current state, there are four situations: first, the system does not provide a medium for the Property Manager (PM) to receive and review customer applications on the go. Second, paper applications usually wait for his return to office and approval. Thirdly, the Google form designed in-house is not so helpful as the records are saved in an Excel spreadsheet and are not easily accessible by the client. Lastly, the Office Admin retrieves information and sends an email for the PM to review and either accept or reject clients.?

As such, there is no process for notifying the customer in the event of an unsuccessful application.

To optimally understand the situation, I modeled the current approval system using Swimlane diagrams, designed with Lucidchart. This represented how the current state works and further conducted a gap analysis to see where values could be created. This initial analysis and research generated information that served as input in modeling the future state where the Property Manager can manage the approval process remotely and customers can be informed of their approval status promptly.?

Through further research, I created a solution concept for two technologies that can be infused into the process to achieve the future state: Google Forms with a mail-merge functionality and Microsoft Power Automate with Microsoft Forms. These two solutions were contrasted using their pricing, scalability, ease of use, turnaround time, and limitations.?

Based on the superior performance of Microsoft Power Automate, it was recommended that further modeling of how it is used is developed with a step-by-step document to guide the Property Manager and Office Admin on how it works effectively.

3. Strong problem-solving and analytical experience across people, data, processes, and systems. This includes analyzing, generating, evaluating, and recommending potential solutions to service areas and reviewing progress upon implementation.

Our client, who manages leased property for its clients, consulted my firm that all activities are performed manually, and this is making the firm encounter difficulties in monitoring the performance of its processes, improving them, and managing the trails of papers which makes the process cumbersome thereby causing series of delays in reviewing applications. As such, the company sought to acquire and implement a solution that could digitalize its processes.

In addressing this issue, I first prepared a Business Analysis Core Concept Model which helped map the context, stakeholders, the need, and the value expected from the new solution. This was supported by conducting meetings over Microsoft Team with the key stakeholders in the company from the project sponsor down to current clients who were available for discussions. The information elicited was useful in identifying six processes used by the company and in making high-level modeling of the current state.?

In creating a future state, I decomposed the processes using a technique called SIPOC that enabled me to identify the suppliers of key inputs down to the generated outputs and the stakeholders involved. Thereafter, I modeled the new process which could be used by the client.

In developing a solution, from the meetings and the numerous analyses my team and I had conducted, I developed functional and non-functional requirements for the new system, modeled how the process would work using swimlanes, use cases, and activity diagrams, passed them to the developers, and agreed on acceptance criteria for the system.

To ensure that everything worked, I prepared test cases for the built system, recruited users for tests, documented and prioritized observed bugs and errors, and further developed a go-live communication plan and support model in preparation for the eventual deployment of the system.

4. Excellent communication and engagement skills. This includes being able to engage a wide variety of stakeholders at all organizational levels and areas of expertise.

I participated in an internship with a London-based firm where I worked with a team of six. Our tasks were to develop a mobile application, launch it on Playstore, and market it in four weeks. My task involved coordinating the efforts of the Marketing Manager, Content Developer, UI/UX, and Software Engineer. In addition to this, I needed to relay the progress to the overall manager. So, I needed to show clear communication, influencing, and engagement skills with the team members.?

I started by facilitating brainstorming sessions, workshop sessions, and interviews to define business objectives and stakeholders’ requirements. These were then crystallized into functional and non-functional requirements for the developer to understand. These were preceded by the creation of a project charter of activities, deadline stipulation, and the individuals responsible for the design of a RACI matrix. I complimented this with daily stand-up meetings to discuss progress and the challenges we are encountering. These helped us to launch on time.?

At each meeting, I act as the Scrum Master by facilitating sessions to define the task for the week, conducting weekly meetings, and end-of-the-week discussions about progress made which were then communicated with the Manager. Aside from these, there was the part of raising money for the product: firstly, in purchasing an app template, next in doing sponsored ads, and others on miscellaneous expenses which were part of the application development.

For this, I created a strategy document and presented it to numerous individuals personally and through joint efforts of the group on a Team meeting. This aided in raising 90% of the finance. To market the product, I facilitated a session with the team, and I created a strategic marketing roadmap afterward that enabled us to have 100+ downloads within a week of launching.