Kiran Ahuja
Contact // 732-***-**** // Email *****.*****@************.***
Professional Summary:
Analytical, enthusiastic, and innovative Techno Functional Business Analyst and scrum master with 10+ years of diverse experience in all phases of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), chiefly in requirements, analysis/ design, agile methodology, aprimo Marketing studio, development, testing and deploying business processes and system solutions.
Hands on experience implementing Agile practices, proficient in establishing scrum processes in the team, training the team and product owners and run the scrum efficiently.
Profound expertise in conducting agile ceremonies, developing scrum plans, sprint planning, story grooming/sizing sessions, looking at the burn down charts, managing the backlog/prioritization of the stories, facilitating retrospective sessions.
Extensive experience in Conducting Requirement Gathering, Interviews, Writing Detail business and functional requirements, Scope agreements, Business Process descriptions and training end users, working on documents, organizing meetings and writing meeting minutes, communicating effectively with upper management, developers and QA.
Adept at creating and transforming business requirements into functional requirements and designing business models using UML diagrams - Context, Use Case, Sequence, Activity diagrams
Sound in Suggesting system automation solutions to business problems or opportunities; providing automated solutions that are cost effective and that meet user requirements.
Excellent facilitation skills in conducting walkthroughs, surveys, interviews, brainstorming and JAD and JAR sessions.
Having Strong written and verbal communication skills; technical writing skills; Stakeholder engagement skills: negotiation, active listening
Have expertise in domains like Finance, Media & Entertainment, Asset management and Marketing
Extensive experience in Media Asset Management & Content Management applications, E-commerce, B2B and B2C Consumer Marketing applications, TV’s domestic television sales, Theatrical Distribution & marketing, Digital Asset Management, Comprehensive knowledge of Waterfall, Agile and Scrum Management.
Sound in building strong partnership with business stakeholders, development partners, vendors, and other cross-functional team
Strong experience in conducting UAT & quality assurance.
Well versed in different management scenarios like Change Control, Quality Assurance, Defect Tracking, System Integration and Scheduling, Change Management.
Experience in xPresso for Adobe InDesign tool, xPression, Teradata (Aprimo Marketing Studio) tool, SAP, Visual Studio.NET, C#.NET, VB.NET, ADO.NET, Telerik Controls, XML, XSD, GML, SVG, Visual Source Safe and IIS.
Having good Knowledge of Web services, XSD, XML Data Mapping, Filed mapping for source to target systems, Data analysis and Data processing for multiple interfaces, Different types of Reports, XSLT, WPF, WWF, WCF, LINQ, KML, SharePoint, JavaScript, JAVA, J2EE and Ajax etc.
Experience in backend programming using SQL that includes Views, Triggers, and Joins etc.
Experience working on web applications, mobile applications & windows applications.
Experience in preparing design proposals to reflect cost, time, and solution alternatives to satisfy existing and future functional capabilities or needs.
Extensive experience in production support, leading troubleshooting of issues, questions & research
Experience working in distributed work environments including offshore
Skill Set:
Web Technologies
ASP.NET 2.0/3.5, ADO .NET, Web Services, WWF, WPF, WCF, JAVA, J2EE
Languages
C#.NET, SQL, PL/SQL, HTML, XML, XSD, GML (Geographic Markup Language), KML, XSLT
Database
SQL Server 2005, Oracle, Sybase, Sql Express, MDSplus, MS Access
Servers
IIS 6.0, 7.0
Markup Languages
HTML, XML, KML, GML
Other
MS Office, Visio, xPresso for Adobe Indesign, xPression, Aprimo Marketing Studio (Teradata), SAP, Front porch diva, Jscope (java tool), XML writer, Stylus studio, NUnit, SharePoint, QC, Jira
Geo- Technology
GIS, Arc View 3.2, Quantum GIS, FW Tools (ogr2ogr), Google Earth.
