Melissa E. Heaton

**** ***** **** ****** *****: 859-***-****

Highland Heights, KY 41076 email: acryuf@r.postjobfree.com

SUMMARY

Talented and accomplished IT Management Professional with over 15 years of experience in quality assurance, business analysis and systems design. Experienced Manager with proven ability to direct and improve Quality Programs, while reducing defects and improving overall efficiency and productivity. This includes establishing Strategies and Goals that support organizational growth as well as the development and release of business application software. Possess ability to hire, lead, coach, and motivate effective cross-functional, matrix teams. An effective leader and who is capable of influencing Project Team Management, Senior Management and the Executive Team. Seeking a professional opportunity to be a vital part of a company and contribute to the success of that organization.

EXPERTISE AND QUALIFICATIONS

IT Management

Strategic Technology Planning

Data / Business/ Systems Analysis

Project / Program Management

Quality Assurance / SDLC

Quality Tool Systems Administration

Microsoft Project

Disaster Recovery / Contingency

Tactical Planning

Project Planning

Major Software / Systems Implementations

Project Tracking and Reporting

Testing / Scripting / Documentation

Defect Tracking Management / Reporting

Oracle ERP / RDBMS / SQL Server / VB / C++

Risk Analysis

EXPERIENCE

Ascendum Solutions, Consulting Apr 2014 – Present

Principal Consultant / QA Management Cincinnati, OH

Assurecare (CH Mack), Vinimaya, MEI, Loan Depot, WWR, Amerigas

- Oversee for several QA client teams for companies: MEI; Loan Depot; Weltman, Weinberg and Reis; Amerigas; Integrity Giving; Assurecare and Vinimaya.

- Direct Test Leads to perform the estimation, test planning, testing, project reporting and status, assign tasks and resources to meet project deadlines.

- Ensure timely and successful implementation of client projects, including system-level integration testing, Regression testing, Automation, and Acceptance testing efforts.

- Ensure test strategy, test plans and test cases are produced on time with good quality.

- Lead daily Scrum and status meetings.

- Manage teams using Waterfall and Agile/Scrum methodologies.

- Recruiting and retaining Test Leads and Managers to ensure the development of detailed work plans, schedules, project estimates, resource plans, and status reports for each project.

- Hire personnel and develop QA Organizational structures with new and existing employees.

- Evaluate staff consultants performance per established policies, including the use of core competencies.

- Project Management. Establish ongoing Project Priorities and develop Project Plans.

- Strategic, Financial and Tactical Planning.

- Write Statements of Work (SOWs) for client work.

- Influence and Facilitate complex technical initiatives, including medical, financial, and mobile client programs.

- Establish and implement QA policies and procedures using industry best practices.

- Establish standards and guidelines for Test Plans, Test Cases, Test Scripts and Metrics.

- Design, monitor and analyze performance metrics program for quality improvement initiatives.

- Evaluate metrics and key performance indicators that serve as escalation points for risks.

- Provide guidance and Subject Matter Expertise around Quality methodologies and practices.

- Champion for the defect management process using Jira and HP Quality Center.

- Accountable for the continuous improvement of policies, procedures and infrastructure to improve quality or projects and programs.

- Develop and implement test automation best practices for software components to ensure full test coverage and repeatability.

- Provide consultation on policies, procedures, standards, test strategies, and automation practices.

- Provide technical leadership and training to lesser experienced consultants.

- Coaching and Mentoring of staff consultants.

Humana Nov 2012 – Apr 2014

Test Management Office (TMO) Louisville, KY

Program Manager

- Manage teams using Waterfall and Agile/Scrum methodologies to successful implementations.

- Manage offshore development staff, testers, test managers.

- Evaluate staff performance per established policies, including the use of core competencies.

- Develop and implement departmental goals and objectives with input from staff members.

- Project Manager of a software re-write for the company defect and test case management tool.

- Managed schedule and budget for SQuIDS project, for staff of 14 developers and testers.

- Lead daily Scrum meetings with entire team.

- Developed metrics and 4-square status reports for daily and weekly executive meetings.

- Reported to management the issues and risks involved in all projects on an on-going basis.

- Assessed risks and recommended mitigation plans.

- Influenced and Facilitated the initiation of complex technical programs, coaching, recruiting and retaining Managers to ensure the development of detailed work plans, schedules, project estimates, resource plans, and status reports for each project within a given program.

- Developed Roadmap for Quality.

- Ensuree all applicable Industry Compliance was followed.

- Hired personnel and develop organizational structure with new and existing employees to manage large program implementations.

Accu-Med Technology Solutions Mar 2011 – Oct 2012

Director, Quality Assurance Milford, OH

Accu-Med Technology Solutions produces Clinical and Financial Medical Software for Long-Term Healthcare Facilities.

- Director of several separate and distinct QA teams, including AccuCare, Therapy Management (Cypress), Orcas Connections, AddOn, HTM, AccuCount, eMar, OSC2R, and ORS product lines.

- Influence and Facilitate the initiation of complex technical programs, coaching, recruiting and retaining Managers to ensure the development of detailed work plans, schedules, project estimates, resource plans, and status reports for each project within a given program.

