Introduction

A senior Program/Project Manager with 15+ years of PM experience combined

with project management training and PMP certification. Have successful

track record of delivering enterprise level medium-to-large scale multi-

faceted critical business and technology projects. Successfully turn-around

various delayed projects to a successful closure. The program/project size

varies from $0.5 MM to $10+ MM with team size from 5 to over 80 members.

Manage concurrent projects with internal and external teams resided locally

and offshore across multiple time zones and cultures.

Achieved business objectives of program/project through the application of

Management Methodologies, communication at all level of organizations,

negotiations with internal and external stakeholders, and effective

Relationship Management. Successfully utilizes project management life

cycle (PMLC), PMBOK and PMI practices, and software development life cycle

(SDLC) methodologies to ensure processes, discipline and controls are

consistently applied to the projects and solutions. Manages projects

constraints (Scope, Quality, Schedule, Budget, Resources and Risks) to

ensure deliverables are on time and within acceptable budget parameters.

The scope is managed through change management practices.

Exceptional communication skills (both written and verbal) with the ability

to adjust communication style to present technical, non-technical, project

status and sensitive information to a wide variety of stakeholders with

differing levels of knowledge, stake in the project and expectations from

the project outcome.

Sound knowledge of commercial financial services offered internationally

for electronic delivery/payment; emerging technologies; and internet-based

solutions.

Key Skills & Attributes

. Strong leader who takes ownership of assignments and thrive under

pressure.

. Independent and self-directed with strong analytical and judgment

skills.

. Extensive experience in Program & Project Management, Product

Management, Strategic Planning, Risk Management, Change Management,

People Management, Stakeholder Management, Business & IT Consulting

and Executive reporting using MS Office tools.

. Well experienced in PM reporting and metrics including Schedule and

Effort/Cost Variance, Productivity, Change requests to Scope of work,

Quality and Customer Satisfaction, and Gross Margin.

. Align the project vision, goals and plans with the organization. See

the big picture while paying attention to the smallest details.

. Create project charters, scope, statement of works, organization

structures including defining roles & responsibilities of various

project teams and personnel, detailed project schedules, integrated

plans with other project suppliers, risk registers with mitigation

strategies and resources.

. Experience in managing PMLC start from pre-sales activities

(RFP/Tender/Bid management, etc.) through charter, SOW, Contract

Negotiations, Project Start Up, Planning, and Deployment of business

critical solutions.

. Managed processes for Service strategy, Service design, Service

transition, Service operation and Continual service improvement

. A team player with strong desire to work in a collaborative team based

environment. Proven ability to manage cross functional, multi-cultural

teams and bring consensus. Worked with all organizational structures

range from functional to projectized with variety of matrix

structures. Gained experience in leading, coaching, motivating and

managing novice, experienced and specialized technical and business

teams.

. Extensive Client facing experience with Client & 3rd Party Management,

Vendor Management, Stakeholder and Sponsor Management

. Commercial Project Management experience covering the management of

relationships, procurement of suitable equipments and services,

contract negotiations, and management of project & commercial

deliverables related to the successful delivery of business & IT

solutions required to bring about ROI and Business Benefit

. Extensive experience in managing SDLC for Banking Systems, Card

Management Systems, Transaction Management Systems (EFT), Payroll

Management Systems, General Ledger System, Inventory Systems, and

Cashiering & Revenue Management Systems. The systems have been

designed using latest technologies and methodologies (OOD/OOA etc.) in

various languages (IBM Assembler, NCR NEAT/3, COBOL, C/C++, Visual

Basic, SQL, JAVA, .Net, MS Visual Studio 2013, SAP Crystal Reports, MS

Visual Studio 2013, SAP Crystal Reports, etc.), databases (DB2,

Oracle, MSQL, etc.), and platforms (UNIX, Linux, Windows, etc.) using

Code and fix, Waterfall, Incremental, Spiral, and RAD development

techniques.

. Excellent communication, negotiation, presentation and facilitation

skills in order to manage internal teams, competing priorities and

perspectives. Also, conducted seminars, training workshops, JAD and

knowledge transfer sessions internationally.

. In depth working knowledge of MS Office including MS Project, MS Word,

MS Excel, MS Power Point, VISIO, etc.

