Program Manager, Sr. Project Manager
Resume:
LORNA L. LOWERY
EDMONTON ALBERTA
Profile
Lorna is an exceptional IT professional with a unique blend of business, project management and technology skills. She has a first-rate track record of successfully spearheading and delivering a broad range of high impact, high profile programs and projects, including leadership of multi-national, outsourcing multi-vendor teams. She has a demonstrated ability to bring about positive change through crafting relationships, understanding business needs and proposing and delivering viable technology solutions. She hold a MS in Bioengineering and MBA in Global Business Management. She is also a certified PMP (Project Management Professional) and PRINCE2 (Projects IN Controlled Environments).
Overview
Successful Project Manager for over 18 years to manage projects end to end using SDCL methodologies. Success has come through being able to manage conflict, negotiate and facilitate with all stakeholders to build working relationships that lead to achievement of goals.
Instrumental in working with Business stakeholders to develop and manage scope and business requirements and project documents to bring about successful projects through change management practices and project management skills.
Established PMO (Program Management Office) and surrounding processes at Lexcel Solutions, and Allied Domecq and contributor to many PMO’s. Led multiple PMO project managers, outsourcing teams and project teams to deliver projects on time, budget and meeting or exceeding client expectations.
Managed outsourcing of multi-vendor teams with (100+) for General Motors to convert from GMAC Financials to GM Finance (internal to GM) and saved GM 50M. This was a mandatory SOX compliance corporate project.
Facilitated and led the development of an innovative software web solution which replaced 5 legacy applications at GoA-Infrastructure through re-engineering the business processes to improve effective and efficiencies of the procurement process from 3 months to less than 10 days. Environment was very complex requiring data conversion and migration of 10 years of data into a single database as well as over 50 BI reports.
Managed teams to customize CRM and ERP systems for Gov of Alberta ministries and Alberta Innovates.
Improved vendor relationships with business clients to get projects back on track with successful outcomes at Consulting for Alberta Innovates- Technology Futures, First Solar, Gov of Alberta-Infrastructure, HP/EDS, MediaWhiz and National Bank of AZ, stopping any further sunken costs to produce a turn around and complete successful implementation of products and services.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1.Athabasca University, Athabasca, AB Jan 16 – Jun 16
Sr. Program Manager (6 month contact)
Opportunity:
1.1Athabasca University required a Sr. Program/Project Manager to take over underperforming projects to determine deficiencies to create program plans and designs to manage the development to implementation processes for all business needs (Consulting as required). These are major complex projects with multiple integrations from 5 data incompatible sources to be replaced within optional major applications. There are 16 Faculties within the University and 3 major sponsors (each department has as many as 30-40 stakeholders) that use unique instances (45) of the main user application called Moodle.
1.2Budgets: $2.7M.
Actions:
1.3Project management of development teams, business teams (executives and business leaders), and QA teams to determine root cause of failure of requirements management, project management methodologies practiced, team leadership, milestones and key success indicators, communications with sponsorship or lack of, development methodologies used, inability to procure infrastructure needs and outstanding tasks, issues and mismanagement of risks. Manage conflict resolution within and between teams to build positive team working environments. Determine appropriate resources were assigned though RPF’s to add the required expertise.
Results:
1.4Project management reviews and assessments with all stakeholders with the direction of the PMO. Facilitated business leads from each department as well as the Business and IT Sponsors to determine the scope, goals and deliverables through Project Management Planning (includes project strategies and plans: risk, schedule, communication, resource, budget, quality, architecture, and environments).
1.5Facilitated review of operational requirements to negotiate the development and test environments. As each Faculty has a customized Moodle instance (open source) and interfaces with customized Banner application this imposed maintenance overhead for operations to maintain proposed environments supporting these 45 Moodle instances. This was denied by VP Operations.
1.6Due to the longevity of this project the project status was red: over budget, insufficient requirements (business, functional and non-functional) to build a schedule, and inadequate operations support to provide development environments, a presentation and change request was given to the steering committee resulting in a decision to stop this project. A decision to restart this project will be determined upon completion of all requirements and budget considerations.
2.First Solar Inc. May 15 – Aug 15
Sr. Business Consultant, Program Manager, Outsourcing/Vendor Manager, Delivery Manager, Project Manager, Business Analyst, Report Analyst. (4 month contract)
Opportunity:
2.1First Solar required a Sr. Business Consultant to also act as a program manager to create a program plan, complete designs, update processes and implement the new Kinetic Change Management System including management of outsourcing and system integrations from the vendor- Kinetic Data. Facilitate and manage the vendor to resolve conflicts and build positive team working relationships
2.2Budgets: $1.5M.
