Project Manager

SUMMARY

Results driven and highly Customer Focused IT Project Manager with 10+ years of IT Consulting, Project Management and Process Strategy experience

Proven track record of delivering medium to large sized Enterprise Scale IT Strategy and Transformation engagements, ranging from $1 million to $10 million, on time and within budget in a cross functional/matrix organizational structure

Expert in IT Long range plan, Roadmap, Operating models, Governance, Enterprise Architecture, Development and Testing

Strong Hands-on experience on technologies like Robotics Process Automation (RPA), Blue Prism, Workday, Service Now, Hadoop, Office 365

Actively pursuing PMP (expected Aug 2017);Completed 36 hours of Project Management education

Excellent Communicator (Verbal and Written) with strong Leadership, Analytical thinking and Problem Solving skills

CORE COMPETENCIES

Project Management: Project Planning, Change Management, Vendor Management, Resource Management, Cost Management, Risk Management, Negotiation and Facilitation, Disaster Mitigation and Recovery, Stakeholder Management, Client Relationship management, Waterfall and Agile methodologies

Technology/Infrastructure Skills: Platform Servers - Windows, ESX, Unix AIX, SUSE Linux, VMs, LPARs, Oracle 10g, Oracle RAC and Power HA, MS SQL server, Veritas Backup and Storage, Autosys, Cloud – Office 365 and Microsoft Azure, SAN, NAS, Network firewalls and architecture, Data Centers, Production Assessment and Operation Readiness, DevOps, BMC Monitoring tools, C, C++, Java, .Net, VB, C#, HTML, PHP, CSS, XML, Web Service, Weblogic, PowerShell Scripting, Python, Perl, Eclipse, Visual Studio, Capacity Planning, IT Service Management (ITSM) governance, ITIL, Release Management, Open Edge 8 - 11.2 4GL, App server, SAX complex XML processing, Jenkins, Jack, Control-M, BluePrism, BOTS

Applications: RPA Blue Prism, Service Now, Workday, SAP Basis, SAP Hana, IBM Cognos, ESB, Informatica, Hadoop, Salesforce, SAS, MicroStrategy, BMC Remedy, Clarity, Planview, Acumen Fuse, People Soft, Office 365, TeraData

Business Skills: Due Diligence, SWOT analysis, Cost Benefit analysis, KPIs, Process Metrics, Operational Effectiveness, Strategy Rollout, Excel Modelling, Data Analysis, Pivot Modelling, Graph Interpretation, Dashboards, Number Crunching

Business Tools: Microsoft Office, Project, Excel, Visio, Power Point, SharePoint, Enterprise Project Management (EPM), Excel VBA Macro development

Industry: Retail, Pharmacy, Telecommunications, Telecom Billing and Customer Relationship Management, Backup Infrastructure, Storage Virtualization, Power and Field Automation technologies

WORK EXPERIENCE

Company: Cognizant Tech Solutions, Toronto Sep 2014 – Present

Role: IT Project Manager

Clients: Loblaw Companies Ltd. (Retail) and Shoppers Drug Mart (Pharmacy Retail), Canada

Project Details: IT Infrastructure Build and Delivery program Team Size: 39 Duration: 2.5 years (Ongoing) Budget: $10 M Methodology: Waterfall PM Tools: MS Excel, Project, EPM, Visio, Word, SharePoint, PowerPoint Working Relationships: Blue Prism Developer and QA, Program Managers, Project Managers, Project Sponsor, Technical Architect, Infrastructure Design team, Business Analyst, Platform and Network Build, Production Support, Application Vendors, Directors

Key Accomplishments:

Worked as an IT Project Manager reporting to the Director for IT Infrastructure and Service Management

Managed the $10 million engagement that included Infrastructure Build and Development, Production Readiness Assessment, Operation Readiness Testing, Tools monitoring, and Service Management

Managed the Gate Process and related workflow to manage the delivery of Infrastructure to business stakeholders – Intake, Design, Build, Application, Production and Operations Quality Assurance, Go live

Delivered large scale Platform and Application integrations for some of the biggest projects that involved implementation of Cloud Based Platforms and Technologies

oBlue Prism Development and Implementation for major applications at PC Financial

Loan Origination and on boarding with structured PDFs to mainframe Metavante and Java frontend

