Bhavani Ganapathy

Email: abppqt@r.postjobfree.com

Address: *** ****** ********

City: Shrewsbury

State: MA

Zip: 01545

Country: USA

Phone: 862-***-****

Skill Level: Experienced

Salary Range: $90,000

Primary Skills/Experience:

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Educational Background:

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Job History / Details:

Resume_Bhavani Ganapathy

Experience Summary

Over 8 years of Experience in the IT industry as Project Manager, Business Systems Analyst and Technical Team Lead including 7 years of client facing roles as team lead and analyst in development and testing teams.

* Extensive domain experience in BFS (Cards and payments sub domain) and Individual Life Insurance Systems (New Business and Policy Administration sub domains).

* Extensive management experience in SDLC taking medium to large sized projects from inception phase to transition phase successfully.

* Experienced in requirement gathering techniques such as conducting Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions, conducting interviews with business units, GAP analysis.

* Experienced in Method1 SDLC process, its deliverables and SOX compliance requirements.

* Experienced in developing cost estimates, monitoring project budget and spend.

* Experienced in developing Use Case Specifications, Functional Specifications, Interface Control, Data Definition/Mapping (needed for Middleware Applications) Documents, System Specification Documents, Project Plans, Test Plans, Testing Strategy Document, Testing Traceability Document, Test Case Documents and Client Custom User Manuals.

* Experienced in creating and maintaining requirements, test strategy and traceability matrices.

* Experience in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) implementation

* Strong analytical, problem solving, communication skills, with ability to interact with individuals at all levels.

* Extensive production support experience resolving critical issues.

* Extensive Vendor Management experience.

* Extensive experience with on-shore/offsite working model.

* Knowledge of Object Oriented Software Development Methodology, RUP and CMMI processes.

* Experience with ACORD Data Standards for Individual Life Insurance.

* Sound working knowledge of MS Office tools like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Project, and Visio.

* Sound working knowledge of Clarity Project Management Tools, Mercury Test Director.

* Ability to leverage the rich technical experience to perform as techno-functional analyst and add value in design stages on IBM Mainframe, IBM Middleware, Java and Web technologies platforms.

* Ability to learn different business systems and software technologies quickly and work in multiple assignments concurrently.

Education

Bachelor of Engineering in Civil(Year - 2000) from Regional Engineering College, Rourkela affiliated to Sambalpur University, Orissa, India.

Experience in

Windows platforms, OS390, IBM MAINFRAME, IBM MQ, IBM WebSphere Business Integration, Java, COBOL, CICS, DB2 V8, AR Remedy, Serena Changeman, Serena PVCS for version and change control, Microsoft Project and Clarity for Project Management, CMMI and Method 1 SDLC quality processes, Silkscript, Mercury Clear Quest, MS OFFICE, Navisys Front Office and Home Office

Outline of work experience

Jun `09 -May `10

Role- Project Manager

Client - American Express - Customer Relationship Statementing

Project Description

Amex-UK CRS Application is the solution for automated client billing statement generation for Amex customers in America, Latin America, International, Europe and Asia-Pacific markets.

At a high level, Amex has two business streams, Corporate and Consumer. Customer-Relationship-Statementing is a subsystem of the entire billing process focusing on preparation, printing and mailing of the Card Member statements. CRS has different processes for different markets. Largely they are divided into UCRS, ICRS and ECRS depending upon the statement requirements of different products in different markets and regions.

Handled following projects as CRS Project Manager -

DTW Paperless Forced Migrations for International and Europe markets

UDAP Card Member Same Due Date for United States to comply with Federal Regulations

Nexus LT Channel Expansion for US market

Aurora Phase 2 for US market

End-to-End & CRS PM Role for Statement Message Logic Optimization

Role and Responsibilities

* Lead project team of size 5 offshore and 2 onshore as Project Manager through complete project life cycle and E2E Project Manager till design phase.

* Work with project architect and technical lead on creating scope definitions and work breakdown structure.

* Develop high-level project plans and tracked that the scope and approach are fully agreeable to all stakeholders.

