Project Manager Management

Brett Agarwal

Kansas City, Missouri

E-mail: ************@*****.*** Phone: 816-***-****

Professional Experience

Over 12 years’ experience as Product Manager / Program / Project Manager / Business Analyst in wide variety of industries.

Released product (Desktop and mobile apps) that generated over 8 MM dollars in revenue annually

Revenue generated and customer count for the products managed registered year over year growth

Directed team of 10+ including Project Manager, Developers and QA team.

Strategically developed products based on Company vision and roadmap supported by internal and external analysis of the product and client needs

Lead team from product conception to delivery / distribution including scoping, scheduling, pricing, delivery to market along with market rollout plans for multiple products

Assisted in product roadmap and product prioritization based on current / potential market forces

Performed / Evaluated – GAP analysis, feasibility analysis, cost / benefit - analysis, new product development and launch

Excellent Communication skills with internal / external business executives

Proficient in Vendor Management process to identify best fit for project / department / company

Proficient with product life cycle methodologies as well as software development methodologies like Agile and Scrum

Product / Program Management Skills

New Product Development and Launch

Product Training and documentation

Strategic Planning and execution

Big Data & Data Analytics

Vendor Evaluation and Management

Project Budgeting / Scheduling / Launch

Agile / Scrum methodology

Analyses and Quantitative Skills

User experience improvements

Service Oriented Architecture

Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Security

Specific Expertise

Proficient in product life cycle (Product Conception to distribution) from product road map execution to rolling out product in market in compliance with legal standards.

Identified product direction and specifications based on market research, defined budget and resources required for various development tasks with engineering team.

Proven ability to enhance product functionality and user interface versus time to market tradeoffs by analyzing data and metrics to back up business decisions.

Managed / Conducted project kick off meeting, lead daily scrums, backlog grooming and biweekly sprint retrospective, identified key personnel for RAID log.

Managed / assisted with multiple product development and partnered with sales / marketing / training teams for successful rollout of products.

Tracked master plans / projects, sub-projects and schedules, developed solutions to program / project problems, and directed work of incumbents assigned to program from various departments.

Analyzed / gathered the requirements, enhanced / designed functionalities and implemented the functionalities in accordance with the requirements within financial applications (Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft) for various modules (Accounts Payable, HR & Payroll, and GL etc.)

Managed project using various software methodologies using Agile / Scrum.

Expertise in Vendor Management / Evaluation for on premises as well as hosted applications.

Expertise in Infrastructure Management (Laptop upgrade, Network upgrade, Office move) as well as Software / Application Management / Data Migration.

Developed Disaster Recovery / Business recovery plans and procedures.

Analyzed / assisted in Enterprise Architecture / Enterprise Security.

Professional Experience

Ascend Learning, Leadwood, KS Sep’14 – Oct’16

Role: Product Manager / Owner

Assessed customer needs, lead analysis and formulated strategies to introduce new product in market, enhance existing product with emphasis on customer count as well as revenue growth.

Lead in recommending existing and future product by reviewing product specs and requirements with End users, Sales & Marketing team and Nurse Educators.

Provided analytics data for different learning products by defining marketing communications for product distribution.

Lead in bringing new products (TEAS CSAT, Student Usage, Video Case Studies) to market by analyzing / gathering requirements from SME / stakeholders and establishing delivery scheduling by working with Tech & Ops.

Coordinated with Management for project scope documentation approval as well as coordinating with BU and R&D teams for gathering and finalizing requirements

Worked closely with the business stakeholders to understand the business need and transform that into deliverable size user stories.

Documented EPICS, User stories, functional / nonfunctional requirements and assigned story points for different projects after gathering / defining requirement om JIRA.

Assisted software development team with data mart modelling for Analytics projects to load data from transaction database.

Assist in creating an exceptional UX for Ascend products (TEAS CSAT & CAB) via research, user experience strategy, and design

Coordinate with BU / IT in Vendor Selection / Vendor Management process for LMS application.