Actions:
2.3Participated in review of IT Change Management system implemented by vendor- Kinetic Data to analyze outstanding risks and issues with user interface, integration with Remedy and Project Online.
2.4Work with business departments to identify business change processes to successfully negotiate and gain consensus to bring about change in accordance with strategic goals.
2.5As program manager led the detailed analysis work to develop the comprehensive business requirements and document all process flows, secure client sign-off on business case and specifications through presentations to sponsors and primary stakeholders
2.6Within the Change Management system one of the criteria of the new system required MS Project Online to be integrated into the CM System to be transparent from the business users creating projects, issuing changes and reporting incidents. This was achieved but required to be scaled back due to inconsistencies with MS Rest API’s.
2.7Reviewed external resources to resolve conflicts between First Solar IT team and Vendor to complete the IT Change Management system. Team building with all team members proved successful.
2.8Developed and presented business case, plans, and strategy documents to support business goals.
2.9Created project plan, and budget to achieve implementation for three iterations over 5 months in line with OCIO (Office of Chief Information Officer) goals for 2015 using software development lifecycle in an ICT environment.
Result:
2.10Inclusion and input requested from all stakeholders and executive management reflected was acknowledged very positively to ensuring the new CM system was designed to support all business stakeholders using the CM system.
2.11The Business agreed to iterative timelines to meet OCIO goals set for 3rd and 4th quarter initiatives.
2.12Multiple issues were solved due to Microsoft Project Online API’s were not documented adequately for Kinetic Data to successfully implement the CM requirements.
2.13An RFP was issued and successful negotiations with vendor were achieved to implement the IT Change Management System-Kinetic as designed to provide the new change management solution in line with corporate goal deadline of Oct 1st.
2.14Business stakeholders training sessions for reimplementation of the change management system. Workshops and training sessions were scheduled to be completed prior to implementation of updated IT Change Management System.
2.15Final implementation was successfully achieved Oct 1, 2015.
Opportunity:
2.16First Solar needed executive reports using Tableau for multiple departments and to manage the vendor to produce the Tableau reports. Created program plan and design to manage all departments within the Office of the CIO to determine reports to be developed.
Actions:
2.17Analyze the reports with the individual business leaders to determine the data requirements from all data warehouses needed to build the reports using Tableau.
2.18Data was required from CISCO Phone System, Remedy (Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, and Issue Management, Customer Survey) data, SharePoint (Change Management, Incident Management, and Issue Management). All data was determined and uploaded to an ODS database for Tableau reports to be developed.
Results:
2.19All data from each data source was identified and uploaded to an ODS database for Tableau reports to be created.
2.20All reports were completed by July 31st with the exception of the CISCO Phone System data due to resource issues to be resolved by mid-August.
2.21Executive reports were developed and implemented for daily, weekly and monthly executive operations meetings with the result after 1 month of increased operational efficiencies by 75%.
Opportunity:
Actions:
2.22Review of portfolio of projects to ensure consistency across project teams to confirm governance, security and standards.
3.Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures Aug 14 – Apr 15
Sr. Business Consultant, Program Manager, Delivery Manager, Project Manager, Information Management, Organizational Leader, Change Manager, Outsourcing Manager/Vendor Manager (10 Month contract).
3.1The portfolio consisted of multiple programs and the projects within the program for KMS (Knowledge Management System). Created a program plan and design to support 3 business divisions which also required creating program plans for IT Operations to plan and design customized Service Now interface and Help Desk to support the programs. There were many small projects to support the integrations into KMS for each business area as well as public sector access through portals for each business area.
Opportunity:
3.2AITF needed project management of the KMS (Knowledge Management System, to resolve conflicts between business teams and IT to gain consensus for the vendor to implement the contracted modules and to complete the data conversion and migration from 3 legacy business systems including transition of all data from multiple sources into one data warehouse.
3.3Budget: $2M.
Actions:
3.4Analyze current situation (risks, issues and problems) and proposed a strategy to gain business confidence for users of the KMS system in this ICT environment to reduce risks and implement action plan with the vendor, IT and business teams. Team building sessions were incorporated into the plan to gain confidence between and among all stakeholders.
3.5As KMS was outsourced to the vendor Knowledge Sharing Systems (KSS) reviewing and assessing the contract with the business, the SLA’s, negotiating the KSS products to be implemented, interfacing with HR and Finance, roadmap for KMS and outstanding issues to improve and schedule deliverables according to the contract.
