BA, TW, QA, CMS
Resume:
Brian Donohue, M.A.
Albany, NY 12208
Tel. 718-***-****
Email: ********@*****.***
************@***.***
Summary: 15 years of experience in corporate IT, as a technical and web-
based writer, editor, WCM and content management specialist, software
training specialist, Business Analyst, Quality Assurance Lead in insurance
and financial services and corporate e-business IT.
Computer skills: Experience in all major academic and corporate operating
platforms, including all versions of Windows (Win 7, XP); Mac OS X
(including vmware installations); Linux. Advanced in the use of MS Office
and its standard applications, including MS Word, Excel, Visio.
Intermediate to advanced skill in writing and/or parsing XML, HTML, and
CSS. Experienced with MS Sharepoint, Lithium Forums/Tribal Knowledge Base,
Interwoven CMS. Expert in the use of the Vignette CMS, Tridion Content
Management System (Tridion r5 CMS), Inquira CMS, Day CQ CMS. Experienced
with Adobe CS and Macromedia tools (specifically, Acrobat, Dreamweaver,
Fireworks).
Professional skills: Advanced verbal and writing skills; author of four
books and numerous content published online. Experienced editor of both
print and web published content. Advanced knowledge of web design; reviewer
for 3 years for the Webby Awards, an annual awards show for web content and
design.
Work Experience:
March, 2013: United Nations, New York, NY. Teaching HTML and Dreamweaver
for students of web design and content management at the UN.
October, 2012 - December, 2012: IBM/State Farm Insurance, Bloomington, IL.
Content copywriter for insurance company site migration/re-design to
content-managed platform. Business-oriented content writing/editing,
content analysis, business engagement for content revision, redesign,
migration.
November, 2010 - August, 2011: Pitney-Bowes, Inc., Stamford, CT. WCM and
Content management specialist and technical writer for website maintenance
and CMS migration projects. Client was migrating content-managed sites from
Inquira to Interwoven CMA and needed content review, editing, and re-
writing in the context of a revised business model and site re-design.
Involved in all phases of content authoring, code review, site analysis,
editing, and migration. Detailed responsibilities included:
. XML and HTML code review and hard-coding of page segments and new
pages in full
. progress reporting on site structure, site quality as to both content
and code
. content editing and authoring in collaboration with business-side SMEs
. Review of and contribution to site design planning, presentation
issues, and analysis of site design issues for both existing
sites/pages and sites under construction. Regular interface with CSS
developers to ensure design requirements for existing and future sites
are properly met. Regular analysis of CSS code to identify and
troubleshoot design issues
. statistical analysis of corporate sites as to code, content,
navigational structure, and platform migration issues
. Moderation and content conversion with the Lithium forums and Tribal
Knowledge Base products
July, 2010 - October, 2010: New York University, New York, NY. Business
Analyst and Technical Writer for a website development project in a content
managed setting. Project involves customization and implementation of the
Day CQ5 CMS. Code is written in Java for component and template
customization/creation. Gather and write requirements for development of
CMS templates and components to be delivered to the content owners
(Marketing Division of NYU's School of Continuing and Professional
Studies). Documented all the requirements and work flow processes, wrote
technical documentation and unit test cases for the project. All necessary
documentation, more than 300 pages of Word, Visio, PDF, and image flow
documentation, was successfully created and delivered ahead of schedule,
and my role with NYU completed on October 15, 2010.
July, 2009 - October, 2009: Freelancing and working on an editorial
assignment for the Anthony Publishing Co., on a new book that was released
in January, 2010. I provided content review, design advice, and editorial
guidance for a 300 page book on psychological aspects of self-development.
April, 2008 - March, 2009, Chartis Insurance (formerly American
International Underwriters), 80 Pine St., New York, NY. Content management
specialist, technical writer, software trainer, and engagement lead for
this international business insurance arm of AIG, involved with converting
their international e-business websites from traditional HTML to the
Tridion r5 CMS platform for their emarketing data center. This required a
knowledge of the Tridion CMA and it principle features (blueprinting,
component-to-page product design, XML content conversion), awareness of
content management principles and best practices, intermediate to advanced
knowledge of HTML, XML, and CSS, and an understanding of good web design as
well as the ability to work with international clients. I was involved in
converting HTML and CF sites to the Tridion CMP, testing, and communicating
with developers to assist in debugging content conversions and promoting
content optimization in the new platform. I wrote all the training manuals
and associated documentation for this application (see below). I was
responsible for end user training for all domestic and international
clients converting to this content management platform. Expert writing and
editing skills, along with general communication skills, are essential to
this work. In addition, I assisted the PM with the writing, editing, and
content preparation of BRDs, business cases, and use cases associated with
a variety of e-business and web-based marketing projects for the various
worldwide business arms of AIG. I joined this PM in meetings with
developers to ensure that business cases and BRDs accurately encompassed
features and requirements that both suited the business's needs and were
both financially and technically feasible from a development standpoint.