Level -1 Reconciliation

Intralink Alternative Document Procurement Retrieval with OCM Lotus Notes email notifications

Extract links from Movie files to download the required document and manage documents

Managed development with most Blue Prism available objects, BOTS

oEnterprise Digital DevOps

oMigration of Enterprise SharePoint to Microsoft Cloud – Office 365

oLoblaw’s E-Commerce Program - “BeautyBoutique.ca” and Customer Loyalty Program – “PCPlus.ca”, with Capacity Planning using Microsoft Azure

oMultiple SAP Application Upgrades for President Choice Bank (PCBank)

Managed the entire costing for IT Infrastructure Delivery engagement that included Resource Management, License Costing, Support Contracts, Overtime Billing, PID allocations etc.

Streamlined the IT Infrastructure delivery process integration between Loblaw’s and Shoppers Drug Mart, while managing the outcome of organizational changes

Interacted directly with Client Leadership and Management team – VPs and Directors, for Business requirements, Process feedback, and Status Reports

Managed large team of 39 people (Onshore and Offshore) and was directly responsible and accountable for their performance and delivery

Created a whole new set of program status reports that produced weekly and monthly updates to Executive Dashboard and Project Control Officers Database, leading to informed decision making

Created new process for “Follow the Sun” to support continuous work executions at Onshore and Offshore that saved annual operational costs of $500K

Managed delivery of IT Infrastructure for 2 major Data Centers – Platforms ( Windows/Unix), Databases ( Oracle/SQL ) and Backup

Collaborated with Solution Architects, Vendors, Project Managers, Consultants, QA teams, both remote and onsite

Delivered projects in various domains – E Commerce, Supply Chain, SAP ERP, PC Bank Financial Services, REITs etc.

Responsible for setting up of Testing Environment ( Upper and Lower ), Release management, Change management, Escalation Management by following ITIL Best Practices

Handled Critical Infrastructure Alerts via Netcom, Sockeye, Akamai and Autosys Tools, and managed Incident management, Event Management, Problem Management through BMC Remedy and Service Now

Managed and owned the Disaster Mitigation and Recovery processes – DR Smoke Tests, Site Failover tests, Power HA and Oracle RAC failover tests, supported by quarterly audit controls

Developed several superstars across the teams via a combination of coaching, effective communication and regular one-on-one meetings

Produced Lesson Learned document after every successful and non-successful project delivery and conducted post implementation reviews

Introduced continual improvement initiatives, soliciting customer feedback via frequent satisfaction surveys, that led to a satisfaction rating index of 9/10

Managed the delivery processes to ensure that SLAs are met, and created and maintained process controls, KPIs and Performance metrics

Strategized and directed multiple IT infrastructure implementations across multiple lines of business, involving significant scope, complexity under tight timelines

As a governing role, ensured that the proposal, execution, control, deployment, and hand off and closure meet promised schedules

Performed risk identification and mitigation activities, escalating unresolved issues to management where appropriate to secure their timely decisions and appropriate support

Consistently got rated “Exceed All Expectations” consecutively during the Performance Reviews

Company: BlackBerry, Ottawa May 2013 – Dec 2013

Role: Project Management Consultant

Project Details: Portfolio management for Handheld Device projects Team Size: 4 Duration: 8 months Budget: $4 million Methodology: Waterfall PM Tools: MS Excel, Project, EPM, Visio, Word, SharePoint, PowerPoint Working Relationships: Program Managers, Project Sponsors, Project Sponsor, PMO Director, Project Control Officers

Key Accomplishments:

Quickly learnt and built in-depth understanding of BlackBerry’s Project Management Methodologies (PMLC), Tools and Processes

Audited more than 20 program schedules using Microsoft Project according to the checkpoint model workflows to ensure 100% quality adherence to Organizational Strategic Objectives

Managed multiple deliverables of Milestone KPIs, Performance Metrics, Staffing Scorecard and Trend Charts on a regular basis which allowed in superior track and control of program portfolio

Developed Dashboard for Program Managers using Microsoft Excel that helped them make more informed decisions and improve program delivery by 8%

Analyzed Project Performance data based on numerous quantitative and qualitative parameters, which helped in early identification of risks and delivery-blocker issues