3.6Initially, developed project management documents (plan, and schedule) according to the contract with the vendor. Worked with business leaders to analyze and prioritize all outstanding issues, gain consensus with business stakeholders through review and update business requirements documents, workflows and process documents to ensure the application was in line with business strategy and goals and contract agreements.
3.7Created and presented requirements for additional RPF, strategy document for KMS system keeping in line the business goals to be achieved.
3.8Created a delivery process between vendor and IT Operations team and business leaders for current and future releases of KMS.
3.9Created implementation process between vendor and IT Operations team.
3.10Documented business processes for analysis with vendor for additional KMS modules.
3.11Documented all communications channels to enforce PMO process within the company. Documented templates and processes to manage projects within ATIF.
3.12Mentored program managers, and project managers and business analysts
3.13Supervised internal and vendor project managers and ensured successful delivery from vendor of all implementations meeting or exceeding client expectations.
3.14Project managed this high-profile, high-value project for business leaders to bring the vendor, IT and business together to improve open communications and cooperation between and among all stakeholders.
3.15Developed documentation strategy under FOIP rules and regulations for each business unit.
Result:
3.16As a Business Consultant developed a strategy and roadmap for AITF businesses (Grants, Legal, and Intellectual Property) with the VP of IT/Organizational Effectiveness (Enterprise Change Management and Information Technology) to manage the KMS systems for future business needs.
3.17Developed a presentation for a 3 year program management plan and roadmap to design and transform the organization to align Grants, Legal and Intellectual Property departments within the Organization. This included governance, change management, enterprise initiatives for current and future growth and success. Future business processes were created to align with the transformation in the organization.
3.18Business departments were successfully using the KMS systems with all the data migrated from the legacy systems. KMS also included CRM and integrated with the ERP system (JD Edwards). Training sessions and ongoing workshops to ensure all updates to KMS were managed through change management practices and procedures.
3.19IT is now fully engaged with the business to manage the KMS system and will manage the vendor. Successfully negotiated with vendor (KSS) to provide above and beyond original contracted functionality as a result of overdue issues resolution and performance issues that would have potentially resulted in exploring replacement options
3.20Business process and workflows were completed for current and future workflows. These documents are now in place to work with vendor for all future outsourced work for the business needs using the KMS application. Workshops and training sessions will be conducted prior to all future changes through change management processes and procedures.
3.21Created issue management processes and procedures using BMC/Service Now (Remedy Lite, including identification of risk (impact and priority) for all stakeholders to benefit and review reports to assess status.
3.22Developed implementation processes and procedures for both vendor and IT and help desk support tools and techniques to support business users reducing risks for all users and improving communications between all stakeholders.
3.23Program management office (PMO) building relationships to manage conflicts between business users, team building, communication strategies. Successfully identify project management processes for future business needs.
4.Government of Alberta- Infrastructure Jul 11 – Jan 14
Sr. Business Consultant, Program Manager, Service Delivery Manager, Project Manager, Information Management, Change Manager, Mentor, PMO leader, Scrum lead, Business Analyst, BI Reports lead (2 Years 6 Month Contract)
Problem:
4.1GoA-Infrastructure procurement legacy systems no longer were maintainable requiring a new system to be built replacing 5 disjointed systems for internal as well as public sector access.
4.2Budget: $12M.
Actions:
4.3As a Sr. Business Consultant managed the 15 business departments lead by business analysts to determine the business requirements to build a replacement systems called ICAPS (Integrated Contracting and Procurement System). Developed vision of business users to transform the business needs into a single web application in line with business vision and goals for procurement of all goods, services and contracts in this ICT environment.
4.4Project management to develop project teams (DB’s, QA, Systems, Architects, BA’s, Team leads, UAT teams, AMS team) with internal and outsourced resources for development, configuration and deployment. Managed conflict resolution between business and IT as well as within IT development team. Project management plan was developed and executed from end to end (initiate, plan, execute, implementation of iteration module to final close) while monitoring and controlling the project at all times. Status reports were issued in accordance with project management plan/communication plan to executive stakeholder, project stakeholders and project teams. MS Project was used to manage tasks and guide schedule estimates through-out the project.
4.5Data migration and data conversion teams worked with data architects and systems design teams to ensure legacy data accuracy. Migration and data conversion of 5 legacy databases in to 1 data warehouse.