I produced the following technical documents and related materials for the
emarketing data center and for end user training and system documentation:
-Tridion/eBusiness Platform user manal; an 80 page document for end users
of all skill levels
-Powerpoint presentations for end user training
-Technical supplements to training documentation, addressing specific
functional potentials and specifications of the CMS and presenting business
cases for particular business units and work flows
-Multimedia (Flash and other movie formats) illustrating features,
functional diagrams, work flows, and business cases for remote end
users/trainees in Europe and Asia.
March, 2007 - December, 2007, TIAA-CREF, New York, NY. Business Analyst for
large financial services firm, in their individual wealth management / IRA-
ATRA-Keogh divisions. I assessed the scope and gathered requirements from
business managers, users, and stakeholders for new projects and
enhancements to existing; documented requirements with BRDs and functional
design documentation; conducted meetings for requirements gathering,
analysis, and tracking on an ongoing basis throughout the project life
cycle. I wrote business cases and use cases for both requirements and in-
development testing. I organized and ran my own meetings, and managed
projects through the design and development phases to ensure that business
stakeholders' needs and timelines were properly met. Throughout, I provided
these services for multiple concurrent projects (typically 3 or more at a
time), working between the business side and data center to ensure accurate
and codable requirements. I wrote requirements and user documentation for a
web-based client investment inquiry and reporting tool. My major project
here involved building a web-based financial reporting system in an SSL-
secured web platform: together with technical staff and business users'
input, I designed the front end of the application, communicated with the
business and IT to ensure that essential features were coded into the
product, and helped create a product that could be understood and used by
both technical and non-technical users alike. As the project went into
development, I helped the business design UAT test protocols for both
security and usability of the final product. We also designed an audit
trail function into the product for administrative users to monitor usage
and history within the reporting system. This was essential to meeting both
industry and corporate web standards for programming quality and security,
for which I communicated with corporate web standards staff in gathering
and documenting requirements. Much of this involved clear documentation of
data flows, system interface performance, software components, back-end
logging and security mechanisms, and user work processes, for which I wrote
requirements and led business users in creating business and test cases,
and instructing non-technical users in the testing and maintenance of a
secure web reporting application according the industry and company
standards.
December, 2006 - February, 2007, American Express, New York, NY. Sole QA
rep for an emergency implementation of a Lotus Notes database for a
marketing project request division covering both direct mail and
online/ebusiness marketing. Under a severe time gun, I sat side-by-side
with the developer through long sessions, giving direction on test
strategy, planning, and documentation; testing and providing advice on
debugging the db and its front end; directing test preparation and
execution. The product was successfully delivered with virtually no bugs in
production, and my contract was closed.
November, 2003 - December, 2006, AIG (American International Group), Jersey
City, NJ. QA Lead, BA, TW for multiple projects for the e-business
technology data center of this large insurance and financial services firm.
Projects included email marketing application and marketing landing page
testing, MS Project Server, e-site Manager (eSM, a custom-built website
creation/CMA application running on a Vignette backend for use by global
business units), regular (weekly) testing of aig.com in the Vignette CMS, a
year-long, system-wide Linux migration project involving porting some 300
web properties and applications from old Solaris servers to new HP Blades
running Suse Linux, for which I wrote technical manuals and contributed to
admin runbooks; and an e-business platform, a comprehensive integration of
all corporate web applications into a total CMS solution. Personally
designed web sites and web pages for the testing of specific applications
and web architecture components and features; wrote test cases, use cases,
and performance test scripts; and tested eSM, Ultraseek search
implementation, Watchfire web scanning tool, MSPS (MS Project Server, for
which I wrote user documentation and training materials). Completed concept
seminars and basic training in the Tridion CMS platform, which the company
adopted in 2006. Managed daily work between the home office in NJ and an
outsourcing unit based in Chennai, India. Regular duties include:
Daily sanity testing of mission-critical applications
Regular load testing of applications both in production and under
development, using Mercury Loadrunner 8.1 running in a Mercury Performance
Center test management nexus
Designing web sites and web pages from scratch in a QA test environment for
the purpose of creating test cases and scripts and then testing mission-
critical web architecture and content management application code,
particularly during the company's transformation from Solaris to Linux-
based Websphere servers.