Conducted in-depth interviews and focused group discussions to get better clarity for requirements from internal and external business stakeholders

Developed Program Health measurement tool using Acumen Fuse and Excel Modelling that generated regular graphical status reports of project performance parameters

Developed Proof of Concepts using Pivot Tables to generate Forensic Analysis reports that compared multiple versions of program schedules

Delivered Schedule Diagnostic Analysis and Business Intelligence(BI) reports for 10 programs on a weekly basis

Rated “Exceed Expectations” consecutively during the Performance Reviews of both Summer and Winter

Company: ASEA Brown Boveri (ABB), India Mar 2011 – Jun 2012

Role: Project Manager

Clients: Halliburton Canada, Swiss Metro

Project Details: MicroSCADA – Supervisory Field Control and Data Acquisition Application Team Size: 15 Duration: 15 months Budget: $3.2M Methodology: Agile PM Tools: MS Excel, Project, EPM, Visio, Word, SharePoint, PowerPoint Working Relationships: Product Manager, Program Manager, Project Sponsor, Technical Architect, Product Design team, Business Analyst, Software Developers and Quality Engineers

Deliverables: Project Scope, Project Charter, Project Plan and Schedule, Product Roadmap, Effort estimations, Cost Management plan, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Business Requirements Document (BRD), Functional Requirements Specifications (FRS), System Requirements Specifications (SRS), UAT document

Project Accomplishments:

Lead Software R&D team of size 15 for design and development of SCADA project worth $3.2 million

Managed multiple teams and stakeholder groups in Bangalore, India and Vaasa, Finland

Ensured successfully delivery 1 month ahead of schedule without any regression, which led to 10% increase in annual sales revenue

Executed Project Management tasks: Project plan and schedule, effort estimation, resource management, work packages and task allocation activities using Agile Methodologies

Drove End to End Project delivery using Agile methods – Scrum Master, Manifesto, User Story, Iterations, Continuous integrations, Product Roadmap, Sprints, Release planning, Sprint reviews, Standup meeting, Incremental process etc.

Managed Project financials such as Costing, Budgeting, Resource billing management, Task costs, Vendor Billing, License costs etc. during the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Facilitated requirement analysis sessions with Vendors, SMEs & Customers- Halliburton, Dublin Airport and Swiss Metro, by conducting Focused Group Discussions, JAD sessions and Touch Base meetings

Collaborated with Business Analysts to document customer needs by preparing Business Requirements Document (BRD), Functional Requirements Specifications (FRS) and System Requirements Specifications (SRS)

Partnered with Product Manager and Technical Architects to develop product architecture, thus mapped complex requirements onto software programs

Directed process improvement by researching core problems with the quality assurance engineering process and reduced defects logged in User Acceptance Testing by 30%

Proactively worked with technical resources to identify and eliminate/mitigate risks to the current user base

Utilized strong communications skills to lead Product Design team to develop Use Cases & Data Flow Diagrams (DFD) using UML and Microsoft Visio, and worked with development team for their complete implementation

Facilitated the implementation of Touch Screen Graphics engine by complete overhauling of internal code and fixing defects that enhanced the screen response time by 25%

Collaborated with QA (Quality Assurance) team in developing test plans, test estimates, User Acceptance testing, regression testing and recorded Issues/Defects in HP Quality Center

Led the development team for “Log Analyzer Tool” that reduced Defect Analysis time by 40% saving $100,000 annually. Initiative success story got published in Corporate Newsletter

Coached 15 employees on “Agile” process methodologies. Saved business costs worth $1 million by ensuring smooth adoption of new development process in 7 billable projects

Company: Huawei Technologies, India Aug 2010 – Mar 2011

Role: Project Manager

Clients: Vodafone UK

Project Details: 2G-3G-LTE Swap / New Build for 50+ sites Team Size: 8 Duration: 6 months Budget: $1.3M Methodology: Agile PM Tools: MS Excel, Project, EPM, Visio, Word, SharePoint, PowerPoint Working Relationships: Cross Functional Business teams, IT Service Vendor Managers, Business System Analysts, Technical Architects, Patch and Release Managers, Infrastructure leads, Project Sponsor, Program Manager, Quality Assurance managers, Production Support team

