Project Manager Management

Darla M. Howard-Ramirez, MBA, PMP

Day# 301-***-****

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

PROFILE:

• Executive Program Manager with proven effectiveness for implementing different types of projects (i.e. business

process, financial, systems development, data process redesign, operations) with a diverse group of people.

• Experienced in corporate level evaluation of business process and standards, CRM, EVM, RUP, CMMI, PMLC,

SDLC, integration management, strategic change management, risk management, diversified global management,

outsourcing and complete life cycle systems development, in the government contracting, finance, mortgage &

telecommunications industries.

• Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) since February 2002 & active Project Management Institute (PMI)

member since 2001.

• Served 2 terms as the AVP of Finance on the PMI Washington DC Chapter (PMIWDC) Board of Directors from

January 2006 to June 2008.

• Life Member of the Washington DC Chapter, National Black MBA Association.

COMPLETED EDUCATION:

Averett University, Danville, VA - Master of Business Administration (MBA) - Business Management

University of Maryland, College Park, MD - Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Economics

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

DYNCORP INTL, Falls Church, VA June 2008 – April 2009

DSO Project Team – Independent Senior Financial Consultant

• Reported to the CFO & Senior IT Director of Strategy providing international, corporate level, infrastructure financial

management and analysis to implement process improvements and system enhancements resulting in increased

corporate cash flow and decreased Day Sales Outstanding (DSO).

• Embodied the CEO’s decreasing DSO focus which resulted in an improvement from 92 to 60 days within 9 months.

• Increased the average monthly expedited Accounts Receivables (AR) collection of $240.9M and a parallel collection

of $63.2M in previously unfunded, non-billed and unpaid aged AR.

• Facilitated quicker billing of $18M in completion payment bonus accruals to comply with DFAR standards.

• Worked with the Department of State (DoS) and the Department of Defense (DoD) to ensure timely invoice

processing and if necessary, secured additional or a reallocation of funding.

• Utilized as the on site DI corporate SME resource in Falls Church, VA, Alliance, TX and Dubai, UAE for the

PeopleSoft Field Payroll System (FPS), and the Time & Labor (T&L) software project integration for Dubai,

Afghanistan & Iraq.

• Communicated weekly with the CEO in focused DSO meetings to address Division Heads and Functional Area

Staff’s progress and challenges in attaining the assigned goals.

• Served as a liaison between domestic and international business and operations leads to understand current

methods of operation, paths to improvements in process, data transmission and ensure a cohesive integration.

• Identified and pursued additional opportunities for increasing cash flow and decreasing billing processing time.

• Ensured newly developed processes incorporate compliance with IFRS, GAAP, SOX, DFAR and FAR requirements.

• Bridged human and technical communication interface gaps in understanding of processes and detailed activities

supporting the systems, business operations, contracts and finance groups.

• Served as a DCAA interface and compiled requested support documentation for selected audit inquiries.

Darla M. Howard-Ramirez, MBA, PMP

• Utilized MS Project, SharePoint, PeopleSoft, CostPoint, Cognos Reports, Hyperion, and the entire MS Office Suite

for daily duties.

FREDDIE MAC, McLean, VA July 2006 – December 2007

Division Oversight & Enterprise Program Office – Independent Senior Project Management Consultant

• Managed an enterprise level change and integration between Corporate Business Process Controls and GAAP

Traceability Methodology to create policy, institute new corporate standards and re-mediate a Material Weakness.

• Led a senior professional team of 7 CPAs, 2 MBAs and 2 senior technical engineers in creating, training and

adopting a corporate GAAP traceability methodology and the proposed long-term sustainable tool.

• Advised and trained Decentralized Accounting Units and other finance and operations officers to support the

ongoing traceability activity to maintain the validity of business requirements’ defined business events and

subsequent accounting events mapped to the financial statement and ultimately to corporate policy.

• Integrated Policy to Operations traceability project remediation efforts with a concurrent End-to-End program and

similar corporate initiative activities.

