Quality Assurance Management

P.O. BOX ******, San Diego, CA *****

(M) 619-***-**** (H) 858-***-****

Richard Knudson *******@*****.***

“Its not software engineers or support personnel, but the methods and processes,

or lack thereof, that defines an organization’s IT and software development

limitations!”

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY:

Richard is an accomplished IT executive, consultant, and visionary in the fields of SDLC performance

improvement, quality assurance, organizational change management and transformation, and

project/program management. After working his way through the university as a software engineer and a

tour in the USAF as an officer assigned to teaching software engineering and systems management, he

quickly rose to senior IT management positions within the aerospace industry. Recognized as a “out-of-

the-box”, solutions oriented thought leader, he was co-chair of semiannual NSIA software quality

conferences.

He started his own consulting and services company in 1991 to meet the growing international need for

performance improvements and strategic IT management in offshore and near shore IT organizations. He

rapidly grew his business to over 30 consulting teams supported by offices in India and Costa Rica.

Recommended by Infosys (India), he was selected by Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco’s

administration to support the growth of the country’s IT industry. His client base included major IT service

providers as well as blue-chip Global Corporations. Selling his businesses in 2008, he returned to private

consulting.

A tri-major degree (Economics, Management, and Communications) from SDSU, a yearlong specialized

IT training program in the USAF, executive and strategic management training, Software Engineering

Institute (CMU/SEI) specialized IT management and performance training, his extensive inter-national

executive leadership, and strategic out-of-the-box thinking offer an exceptional value proposition. Richard

uses his skills and experience to achieve the organization’s goals and objectives.

Interesting Facts: Richard is a founding member of the Society for Software Quality, has contributed to

government software engineering and quality standards, identified the need and established process for

standardized test readiness reviews (TRR), and was the selected to be the keynote speaker for India’s

first Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG) Conference.

CORE QUALIFICATIONS AND COMPETENCIES:

TECHNOLOGY: A “technology early adapter”, always

STRATEGIC: Results oriented, strategic, “out of the

first to understand the value and align technology with

box” international thought leader with ability to align

strategic business objectives.

technology road map to business objectives.

LEADERSHIP: Very effective at creating a common

EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT: Experienced as senior

vision and bringing diverse views to a consensus on the

executive and key member of executive teams. Keeps

path to achieve objectives. Leads by example. Effective

eyes on the objectives. Corporate Board Member. P&L

at leading teams that are geographically and culturally

Responsibility.

diverse.

SOFTWARE AND QUALITY ENGINEERING: With

BEST PRACTICES: Highly effective at defining

defined engineering processes, a passion for quality,

processes and utilizing best practices for SDLC

and analysis and analytics to identify issues and

activities, including, but not limited to, CMMI, ISO 9001-

remove root causes minimizes rework, risk, and

2012, PMP, Prince II, COBIT, ITIL, and IEEE standards

development costs.

and conventions.

VENDOR MANAGEMENT: Established offshore

ETHICS AND VALUES: Treats others with respect,

support centers and worked with major clients to

honesty, and integrity. Maintains inclusive and

define expectations and improve vendor performance.

transparent work environment with his team.

EXPERIENCE:

Founder/Managing Director/President/CEO (1991-2013): (Global Systems Technology, Inc.)

Executive duties for international offices in India, Costa Rica, and the United States including: Executive

leadership, P & L, business development, engagement planning and execution, contract deliverables,

and the staffing and training delivery teams. Board Member.

Delivered substantial SDLC performance improvements to multinational corporations such as Siemens,

IBM Global, HP, LG, Philips, ANZ, AXA, AIG and Global IT companies that included Covansys

(USA/India), Infosys (India), Wipro (India), SAIC (USA), Keane (Canada), Satyam (India), Huiwei

(China), SVI (Philippines), and 70 others. Clients averaged a 24% reduction it Software Development

costs, 57% reduction in defects, and a 17% reduction in the time-to-deliver; and most became

recognized as world-class organizations (SEI/CMU CMM/CMMI level 5).

Accomplishments:

1.

Led client in establishment of world-class processes enabling their growth from 780 engineers to over

150,000 engineers.

2.

Led maintenance effort improvements resulting in reduction in the time-to-repair critical issues from 84

minutes to 32 minutes for their client’s 3400-store global retailer point of sale system.

3.

Led client effort to reduced rework by 90%, virtually eliminating delivered defects to their Japanese

client. Japanese client eliminated two person, one year support contracts in lieu of “as needed”

maintenance as products/enhancements delivered with near ZERO defects.

4.

Clients included First Chinese and Filipino companies to be recognized as highly performing CMM

(CMU/SEI) level 5 companies; and the first CMMI level 5 company in the world.

5.

Selected by President of Costa Rica on referral from Infosys (client) to assist in developing Costa Rica’s

IT industry.

6.

Established design for a ubiquitous knowledge management system for a government client.

7.

Concurrently established a near shore software development and applications maintenance company in

Costa Rica in 2002; sold in 2008.

Sr. Director PMO & QA (2011-2013): (Confidential) Medical software product company. Temporary

assignment as Sr. Director PMO and QA. Responsibilities included planning and delivering

improvements and overseeing software project management, and for the implantation of an effective

quality assurance program, requirements to delivery. Team included engineers in Viet Nam and India.

Accomplishments:

1.

Established justification and on-boarded automated testing capability,

2.

Established the plan for automated project management tools and wrote justification for the same.

3.

Reduced occurrence of defects by 47% over a six-month period.

Aerospace Corporate Director of Quality Assurance: Developed total quality programs for

embedded software, integrated system products, and enterprise applications. Responsibility included

system security, disaster recovery, reviews and audits of requirements, engineering, operations, and

program management organizations. (SCI w/poly: not current)

USAF: (O3) Technical Instructor/group leader for AF training command. Established IT training

program to include full SDLC and software engineering, software quality assurance, configuration

management and project management courses.

EDUCATION: REFERENCES: Provided on Request

AA Degree: Information Systems/Programming Grossmont College: El Cajon, CA

BS/BA: Tri-Major: Economics/Management/ San Diego State University

Communications

Masters: Software/Systems Engineering: USAF: Special program consisting of 1600 class-

Development Methodologies (SDLC) room hours. (Masters equates to 540 hrs)

(Equivalent)

Special A: Executive Program: Managing Product Juran Quality Institute

Quality

Special B: Software Performance: CMM/CMMI CMU: Software Engineering Institute

Other: Six Sigma, ITIL, ISO, COBIT, PMP, Effective Teaming, others Various Industry Programs

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