Gathering and documentation of business performance requirements for
critical applications during development iterations
Monitoring and maintenance of QA Lab in home office
Communication with and direction of offshore staff in India on assigned
projects and daily support activity
Reporting to senior management (VP of Quality and Compliance, CTO and CIO)
on QA activities and project status
Keeping department-wide metrics for all project and production support
systems subject to QA
Participated in review of Web 2.0 services, including Movable Type blogging
software and Jive discussion forums (see below)
Review of all business, system, technical, and performance requirements on
all projects under development
Tested OCIO implementation of Oracle portal with Jive discussion forum
applet in both QA and production
Tested Web Side Story metrics software and ran metrics reports for aig.com
Tested Mercury Analytics implementation for monitoring AIG web properties
Regular training in new applications, ASPs, and third-party software (e.g.,
Web Metrics, CMS, Marketing, Email, Performance testing, and related
applications).
December, 1993 - June, 2003, TIAA-CREF (Teachers' Insurance and Annuity
Association/College Retirement Equities Fund), New York, NY. Claims
Analyst, Claims Team Leader for the Group Life, Disability, and Major
Medical/Long Term Care insurance division of this major insurance and
annuity provider. I reviewed and case-managed life and disability claims,
with a focus on psychiatric disabilities. I also ran reports on diagnostic
incidence and became expert in both the ICD-9 and DSM-IV diagnostic coding
systems.
From 1995 on, I was involved in end-to-end UAT testing of three separate
releases of the company's Group Life and Disability Insurance System
("GLADIS"), an in-house design implemented to track short and long term
disability and life claims for approximately 8,000 records in an AS/400-
based relational database. The first release was a basic claims input and
adjudication system, the second incorporated payment and adjustment
screens, and the final version included a tax system.
Involved in the design and testing of in-house data reports on claims
incidence and experience drawn from the GLADIS database. Reports were
designed to track trends and shifts in medical, financial, and policyholder
experience data, and were prepared for and presented to senior management
on deadline.
Prepared business requirements and performed end-to-end testing on a
documents automation system for the claims unit using Callego document
automation software.
Represented the claims unit on the testing and implementation of a data
warehouse system incorporating a BrioQuery front end over a RedBrick
warehouse server. Designed and delivered training to business users in the
use of the data warehouse application. Designed, prepared, and presented
all claims-related data reports generated by this system for group
policyholder business retention meetings. Clients thus served included
Univ. of Rochester, Univ. of Chicago, St. Louis Univ., and Pace Univ. Also
actively managed caseloads in group life and disability ranging from 200 to
600 active claims, moving toward a specialization in case management of
psychiatric and subjective disability claims (e.g., mental illness, chronic
fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia syndrome). Developed criteria for the
assessment and review of psychiatric disability claims for case management;
researched, authored, and monitored the use of medical forms used in the
department for assessment of medical status in psychiatric and subjective
disability claims. Screened cases for medical management and monitored
progress of those approved for case management.
1991 - 1993, The AOI Group, Inc., Brooklyn, NY. Served as administrative
assistant to company president, coordinating field work and office activity
for this general contractor with 60 employees in the field and 20 in the
office. Heavy customer contact, meetings, project planning, and insurance
work (Workers' Compensation claims and employee benefits). Responsible for
the planning and implementation of the company's computer network, with
purchasing of technology and maintenance of hardware, software
installation, and follow-up maintenance of the network of about 20 client
PCs and one server.
1982 - 1991, Various assignments through agencies and private firms in New
York City: proofreading, editing, and document management for clients in
legal, financial services, and literary publishing. Clients included the
Depository Trust Company, Olympia & York/Devcon, Executive Enterprises,
various legal firms and writers.
Education:
M.A. in clinical psychology, Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus, 2000.
Final GPA 3.96, published Master's Thesis on psychopathology in Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome.
B.A. in philosophy and literature, Bard College, 1980.
Skills and specialties:
Technical: I can do a lot of things in IT: read CSS, XML, and write HTML;
perform SEO analysis for websites; handle styling, formatting, and macros
in word processing apps; set up and troubleshoot lots of different types of
hardware; install and configure operating systems; handle myself at a Linux
shell command line; set up a working Windows environment within vmware or
Parallels on the new Intel Macintosh machines; gather and write
requirements for web applications; and test software in any browser on any
platform.
Personal: I connect very well with technical folks, and also understand the
needs of business users. A good IT professional, of course, must move
between these two circles, equally able to engage both. I work well on the
phone or via WebEx or videoconference. I ask questions, guide by example
and encouragement, and draw on the unique human qualities that every person
brings to a project, no matter their title or status. Building consensus in
a group is about empowering the individuals that comprise it.
References and writing samples available on request
Contact this candidate