• Created integrated project plans with separate division goals and activities while aggressively meeting executive

management’s agreed upon audit remediation deadlines.

• Facilitated meetings, create presentations and direct weekly status communications with Senior Vice Presidents,

Vice Presidents, Directors, Corporate Project Sponsors, Peer Managers, OFHEO and PWC auditors concerning

assigned corporate initiatives, project planning, measurements, status, activities, challenges, risks and issues.

• Assess, direct, consolidate, train and report defined business and technical process governance and controls of an

integrated framework while ensuring EVM, SOX and corporate compliance were met.

• Developed and delivered enterprise methodology integration training, as needed.

• Utilized Rational Suite, SharePoint, PeopleSoft, Remedy, MicroStrategy, DOORS, and MS Office Suite tools daily to

ensure internal & external audit compliance for proper project tracking.

FANNIE MAE, Washington, DC July 2005 – July 2006

Treasury, Amortization & Impairment Divisions – Independent Senior Project Management Consultant

• Reported to Fannie Mae’s SVP & Treasurer for coordination of Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) and Restatement End User

Computing (EUC) projects for the Portfolio Division. PM for 2 Amortization Restatement work streams.

• Served as Point of Contact for Fannie Mae with external audit and restatement Partners PWC and D&T.

• Provided clear direction and interpretation of necessary SOX and Restatement controls to numerous Business Units.

Managed the implementation of select Amortization Engine work streams restatement efforts.

• Directed business units in the interpretation of SOX regulations for the compliant documentation and registration of

End User Computing (EUC) documents. Ensured restatement systems were compliant with SOX guidelines.

• Instituted control processes for the Portfolio Group by contributing to and editing the EUC Portfolio FR Administration

Policy. Responsible for technical and business team coordination utilizing shared resources.

• Lead Portfolio EUC board meetings for Fannie Mae designated representatives of the various Portfolio Groups’

Business Units. Also lead a separate weekly work stream meeting for over 25 key senior executive managerial staff,

including the SVP & Treasurer.

• Maintained project control documentation and SharePoint web site for the Portfolio EUC Team & for Deloitte’s

Provided By Client (PBC) Requests.

FREDDIE MAC, McLean, VA June 2004 – July 2005

Center of Excellence (COE) – Independent Change Management Consultant

• Managed large scale, cross divisional initiatives with significant tactical & strategic impacts, with over 50 direct

reports including SOX Attestation and Data Quality projects.

Darla M. Howard-Ramirez, MBA, PMP

• Developed proposals for annual corporate initiatives totaling between $5M and $35M, including projects that would

initially save over $2 million in operational maintenance costs with an increasing rate of return over time.

• Facilitated status meetings and direct weekly communications with Directors, Corporate Project Sponsors, Peer

Managers and Executive Management concerning corporate initiatives and project planning, measurements, status,

activities, challenges, risks and issues.

• Evaluated and directly managed a $4.5 million initiative budget, scope, Level of Effort for completing assigned tasks

and ensured capable resources were utilized appropriately.

• Assessed and monitored appropriateness of business and technical project leads’ approaches and provide guidance

when needed.

• Performed daily PM tasks such as positively motivating staff, maintaining project plans, scheduling meetings,

documenting activities, assigning goals, monitoring budget, managing resources while following the appropriate

Project Management Life Cycle (PMLC), Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) & RUP (Rational Unified

Process) guidelines.

• Utilized Rational Suite, PeopleSoft, MicroStrategy, and MS Office tools daily to ensure internal audit compliance for

proper project tracking.

UNISYS, Reston, VA July 2003 – June 2004

Health & Human Services Division - Acting Project Manager / Lead Business Analyst

• Nominated by senior management to serve on the 25 person Unisys North American Diversity Board to make

progressive, inclusive business and operations suggestions for the CEO and staff.