4.6Iterative (Agile) SDLC development processes (initiate, plan, develop, test, implement for 14 iterations) were used to develop the systems. Schedules, timelines, resources, critical paths are created for all areas of the project (business communications, change management, iterative development, core team schedule, off-boarding to application maintenance services, architects, infrastructure environments (hardware, software) while managing the scope, risks, benefits, and ongoing issues with all areas of the projects and resources were managed for the entire program.
4.7All business requirements were reviewed with the business leads to gain consensus and negotiate when required to confirm tasks for each iteration of development prior to system design This required working continually with business stakeholders through workshops to update business requirements as business processes changed over time during the development of the application. Manage and facilitated stakeholder meetings, giving presentation to executive, steering committee, and business leaders to review project documents (plans, status, progress reviews, schedules) as well as change requests (estimates, schedules, plans) and required decisions.
4.8The ICAPS project was audited prior to each UAT session using APPSCAN for security and coding standards. All identified deficiencies were corrected and confirmed using APPSCAN prior to release for UAT and Production environments. Formal reviews were also conducted in coordination with external auditors to ensure the correct procedures were followed and any deficiencies were corrected and reassessed for compliance. This application crossed ministries and as well as Infrastructure Finance department and therefore was continually monitored and evaluated for standards, access and security protocols for all users including external users throughout the project.
4.9Continually involving the business throughout the program through presentations, demos and reviews, input to resolve functional issues and to ensure the business processes were accurately being developed. The business changed their processes many times throughout the project and due to the good relationships these changes were incorporated as required to provide a very successful product.
4.10A Change Management plan was developed and acted upon over 1.5 years prior to the implementation of the application
Result:
4.11Project management plan was successfully executed, the web application was launched for all GoA-Infrastructure internal and external users on schedule and within budget.
4.12Business was able to realize all the needs of the systems within days of deployment.
4.135 Legacy systems were decommissioned.
4.14Transition to AMS teams was successful. All business and project documents were archived in SharePoint for reference and future updated to the application.
4.15The business was transformed through change management processes over a period of 1 year with the end result that all business users were trained to use the system prior to the launch with 100% success rate and customer satisfaction. Risk management was reviewed weekly to ensure impact and priority of risks was monitored through-out each iteration to account for business process changes and the impacts on schedule versus the criticality of implementation of all process changes.
Problem:
4.16GoA- Infrastructure required a Workforce Information Management (WIM) system for Infrastructure capital project division. No COTS (Halogen) application on the market satisfied the requirements and therefore an application was developed with HR.
4.17Budget: $1.2M.
Actions:
4.18Business requirements were created to build the WIM system to satisfy the division goal of every employee to have hands on access to employee role description, improve current role and to strive for advancements in their careers. As this project required employee information from HR, FOIP processes were followed to ensure privacy impact assessment was accurate and secure. This system represented content management for all employees as it relates to succession planning. The ability to provide past, present and ultimately future internal employment prerequisites was required.
4.19Iterative (Agile) SDLC development processes (initiate, plan, develop, test, implement for 3 iterations) were used to develop the systems. Schedules, timelines (MS Project was used to manage tasks and guide schedule estimates through-out the project.) resources, critical paths are created for all areas of the project (business communications, change management, iterative development, core team schedule, off-boarding to application maintenance services, architects, infrastructure environments (hardware, software) while managing the scope, risks, benefits, and ongoing issues with all areas of the projects. Negotiated with IT Director and other PM’s for resources to complete tasks requiring specialized skills.
4.20The WIM project was audited prior to each UAT session using APPSCAN for security and coding standards. All identified deficiencies were corrected and confirmed using APPSCAN prior to release for UAT and Production environments. Formal reviews were also conducted to gain consensus with business stakeholders in coordination with external auditors to ensure the correct procedures were followed and any deficiencies were corrected and reassessed for compliance.
Results:
4.21A web application was developed to support employee interactions that builds their career based on current position requirements, training available, future positions available and succession plan for employees.
4.22Project management WIM was developed on time and within schedule according to the project management plan.
5.MediaWhiz Apr 10 – May 11
Program Manager, Project Manager, Outsourcing/Vendor Manager, Business Analyst (1 year 2 months)
Program:
5.1Management of MediaWhiz primary applications for US, Canada, and UK for financial analysis of highly intensive real-time internet marketing transactions. This application manages millions of transactions an hours. Daily gross revenue ranged from 1M to 15M/day which required intensive change management coordination through-out the organization. The applications were a conglomerate of 3 companies and therefore many functions merged into a program of applications: MonetizeIT. The transformation of these applications required a program plan to develop and design the merging of multiple IT applications and to merge business and IT teams to produce the seamless integration for business users. Providing both web and mobile access (Android, IPhone, Blackberry, IPad) was primary for all users within the ICT environment.