* Work with business manager and project architect to agree on high level business needs and to secure funding for initiatives.

* Work with project BSA and technical team to identify and track delivery of project deliverables

* Deliver project estimates and track cost using Clarity.

* Work with End to End project managers, technical directors, business managers and portfolio managers to help assess project issues/risks (like conflicts, priority) and proactively mitigate risks in order to deliver quality projects on time.

* Monitor and communicate the progress of project delivery and ensures timely and effective communication of project status in terms of cost, forecast, schedule and assessment of risks/issues.

* Develop acceptance criteria for each deliverable and take steps to ensure quality deliverables. Plan and coordination inspections for phase-wise deliverables to ensure Amex acceptance.

* Work with Cognizant and Amex project managers to create SOW, manage and track SLA for milestones, budget and schedule of projects.

Apr `07 - May `08

Role - Business Systems Analyst

Client - Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, NYC

Project Objective

Guardian Life Insurance Company uses Unity Application, a NaviSys Home Office solution to handle 2 types of products - Universal Life and Variable Universal Life. The application caters to administrative needs of individual life insurance markets of Guardian.

Tools used in project - Navisys Home Office Product, File-aid, JCL, Changeman PVCS, Silkscript, Mercury Clear Quest, WINDOWS MS OFFICE

Project Description

May `07 release - Regular maintenance release

August `07 release - Introduction of UL Gold 2007

September `07 release - Introduction of ULtraLife Gold & ULtraMax Gold

November `07 release - Regular maintenance release

January `08 release - Introduction of UL Gold 2008

Role and Responsibilities

* Coordinated Business Requirements discussions and Functional Specification (FSD) walkthroughs with business owners.

* Worked with Presentation Services and Compliance personnel to consolidate requirements and system changes for new product launch.

* Worked with Actuarial group to document calculations involved in Admin System for new product launch and defect fixes.

* Created project time estimates and project plan documents and worked with client manager throughout project life cycle to ensure quality deliverables and support.

* Managed the onshore and offshore team in delivery of solutions for product releases and production issues.

* Created version management procedures to reduce errors in project release to different test and production environments.

* Tracked, scheduled and delivered production code patches for defects using Clear Quest System.

* Worked with operations units to support install, coordinate install time testing and development support during installation of release. Handled verification of installation of release.

* Acted as a liaison between Business groups and QA Testing team to translate requirements into test strategy, test cases and traceability matrices to ensure complete and exhaustive test coverage.

* Created new regression testing suite for QA team based in total review of system in place and requirements being implements.

Feb `01 - Jan `07

Role - Business Systems Analyst & Technical Lead Analyst

Client - Prudential Financial Services

Project Objective

Application Name - MNBS, PLUS/TSL - Legacy Modernization, Legacy Application Enhancement and maintenance, Middleware application development.

Prudential undertook Legacy Modernization Project to rollover New Business operations to IT system implemented on NaviSys Front Office platform. Transformation Services Layer, a strategic new middleware layer for Prudential`s individual life insurance, was implemented to seamlessly integrate all interface and vendor systems with new underwriting system NaviSys Front Office (PLUS). This layer interfaces with external vendors as well as internal interfaces in the form of services and connects 25 systems on different types of platforms like mainframe, web services and Prudential customized software. Implemented in IBM WBI technology, this application has the design and flexibility to be the single middleware application for entire individual life insurance of Prudential. The project was implemented in 2 evolution cycles.

Modernized New Business System is a legacy application catering to the New Business of Prudential Individual Life Insurance. The New Business System caters to many crucial functions like policy data entry, underwriting, commissions, issuing contracts and placing with Admin systems.