• Acting PM and lead business systems analyst over a staff of 9 specializing in the creation and maintenance of RUP

artifacts to be in CMMI Level 2 compliance.

• Employed Provision and Rational Suite 2003 for project artifact creation including XDE Use Case Models, Business

and System Use Cases, Vision Statements, Data Elements and SoDA Report generation.

• Utilized Project Management skills and CostXpert tool to ensure R&D project timeline, budget and scope were

attained while maintaining an internationally based, core team focused on results.

• Peer reviewed other R&D project artifacts including project plans, use cases and user models.

• Coordinated SME meetings and transfer necessary RUP artifacts to offshore team in India to ensure desired system

coding and creation.

FREDDIE MAC, McLean, VA July 2002 - July 2003

Single Family Division - Independent Consultant Project Manager / Senior Business Analyst

• Interim Project Manager for 2 projects: A revised object oriented discount fee assessment system project and the

establishment of the Freddie Mac product pricing and sales guidance system grids.

• Deciphered and extrapolated relevant business information from Subject Matter Experts (SME), not dedicated to the

projects, in a matrix organization.

• Created business requirements and associated documentation for automating functions of the Single Family group’s

End User Computing manual fees project and the Pricing Group.

• Utilized reverse engineering of mainframe and SAS programs to document existing and planned Fee Assessment

system changes for integrating specific manual fee processes.

• Participated in Unix and Mainframe User Acceptance and Systems Integration Testing utilizing RUP Use Case

testing scenarios and SQL queries for a Pricing system upgrade project.

MCI - WORLDCOM (WCOM), Ashburn, VA January 2001- June 2002

Global Solutions - Strategic Program Manager

• Performed highly visible, PM and CRM duties for a multi-million dollar annual revenue and global WCOM customer.

• Performed PM duties of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, closing, costing, coordination, documentation, and

implementation producing over $5 million dollars worth of annual global telecommunications profits.

Darla M. Howard-Ramirez, MBA, PMP

• Lead international team meetings, project planning and discussion to formulate and document a satisfactory

resolution to complex communications projects, including Outsourcing Services.

• Planned, negotiated, and implemented 3-year term service delivery projects with annual revenue of over $1.8 million

per year utilizing global Third Party Vendors (TPV).

• Created multiple phased Managed Services and Bid Proposals utilizing Change Control Notes (CCN), Request

Orders (RO), Statements of Work (SOW), and Request for Proposal (RFP).

• Developed comprehensive program plans to meet customer requirements for delivery and compliance with all

communications contracted services including network monitoring, billing, SLA tracking and reporting, VPN, IP VPN,

Voice Over IP, WAN/LAN switches and routers and the associated network transition.

• Leveraged leadership skills to effectively manage international, lateral department peers to attain or exceed project

goals while maintaining quality.

• Ensured all details from the back office costs to field service were planned, controlled and coordinated.

• Created and lead global staff training sessions and workshops for customized services to an international audience

of over 200 people, including executive staff.

• Owned the service solution and the responsibility for resolving any technical, financial, systems and operational

issues throughout the contract signature process and as requested, through implementation.

• Performed due diligence management and data warehouse strategic development.

ACUITY TECHNOLOGY SERVICES, LLC, McLean, VA March 2000-December 2000

Consultant to FREDDIE MAC & MCI WORLDCOM – Project Manager / Senior Business Analyst

• PM for MCI WorldCom involving bid proposals, planning databases, utilizing international TPV services, and

coordinating communications build-up for several $100 Million plus annual revenue accounts.

• Responsible for defining and documenting business and system requirements from known data elements in a

reverse engineering effort at Freddie Mac on ISS Project Enterprise.

• Performed business and process analysis to translate and document process changes and controls.

• Self taught DOORS, a requirements management tool, & became the project’s lead DOORS administrator.

• Reviewed mainframe SAS programs to document MIDAS system flows in the mortgage servicing process.