- Project Management and Product Management of AccuCare and Cypress.

- Strategic Planning with Executive Team to set short-term and long-term Accu-Med goals.

- Tactical Planning with Executive Team (COO, CTO, CFO) to fulfill Strategic Goals.

- Hire personnel and develop QA Organizational structure with new and existing employees.

- Evaluate staff performance per established policies, including the use of core competencies.

- Develop Quality standards and guidelines for Test Plans, Test Cases, Test Scripts and Metrics.

- Evaluate metrics and key performance indicators that serve as escalation points for risks.

- Develop and implement departmental goals and objectives with input from staff members

- Establish ongoing Project Priorities and develop Project Plans.

- Ensure timely and successful implementation of all Projects, end-to-end, including Functional, System, Automation, and User Acceptance Level Testing efforts.

- Collaborate with Senior Management and Executive Team to develop Next Generation eMAR (Electronic Medical Records application) Product.

- Identify possible system enhancements to improve process flow and optimization of applications

- Produce Technical Functional Product Decomposition for Next Generation eMAR product.

- Ensure all applicable Industry Compliance is followed.

- Managed teams using Waterfall and Agile/Scrum methodologies to successful implementations.

Cohesion Consulting Sept 2010 – Mar 2011

International Paper – xpedx Milford, OH

Manager - Quality Assurance

- Managed a matrix style QA / BA test team.

- Coordinated all testing for the third largest, multi-million dollar xpedx project to re-design the all online web and B2B transactions.

- Managed QA team of six as well as borrowed resources of six to 12 testers at any given time; prioritized work.

- Developed and effectively communicated Status Reports, Defect Reports and System Outage Reports to Senior Management.

- Participated in weekly Management Meetings with all Senior Management, Stakeholders and Project Sponsors to influence Project and Program Management decisions.

- Coordinated with the 3rd party vendor, Management staff, Project Manager, Architect and QA personnel to ensure timely responses to defects fixes, build management and system availability.

- Managed Defect reviews.

- System Administrator for Jira defect ticketing system.

- Reviewed test cases, requirements and design documentation.

- Coordinate all build management functions into the Staging environment

Disabled American Veterans 2008 – 2010

Quality Assurance / Business Analysis Manager Cold Spring, KY

- Managed a four-person team of QA and BA Engineers; Assisted in hiring Business Analysts.

- Participated in weekly Management meetings; Cross-functional team collaboration.

- Effectively Influenced Senior Management’s Product development and general IT Organization decisions.

- Communicated Project Status to Senior Management.

- Dotted-line Manager of Development Staff.

- Authored and Formalized Requirements documentation (Functional, System and Business)

- Lead QA Engineer for DAV applications including Membership, Case Management System and the Fundraising system, in addition to several tertiary applications.

- Provided QA Project Management expertise for ongoing projects, including the Shared Names.

- Managed Defect reviews, Status, and team work prioritization.

- Created and Managed the Change Control Process and Project Plans.

- Trained and Mentored employees in Business Requirements, QA processes and Testing.

- Authored regression, automation, functional, system, integration, smoke, and exploratory test cases in addition to test matrices.

- Responsible for Requirements and Design Decisions for the DAV Membership and CMS software applications as well as the PayFlow Registration System for National Convention.

- Managed Proof-of-Concept for Seapine TestTrackPro (TTP); Cost savings achieved, $36,000.

- System Administrator for HP Quality Center and Seapine TestTrackPro

- Implemented Seapine TTP and QA Wizard Pro, including Data Migration.

- Provided training for Seapine TTP Requirements Management, Test Case Management and Defect Tracking.

Fidelity Investments 2005 – 2008

Sr. Lead Quality Assurance Covington, KY

- Team Lead with Interim Manager Responsibilities for 5 onsite and 2 offshore team members.

- Responsible for hiring in our department.

- Interviewed and hired 10 of 15 onsite employees in the QA department.

- Reviewed and evaluated goals and progress for each employee.

- Consolidated and reported status to upper Management.

- Met with Management, Directors and VP’s to plan projects and programs for release.

- Weekly Management meetings with Senior Management and Executive Management staff to discuss ERP testing Status, Goals, Risks, Risk Analysis and Next Steps.

- Held meetings to discuss releases and implementations and Test/QA status.

- Responsible for go/no-go decisions regarding release implementations.

- Test the Inbound (ICS) and Outbound (ERP) software applications, utilizing manual and automated test tools in a Microsoft Professional environment.

- Review System Requirements and Business Rules for the ICS and Outbound Redesign Projects.

- Author and review manual System Test Cases based on System Requirements. - Document issues or defects for the OBR project and work with development to assure timely resolution.

- Managed Defect Status meetings with Development and the PM teams.

- System Administrator for IBM ClearQuest, the QA Department’s defect management tool.

- Supported other testers on the team in their testing efforts. Debugged QA issues as well as system test defects.

EDUCATION:

Bachelor of Science Computer Science, Northern Kentucky University

Master of Science Business Informatics, Northern Kentucky University

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