Michele Rae Tagerty
Winter Garden, FL ***** 908-***-****
linkedin.com/in/micheleraetagerty/ ********@*****.***
Director-Technical Project & Portfolio Management
Delivers and manages quality projects for major Enterprise applications
Creative professional with extensive project experience from concept to implementation. More than 20 years of IT experience in all stages of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and methodologies for various software development initiatives. Strong knowledge of the SDLC stages under the Waterfall model as well as the Agile methodologies and Scrum processes.
Exceptional communication, analytical, interpersonal, presentation, and conflict resolution skills that assists in influencing and gaining buy-in from Stakeholders including senior staff and project team members from various organizations.
Expert at leading and motivating cross-functional team members through challenging times including reorganizations.
Proficient at driving quality and timelines of multiple projects by verifying, validating, monitoring, and controlling work throughout the SDLC (Waterfall, Agile) leveraging current industry standards (Project Management Institute (PMI)) as well as less-conventional methods based on the uniqueness of the project. Areas of expertise:
Critical Thinking Political Savvy Meeting Facilitation Team Management Risk Management Quality Management Change Management Motivation and Coaching Leadership Negotiation Project Management Tools Resource Management Conflict Resolution Organization Skills Scope Management Training Quality Assurance Managerial Creative Problem Solving Agile methodologies Scrum processes
Professional Experience
Automatic Data Processing (ADP), Roseland, NJ
Leader in Business Outsourcing Services to more than 700,000 clients in 113 countries
Director-Technical Project & Portfolio Management 2012-2018
Managed various IT projects including those related to hosted applications used by 80K+ Clients to manage Human Capital Management for more than 30 million Client employees.
Led a Scrum Team as a Scrum Master providing leadership, direction, and team management. The Scrum Team delivered new features, product enhancements, and feature fixes for ADP’s biggest mid-sized product (WFN).
Management and Strategy
Managed the initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, controlling, and closing project processes.
Led and directed all project contributors.
Directed and contributed to the procurement, analysis, development, testing, and implementation phases.
Provided knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to the project activities to meet the initiative requirements.
Led, communicated, negotiated, problem solved, mentored and coached, influenced, enhanced relationships, while still remaining focused on project deliverables and expectations.
Managed projects and/or initiatives to facilitate effective leadership of the work to meet the strategic business objectives.
Managed the integration of projects and deployment deliverables with other Scrum Teams.
Engaged in preventive planning to prepare for unplanned contingencies and/or tasks.
Effectively balanced planning efforts with day-to-day demands.
All major releases and/or projects managed were delivered on or ahead of schedule with a successful implementation rollout.
Presented Scrum Team deliverables and metrics to the Stakeholders (Development, Business, Engineering Teams, and Support) to show the Teams’ accomplishments and opportunities.
Process and Procedures
Instituted processes and procedures as the Scrum Master which provided direction and organization to the team.
Met with Stakeholders on a regular basis to review the Product Delivery Roadmap which ensured a timely implementation of all expected deliverables.
Created a new Deployment Request Process via a ADP Service Desk Tool. This automation lessened the manual intervention and provided a quicker response time to the Development requests.
Trained, managed, and led interns and new hires on the project management processes and procedures.
Provided support to the Release Coordination Organization with resolving product deployment, infrastructure build, and scheduling conflicts.
Established Template Deployment Plans used by many project managers within the IT organization.
Technologies Consultant II 2006 to 2012
Created and started a Release Management Organization for the ADP Internet Product Suite. Release Management was responsible for planning, scheduling, and controlling the application builds, testing timelines, and release deployments. This organization ensured IT delivered new and enhanced features driven by the Business while protecting the integrity of existing services. In addition, the new Release Management processes assisted in providing sufficient lead-time for adequate impact analysis.
Process and Procedures
Increased the number of successful Releases while reducing the amount of unexpected outcomes and/or defects to the field. This was accomplished by enforcing the certification rules within IT and Development and maintaining application deployment schedules.
Established and documented Release Controls for the IT Organization.
Communicated Releases initiatives and schedules to IT and the Business.