Some Selected Achievements

Program/Project Management

. Managed multiple projects simultaneously including running four

projects simultaneously in three countries; two projects in Cyprus,

one in Oman (Middle East), and one in Haiti. I myself was stationed in

Cyprus and my multi-discipline teams were located in project domiciled

countries and in Canada.

. Managed a Program for the successful implementation of $10+ MM

ecommerce enterprise initiative, an industry leading comprehensive e-

banking network in U.S. The scope of this project was to establish a

network infrastructure enabling financial institutions to offer

virtual bank and ecommerce services; like credit/debit card services,

savings/checking services, wealth management and other financial

services; to their valued clients through e-financial portal. The

network was having self service terminals such as NDC/NDC+ and Diebold

emulation based ATMs (NCR, Triton, Olivetti, IBM etc.), POS terminals

(Ingenico, Hypercom, VeriFone etc.), Host Security Modules (HSM) from

Racal, etc.

. Successful turnaround of $10+ MM electronic financial services

enterprise project to Bank of China (top 7th global bank). Bank of

China uses our solution to process over 40 million transactions

annually. Project was about to be cancelled due to scope creep causing

project delays. Handpicked by Senior Management to turnaround this

project. I conducted FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis) and Fast

Tracking technique to turn imminent failure into a reference project.

I implemented change management process, negotiated changes and

reworked delivery schedule (release management).

. Managed a Program for Shenzhen Development Bank to successfully

establish an electronic financial services centre and installed the

required software, hardware and network infrastructure. It was a $10+

MM program and enabled the bank to offer worldwide banking and card

services to their accountholders for anytime, anywhere and anyhow

access of available funds. Also, prepared operations manuals, user

guides and trained the staff for smooth operations. Program composed

of 3 projects.

. Managed projects for implementation of Retail Banking systems at

various credit unions and banks in Canada and abroad. The solution was

created on buy-build-partnership-integrate approach.

. Managed projects for implementation of EFT networks of 3rd generation

self service devices including ATM, Magnetic stripe and chip based POS

terminals; Payment Systems to manage credit/debit/loyalty

Visa/MasterCard/Diners cards with EMV and PCI compliance; and

interfaces with local and international interchange organizations for

Bank of Cyprus, Cooperative Bank of Cyprus, National Bank of Oman,

Riyad Bank of Saudi Arab, Promobank Haiti and Parsian Bank of Iran.

. Managed a $5+ MM Program for modernization of electronic financial

services for Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. The program involved multiple

projects for upgrading of core banking system, development and

implementation of branch automation system, implementation of Global

Transaction Banking (GTB) and Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) network,

payment system, installation of ATM at branch & offsite locations and

installation of POS at merchant locations. The program started by

developing business model for modern electronic services, conducting a

feasibility study to gather information about emerging technology,

compare various options for service deployment, justify the selected

options, bid management and vendor management. The GTB were involved

transactions in multiple currencies, FOREX currency conversion and

reporting to General Ledger.

. Managed various data migration projects especially retail banking and

credit/debit card data migration projects for Bank of Cyprus, Shenzhen

Bank of China, Riyad Bank of Saudi Arab and CECP Cote d'Ivoire. The

projects were planned and executed efficiently to control all risks

especially loss of customer's privacy, loss of financial data and down-

time of production system.

. Delivered multi-million dollars enterprise systems projects to City of

New York (NYC) and New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (NJMVC) for

installation of e-Government cashiering and revenue management

solutions. NYC collects $260B annual revenue; NJMVC collects 350 MM &

processes > 17.64 MM transactions annually using Infocorp software.

Both systems are over $10MM. The projects scope was included the

procurement and installation of hardware and 3rd party software. IBM

was our partner in these projects to provide Server/Client hardware,

Ingenico has provided PIN PAD/Signature Capture, HP has provided Bar

Code/OCR scanner and other partners have provided software like

crystal report, etc.

. Turnaround of Manitoba Information Communications Technology (MICT)

project. The main risk on this project was to convert data from 7

databases into a uniform database. The project was in cost overrun and

delay causing MICT to lose customers. Our team was handpicked to

turnaround the project by Senior Management.

