Dev Prakash

www.linkedin.com/in/devprakash 651-***-**** acok61@r.postjobfree.com St Paul, MN

IT QA Manager/Director Candidate with a history of bridging the gap between IT & Business

Seasoned technology executive with 20 years of experience in Quality Assurance, Software Testing, Risk & Compliance Management, Release Management, PMO and implementation of technology programs aligned with the business objectives. Proven track record of developing talent and building top-performing global teams. Executive presence and communication skills needed for VPs, and C level interactions and to build partnership across organizations. Strong skills in software development, architecture, quality assurance, testing, release governance, security, PMO and cost optimization. Well versed in leading and facilitating partnerships with key vendors (Cap Gemini, Deloitte, Accenture, Cognizant, Wipro, Infosys, TCS etc.) and setting up and managing offshore operations. Led community volunteering and diversity & inclusion initiatives.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

IT Quality Assurance & Compliance

Software Testing & Automation

Software Development

Solutions Delivery & Implementation

Java, .NET, QTP, HPQC, Selenium

Program Management, PMO

Vendor Management

eCommerce, Omnichannel

Architecture, Infrastructure

Budget/Profit and Loss

Release Management

Cloud, Mobility & Data Analytics

International operations

Offshore Set up and Management

ITIL, Support Operations, ITSM

Talent Development

Mentoring/Coaching

Agile/RUP/SCRUM/DevOps/CMMi

ERP - SAP, ORACLE, LAWSON

Cross Functional Leadership

Finance, Retail, Insurance, Healthcare

EDUCATION

MS (Masters in Software Systems) U. of St. Thomas, MN, USA (2001 - 2003)

BS (Computer Science & Engineering) REC Kurukshetra, INDIA (1990 - 1994)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

IT QA Group Manager (Technology Director Level) - Target Corporation, Minneapolis, MN 2008 – Present

Leading Testing Center of excellence for Target. Managing a team of 5 QA Managers and 50+ direct onsite staff members and overall 800+ global resources. Accountable to provide functional, non-functional, performance, security, mobile, automation test services to 200+ projects and programs. Driving quality into the fabric of the enterprise. Led Stores POS, Mobility, Digital, Flex Fulfillment and EMV implementation programs. Led SAP implementation & QA for Corporate Finance department.

Key accomplishments:

* QA Business Startup: Led the creation of a large Testing Center of Excellence (COE) for Target during the IT Transformation journey. Built a diverse global QA department and team. As a founding member of the global Testing COE, led the global vendor selection process.

* Enterprise Software Quality Assurance, Risk Management and Testing:

* Improved application quality via reducing the defect density to 7% from original 15%. Reduced defect leakage into user acceptance testing (UAT) to 15% from 30% in 2 years.

* Reduced the overall testing effort from 40% to 20% of overall SDLC effort. Reduced test cycles by 30% via increased test automation and implementation of risk based and exploratory testing.

* Developed regression test case repository in HP Quality Center enhancing the test case coverage and reducing the test cycle time. Automated test cases with QTP, selenium and model based testing tools.

* SAP Solution QA/Testing and PMO

* Develop & Implemented Program Test Strategy for 60 Million dollar SAP Program. Presented to CIO, VPs and directors and other executives. Received the CFO recognition and award.

* Led the testing, delivery and customization of SAP program to implement SAP FI/CO, AP, AR and GRC and BW for Finance department. Led global team of vendors and team members to run the delivery in 24x7, follow the sun, model resulting in faster delivery and defect resolutions.

* Enterprise Release Management: Built release governance process (before it was unacceptable process leading to system instabilities and client dissatisfaction). Collaborated with various departments and developed a structured agile release & QA process, and sold concept to VPs & Directors. As a result, improved the business client satisfaction and improved the quality & stability of business applications.

* Team and Talent: Dedication to mentorship, team building & development led to 95% retention rate. Has been a leader in Target’s mentorship and coaching program. Led diversity and inclusion initiatives.

* Cost Optimization: Realized $50M+ dollars of cost savings through greater offshore leverage, reduced vendor rates and productivity improvements. Saved $10 million dollar by offshoring infrastructure management & maintenance. Negotiated vendor agreements resulting in $20M+ savings. Efficiently managed 5 million dollar expense budget.

