Neil Nader Shirzadi, CSM Business Analyst Cell: 949-***-**** Irvine, CA 92614 ac8vou@r.postjobfree.com

Objective and Career Summary:

●Client-centric, solution-driven and multitalented IT professional with more than a decade of professional experience in Technical Business Analysis/Systems Analysis and Project Management/Team Lead, ready to take on new challenges, as a Business Analyst, BSA, or Data Analyst.

●Diligent, creative, and quality conscious with experience in IT/MIS/DP (Software Development Training and Support), Marketing, Operations, and Human Resources, within various industries: Consulting, Real Estate, e-Commerce, Banking, Manufacturing, Energy, Entertainment, and Nonprofit in both Private and Public sectors, Domestic and Offshore.

●Keeping abreast of the bleeding edge technologies with a keen eye for identifying Business Process/Systems improvement opportunities and troubleshooting bottlenecks. Flexibility to do what it takes to get the job done, wearing multiple hats, if needed, with ability to learn and adapt to change quickly.

Skill Sets, Tools:

●Soft Skills; Teamwork, Team Building, Leadership, Negotiation, Building Client/ Customer Relationship, Trade-off Management, Focused Interviews, Document Analysis, Directed Questionnaires, Active Listening, JAD Sessions, Site Visits, Shadowing

● Hard Skills: Requirements Elicitation, Engineering/ Management/ Communication (using

UML, Use Cases, User Stories), Facilitating Meetings and JAD Sessions, Business

Process Modeling and Improvement, Liaising between Users/Customers/Managers

and Development and QA Teams, Technical Writing, Training, Testing

● Methodologies: Agile/Scrum,, Waterfall (SDLC), RUP (Rational Unified Process),

OOAD (Object Oriented Analysis and Design), and Structured Analysis and Design.

●Other BA Skills: Consulting and Support of Executive Managements and End Users

Documenting the As-Is, To-Be, and Gap Analysis,

Developing Test Plans and Test Cases, UAT (User Acceptance Testing),

Training of Users/ Managers/ Executives, Went through a complete SDLC.

●Tools: Microsoft Office/Project/Visio/Publisher, SQL UML, IBM Rational Rose

Education & Professional Development:

●MS, Information Systems and Technology, Claremont Graduate University (Currently enrolled)

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●BS, Computer Information Systems: California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA

●Certified Scrum Master, UML I & II, Design Patterns, BABOK v2.0, CA Real Estate License

●PMBOK v.2, IDRO (http://www.idro.ir/enidro/default.aspx), Medical/Biomedical Terminology

●Various Webinars/ Seminars from IIBA, PMI, Modern Analyst, IBM Rational, Enfocus, etc.

●Currently participating in 120VC’s Employment Transition Project Management Training Program

Employment History:

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, IT Support Analyst (08-2017 – 05/2018)

Tier-1 tech support on-campus, troubleshooting various Hardware, Software, and Network

Maintaining and supporting Papercut Printing Stations and Utology Audio Visual apparatus

Resolving technology issues of students, faculty and staff

Wells Fargo (Apex Systems Inc.), (Contract) Business Analyst/Consultant (08/2014 – 11/2014)

Worked in the PMO unit of the Wells Fargo Dealer Services Division

Helped develop the BRD of the AFS Linked Up Accounts project in the Planning phase

Developed visual models of the system (Process and work flows, use cases), and Decision Tables

Computer Research Center Inc., (Contract) Business Analyst/Consultant (01/2014 – 07/2014)

Working on a Process Improvement Project, documenting the As-Is and eliciting requirements for Operations and Marketing Processes, reporting to the CEO

Assisting the Project Manager in Planning, Monitoring, and Controlling Projects

Making recommendations to Marketing Director, in Digital and Online/Social Marketing efforts

Hoss & Associates, IT Director, Laguna Niguel, CA (08/2011 – 12/2013)

●Managed all facets of the IT group in a small real estate office, in a MS network platform

●Designed, Developed, and Maintaining Company Website (www.hossandassociates.com)

●Provided overall support and consulted the broker/owner on technology decisions and issues

