Sr. IT Project/Program Manager

Ram Chitta, MBA, PMP, CSM, SAFe

Greater Chicago Area, IL 60007 • *********@*****.*** • 847-***-****

Senior IT PROJECT/PROGRAM Manager

~ Strong broad-based IT background in strategy, planning & delivering business technology solutions ~

Over 20 years of IT experience and 10+ years of Project/Program Management experience with successful track record of providing strategy, planning, and delivering business technology solutions in multiple domains. Strong Agile/DevOps Project Management experience leading multiple SCRUM teams in software development and release management. Solid experience leading all aspects of SDLC using Agile and Waterfall in implementing variety of complex Enterprise solutions.

Demonstrated ability to collaborate with Business and IT to align cross-functional teams with business goals. 5+ yrs of experience in Agile/SCRUM leadership, coaching, transformation and implementations. Led the effort across multiple Agile teams in all aspects from backlog grooming, sprint planning to sprint demos/retrospectives. Also used SAFe approach to synchronize across Agile teams and release planning. Managed issues, risks and roadblocks to deliver results. Communicate updates to leadership and governance committees.

Excellent project management experience in estimating, planning, organizing, budgeting, staffing, and leading variety of mid to large-scale projects across multiple work streams to deliver the results – custom application development, package solutions (COTS), business process improvements, system integration, migration, software/hardware upgrades, and complex deployments.

Managed customer expectations, established governance, negotiated and communicated across all levels to gain consensus. Strong leadership skills in influencing, directing and motivating cross-functional teams to achieve the results. Supervisory experience in supporting and coaching direct reports/teams.

Strategic Analysis & Problem Solving

Business Technology Solutions - CRM, ERP, DW&BI

Business Process Analysis & Improvements

Continuous Integration, Delivery & Automated Testing

System Integration, Migration & Deployment

Strong SDLC, Waterfall, Agile/SCRUM/SAFe/DevOps

Project strategy, goals and alignment

Project Planning, Management & Leadership

Managing Status, Issues, Risks & Communication

Customer Focus, Team Work & Leadership skills

On-site, Cloud Technology & Global Teams

Vendor, Resource & Relationship Management

Professional Experience

Sr. IT Project Manager

Blue Cross and Blue Shield – Chicago, IL 2016 to Present

Senior Project Manager to plan, organize and lead mid to large scale strategic and operational projects in all aspects across Business & IT to deliver the solutions in Agile/DevOps environment. Provide leadership in agile transformations, coaching and motivating cross-functional Agile teams. Partner with Business Owners and IT Product Managers to establish overall project direction, scope, goals, objectives and deliverables. Develop project work plans, budgeting, staffing, and leading multiple Agile/SCRUM/DevOps teams in all aspects. Manage status, issues, risks and roadblocks to deliver the results. Establish Agile metrics, communicate updates to leadership and governance committees. Manage dependencies and integration across Claims & Customer Service Programs (CCSP). Typical project size: 20 to 50 FTEs, 20 to 50K hrs, 5 months to 1 year long and 1 to 10 million in budget.

Successfully led multiple work streams for IL Medicaid Expansion program to expand Membership, Claims, Customer Service including B2C self-serve web portal to all IL counties to meet State regulatory requirements. Led the effort across multiple cross-functional and vendor teams to deliver innovative solutions to meet fixed go-live dates. Managed agile artifacts, issues, risks, roadblocks and communications to leadership/governance committees.

Led the CCSP Group Migration and Benefit Determination improvements project to enable FS architecture and transformation from Waterfall to Agile. Developed work plans, staffing, budgeting and led the effort across multiple Agile/SCRUM teams in all aspects from product backlogs, sprint meetings to metrics. Managed issues, risks, roadblocks to deliver results. Communicated updates and metrics to leadership.

Led CCSP Accums Utilization Service improvements to enable FS architecture and vision. Organized, Coached and facilitated Agile/SCRUM trainings and ITOM transformation efforts across various teams. Developed work plan, budgets, secured resources and led the effort across Agile/Scrum team to meet the goals.

Sr. IT Project/Program Manager, Consultant

Healthcare Analytics – Chicago, IL 2015 to 2016

Agile Project/Program Manager to plan, organize and lead various projects in all aspects across business and IT teams to deliver the solutions. Establish project scope, goals, objectives and deliverables. Develop project/program work plans, budgets, staffing and lead multiple Agile/SCRUM teams in all aspects to deliver the results. Organize and facilitate Agile/SCRUM processes, sprint meetings, manage issues, risks and roadblocks. Communicate project updates to leadership and governance committees. Typical project size:15 to 30 FTEs, 15 to 30K hrs, 5 months to 1 year long, 400K to 5 mil budget.