Further duties and responsibilities:

* Subject matter expert & advisory consultant on QA, Release, Compliance, Testing & Agile/SCRUM topics.

* Interviewed, hired, developed, coached, mentored and trained new resources and teams.

* Negotiated vendor contracts. Achieved more than 60% in savings. Delivered extraordinary results.

* Facilitated conversations with Risk, Compliance and Audit teams internally and externally.

* Managed QA/Test Infrastructure maintenance projects of $4 Million budget and 50+ resources.

* Led technology and hardware acquisitions and vendor selection.

Other Achievements

* Nominated to the LEAD program designed to accelerate development of key corporate executives.

* Was promoted to Target Key Management Group (equivalent to Technology Director)

Sr. Manager, Quality Assurance/Release Management/PMO - Lawson Software, St. Paul, MN 2004 - 2008

Lawson (now Infor) develops Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. Strategically managed various application releases / programs from inception to client delivery. Managed teams of QA Managers, Project Managers, System Administrators, Engineers and QA Analysts in USA and offshore locations in Sweden, Philippines and India. Created a culture of quality and governance in the company by driving key project management methodologies and best practices for team members, business partners and vendors. Led the startup and management of offshore delivery model in Manila and India.

Key accomplishments:

* Process Improvement: Developed & Implemented a structured and agile software development lifecycle (SDLC) based on rational unified process (RUP) & CMMi (prior software development methodology was adhoc & reactive). Sold this to CTO, VPs & Directors and other Sr. Leaders, Got approval to implement it companywide. Successfully implemented and institutionalized this within the company. Was promoted to Sr. Manager because of the success of SDLC Process. Received CTO recognition for this effort.

* Merger & Acquisition: Presented SDLC process to board of directors of the new company when Lawson merged with equal size software company. During the merger, implemented this SDLC release process across companies and locations in USA, Sweden, India & Philippines. As a result, merger went smooth and enhanced communications with stakeholders and reduced rework costs.

* Quality and Stability: Oversaw aggressive plans to improve quality and stability of releases. Managed initial audit to determine current state of affairs and came up with recommendations that improved quality of releases by 25% and led to savings of $5.5 M.

* QA/Test Automation: Reduced project development expenses by 30 % by creating a center of excellence in automated testing for unit, functional and regression test cases.

* QA/Performance Engineering: Defined performance strategy. Hired and motivated cutting edge professionals for the area. Made sure every application slated for production could handle anticipated load.

Further duties and responsibilities:

* Facilitated cross functional team meetings for the project and reported status to executive management.

* Managed product release priorities, third party products, configurations & deliverables.

* Assisted in creating configuration management and version control policies and procedures.

* Acted as a process expert and worked with various cross functional teams as process improvement advisor.

* Implemented CMMi QA Process and Procedures across the enterprise.

Sr. Engineer/QA, Parametric Technology Corporation, Arden Hills, MN 2000 - 2004

PTC is leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services.

* Developed and tested various business functions of Windchill Flex PLM Software System leveraging Oracle Database and Object Oriented development in Java and J2EE. Developed a module to generate database schema from rational rose object model. Installed and configured both in-house and third party software.

* Analyzed business processes and written requirement & design specification documents.

* Managed projects, assigned and prioritized tasks for the group and coordinated development/testing activities in the US and with offshore development team in India.

Software Consultant, India, Singapore & USA – ITIL, Sony Corp, Prudential Financial 1994 – 2000

* Architected, developed and tested various Banking, Insurance and Finance software applications in Oracle, Microsoft, SQL, UNIX, Java, Visual Basic, .NET, Mainframe and PowerBuilder environment.

* Managed Oracle ERP Implementation releases for various clients including Kodak, Sony, and VeriFone etc.

* Traveled to various client sites globally to collect the business requirements, developed functional specification & design documents and facilitated coding, testing and delivery process.

CERTIFICATION

PMI certified Project Management Professional

Target Executive Leadership Academy

SAP Solution Manager

RECOGNITION AND AWARDS

Various CxO and VP level Excellence Awards

Diversity Council Leadership Award

Resume - Dev Prakash Page of

Contact this candidate