. Established a Product Management Group to integrate various products

and formed Payment Solution group. Also defined the strategies for its

smooth operations. The group comprised of three primary groups;

Business Analysis group, Project Management Group, and Professional

Services Group. The Business Analysis Group was to collect business

requirements, analyze them and prepare system requirement

specification. Project Management Group to manage the project for

system enhancements, integration, and deployment. Professional

Services Group to conduct QA, prepare technical and user

documentation, and deliver training.

Product Management

Banking Systems

Managed enhancements and implementation of Retail Banking System with

real-time online processing. It was $10+ MM project and forty people

were in the team. The system was developed under UNIX using C/C++

language. The front-end (User Interface) was developed in Java and

J2EE. The supported databases were DB2, Oracle and Informix. The

solution was installed at various credit unions in Canada and a

customized version was implemented at a bank in Cote d'Ivoire.

Managed the maintenance and customization of Total Concept Banking

System (Capbanc). The system was developed in NCR assembly language

NEAT/3 and installed on NCR mainframe. The other supporting systems

like Virtual Online Transaction Management System, Customer

Relationship Management, Account Classification System, ATM

Management System and Card management system were developed in NEAT/3

and COBOL/VRX COBOL.

Prepared System Requirement Specifications (SRS) to solve various

problems in other banking systems including Kapiti, SAFE, and Alltell

(Systematics) for various clients in North America, Central America

and Europe.

Actively involved in merging of banking systems and transformation of

legacy banking systems to new banking systems that included

integration/interfacing with other existing systems and data

migration involving data cleaning, parsing, mapping and conversion.

Payment Systems

Managed $10+ MM project and a team of 40+ people for successful

development of a payment system that includes online real-time

transaction management (EFT Switch), debit/credit/loyalty card

management, issuance and billing of cards in local & foreign

currencies, merchant management, point of service terminal (ATM, POS,

PC) management, risk management that includes credit scoring and

early warning alerts, user management for secured access, billing,

collection, General Ledger Interface, and marketing programs

(incentive, Loyalty) management that include issuance and management

of loyalty card and schemes. The system was issuing card as per the

EMV, Visa, MasterCard and Diners standards and interfacing with

local/international interchange organizations and Value Added

Networks including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Diners

etc.

The payment system was using Visa II (VisaNet/Vital/TSYS), ISO8583

and other message protocols to interface with interchange

organizations/Payment Gateways including MasterCard Cirrus, Visa

Plus, Global Payment Gateway, Interac Canada, Nova, MercuryPay, etc .

Also, supporting Visa Base I/Base II and MasterCard settlement &

Clearing interfaces.

The self service terminals managed by the system were NDC/NDC+ and

Diebold emulation based ATMs (NCR, Triton, Olivetti, IBM etc.), POS

terminals (Ingenico, Hypercom, VeriFone etc.), Host Security Modules

(HSM) from Racal, etc.

The system was developed in C/C++ and Java language under

Unix/AIX/Linux and with routines to make it database independent.

Initially it was supporting Informix, however, later it supported

Oracle, DB2 and Sybase.

Coached and managed multicultural multidiscipline teams for

development, sales support and installation of this payment system.

The team included Project Managers, Business analysts, Systems

analysts, Software engineers, QA personnel, Technical Writers,

Trainers and sales representatives.

The system was successfully implemented at numerous banks globally

including two major banks in China. I have enhanced and customized

the system as per market and customer's requirements.

eGovernment Systems

Developed e-Government solutions like Point-Of-Sale (POS) Cashiering

and revenue management systems, Vehicle Registration System, Stock

Management (inventory) System, Search and Audit systems. These

solutions were developed with Client/Server architecture and the

development environment was: Unix/Aix/Linux/Windows Operating

Systems, .Net Platform with Visual Basic, J2EE, XML, HTML, Entity

Java Beans (EJB), DB2/Oracle/MS SQL databases, POS PIN Encryption

Devices (PED) and signature Pad for debit/credit card usage and HTTPS

connection with Payment Gateways for card authorization. These

solutions were having sophisticated parameter-driven General Ledger

interface with revenue distribution capabilities at source of revenue

collection.

These solutions were interfacing with Global Payment Gateway and Nova

Payment Gateways for card authorizations. The systems were fully PCI

PA-DSS compliance.