Followed Agile/Scrum methodology for SDLC and used JIRA as the Product/Project management tool.

Led & involved in all the Sprint ceremonies including Daily Standups, Sprint Planning, Retrospectives, and Sprint Kickoffs, etc.

Implemented the feedback from Sprint Retrospectives in the subsequent sprints as an ongoing process improvement exercise to ensure the proper growth of the team.

Involved in various process improvement techniques by leveraging the scrum guidelines.

Facilitated the removal of any dependencies and blockers to ensure a successful delivery of the sprint.

Escalated blockers and dependencies to the concerned product leads across various teams in order to mitigate the risk.

Worked closely with the software development team to facilitate and conduct story grooming sessions.

Owned, groomed and prioritized the product backlog for multiple teams.

Applications: JIRA, Salesforce, CRM, Great Plains

PNC Financial Services, Kansas City, MO

Role: Project Manager Feb’14 – Aug’14

Managed server move / decom process as part of the Hot / Hot Initiative Company wide.

Coordinated the server moves along with networking team, db team, UNIX team, windows team as well as MIS / Business team.

Assisted in upgrading desktop / laptop on Windows 7 environment for PNC personnel’s.

Involved in getting automated reports built from various databases to assist in identifying operating systems, memory space, location of the desktop / laptop.

Managed complex mnemonics and produced documentation for different LOB’s based on iterative methodologies as Agile within PNC framework.

Applications: Clarity, Salesforce, PeopleSoft

Blue Cross Blue Shield, Kansas City, MO Mar’13 – Jan’14

Role: Lead Analyst / Project Manager

Assisted in capturing “as is” process / requirements for various domains used across Health Insurance industry.

Interacted with various SME’s to extract and elicit “to be” requirements based on the business needs and document them in Integrity tool.

Performed Gap analysis between “as is” and “to be” requirement for various domains / LOB’s for BCBS.

Assisted in identifying requirements for future release based on FACETS functionality as well as changes in upcoming health care regulations (ACA).

Performed requirements tracing between business, functional and detailed business requirements and documented / identified in Integrity tool using “Agile” methodology.

Reverse engineering was used extensively to document detailed requirements based on the FACETS functionality in adherence with business process.

Assisted in documenting business rules and various codes used commonly in claims processing.

Applications: FACETS, PeopleSoft, Sales Force, HP Quality Center

BNP Hotels / BMP Hotels LLC Feb’07-Present

Role: Principal

Purchased and successfully operated hotels and bars.

Purchased a shutdown hotel and brought it back to operating standards as needed

AAA, San Francisco, CA Apr’08 – Dec’11

Role: Product / Program Manager

Responsible for interacting with various AAA regional managers to gather product performance and usage for product.

Analyze and tune financial and Call Center reports in MS Access for best performance

Develop work plan based on the Product roadmap / vision based on business operations.

Validate technical designs created by IT developers against functional specifications

Working with QA team to design test plan and test cases for User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and product launch to market.

Facilitation of communication between technical and sales / marketing audiences to gather product usage.

Designed and developed training manuals for educating call center employees

Nanometrics Inc, Mountain view, CA Sep’07 - Mar’08

Role: SOX Consultant

Performed walkthroughs on various business cycles as Cash & Treasury, Taxes, Equity and Stock Admin

Remediated Key / Non Key Controls and assisted management to reduce the number of key controls by 25%.

Tested key business and IT cycles as per AS-5 standards.

Actel Inc, Mountain View, CA Jun’07-Oct’07

Role: Sr. Business Analyst

Interviewed finance to understand “as is” business process around POS & Inventory files from distributors

Documented “As is” process from inception to completion – quotes / discounts to revenue / inventory reconciliation

Documented “to be” process after interviewing with executives, finance / sales team for POS process.

KPMG LLP, Mountain View, CA Oct’06–Jan’07

Role: Sr. Associate

Gap Analysis and control recommendations for Utility Company (PG&E).

Verified, documented SAS 70 Certification for a software company (Verisign).