Tools used in projects - Navisys Front Office Product, File-aid, JCL, Changeman PVCS, Silkscript, Mercury Clear Quest, WINDOWS MS OFFICE, IBM WBI, IBM MQ, Message Broker, Mercury Test Director, AR remedy System, Microsoft Visio, ISC Messaging

Project Description

PLUS - Customize Navisys Front Office product as PLUS (Pru Life Universal System) - This system replaced MNBS a legacy system that handled the New Business process for Prudential`s ILI needs

TSL - Transformation Services Layer - This system provided the middleware layer to exchange data between PLUS & other existing legacy applications of Prudential

MNBS - Product releases, Enhancements, Maintenance, Production Support and Initial support for MNBS Retire

Role and Responsibilities

PLUS/TSL

* Acted as a liaison between business and development team of size 15 to 20 and finalized requirements and system design for both Front End and Middleware applications in 2 evolution cycles involving iterative development to completely replace the new business legacy application.

* Conducted GAP Analysis on existing system to identify changes needed in legacy modernization project.

* Created SDLC artifacts such as Functional Specification Document (FSD), Use Case documents, master data document in MS Excel, Interface Control Documents, Data Mapping documents, ACORD data elements mapping documents by analyzing all data collect in front end, developed in application and stored in data stores using MS Word, MS Visio and MS Excel.

* Worked on gathering data communication requirements with external vendors providing services to Prudential for underwriting and credit card purposes.

* Reviewed test plans, test traceability matrices to ensure quality test coverage.

* Worked with the development team to resolve functional and technical issues.

* Involved in User Acceptance testing (UAT) with the users using Mercury Test Director to ensure all requirements are being tested and signed-off.

* Managed and maintained the change control process for application build during the projects lifecycle using Lotus Notes database.

* Managed the change control process using Serena Changeman PVCS for application build approvals and deployment in all test environments.

* Worked with all levels of IT and business management to obtain sign-off on build approvals and deployment in production

* Supported phase 1 production install including system monitoring, tracking issues and solutions.

MNBS Product development

* Conducted interviews with business units and interfaces of New Business application to collect business and interface level requirements for new and re-pricing product launches.

* Designed user screen changes required for implementing new products.

* Provided Business Requirements documents, Use Case documents and Functional Specification for all changes required to introduce new insurance products and revised existing insurance products.

* Worked with internal and external users to define requirements and coordinated user management and developer expectations.

* Participated in workload meetings to provide information on estimation for future projects and help schedule requirements for implementation.

* Created and maintained test plans, traceability matrices in Mercury Test Director and supported QA/UAT testing groups as SME on product launch requirements and followed-up with different groups on critical issues to closure.

* Worked with business owners on GO-NOGO decisions from IT perspective for product launch.

* Managed the change management for software releases during installation in test and production environments.

* Worked with operations units to support install, coordinate install time testing and development support during installation of release.

MNBS Production Support

* Worked with Business/Operations group as IT liaison to report and resolve production issues.

* Created Root Cause analysis documents that covered nature of issue, actual code problem, and impact to business, workarounds needed, testing in fixing the defects.

* Conducted meeting with IT and business leads from different systems for defining the correct fixes needed for defects. Created Functional Specification Documents and Use Case documents to outline different business scenarios for defect fixes using MS Word and MS Visio.

* Managed the onshore and offshore team in delivery of solutions for production issues.

* Tracked, scheduled and delivered production code patches for defects using Remedy System, Lotus Notes Database Applications.

* Devised regression and user acceptance testing strategy for all software releases relating to production issues using MS Excel, Mercury Test Director.

* Worked with QA/UAT testing groups and user documentation updates.

* Created Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) documents based on workaround needed to handle system defects in case of delayed/no fix.

MNBS Maintenance

* Interacting with Business for all requirements to facilitate offshore development.

* Attending Business and systems requirement walk-through meetings.

* Designing major system changes for introducing new products

* Preparation of system specs, coding and unit testing.

* Estimation of the enhancements and product release requirements.

* Writing tools for better and faster development process.

* Review of entire set of components delivered from offshore.

* Co-ordination with offshore.

* Integration Testing Support for Offshore.

* Coordinated the release management activities with Production coordination group for QA/UAT releases.

* Support for QA/UAT for all components released for the release.

* Interacting with Production Co-ordination Team for pre-installation and post-installation procedures.

* Support for Production install of release

* Night and Day time production support.

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