These solutions were installed at high valued clients such as

Department of Finance, New York City (NYServ), New Jersey Motor

Vehicle Commission, Department of Internal Affairs New Zealand, etc.

The system has recently been upgraded to for .Net Platform with

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), touch screen UI, Visual Studio

2013, SAP Crystal Report SP 9, and Java EE. The PED management module

is also being upgraded to use Ingenico ISC Touch 250 to handle all

forms of payment including EMV Chip & PIN, Chip & Sign, Magstripe,

Signature Capture and Contactless using RBA SDK.

Other Systems

Developed and implemented very robust system for data migration from

one or multiple source systems to single target system. This system

was used at Bank Of Cyprus to convert millions of accounts from seven

systems to single system. The system was also used at various other

clients like Riyad Bank Saudi Arab, MICT Manitoba, Shenzhen

Development Bank China, etc.

Professional experience

Senior Program/Project Manager November 2003-

Present

Infocorp Computer Solutions Ltd., Toronto

Infocorp is a fast-paced technology provider of software solutions and

consultancy services to major governments, businesses, financial industry

and software houses.

Key Accountabilities: Overall responsible and accountable for the

program/projects management process and project management deliverables,

PMO and operations with key functions of governance and management of

performance, customers and vendors relations, scheduling, financial

budgeting, risk & scope, resource, quality and communications of all

projects to ensure initiatives are implemented successfully and projects

are delivered on time and budget.

Major Activities:

. Working with the sponsor and/or business lead and project team,

initiate the project by developing scope, charter, requirements,

outlining costs, resources, timeframes and other related project

tasks, such as working with the technology project lead to ensure that

technical and functional specifications are aligned to business

requirements.

. Enhance, upgrade or participate in the development of programs,

products or services by assessing the impact, effectiveness and

feasibility of proposed solutions/enhancements (review/develop

options and proposals, sometimes developed by others); make

decisions and/or authoritative recommendations regarding

feasibility and implementation of changes.

. Work with the sponsor and/or business lead in developing a

detailed business case outlining the project goals, charter,

terms of reference, manpower and resource requirements and

associated costs and a detailed cost-benefit analysis (as

required).

. Negotiate with the client(s) regarding deliverables and

milestones (the client could be a project director, line

manager, subject matter expert, etc.).

. Develop project plans, for a variety of related assignments or

routine projects. This includes identifying tasks to be

completed, assigning staff resources and coordinating delivery

of outputs.

. Have overall responsibility and accountability for end-to-end

project management and implementation on all projects assigned.

. Execute the project plan/schedule in a manner that effectively

balances the specified mix of quality, time and cost.

. Adhere to the PMLC methodology and effective use of standardized

templates.

. Ensure compliance with overall PMO governance framework and

ensure all project teams are using established tools and

processes

. Identify and consider potential opportunities by analyzing the

efficiency of specific practices and procedures used by the

project team; make related proposals and recommendations.

. Proactively manage change within the project and ensure all out

of scope items are captured, approved by change control board

and monetized

. Manage the project team and appropriately assist/facilitate with

the resolution and escalate issues as required.

. Provide ongoing assistance or support to project team members by

resolving non-routine problems and recommending needed

resources.

. Manage client relationships and provide highly specialized

support to the organization, primarily related to the project

management process and in support of the business strategy and

objectives.

. Play a leadership role to address root cause operational issues

and team development/building as they relate to assigned

projects.

. Plan and implement defined solutions to meet identified

challenges.

. Pass phase gate reviews and quality reviews.

. Manage all issues, risks and mitigation plans associated with

the project

. Facilitate conflicts and resolve issues within the project team

. Monitor implementation of projects to ensure success.

. Track and monitor the financial health of the overall project

. Ensure compliance with overall PMO governance framework and

ensure all project teams are using established tools and

processes

. Monitor the completion of major milestones and if necessary

reassign project priorities to maintain the project schedule.

This includes monitoring the involvement of internal and

external resources.

. Manage all issues, risks and mitigation plans associated with

the project

. Monitor and justify expenditures against project budget and

prepare status reports.

. Review the products or services delivered under the project plan

for accuracy

. Identify any deviations to the project schedule/work plan and

recommend corrective action to the Business lead/Program lead.