5.2MediaWhiz merged with another company laying off IT department in mid-2011.
5.3Total Budget: $22M.
Actions:
5.4Project management plans were developed to analyze and document business requirements for all ongoing business needs. A risk register was maintained and reviewed on a weekly basis to ensure impact analysis were completed for all changes due to volatility of applications during the merging processes.
5.5Created, communicated and refined a high-level approach to integrate merged businesses strategy.
5.6Based on the high-level strategy, created granular project plans to achieve business goals. MS Project was used to part to manage each project as many projects were small in size and in most cases had mandatory input and integrations from other applications requiring continual project management across the programs.
5.7Management of data through multiple data centers (data warehouse) in US, Canada and UK.
5.8Development team integrated application for mobile devices.
5.9Led internal and outsourced resources to execute against the extremely aggressive project plan. Negotiating with vendors providing archival software due to performance and capacity issues. Resulted in vendor providing additional functionality at no cost. Managed conflict resolution with IT team due to demanding schedule. Negotiated with business stakeholders to manage the amount of change in each release.
5.10Status reports were issued in accordance with project plan/communication plan.
5.11Led next generation design of application for cloud strategy
5.12Managed relationships with all stakeholders to ensure communications were open, leading and facilitation meetings to gain consensus, provide status updates and project progress. Understanding the business stakeholder’s needs to make the products successful was essential to building relationships that increased communications that benefited everyone.
5.13Integration of three merged companies to provide the most efficient and comprehensive network marketing application.
5.14Developed IT program plans and designs to move application to a cloud solution. Proposals were presented to General Manager for approval.
5.15Created RPF to outsource development of next generation of MonetizeIT system to support business goals.
5.16Ensure review of company strategic goals and vision for growth of the company was in line with business program plans to enhance and increase customer satisfaction.
Result:
5.17Application were was successfully integrated for all implemented functionality required by business users, internal financial auditors, General Manager of MediaWhiz and CIO.
5.18Upgrades to infrastructure to attain current and future performance was established.
6.HP/EDS at Government of Alberta- Service Alberta, Advance Education, Environment Mar 08 – May 10
Sr. Delivery Manager, Sr. Business Consultant, Sr. Program Manager, Project Manager, Outsource/Vendor Manager, Business Analyst, Test Manager (2 year, 2 months contract)
Project:
6.1The Student Financial System (SFS) requires yearly updates to provide the GoA mandated information for all post-secondary institutions in Alberta. Managed the delivery of this application that manages all students (Alberta public sector) requiring financial aid as prescribed each year by the GoA budget for all students attending any post-secondary institution in Alberta.
6.2Budget: $2.5M/year.
Actions:
6.3Ensured development teams had all the necessary tools and expertise to maintain the SFS application within this ICT environment and project management processes.
6.4Analyzed and documented the business requirements for all ongoing business needs.
6.5Develop program plan and designed a strategy to upgrade the SFS application to next generation technology to transform the organization to be web enabled.
6.6Project management of all projects from end to end (initiate, plan, execute, close while monitoring and controlling (including RACI matrix) the project). Risks for all projects were reviewed weekly within each team and monthly with the PMO to ensure complete review for impacts and priorities between projects for all stakeholders. Used HP GADQMS software development methodology to manage project lifecycle. The project management method used waterfall with increased quality control and HP/EDS reporting functionality using customized MS Project Server scheduling and reporting tools and techniques.
6.7Facilitated senior management meetings as well as lead meetings to provide project status and progress reports of each project. Negotiated with stakeholders when providing options for change requests. A consensus was reached by the steering committee for decisions required.
6.8Status reports were presented to business sponsors and PMO according to project plan/communication plan.
6.9SLA’s must be met to maintain the contract.
6.10As the Sr. Delivery Manager, managed all HR and Financials for contracted team using SAP. SAP-HR modules were used to manage all HP/EDS employees (training requirements, contractors, employee reviews, FTE status reports, contract status reports), SAP-Financials (monthly contract invoices, employee salaries and fiscal updates).
6.11Build relationships with business leaders providing technical expertise and solutions for infrastructure growth and performance.
6.12Developing proposals, RFP documents, business cases, and briefings for more contracted work for HP/EDS to support business goals.
Result:
6.13Application was successfully integrated for all functionality required by business users for the SFS application.
6.14Relationships produces more contracts with GoA
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