Audit SAP financial applications as per ITIL / COBIT requirements including verifying SOD through CSI tool.

SOA Projects, Mountain View, CA Mar’05-Dec’07

Role: Program Manager

Identified budget scope and planned project from inception to completion including scheduling, budget and managed day to day activities.

Involved with PMO group in terms of personnel and tools, to govern the project and track the usage of those elements.

Interaction with External Auditors for time schedule and sample size selection for Management assertion. Negotiated with Auditors about relying more on Management’s Assertions and thereby provide direct savings in Auditor’s fees.

Documented Business Narratives, workflow for cycles as Revenue & Receivables, HR & Payroll, Procurement & Payables, Inventory, Taxation, and Entity Level for COSO Compliance.

Tested on Segregation of Duties for key accounting staff and guided Management to avoid SOD violations.

Environment: MS Project, Word, Excel, Visio, Power Point, SAP, Oracle, Peoplesoft, ITG, SOX COBIT Controls, MS Excel, Quality Center, Test Director, Oracle, PL/SQL

Clients: Brocade, Transmeta, Ants Software, Sunrise Telecom, Lasercard & VA Software

Mercury Interactive Inc, Mountain View, CA Aug’04-Mar’05 & Aug’05-Nov’05

Role: Project Manager / Sr. Business Analyst

Performed GAP and Feasibility analysis to determine scope and approach of the project. Identified cross functional stakeholders across organization.

Defined detailed project plan and documented multiple milestones for easy tracking of the project.

Designed, Implemented Configuration / Change Management, Identify Management, Problem Management process as per ITIL by interviewing Senior Management across global units of Mercury using SDLC methodology.

Documented various documents as per companies SDLC methodology and assisted management in identifying best templates as per industry guidelines.

Identified Service Level Agreements for Change Management monitoring, validation and reporting metrics. Created Dash boards for easy monitoring for IT executives, Managers and Support team.

Managed day to day activities for the project and acted as a key point of contact for project issues, communication, and also maintained all project documents.

Participated with SOX compliance team to get the processes pass the compliance review and incorporated the feedbacks from the compliance team.

Developed as is process and to be process using MS Visio to for business enhancement and better cross functional performance.

Participated / Facilitated with Development and QA team during different project phases.

Environment: MS Project, MS Word, MS Visio, Power Point, ITG, ITIL / COBIT Controls, MS Excel, Quality Center, Test Director, Oracle, PL/SQL

Anthem-Blue Cross Blue Shield, Indianapolis, IN Jun’04-Aug’04

Role: Business Analyst

Assisted teams in developing the template for the technical requirement using Anthem standards.

Scheduled meetings with the developers, business people to develop the technical requirements and understand the business requirements

Involved in web meetings with the business / technical group to understand the requirements and the applications (web portal) which are to be enhanced

Develop test plan, test scenarios and test cases for the web portal. Assist developers in testing certain functionality of the portal

Environment: MS Word, MS Visio, Power Point, Sybase, Oracle, Lotus Notes, ASP, JSP, Requisite Pro, Clear Quest, Business Objects

NeoPharm Inc, Lake Forest, IL Mar’04-Jun’04

Role: Validation Analyst

Assisted Project Manager in laying out project plan using MS Project and tracking down the plan to see if the milestones are met and plan is adhered too.

Gathered /conveyed the roles and responsibilities from the different department for use of the secure and validated environment.

Traced down the user requirements / functional requirements to the System Design Specification as well as Test Cases.

Defined training plan and created training materials for cross functional training.

Supported the new project implemented by the management and suggested the enhancement as per feedback from customers.

Environment: MS Word, MS Visio, Power Point, SAS, MS Outlook, Exchange Server, Nokia Firewall

Education:

Masters – Applied Mathematics, Columbia, MO (Incomplete)

Masters - Information Technology, ECU, Perth, Australia – (2001, completed 21 credit hours at University of Missouri – Columbia as Exchange Student)

Bachelors in Engineering (Electrical), Baroda, India (1998)

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