Developed and implemented custom Transparency DW & Web Applications integrated with B2B web portal to display Provider Star ratings, Patient comments & HIPPA compliance rules. Developed project work plans, budgets, and led the effort with multiple teams using Agile/SCRUM. Managed roadblocks and communications to deliver.

Developed and implemented Benchmarking Application for interactive healthcare analytics reports integrated with on-line portal to compare peer groups, ratings, rankings & data driven improvements. Organized and facilitated Agile Scrum and Kanban meetings. Managed issues, roadblocks & communications to successfully deliver.

Successfully led the HRIS web services data integration effort with internal and cloud based external applications with SSO to improve user security. Facilitated discovery sessions and led the effort across internal teams and external vendors. Used Agile approach and sprint meetings to deliver the results.

Sr. IT Project/Program Manager, Consultant

AT&T Enterprise Business Applications – Chicago, IL 2010 to 2014

Client facing Project/Program Manager to plan, organize and lead complex Enterprise Application projects using Waterfall/Agile from initiation to closing working with external Clients, Business and IT teams in a Cloud environment. Develop project/program work plans, budgets, and lead the effort across multiple work streams and global cross-functional teams to deliver complex solutions.Work across application and infrastructure teams to build servers/storage/networks/backups and manage all aspects of SDLC for software development/upgrades, system integration, migration, testing and complex deployments. Manage status, issues, risks, dependencies and communications to Clients and Leadership. Typical project size: 20 to 50 FTEs, 20 to 50K hrs, 6 months to 1.5 years long and 500K to 10 million budget.

Delivered a BigData Analytics and Oracle BI project for a financial services company to provide 360 degree view of customers. Developed project work plans, budgets and led cross-functional teams to implement a Hadoop cluster of 30 nodes and Map Reduce frame work to analyze unstructured/structured data and reporting using Oracle DW/BI.

Successfully led the Government project for Oracle EBS and Oracle DW/BI application upgrades on complex EXA platforms. Developed work plans and led multiple work streams in all aspects from requirements to deployment. Implemented custom databases/processes; managed status, issues, risks & communications to deliver the results.

Delivered a cloud-based enterprise Salesforce.com CRM solution to replace legacy systems. Led the effort with cross-functional teams in all aspects to deliver SFDC sales, marketing and service clouds. Implemented custom rules, reports, data migration and deployment. Managed status, issues, risks and roadblocks to deliver on-time & on-budget.

Successfully implemented Oracle CRM, ERP, DW/OBIEE and Hyperion project on-time at multiple sites. Developed work plans and led the effort with cross-functional teams from requirements to deployment to meet go-live dates.

Implemented complex Oracle ERP upgrade, Discoverer & SCM applications from requirements to deployment. Led the effort in all aspects with cross-functional teams, managed status, issues, risks, roadblocks, communications, complex migration and deployment plans in phases to meet client go-live dates.

Delivered PeopleSoft ERP upgrade and Kronos application configuration/integration project in all aspects from requirements, development, data migration, systems integration, testing and deployment. Led the effort across cross-functional teams, managed status, issues, risks, and communications to meet the customer expectations.

Developed work plans and led the effort to implement Oracle ERP and Oracle DW/BI upgrade project in all aspects of SDLC from requirements to go-live. Migrated BI repositories, catalogs, developed custom reports and implemented deployment solutions to minimize down time and improve customer satisfaction.

Implemented SharePoint 2013 project portal, sites for collaboration & content management. Organized/facilitated Agile/SCRUM processes, sprint planning and sprint meetings to deliver fully functional project sites, document migration, custom forms, workflows, dash boards and team calendars. Managed status, issues, risks and roadblocks.

Senior IT Project Manager

Astellas Pharma – Deerfield, IL 2007 to 2010

Provide strategy, planning, and deliver projects/programs using Waterfall/Agile for sales and marketing groups. Participate in defining IT portfolio roadmaps & prioritization to align projects with business goals. Deliver complex strategic and operational solutions to eliminate defects, compliance issues, reduce costs, improve quality and customer satisfaction. Develop project/program work plans, budgets, and lead the effort across Business and IT in all aspects. Manage status, issues, risks, roadblocks, complex deployments & stakeholder communications. Supervised 3 direct reports. Typical project size: 15-30 FTEs onshore/offshore, 15 to 30K hours, 6 months to 1yr. long and 500k to 5 million budget.

Reduced project costs by 50% establishing a cost-effective on-shore/off-shore resource model. Established a steering committee, governance and phase gate reviews to ensure quality and manage stakeholder expectations.

