Project Manager Life Insurance

Val Kats

*** ******* **.

Oceanside, NY *****

516-***-**** (H) 516-***-**** (C)

***.****@*****.***

BUSINESS AND SYSTEMS ANALYST/PROJECT MANAGER: Extensive experience in

business and systems analysis, managing enterprise-level software projects through all stages of

the SDLC life cycle and developing, planning, coordinating and leading release schedules.

Excellent interpersonal, leadership, project coordination and self-directed task management skills,

verbal and written communication skills, utilized to work effectively with diverse group of

executives, managers, program leads, subject matter experts, customers, system end-users and

peers, and meet robust schedules and quality deliverables.

EXPERIENCE:

08/04 - Present Business Analyst/Project Manager

AXA Equitable – Jersey City, NJ

Worked closely with stakeholders, business users and IT staff to gather and document

business requirements. Was responsible for coordinating activities and resources impacting

multiple departments and systems simultaneously.

Developed requirements and design documents for implementation of the automated Annuity

and Life Insurance platforms, in cooperation with business users and software developers.

Successfully managed multiple complex projects from initiation to closure. Developed project

plans, scheduled project timelines and milestones for multiple projects.

Managed all phases of SDLC and project execution. Tracked project milestones and

deliverables, identified and resolve issues and conflicts. Proactively managed changes in project

scope, identified potential crises, and devised contingency plans.

Successfully monitored and reported the critical path and tracked overall schedule

performance. Conducted weekly and monthly schedule reviews with stakeholders, including

summary overview, critical path, and variance report.

Served as the liaison between application development and production support teams for

change and release management control. Ensured that technical support, test plans and backup

procedures are always in place for all production changes.

Managed a team of Release Analysts, consisting of both full time employees and the off-shore

resources responsible for release and deployment of over 100 production changes weekly.

Enforced compliance with the Release Management process and ensured all changes are

properly staged, deployed and validated by both IT and business users.

Managed and maintained the process by which the production environment was updated,

upgraded and maintained. Successfully oversaw and managed over 500 production changes a

week, including several major releases and upgrades each weekend, with minimal impact on the

stability of the production environment and resulting in the record number of clean days for all

AXA Equitable facilities.

Conducted weekly meeting with all internal and external stakeholders to finalize all weekend

activities in the production environment and to vet out any potential conflicts with projects and

support resources. Maintained and managed release calendar for the entire IT organization for all

production releases, infrastructure upgrades and applications regular maintenance.

Developed and executed playbooks for major enterprise deployments of new products,

product updates and infrastructure upgrades. Executed playbooks and managed complex

deployments to ensure successful implementation.

Developed, maintained and updated Change Management and Release Management process

documents and developed training material for companywide compliance with the process.

Conducted training sessions across the entire organization to familiarize IT personnel and off-

shore resources with the Change Management policies.

10/97 – 08/04 Systems and Business Analyst

AXA Equitable – New York, NY

Developed ACORD XML message standards, as well as firewall rules for communication with

vendor applications in support of the new Annuity platform.

Administered and maintained web based J2EE application running on Apache server.

Designed and developed calculation engines using C++ and Java for new business and

enforce illustration systems that produce compliance ledgers for incentive life insurance policies.

Designed and developed user interface module for proposals system used by AXA Equitable.

Participated in all phases of proposal systems development life cycle. Performed analysis of

the user requirements and actuarial specifications to develop software requirements and design

specifications consistent with the architecture used in proposal systems. Developed code and

conducted unit and system level testing to insure compliance with requirements.

8/86 - 10/97 Senior Software Engineer

Northrop Grumman – Bethpage, NY

Designed and developed a simulation system for advance tracking algorithm. The model was

developed in C++ using Object Oriented Design and Analysis.

Performed requirements analysis, developed design and test documents. Performed unit and

system level testing. Interfaced with QA to ensure product and process compliance.

SKILLS: ITIL, CMMI, SDLC, Excel, MS Project, Word, PowerPoint, Visio, HP-

PPM, ACORD, HTML, XML, UML, PVCS, Unicenter Service Desk

CERTIFICATION: ITIL V3 Foundation

EDUCATION: B.S. Computer and Information Science - Brooklyn College

Contact this candidate