Senior Business Analyst · UK & Remote

Business Analysis that turns unclear problems into workable change.

Hire Zafar Mahmood for discovery, requirements, process mapping, stakeholder engagement, user stories, UAT, Product Owner support, data migration and automation-readiness analysis. Suitable for contract work, defined BA work packages and short consulting assignments.

10+ yearsBusiness Analysis experience
PSPO ICertified Professional Scrum Product Owner
Public + PrivateGovernment, health, finance, retail & technology
End-to-end BADiscovery through UAT and change
Business Analysis services

Flexible support for delivery teams and organisations

Bring in focused Business Analysis capability for a full workstream or a clearly defined piece of analysis. Engagements can be remote, hybrid or project based.

Discovery

Discovery & Requirements

Clarify the problem, scope and user need before solution decisions are made.

  • Stakeholder interviews & workshops
  • BRD / FRD authoring
  • Business rules & requirements catalogues
  • MoSCoW prioritisation & gap analysis
Process

Process Mapping & Improvement

Make current work visible, identify bottlenecks and design a better future state.

  • As-Is / To-Be analysis
  • BPMN and swimlane mapping
  • Root-cause analysis
  • Automation-readiness assessment
Agile

User Stories & Backlog Support

Translate business needs into delivery-ready backlog items and acceptance criteria.

  • User stories & acceptance criteria
  • Backlog refinement
  • Product Owner support
  • Agile ceremonies and prioritisation
Quality

UAT & Change Readiness

Define what good looks like, organise validation and support users through change.

  • UAT criteria & scenarios
  • Business acceptance
  • Risk and change logs
  • SOPs, guidance and training support
Data

Data & Migration Analysis

Support complex migration and integration work by mapping data, dependencies and business controls.

  • Data mapping & dependencies
  • Legacy-to-cloud migration support
  • Data quality and validation
  • API/integration requirements
AI + RPA

AI / Automation Business Analysis

Assess whether a process should be automated before selecting a technology.

  • Current-state assessment
  • Rules, exceptions and risks
  • AI/RPA use-case assessment
  • Benefits and implementation requirements
Selected CV evidence

Business Analysis outcomes across complex environments

The following examples are taken from Zafar's professional CV. Projected figures are labelled as projected.

40%

Birmingham City Council

Re-engineered Street Cleansing and Tenancy Lifecycle processes using BPMN and As-Is/To-Be modelling, with a reported 40% reduction in processing times and projected annual savings of £1–2 million.

18%

Digital / E-commerce delivery

Delivered Business Analysis requirements for e-commerce and web projects, with the CV reporting an 18% improvement in project timelines and contribution to a £220k revenue uplift.

22,000

Workflow & CRM analysis

Identified 22,000 stuck cases through gap analysis at Principia Law / Auxillis, re-engineered workflows and supported UAT and CRM implementation.

LinkedIn recommendations

Independent feedback on Zafar's BA work

Selected excerpts from recommendations supplied from Zafar's LinkedIn profile. Long recommendations are shortened without changing their meaning.

“Zafar has the ability to connect with stakeholders (customers) and capture their user needs/requirements and then works with the team through the following phases to ensure no rework is needed.”
Helen ReesDelivery Lead · worked with Zafar on the same team
“Zafar has been a great asset to our team. He has done an excellent job in a short time getting to understand our organization and our requirements. He has built strong relationships across the council and with other 3rd party consultants.”
Christopher JonesLead Business Analysis / Team Manager · Birmingham City Council
“Zafar is a very experienced Business Analyst. He is knowledgeable in agile practices and all things digital transformation.”
Patrick Giwa, PhDWorked with Zafar on the same team
“He has provided in-depth analysis of the business requirements and organized and chaired meetings with stakeholders to refine the requirements.”
Mark WyrostekAgile Delivery Lead · worked with Zafar on the same team
“Excellent BA Consultant. He was a pivotal team member on my AZ contract, worked extremely hard and set the standard for others to aspire to. I would definitely employ Zafar again.”
Nikesh ParmarPrincipal IT Recruiter and Property Manager · former client
“Zafar is a great mentor and always willing and ready to help other colleagues. He helps to direct people in the right path. He is approachable and always willing to share his insights.”
Ife Mona-OgunlolaData Product Manager · worked with Zafar on the same team

Recommendation wording is presented as supplied from LinkedIn screenshots. Titles are condensed for page readability.

Ways to engage

Suitable for Upwork, Fiverr, direct clients and contract teams

The service can be scoped around a practical deliverable rather than forcing you into a long engagement.

  • Review and improve an existing requirements pack
  • Create As-Is and To-Be process maps
  • Facilitate a discovery or requirements workshop
  • Turn workshop notes into structured requirements and user stories
  • Create UAT scenarios and acceptance criteria
  • Review a process for AI/RPA automation readiness
  • Support a Product Owner with backlog refinement
  • Analyse a legacy process before migration or system replacement
For Business Analysts

Free AI Business Analyst Toolkit

Practical prompts, approaches and examples for Business Analysts who want to use AI to support analysis without replacing professional judgement.

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Contact

Tell me what needs analysing

You do not need to know which BA deliverable you need. Describe the problem, project stage and desired outcome and we can identify the most useful next step.

  • UK-based, remote and hybrid support
  • Defined work packages or longer engagements
  • Business-facing and technical stakeholder collaboration
  • Public and private sector experience

Need a Business Analyst for your next piece of change?

Start with the problem and desired outcome. The right documentation, process work and delivery support can then be shaped around it.

Discuss the Requirement