Yaas Systems Engineering Co, Sr. Business Analyst (03/2008 – 05/2010)

●Led the Feasibility Study of a medium sized private bank to select OEM/vendors, both hardware and software, to develop the bank’s ATM network and provide Core and Online Banking Services

●Re-engineered and redesigned 3 Web Portals, in a G2C initiative. Improvements on Usability, Functionality, and Performance resulted in 25% increase in KPIs and 50% increase in UX ratings

Raahbar Informatics Services, Project Manager / Business Analyst (06/2005 – 01/2008)

The project managed was an ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) Reporting System, capturing governmental projects' status data for over 300 ongoing projects (from 25 organizations) in the Ministry of Commerce, via ASP, stored in SQL Server, exported to Excel and integrated for Executive Reporting using Excel and MS Project. Conducted interviews, questionnaires and JAD workshops to gather requirements and developed an SRS (Systems Requirements Specification) document. Used Microsoft Project, Rational Rose, and UML for Analysis and Design, and ASP, SQL Server and Excel for Development.

• Led 10 IT professionals in a Web Application Dev. Project using RUP (Rational Unified Process)

• Developed the Project Charter, Vision document, along with a Development Case & WBS

• Developed and managed the Project Plan and Schedule. Monitored and tracked progress

• Participated in Data Modeling along with the designers, employing ERDs and UML Class diagrams

• Trained, Coached, mentored, motivated and directed project team members in principles of RUP

• Facilitated meetings with the project team, users/managers and other stakeholders

• Identified and resolved/mitigated risks, issues and conflicts within the project

• Delivered Status Reports and presentations to stakeholders; clients and management

• Managed Resources, QA & Risks of the project along with Scope Creep/Change Requests

Also worked as a Business Analyst on an e-Government (Human Resources Management System) project. Performed Business Modeling of 2 Pilots. The customer was the Human Resources Division of the MPO (Management and Planning Organization) managing government's entire civilian (non-military) sector, covering over 3.5 million employees

• Studied the As Is of all systems (of the 2 pilots), eliciting and analyzing requirements

• Conducted site visits, documents analysis. and interviews

• Developed UML artifacts with Microsoft Visio

• Went through 2 Inception and 2 Elaboration iterations

Jamab Consulting Engineers, Business Systems Analyst / Sr. BSA / PC (02/1995–10/2004)

Started as a Systems Analyst in an Enterprise Analysis / BPM / Re-Engineering project of Systems, Processes, Procedures in the Water Resources Division of the Ministry of Energy, a large governmental agency. Used the Waterfall Methodology and went through a complete SDLC.

• Surveyed the Existing Systems Workflows, Processes, SOPs (the As-Is)

• Liaised between users, management and the development team, and the Project Manager

• Elicited and managed User, System, and Functional Requirements (To-Be)

• Created Visual Models (Logical and Physical DFDs) and compiled Detailed Process Descriptions

• Performed LDM (Logical Data Modeling), created ERDs and defined Physical ORACLE 7 Tables

• Designed User Interfaces (Screens, Forms, and Reports). Analyzed and refined Business Rules

• Collaborated in Design of Databases, Forms and Reports in ORACLE 7 and Developer 2000 Platforms

• Developed Test Cases and did Regression, System (Black Box) and User Acceptance Testing

• Prepared Training Materials and conducted extensive user and managerial Training

• Documented the systems and developed User Guides, Manuals, Online Help, and Release Notes

• Provided end-user support for 1 year after the system went into Production

Later on, took over Project Coordinator role, Performing the following:

• Coordinated Project Execution via Tactical Monitoring and Control of the Project Plan and Schedule

• Performed weekly Surveillance of Activities to Identify Delayed/Slipped Tasks and imminent Risks

• Maintained the Project Plan by gathering and updating Actuals in Microsoft Project

• Prepared and Presented various MS Project Reports for status meetings and presentations

Negareh Soft Co, Systems Analyst (02/1992 – 03/1994)

Surveyed the Office/Administrative Systems of the Deputy of Civil Engineering, City of Tehran

• Conducted extensive Interviews with users/managers to Elicit Requirements

• Developed DFDs (Data Flow Diagrams) and compiled detailed Process Descriptions

• Documented Business Rules for the As-Is and Refined them for the To-Be state

• Designed a Procurement/Purchasing System in a Client/Server environment

• Used the Waterfall (Structured) Methodology in Windows/Foxpro platforms

• At the time, Foxpro's User Interface was Character-Based. We Simulated a GUI (Graphic User Interface), through software techniques that became very popular with the end-users.