Created and documented a process for managing all Releases that was presented to all required IT organizations. Supervised the process to ensure it was adopted and adhered to within IT. This process lessened the amount of build and/or deployment conflicts by providing visibility.
Maintained a single repository for recording all Releases through the deployment lifecycle.
Planned, scheduled, and coordinated weekly/monthly deployments as determined by the Integrated Product Suite.
Established a monthly release schedule driven by the Business Units’ strategic objectives.
Managed each application’s integration and dependency needs.
Metrics and Improvements
Decreased the number of Release incidents by 30% prominently due to ensuring adherence to the IT processes.
Improved coordination between IT groups to ensure smooth and timely delivery of IT services.
Improved productivity by establishing standard release processes and tooling by 20%.
Streamlined the procedures to ensure an appropriate balance between the complexity of the Release and the required controls.
Harvested lessons learned from the Release Management process that could be applied to other areas of Service Management.
Instituted and implemented new processes and procedures throughout the IT Organization.
Mitigated risk to the field and client base by ensuring code and infrastructure changes were deployed in the least disruptive manner.
Minimized application downtime by ensuring applications’ adherence to downtime windows.
Manager (Regional Acceptance Test Environment) 2000 to 2006
Managed a Quality Assurance Team that tested and supported all releases/fixes for the major US and Canadian Products. Once testing was complete and certified, the releases/fixes were considered production ready for deployment to the live client environment.
Process and procedures
Created and managed the Canadian Regional Acceptance Test Environment. Led and directed new testing processes and procedures and instituted a new Canadian Test Bed. Communicated with Canada on a weekly basis to review and discuss project roadmaps. Defects to our production clients were minimized by 30%.
Led all phases of testing from analysis through certification and shipment.
Monitored and reported on our organizations progression and status to other key IT groups.
Developed and maintained actions plans to support the organizations strategic vision.
Effectively balanced planning efforts with day-to-day demands.
Planned and led organization meetings.
Management
Managed direct reports while assisting and providing leadership and direction to others within the organization.
Prioritized direct reports work and allocated resources.
Ensured deadlines were met.
Documented and presented Performance Appraisals and salary recommendations.
Created and maintained associate development plans.
Built relationships, displayed organization savvy, leveraged networks, managed disagreements, and fostered respect and appreciation for each associate.
Education
Master’s in Business Administration (MBA), Centenary College, Hackettstown, NJ
Bachelor of Science (BS), Business Management, Rutgers University (Douglass College), New Brunswick, NJ
Minor: Economics
Professional Development
The Institute of Management Studies
Generating Peak Performance: Building a Positive Work Environment
The use of Power and Influence: Managing Without Authority
Influence and Action: The Core of Leadership
Crucial Conversations
Project Management
Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Course
Foundations of Project Management
Fundamentals of Management
Effective Written Communication
Strategies for Developing High –Performance Documentation
Agile
Scrum Master
Product Owner
Rally
Pluralsight
Entity Framework Core: Getting Started
Agile Team Practices with Scrum
Building Your First API with ASP.NET Core
Payroll
Certified Payroll Profession (CPP) Certification course
Certification
Pursuing the Scrum Master Certification (CSM) with expected completion in May 2018.
Awards
ADP Service Excellence Award (2017)
Award received for outstanding performance and contributions made to the WFN Spoofing Incident.
ADP Presidential Award (2010)
Award received due to contributions to the successful rollout and implementation of the WorkForceNow Release.
ADP Presidential Award (1999)
Award received for contributions made during the Payroll Quickview Project and New Output Systems File Test.
Letters of Acknowledgement
Received many letters of acknowledgement from our clients, sales managers, and regional staff on the support, personal commitment, as well as organizational and technical proficiencies demonstrated.
Community Service
Serve a monthly dinner to approximately 30-40 people the first Sunday of the every month at the West Orange Christian Service Center. This is a perfect opportunity to help others that are less fortunate by preparing and serving food items and providing emotional support.
Additional ADP Experience
Project Lead (Regional Acceptance Test Environment): 1997-2000
Support Technical Analyst (Mainframe Release Management): 1996- 1997