Successfully delivered a troubled Siebel Call Center project to exceed customer’s expectations. Analyzed the gaps, re-organized and led the project to develop and deploy a fully functional Call Center application.

Led a cross-functional business and IT teams to fix critical Siebel CRM defects and eliminate compliance issues within 6 months. Also implemented computer systems validation to meet CFR part11 regulations for ERES.

Led the cross-functional teams to implement quarterly Siebel CRM releases to improve Sales, Marketing & Service applications. Deployed complex software releases to field sales forces on mobile devices without down time.

Spearheaded the business process improvement efforts to streamline and automate complex sales force alignment. Developed & implemented future state solution providing $500K/yr cost savings and 85% reduction in process time.

Successfully delivered critical hardware and software upgrades. Led the effort for rollout of Tablet PCs to replace PDAs, Oracle database upgrade, DW & Datastage ETL upgrade and migrating to new Linux platform.

Oversaw the development and integration of EDGE closed loop marketing and Siebel CRM application for digital marketing content and segmentation. Training and rollout of the solution on new Tablet PCs to 1200 end-users.

Implemented SharePoint 2010 Sales & Marketing sites for collaboration, content management and improved user experience. Led the effort using Agile/SCRUM approach, sprint planning & sprint meetings to deliver the results.

IT Project Manager

Abbott Laboratories – Abbott Park, IL 2001 to 2007

Team Lead and IT Project Manager to deliver end-to-end business technology solutions for multiple divisions. Establish project scope, objectives and deliverables working with lines of business. Develop work plans, staffing, budgeting and leading the cross-functional teams in all aspects. Manage status, issues, risks, roadblocks & communications. Managed onshore/ offshore resources of up to 20 and budgets of up to $1 million.

Led the M&A project to migrate and integrate the CRM systems from outside vendor into corporate data center. Successfully led cross-functional teams in supporting Siebel CRM systems in achieving $1 million in annual cost savings.

Oversaw the decommissioning of Siebel legacy systems and data migration into new Galaxy integrated SFA systems. Implemented a new Call Center and led a cross-functional team to support 4,000 field sales force users.

Led a cross-functional team to develop and implement Siebel eMedical applications in US, Canada and Latin America to replace legacy systems. Implemented a Call Center to track service requests and invoices for their products.

Successfully delivered a troubled Siebel eMedical SFA project to exceed ADD Canada customer’s expectations. Implemented a fully functional SFA application to manage accounts and service requests for their products.

Led the effort to streamline and improve complex Sales Force alignment process. Delivered quarterly alignments to 4000 field sales force on-time. Assisted with software evaluation and vendor selection of SFA system upgrade.

PROFESSIONAL HISTORY:

Team Lead, Searle Pharmaceuticals – Skokie, IL 2000 to 2001

Supervised and led a team of 3 System Analysts and 1 BSA to implement and support of Siebel CRM solutions for Sales & Marketing. Developed and implemented CRM Sales Program/Expense Tracking solutions, enhancements/interfaces to improve overall functionality, performance and integration.

Senior Consultant, Pricewaterhousecoopers – Rosemont, IL 1998 to 1999

Responsible for consulting, research, analysis, design and lead the implementation of complex SAP ERP, CRM and WMS solutions for clients in Manufacturing, Distribution and Logistics industry.

Sr. Analyst, SpeedFam Corporation – Des Plaines, IL 1993 to 1998

Responsible for business/system analysis, solution definition, design, and implementation of custom solutions in SCM, configuration of SAP ERP and CRM solutions, business processes improvements and integrate core Manufacturing Operations.

Education, CERTIFICATIONS, SKILLS

Master of Business Administration (MBA) Lake Forest Graduate School of Management IL

Master of Science in Industrial Engineering Texas Tech University TX

Project Management Professional (PMP) Certified SCRUM Master (CSM) DevOps Certified SAFe 4.5 Certified AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Technologies Used/Implemented:

Languages:

Java/J2EE, Python, C#, SQL, PL/SQL, .Net, Web Services, HTML, XML & CSS

Operating Systems:

Windows, Linux, UNIX

Databases:

Oracle, DB2, MS SQL Server, MS Access, NoSQL

Platform/Environment

On-Site, Cloud Technology & SaaS

Software & Tools

Siebel CRM, Salesforce.com CRM, PSFT CRM, Oracle EBS, PeopleSoft ERP, Oracle DW/BI, SAP, Datastage, Informatica, Test Director, Selenium, GitHub & Jenkins

PM Tools/Frameworks

MS Project, MS Project Server, Clarity/OWB, MS SharePoint, Excel, PowerPoint, Innotas, Rally, JIRA, SDLC, Waterfall, Agile/SCRUM, SAFe, Kanban, DevOps

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