. Prepare and deliver status to the Executive Steering Committee,

Senior Management and Executive Management as per the project

communication plan and ensure that approvals on project

progress, risk mitigation, change requests and problem

resolution are obtained in a timely manner.

. Work with other Project Managers to share best practices, emerging

project management methodologies, resolve resource schedule conflicts,

maintaining organizational process assets and environmental factors.

Current Assignments:

Currently managing following Programs/Projects:

. PCI Program - The scope of this program is to manage multiple projects

related to design and development of new Secured Card Interface and

getting the PCI certification. The Projects in this program are:

. Project - Selection of QSA. This includes preparation and issuance

of RFP, proposal analysis, selection and contract negotiation. -

Completed

. Project - Design and development of Secured Card Interface (SCI)

Product Release 1.0

. Project - PCI compliance of SCI

. Software Implementation - managing a project to implement cashiering

and revenue management system to a retailer. The solution involves

customization for touch-screen based functionality, management of

Account Receivable, data conversion, and interface with back-end

inventory and general ledger system.

. M-Commerce Project - The scope of this Project is to enhance the

existing products to support Mobile Commerce.

. Service Oriented Architecture Program - The scope of this program is

to manage multiple Projects to enhance the existing products

supporting Saas and PaaS functionalities.

Major Projects Completed Recently:

. Enhancement of card management system for "Collection" functionality:

The scope of the project was to add functionalities for cardholders

past dues collection using internal and external collectors. The

enhancement included assignment of collection cases based on pre-

defined criteria and tracking the performance of collectors also.

. Enhancement of Card Management Solution to support Incentive/Loyalty

Programs: This project was completed for a bank in UAE. These

enhancements enable the bank to manage and offer various loyalty

programs to its cardholders. The loyalty points can be redeemed online

to purchase variety of items.

. Implementation of e-Government Cashiering and revenue management

solution at 10 service centers (Agencies) of a customer. The challenge

in this project was the data conversion from three different legacy

systems to our solution.

. Performance Management of Point of Service Terminals (ATM and POS):

This Project was completed for a UAE based Software Company and it was

installed at National Bank. The project was the development and

deployment of solution to monitor the performance of ATM (NCR 5085,

Aptra, etc) using NDC/NDC+/Diebold emulation and POS (VeriFone)

terminals installed at branches and merchant outlets. It is integrated

solution to analyze data from multiple sources in selectable modules

and present in graphical user interface. These modules include

monitoring ATMs Networks, POS Networks, and Banking Transactions. The

solution also has a module to perform parameter-based online real-time

velocity check to detect and generate email/sms alerts indicating

possible fraudulent conditions. This multi-year project was completed

with remotely located development resources and was involved major

data analysis to cater all exceptional conditions. The installed

solution interfaces with front-end terminal management system and back-

end call center system.

Senior e-Commerce Program/Project Manager May 1994- October 2003

SLMsoft Inc., Toronto

SLMsoft is an ISO9001 global provider of e-commerce financial services

software solutions to major financial institutions in the world with sales

of $100MM.

My responsibilities were:

. Strategic planning and oversee all aspects of e-commerce solutions

portfolio to develop and deliver cost effective solutions to customers

while simultaneously providing long-term values for the company. The

portfolio includes solutions for banking, Card Management, Electronic

Fund Transfer and other financial services Solutions.

. Managing ePMO including all communications to executive

management/stakeholders/steering committees and provide regular

project status updates that involved forecast, risks and issues to

internal and external stakeholders.

. Managing a multifaceted Corporate Systems team of 80+ members for

product and solution design and delivery, application support,

enhancements including preparation of specifications as per customers'

and markets' requirements and turn them into design to incorporate in

to the product. The team included Project Managers, Business Analysts,

System Analysts, Software Developers, QA personnel, Technical Writers,

Trainers and Sales support representatives.

IT Manager June 1984 - April 1994

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Abu Dhabi Commercial, the largest banks in the region, was the first bank

to introduce e-commerce services in the region. It has the largest

network of branches, ATM, and POS terminals.