Deliverables: Project Scope, Project Charter, Project Plan and Schedule, Product Roadmap, Effort estimations, Cost Management plan, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Issue Logs, Risk Management plan, Status Reports, KPIs and Process Metrics, Project Financials, License and Contract costing

Project Accomplishments:

Lead the delivery of complex enterprise project budgeted $1.3 million to migrate IT Infrastructure from 2G to 3G spectrum; this helped to increase revenue, customer satisfaction & retention and net promotor score

Coordinated and cooperated with multidisciplinary cross-functional projects teams, and third parties to develop the project schedule identifying key dates and resource requirements

Managed the strategic business aspects of Infrastructure migration project with successful project management - Project scoping, budgeting, resource assignment, project plan development, project tracking, monitoring and reporting through the application of prescribed project management principles and methodologies.

Lead the entire project life cycle through SDLC, drove the delivery of project by collaborating with internal stakeholders (business, BSA’s, engagement managers, architecture, QA, release management, finance and network) and external onshore/offshore resources of TCS, Capgemini and IBM.

Developed and maintained all project documentation (Project Plan, Issue and Action Logs, Risk Management, Status Reports, Post Implementation Reviews, Lessons Learned etc.) as part of SDLC accountability.

Led project governance and adherence to standard and best practices defined by Huawei’s PMO Center of Excellence.

Presented weekly to VPs and CIO by identifying the progress on baseline schedule, budget forecast, actual spent, managed variance, risks, issues and mitigation.

Ensured capacity planning, resource planning, budget tracking, and deliverables acceptance for defined deliverables in SOW based project.

Supported product owner as a scrum master, assessed the prioritization of user stories and integrated product backlog, by executing sprint of 30 days and scrum of daily 15 minutes. Logged product backlog in Jira & HP ALM, guided development team to execute in agile releases.

Managed / Interacted with contractors, evaluated their work efficiency, and released their

payments

Performed regular sites audit to ensure compliance with the customer specifications, processes and standards in accordance with the quality project plan

Prepared and delivered reports and recommendations (Status, Progress, deviation, spending, Risk,

quality, changes, best practice, lessons learned), and escalated to the regional senior management as needed

Managed the Agile Software Configuration Management process. Ensured 98% error free cycles in daily continuous integration of source code, which enhanced the efficiency of production by 70%.

Audited the source code on a timely basis and developed automated solutions that measured deviations early in the engineering process which helped improve product robustness by 30%

Company: Amdocs Consulting, India Dec 2009 – Aug 2010

Role: Project Leader

Clients: AT&T Mobility, USA

Project Details: Billing Application Upgrade for Enabler 6.0 to 7.0 Team Size: 6 Duration: 9 months Budget: $1M Methodology: Waterfall PM Tools: MS Excel, Project, EPM, Visio, Word, SharePoint, PowerPoint, HP Quality Center, BMC Remedy Working Relationships: Cross Functional Business teams, Application teams, Infrastructure Support team, Tier 1 and Tier 2 Production Support team, Business System Analysts, Technical Architects, Patch and Release Managers, Infrastructure leads, Quality Assurance managers

Key Project Accomplishments:

Spearheaded the engagement for Telecom Billing Application Infrastructure Upgrade for Enabler 6.0

Managed Go-Live operations and customer database(Oracle) migration during production upgrade activity at customer site for two consecutive quarters, acting as a Single Point of Contact

Worked in a Client facing role and lead a team of 6 SMEs to support Business Applications for Telecom Billing – Rating and Invoicing, in the Enabler 6.0

Built a detailed understanding of AT&T Mobility Business in a quick manner and started delivering independently in a short period of 3 weeks

Developed sound Business Knowledge of Amdocs Billing product (Enabler 6.0 and 7.5) in Telecom, which includes Customer Management, Account Receivables, Rating, Billing, Invoicing, AMDD, Ensemble (CSM) and collections

Resolved higher number of Business Requests than Service Level Agreement (SLA) of 10 defects for six consecutive months, which translated into more than average Customer Satisfaction Index of 97%

Created Use Case and Activity Diagrams in MS Visio for Order Management, Billing & Customer Interface processes

Extensive hands-on on CSM, Billing, Usage Handling (GSM, GPRS, GPRSD), ARM (Resource Management) tool to loading & assigning the tickets for particular market group.