Transcoding tools
Rhozet carbon coder, Agility Transcoding tool
Professional Experience:
Client: Capital Group Companies Nov 2014 – Present
Position: Business System Analyst & Scrum master
Project: Doccomp Util, Institutional Exhibit System, Marketing data system
Responsibilities:
Involved in Gathering requirements from the client/SMEs/Stakeholders, working on user stories, producing an efficient design/solution for the development
Acted as a liaison, collaborator and facilitator between IT and business users
Involved in requirements for interfaces in integration with multiple systems, defined how/what data would be passed in xml, how data mapping would be done for source to target systems integration, how the target system would process the data from xml and create the required output
Followed agile methodology, Worked closely with product owner to create product backlog. Created epics for the high level sizing and provided the high level scope to project manager / stakeholders, broke down the stories in small parts for clarity and based on functionality, handled grooming sessions to discuss the implementation approach for the stories, considered dependency of the stories, prioritized
the stories with Stakeholders, planned for the future sprints, made sure on execution and delivery of the stories during each sprint, worked with business/planning for the stories for sprint planning ahead of time, Closely worked with developers and qa team to make sure that they have clarity on the requirements, Facilitated the scrum, made sure that team didn’t have any road blocks for their task, performed the acceptance testing, conducted the UAT sessions before deploying the work on production
Facilitated demo sessions for the user stories which were completed in the sprint, assisted users with UAT, packaged and delivered the stories.
Created the functioning UI mockup/prototype for the new application which helped the business and development team to understand the complete flow of the system
Created the complete XSD with different layouts per business model, which was used to generate different XML outputs for marketing material automation (For ex - sector diversification, country diversification data, purchase and sales report etc). XSD and XML were used as inputs to xPresso tool for Adobe Indesign and xPression tool. Created different templates in xPresso/xPression for the different view of the data and various business rules to generate marketing materials for portfolio managers.
Prioritized requirements from business users by using interviews, document analysis, requirements workshops, business process descriptions etc.
Involved in data analysis for various investment vehicles/funds reporting for marketing needs
Worked on different types of reports to present the data to business users, worked on excel reports as well as BI reports requirements to show the data in different views
For ex – how one of the mutual fund is performing in various sectors like finance, IT, healthcare etc. And what are the companies it is invested in for those sectors. Also, how that fund is performing in various regions and their countries. Worked on the automated solutions which helped portfolio managers to compare the current month data with previous month, previous quarter, and previous year end to understand the fund performance and make necessary changes in their portfolio if required. With automation, it saved capital group about 70% time during their quarter end and year end activities to measure the different fund performances in various data views against different market indexes and comparison criteria, which reduced CG’s time to market.
Defined & analyzed business user processes, needs, and problems; and interpreted them into projects, system enhancements, and technology solutions
Worked with third party vendors to clarify the requirements
Ensured that delivery of enhancements meet the requirements defined by the business users
Ensured that training needs are met for new or existing applications/features/enhancements
Environment: Java, JSP, AJAX, XML, XSD, xPresso for Adobe Indesign, xPression, Web Services
Client: Warner Brothers Entertainment April 2013 – Oct 2014
Position: Techno Functional Business Analyst & scrum master
Project: iCampaign / Aprimo Marketing Studio
Responsibilities:
Worked independently to elicit and prioritize requirements from business users by using interviews, document analysis, requirements workshops, business process descriptions, etc.
Analyzed the market, latest trends, technologies to provide the best automated solution for B2B and B2C markets
Developed EPICs for the high level sizing, then broke down the stories as we went further during grooming sessions and did the sizing. Discussed the implementation approach with the tech team during various grooming sessions. Setup the sprint planning meetings, put the goal for the team each sprint, measured the team velocity, created different releases in Jira to track the stories, provided demo to the business users on each sprint work/stories.
Facilitated various Scrum Ceremonies including Daily Scrum, Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, Sprint
Retrospective and Backlog Refinement meeting.
Involved in creating interface for storing digital assets, transferring digital assets, transcoding digital assets. Involved in working on Digital Management Systems and Content Management Systems and integrations
Involved in data analysis and various types of workflows for the creating digital assets for WB titles local material. Involved in working on functionality with QuickTime player to view and open digital asset
Involved in Varity of UX/designs for no. of modules
Created interface for digital asset ingestion to digital asset library as well as to MARS library
Involved in creating integration with interface which is the large library for storing digital assets
Involved in unit testing, module testing, system testing, UAT, trained end users on the functionality, followed agile process
Worked on integration with different systems like Vendor Master, SAP, MARS, and EIS etc.
For ex – EIS system sends the large xml file containing titles data like release dates, title related info, release rights & no. of other info, we have built in the web service/integrations to process that xml file, data mapping and pass it on title related UI screens as per the business requirement, this is automated system and the EIS feed runs every night 1 PM.