Key Responsibilities: Managing the IT Depart for the bank. Strategic

planning and oversee all aspects of financial services and banking

solutions portfolios to develop and deliver cost effective solutions to

customers while simultaneously providing long-term values for the

company. Managed a multifaceted team of 35+ members included Business

Analysts, Systems Analysts, Software Engineers, Computer Operators,

Support, Hardware Engineer and QA.

Major Achievements: Designed, developed and implemented branch automation

software that was front-end to banking system. The software was developed

in Basic and DataFlex (4GL) languages and it was implemented in 30

branches of the bank. I also, managed a project to implement FOREX system

for treasury department.

I have actively managed the merger of three banks to form Abu Dhabi

Commercial bank. In merger, my role was to lead a Business and Technical

team in merging the three banking systems to Total Concept Banking System

(Capbanc) running at Khalij Commercial bank. The biggest challenge in

merger was data conversion, merging of foreign currency (FX) accounts and

merging of GL especially foreign currencies.

I was among few individuals who have designed and developed a software

solution to manage NCR NDC/NDC+/Diebold emulation 911/912 based Automated

Teller Machines (ATM) when they were initially introduced in the market

in 1986. The development of ATM Management software, NDC drivers, Card

management software and interface to banking and other back-end systems

and rollout of ATM network with 18 NCR 5075/5085 in-lobby and through-the-

wall ATMs were completed in four months time. The solution was also

managing various services offered through ATM network including

dispensing of foreign currency and demand draft, ATM balancing &

reconciliation, and management of ATM card issuance. Afterward, the

network was expanded to have 40 ATMs (mixture of NCR and IBM ATMs).

The service network was enhanced to include POS terminals and become

complete EFTPOS Switch with interfaces to Visa, MasterCard and American

Express. We Installed a POS management solution with 350 POS at merchant

locations.

I managed a group of 4 support staff for day-to-day operations (24x7) of

EFTPOS (ATM and POS) network. The group was managing ATM and POS service

calls from our branches and merchants. We successfully managed 99% up

time of our ATM and POS.

Systems Manager July 1979 - May 1984

National Bank Of Pakistan

Major Achievements: Preparation of functional specifications,

development, and deployment of major systems such as the Savings

Accounts, Demand Deposit Accounts, Payroll, Provident Fund, General

Ledger and Letter of Credit system. Led a team of programmers to redesign

and migrate banking applications from IBM 370/135 to NCR 8250.

Tools use in managing PMLC

. Expert judgment (from consultants, stakeholders, SME, PMO etc.) for

development of project charter, statement of work, project management

plan etc.

. Microsoft Project management software (Project management information

system) for task identification, scheduling, resolving dependencies,

performance monitoring, cost management etc.

. Interviews, facilitated workshops (JAD) and analysis of product/solution

for requirement collection (SRS), project scope, solution design,

identification of alternatives etc.

. Traceability matrix for scope verification, controlling scope creeping,

controlling product/solution development etc.

. Stakeholder register to manage stakeholders and plan communication

. Risk register to risk recording, risk analysis and documenting risk

mitigation

. Variance analysis for managing budget, cost, schedule, performance etc.

. PERT or CPM for identifying and managing critical task and bottlenecks

etc.

. Estimation techniques (Analogous, Parametric, Three-point, past

experience) for task duration, effort and cost (budget) estimation

. Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) like RACI (Responsible,

Accountable, Consult, Information) for resource management. (I have

managed resource on four projects in three countries simultaneously

using RACI technique)

. Earned Value Management, Cost Performance Index (CPI) and Schedule

Performance Index (SPI)

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

Master of Science, Applied Mathematics, University of Karachi

Certification

. Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification from PMI

Professional Seminars & Courses

. Project Management from Seneca College, Markham, Ontario

. Executive Management program from Schulich School of Business, York

University, Ontario

. Fundamentals of Marketing: Concept and Practices from Canadian

Management Centre, Toronto

. Product Management from Canadian Management Centre, Toronto

. Strategic Management of Information Systems, Institute of Bankers, UAE

. EDP Audit and Security, Institute of Bankers, UAE

. System Analysis and Designing, Institute of Business Administration,

Karachi

. Structure Analysis, Institute of Business Administration, Karachi

. Communication Skills for System Analysts, Institute of Business

Administration, Karachi

Contact this candidate