QSS GROUP, INC., Lanham, MD October 1998- March 2000

Government Contracting - Lead Systems Analyst

• Lead team of 7 C, UNIX & Perl programmers and analysts in full life cycle development of Housing and Urban

Development (HUD's) Mark-to-Market project, a national web/client server based system.

• Conducted frequent end user meetings for collection, development, and analysis of system requirements & Lead

Customer Relationship manager (CRM) for program’s financial success and attainment of the release goals.

• Performed role of the Lead Point of Contact for national end user system questions.

• Managed the implementation of several web system and database releases, including the Y2K effort.

• Created detailed Work Breakdown Structure, Project Plans, Status Reports, Transition Plans, Operations &

Procedures Guides, Functional Requirements Documents, Design Specification Documents, Data Flow Diagrams,

Process Flow Diagrams, Data Elements Dictionaries, System & Unit Test Plans, Users Guides, and Implementation

Plans. Maintained version control for all documents and projects phases.

• Created a communicative and cohesive team environment under high-pressure deadlines.

SPRINT CORPORATION, Herndon, VA August 1997- October 1998

Consultant Converted to a Sprint Employee - Systems Engineer

• Created and modified diversified Cobol/II DB2 programs while meeting or reducing planned timelines.

• Participated in Life Cycle Review, Requirements Management process, Code and Detailed Design and Test Case

Matrix Walk Through, Review and ensured requirements were accurate.

Darla M. Howard-Ramirez, MBA, PMP

• Created DB2 Plans, DCLGENS, flat files for Unit testing and load DB2 data into the DB2 tables.

• Used SPUFI to extract and select data from our DB2 tables, developed new JCL, Proclib, & Control members to

process job streams, and created Sorts to be placed in the Control members

• Communicated with other interfaces to ensure proper testing is done.

CRESTAR BANK, Washington, DC April 1985 - May 1997

Assistant Vice President-Greater Washington Region Community Affairs Officer – Core Manager

• Executive manager responsible for press contact and representation of the Regional Executive VP in the Greater

Washington Region with nonprofit and charitable organizations.

• Responsibilities included compiling and presenting FDIC requirements of Community Reinvestment Activity (CRA)

on all Greater Washington Region officers for the Bank and Public File Reviews.

• Managed the disbursement of CRA advertising budget, grant donations, and overall relationships with the various

nonprofit and charitable organizations, including housing and business development groups.

• Managed several Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC region branch offices and a diverse staff of 7 to 23 people

with branch assets ranging from $5 to $106 Million.

• Performed internal audits, created annual and monthly reports, set and assigned goals, reviewed and evaluated

employee performance. Coached, trained, promoted, and counseled staff utilizing strong interpersonal skills.

• Promoted six times in twelve years: Greater Washington Region Community Affairs Officer in October 1996, Core

Branch Manager in January 1995, Assistant Vice President in June 1990, Branch Manger in October 1988, Assistant

Manager in November 1987, & Management Trainee from Teller in January 1987.

SOFTWARE:

Rational Suite (including Requisite Pro, Clear Quest, Clear Case, XDE and SoDA), Cognos Reports, CostPoint,

CostXpert, ProVision, MicroStrategy, PeopleSoft, MS Office, MS Project, MS Visio, MS Photo Editor, MS PowerPoint,

MS Excel, MS Access, MS Outlook, MS InfoPath, SharePoint, DynMRO, Hyperion, SAP, SQL Advantage, Remedy,

WinZip, DOORS, Netscape Communicator, Internet Explorer, MS-DOS, Adobe, Acrobat, Lotus Notes, Java, C++, Perl,

MVS/ESA, VS/COBOL II, COBOL II Debugging, OS/JCL, TSO/ISPF/SDSF, VSAM, OS UTILITIES, FILEAID,

LIBRARIAN, EXPEDITOR, Microfocus COBOL II Workbench, CICS/ESA, Microfocus CICS, DB2/SQL, SAS, Sybase.

Excellent References Furnished Upon Request

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