Winchell's, Information Resources Specialist – Help Desk (02/1990–04/1991)

Tier-one Tech Support for a WAN (Wide Area Network) of more than 500 nodes (POS Terminals)

• Supported Store Managers and Cashiers with POS issues (Hardware and Software), provided Software Updates and system IPLs (Initial Program Load), and dispatched Technicians if needed

• Maintained & Supported Computers and Networks (PCs/Novell) of 60 users at Headquarters

• Initiated, Developed and Implemented a Ticket Tracking System to Monitor/Track Calls and their Progress using Paradox (a Borland Database Management System, rival to dBase III)

• Initiated and Setup a Calendar / Messaging System with capabilities similar to Outlook

• Developed an Expert System to train & assist novice Techs, using Easy Expert with over 50 rules

Avery Dennison, Intern/Marketing Analyst (06/1988 – 04/1989)

• Started as an intern in the "Fine Paper Merchants Group" of the Marketing Department, assisting the group manager with general marketing assistant duties. As time went on, was given more responsibilities, performing Desktop Publishing using Page Maker on the Mac and Maintaining the Group's Data Assets . The highlights of my tenure were:

• Designed and implemented a Semi-BI (Business Intelligence) Reporting system to develop a small Data Mart which provided "Business Analytics" to Marketing Executives. Monthly Sales Data, Extracted from the Corporate IBM Mainframe (via ERMA Board), was transformed through Data Cleansing and then loaded into Paradox (a 4th-Generation RDBMS - Relational Database Management System) tables on the Departmental PC.

- Routine (Monthly, Quarterly, Year-end) and On-demand Reports were generated, along with Structured & Ad-hoc Queries using the QBE paradigm (Query By Example, an alternative to SQL). The System was Developed with CASE (Computer Assisted Software Engineering) using a combination of PAL (Paradox Application Language) & Screen/Reports Generators.

• Supported small Workgroups, Macs and PCs, using Apple Talk and Novell in the department

• Consulted the Department Management on Technology Evaluation and Acquisition Initiatives

Volunteer Work:

PMI OC Chapter, Social Media & Internal Marketing Project Manager, Sr. BA (07/2013 - Present)

Managing projects for the social media group, establishing processes and procedures for managing social media channels, and other projects in Internal marketing

Managed the development of the first three editions of Milestones (the chapter’s e-zine) for 2014, reporting to the VP of Communications and Director of Internal Marketing

As a Sr. Business Analyst, leading the BPM team in documenting and improving current Processes and Procedures for the entire chapter

IIBA–OC (Int. Institute of Business Analysis), Membership Chair, Team Lead (01/2013 – Present)

As the Membership Chair for the chapter, developing plans to expand membership through various methods, including membership drives and campaigns to recruit new members

Automating and maintaining the members database, which pulls data from the global chapter’s list, and updates the local list, so the 2 are synced (currently done manually)

Previously led 2 projects, the “Events Registration System Improvement”, and the “Chapter Repository Setup and Configuration” projects, Collaborating with BA, DBA, and Website teams. The stakeholders for both projects are the Board of Directors, including the President, VP of Education, and the Meetings, Programs, and Nominations Chairs (see work samples below)

Nominated for chapter President, by the Nominations Committee, for the 2014-2016 term

Work Samples Notes:

• Samples of the As-Is report for the “Events Registration System Improvement” project, along with the UML artifacts produced and presented to the IIBA chapter governors and stakeholders, are available for review on my Google Drive at:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1T_Jf2Ga3QaanYzR2Z6MTFabEk&usp=sharing

• See LinkedIn Profile, under “Neil N. Shirzadi” for complete details.

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