PROFILE

Tech. savvy Business Analyst/Product Owner with superb interpersonal and communication skills and a deep understanding of both the world of zeros and ones and the world of Janes and Jons. Outstanding leadership, management and organizational skills. A quick learner and a quick thinker capable of delivering results under any circumstance. Creative thinker and self-sufficient individual who is also a great team player.

SKILLS

Agile Methodology (Scrum)

oPersonas, User Stories, Wiki etc.

SaaS/Native Mobile Apps/CMS

E-Commerce

Product Owner

oMaintaining an estimated and prioritized backlog and product roadmap

Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving

Leadership, Team Building

Conflict/Crisis/Disaster Management

Written and verbal communication

Software Development Life Cycle

Interpersonal relationships

Business Analysis

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Moneris Solutions

Sr. Business Analyst/Product Owner, Toronto-Ontario May 2016 – Present

As one of North America's largest providers of payment processing solutions, Moneris offers credit, debit, wireless and online payment services for merchants in virtually every industry segment and processes more than 3 billion transactions annually.

Responsibilities:

Discover requirements, analyze and design solutions to meet business objectives.

Critical evaluation and in-depth analysis of information and requirements.

Compile and maintain a costed/estimated and prioritized backlog

Close collaboration and proactive communication with external and internal stakeholders.

Preparation of necessary artifacts including Wiki, documents, Use Cases, Prototypes etc.

Supply feedback and comments to project resources and business stakeholders.

Assist IT in translating business ideas and functional requirements into technical requirements.

Expressing and presenting complex ideas in simple and understandable fashion.

Assist and provide feedback on testing strategy and test case execution. Sign off on test plans.

Momentum Digital Solutions

Business Analyst/Product Owner, Toronto-Ontario December 2014 – May 2016

With offices – and clients –around the world, Momentum was a Digital Marketing company using an agile approach in its projects. UX, development and creative teams work in tandem to provide rapid movement through design and development.

Major Projects:

HEAT is an innovative custom-built iPad application serving as a visitor registration and engagement tool. The application allows for a detailed capture of visits to the client's booth which were then mined to provide post-show statistical analysis for client's sales team to facilitate CRM update.

As a result of utilizing HEAT our client captured 3 times more sales leads compared to previous years at trade shows. Client has reengaging the team for feature upgrade for future events.

Marine Atlantic Commercial Portal is a Web Portal for MAI’s Commercial customers to create, modify and track their cargo “drops”. As a result of the portal MAI has been able to increase demand and retention for its cargo services.

SNAP+ is ABC Baker’s exclusive online order management system which provides users with intuitive ordering and full reporting capabilities. The overhaul of the application (fixing defects and adding new functionalities) is an ongoing project for which I’m the Product Owner. The ecosystem includes two SaaS applications and a mobile app.

SCI MarketView

Business Analyst, Markham-Ontario September 2012 – December 2014

SCI MarketView’s proprietary software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based platform is an end-to-end Enterprise Lead Management System which begins by aggregating and delivering a higher quality lead to the automotive dealer and ends with robust analytics for improved outcomes and continuous improvement. As a valued partner to high-performing organizations, SCI drives increased customer retention, improves sales and lowers costs.

Major Projects:

ResponseDRIVER (Sales leads), SCI 24/7 (Mobile App), LaneDRIVER (Service Leads), PortfolioDRIVER (Lease and Loan Portfolios) and Generic Pipe are SCI’s main products. The list of clientele boasts with big names like GM, Bank of Nova Scotia, Mazda Canada, Toyota etc. My team started with 10 members and grew to 60 individuals working in different capacities. Both Waterfall SDLC and Scrum Agile methodologies were used.

Recognitions:

Employee of the 4th Quarter – 2013

Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK)

Assistant Bureau Chief, Tehran-Iran December 2006 – August 2010

Responsible for managing day to day affairs of the bureau, including the shared responsibility of hiring staff and general logistics of a foreign news bureau. Filing daily reports on administrative affairs of the bureau to superiors. Negotiating with officials on behalf of NHK on various matters, be it to setup interviews with high ranking officials or to facilitate the expansion of the NHK operations in Iran; including the successful negotiation for continued operation of the bureau while all other foreign news organizations had been expelled from the country. Dynamic and continuous risk assessment and resource allocation for various news stories the Tehran team would undertake.

Other Responsibilities:

Supervision and mentorship of other journalists specially guest journalists from abroad

Dealing with shifting priorities

Dealing with highly volatile situations

Handling multiple projects simultaneously

Mizankar System

Business Analyst/Project Manager January 2005 – December 2009

Main product called “CONTROL,” a comprehensive integrated system designed to increase productivity and reduce “loss and shrink” at parts manufacturing companies who supply the two major automobile companies in the Middle East namely Iran-Khodro and Saipa. Originally started as a simple Inventory Management Solution for “Miazancar Part” – an automobile parts manufacturing company - but was later expanded to an integrated system to include Sales, Accounting, Payroll and HR Management and finally morphed into a full-fledged MIS/ERP. It later was marketed to other parts manufacturers, customized to their individual requirements. The combined team included 10 individuals and CONTROL is now called CONTROL2 and is used in over 20 companies.

Responsibilities:

Holding cordial meetings with clients (sometimes all the way down to the assembly line workers) for initial requirement discovery and further requirement iteration

Concise documentation of client requirements and documenting change requirements

Providing clients with multimedia, easily digestible presentations to secure client confidence and ensure full grasp of requirements

Creating use cases and System Requirements Specifications (SRS)

Articulating project scope and creating rough and definitive time and budget estimates

Obtaining stakeholder approval

Facilitated open dialogue and meetings between senior management, clients and technical team to clarify business requirements

Maintaining strong working relationship and effective communication with Project Managers, Design Team and QA analysts to track requirement implementation to the highest standards

Managing test scripts and user acceptance testing to ensure user testing is conducted, completed and documented

Communicated project status to senior management

Occasional coding and development

Developer 1997 – 2005

Using Delphi and SQL completed various projects, including News Wire application for the state-media.

EDUCATION

Master of Journalism, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

B.Eng. in Computer Software Engineering, SBU, Tehran, Iran

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

Six Sigma – White Belt by SSC and Aveta Solutions

eComm Solution Strategist by Demandware

Agile Training by ScrumMasters Inc.

Watchdog/Investigative Journalism training by IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors)

Crisis/Disaster Management by Japan Broadcasting Corp.

REFERENCES:

Available upon request

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