Participation in daily handoff meetings with onshore/offshore team for project requirements and clarifications

Supported on call on bridges between UAT tester, Amdocs Developer, Stakeholders and Business if required in case of a dispute on defect.

Re-constructed the Change Request management process for client’s Telecom Rating and Invoicing workflows by conducting step by step gap analysis, that helped in cost saving of $1M for the customer

Performed spreadsheet modelling, budgeting and operational analysis and provided recommendations to launch a new AT&T Mobility invoice feature, which resulted in sale of 41,000 new connections in first 4 months

Architected Billing data reporting solutions (Excel based) for the customer to improve its sales forecasting processes for Hi-Speed Internet plans

Interacted with the customer directly to gather requirements for future releases and created High Level Design and Low level Design documents

Handled 24x7 Level 3 customer support efficiently, and created Change requests on-time for the infrastructure team; which resulted in reduction of downtime by around 3%

Mediated with the product development team in Israel, Infrastructure team in Indonesia and Customer team in USA successfully while ensuring flawless operations at customer site

Effectively utilized the expertise of several Database support resources from AT&T and Amdocs, to resolve several pre-production Infrastructure issues

Company: Wipro Technologies, India Jun 2007 – Dec 2009

Role: Technical Manager

Clients: EMC, USA

Project Details: IT Infrastructure - SAN Storage Virtualization, Enterprise Backup and Disaster Recovery Implementation Team Size: 4 Duration: 2.5 years Budget: $2.2M Methodology: Waterfall PM Tools: MS Excel, Project, EPM, Visio, Word, SharePoint, PowerPoint, HP Quality Center, BMC Remedy Working Relationships: Business teams, Platform Installation team, Infrastructure Support team, Test Environment team, Production Support team, Technical Architects, Project Manager, Development Team

Key Project Accomplishments:

Designed and developed new serviceability features for Invista, a storage virtualization product from EMC, which resulted in 20% annual operations cost savings

Managed the Storage Virtualization team, composed of 4 members performing installations, support and administration for over 100 Unix and Windows systems, and SAN Data Storage equipment

Managed financial aspects of the IT Infrastructure deployment, including budgeting and resource financials

Managed IT operational planning and process management to support business 24x7 for clients like Raytheon, Monsanto and Purdue University USA

Organized the allocation of resources for each task assigned to Storage Virtualization team

Reviewed all Infrastructure virtualization team policies and procedures, including those for architecture, security, disaster recovery, standards, purchasing and service provision

Managed the budget of the Unix, Windows/Intel, San Storage department, providing the analysis of expenses, the analysis of alternatives and the organization of the projects

Negotiated, reviewed and approved vendor and consultants contracts and service agreements

Managed the team staffing, including recruitment, supervision, scheduling, development, performance reviews and evaluations

Managed the deployment, monitoring, maintenance, development, upgrade and support of all the Unix and Windows systems and SAN Data Storage equipment

Coordinated systems performance analysis and capacity planning and made recommendations for improvements and growth of the UNIX and Windows systems and SAN Data Storage equipment

Coordinated the architecture and implementation of multiple clustered high availability solution for Raytheon USA

Coordinated the architecture and implementation of Disaster Recovery Procedure based on remote sites data replication

Resolved the long standing and critical issues for major customers – Raytheon, Monsanto and Purdue University, while meeting aggressive timelines, which resulted in increased customer loyalty and confidence

EDUCATION

Master of Business Administration (MBA), Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto Jul 2014

Focus on IT Strategy, Consulting and Project Management

Bachelor of Technology (Computer Engineering), Punjabi University, India Jun 2007

Dean’s Honor List - Ranked among top 2% students in the class size of 600

CORPORATE AWARDS / EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES / COMMUNITY

“Spot Award”, Cognizant – Won appreciation and recognition for managing complex delivery projects – SAP GK application upgrade and PC Financial Infrastructure

“Empower Gold”, ABB – Managed the team to develop Automated Error Check module, which brought down post release defects by 80%, for which I received the prestigious Business Unit level award

“Feather in my Cap”, WIPRO - Achieved rating of “Exceed Expectations” for two consecutive appraisals and got selected as an Client Site Lead which resulted in reception of Wipro’s highest project level honor

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