Launched key initiatives by leading a project team, coordinating with third party partners
Developed and enhanced different modules, coordinating and deciding the priority enhancement list
Developed sample screens and when required worked closely with an Information architect/designer to develop an application prototype
Involved in creating Aprimo campaigns, activities, commitments structure, auth trees, auth rules, extended attribute creations, configuring reports, business rules, Creating Expense Categories, Finance Categories, DAL library, creating workflows, notifications, fiscal plan, fiscal year activation, domain and access rights
Involved with team in developing and maintaining SharePoint Documentation regarding policies, procedure, and architecture and application integration. Involved in creating users and groups in Active Directory and integrate with SharePoint
Prepared launch go/no go checklists.
Environment: Aprimo Marketing Studio, SAP, Visual Studio .Net 3.5, XML, Web Services Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF), Silverlight, MSSQL SERVER 2008, Agile methodology, Scrum management, Crystal Reports, SharePoint
Client: Sony Pictures Entertainment Feb 2011 – March 2013
Position: Techno Functional Business Analyst & Scrum master
Project: Digital Backbone
Responsibilities:
Involved in Collecting, reviewing, analyzing, managing system and user requirements from business users / stake holders/SMEs
Worked closely with Product Owners, coordinating product backlog grooming, story estimation and priorities. Facilitated Release Planning, Monthly Reviews meetings, Sprint Planning, retrospective meetings and followed up on action items for continuous improvement.
During scrums, made sure to discuss the dependencies between multiple development and testing teams to remove impediments and plan the releases. Worked with users and stakeholders on keeping track of requirements and priorities for multiple scrum teams and dependencies
Worked on Digital asset transcoding, media asset management
Involved in ingestion module of digital content
Documented detailed functional and data business requirements, process flows, use cases, workflow documents, FDS, test plan, test cases
Involved in working on interfaces which transfers digital assets from one client location to other location
Involved in various types of digital asset transcoding and watermarking as per the client requirement.
Analyzed complex problems, interpreted operational needs, and developed creative solutions
Involved in estimating efforts for the enhancement requests and submitted the same to the client.
Involved in creating web services, interfaces for source to target systems, data & field mapping for source to target systems, how the interaction will happen for integration on different interfaces
Involved in building multiple web services for Digital Backbone application, for ex – Aspera service for File transfer, Transcoding service for Rhozet Transcoding, Financial service to integrate with SAP system, Asset Management Service
Consulted with users to identify current operating procedures and clarified program objectives.
Involved in QA cycle & User acceptance testing, training end users regarding application functionalities.
Worked on Data analysis for reporting and data accuracy.
Worked directly with 3rd party business groups to perform analysis and to complete project requirements.
Monitored & maintained performance to make sure that applications are working at peak efficiency
Involved in Production support
Environment: VisualStudio.Net 3.5, WEB Services, WCF, LINQ, Rhozet / Agility Transcoding Tool,Front Porch Diva, MSSQL SERVER 2008, Aspera File Transfer Tool, XML, HTML, Java Script, Ajax, Agile methodology, Scrum management
Client: Praxair Aug 2009 to Jan 2011
Position: Application Analyst
Project: Praxair Logistics
Environment: Java, Web Services, MSSQL SERVER 2005, SharePoint
Client: RR Donnelley Jan 2009 to Aug 2009
Position: Business System Analyst
Project: ETM – CT External Website
Environment: VisualStudio.Net, SQL SERVER, Web Services, Telerik Controls, JavaScript, Reports
Client: Bank of New York Mellon - New York June 2008 to Dec 2008
Position: Business System Analyst
Project: Derivative Management Application (DMA)
Environment: Java, Web Services, XML, JavaScript, Crystal Reports
Client: NM (North-Western Mutual) – U.S. Aug 2007 May 2008
Position: Business System Analyst
Project 1: Single Premium Immediate Annuity in NIS
Project 2: Vista Implementation - Application
Environment: VisualStudio.Net 2.0, MSSQL SERVER 2005, Web Services, Nunit
Client: ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) June 2006 – June 2007
Position: Business System Analysts
Project 1: GML BASED DATA MANAGEMENT FOR GIS
Project 2: E- Governance
Environment: VisualStudio.Net 2.0, MSSQL SERVER 2005, Web Services, XML, XSLT, Geographic Markup Language (GML), keyhole markup language (KML), Web Services, SVG, WFS, WMS
Client: IPR (Institute for Plasma Research) Jan 2006 to May 2006
Position: Application Analyst
Project 1: MDS+ Based Data Management System of RF Source Experiment for ICRH System
Environment: Java, MDSplus database, jScope tool