TARUN GUPTA

PROFESSIONAL OVERVIEW

**+ years in Delivery Management, large transformation projects, Change Management, Test Consulting both at offshore and at client locations in Canada, USA, China, Singapore, London & India;

Managed a large team of up to 140+ resources between onshore and offshore.

Planning and delivering testing services across multiple concurrent projects ensuring consistent application of testing best practices and processes that will improve the quality of test results and drive down the cost.

Encompasses strong leadership and successful team building capabilities combined with excellent technical, communication and customer service skills.

Experience in the Blended (Onsite-Offshore) Delivery Model - Coordination, Client Communications, Status tracking and Issue resolutions

Strong in Managerial & Delivery model, Test Management, People Management skills and well experienced to handle large teams for complete Project Delivery Life Cycle (PDLC)

Strong experience in regularly interacting with CXOs, leaders, partners, analysts and testing industry leaders on wide-ranging subjects like Test Center of Excellence (TCOE) /Outsourcing challenges, business case, RFP, best practices and development of cutting-edge testing methods and Processes.

Managed large testing service programs (Multimillion / multiyear / multi location) in Oil and Gas domains.

Planning, management and delivery of all Quality related activities including Quality Planning, Health checks, Stage Gates, Post Implementation Reviews, Continuous Improvement and Root Cause Analysis for assigned projects, programs or work items as appropriate

Manage resourcing, team workload, performance and delivery targets for multiple projects/programs.

Make recommendations to the PMO/Project managers on the improvement of Quality Assurance processes and practices and where appropriate help to establish these and implement where agreed

Experience in leading Cross LOB programs, managing enterprise programs and multiple vendor

An astute planner with exemplary communication, relationship management, Program & Account Management, Knowledge management, People management, analytical and organizational skills.

EXPERTISE

Project management

Vendor management

Change management

Agile and Waterfall methodology

SAP Project Management

Oil and Gas Industry

Public Sector

IT Service Management

Workday/Guidewire (COTS)

Test Management

SaaS/ERP Projects

Datawarehouse/Big Data

INDUSTRY & DOMAIN EXPERIENCE

IT Industry 16 Years

IT / Project management 4 Years

Insurance/Finance domain 8 Years

Business Development 5 Years

Oil & Gas\BFSI domain 5 Years

Consulting 10 Years

Government 5.5 Years

Iterative development 10 Years

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Client: Fanshawe College Jan 2023-Present

Project: Workday Implementation—SaaS Application (HCM/Finance)

HR Modules: Core HCM, Compensation, Talent Acquisition, Benefits, Absence Management, Time Tracking, Canada Payroll

Finance Modules: Financial Accounting, Budgets, Procurement and Contracts, Supplier Account, Customer Account (AR), Expenses, Banking and Settlements, Endowments, Project Accounting, Financial Reporting

SI Partner : Deloitte

Role: QA Lead

Lead and managed multiple business testers for complete test management solutions.

Triage issues quickly and accurately, align resources, manage escalations and risks, monitoring and follow through on tasks to resolution, and adjust plan in order to meet schedule.

Managed internal and external communication activities associated with project and release efforts.

Lead a variety of meetings to accomplish project and release efforts.

Workday Tenant test planning

Data Conversion Test Management –Technical and business validation and Data loading, Defect management etc

Track and report status to all levels of the organization (team members, Senior management, Business owners)

Defining the scope, objectives and schedules for testing business applications during the business application life cycle; Managed and directed test teams offshore onsite for large implementation replacing existing legacy bank reconciliation project.

Develop Test Strategies/Plans, estimation for overall program and Test cases.

Manage and Coordinate with Deloitte (SI) and developers for all defect management, deliveries.

Regular status meeting with cross functional leads on project requirements, prioritization, and test management

Guiding and mentoring testing team providing technical guidance on testing.

Manage test management process, test environment, implement best practices, defect management processes.

Providing weekly status to Sponsor, Technical Leadership and Strategic direction to the multiple Testing teams during Project Delivery Life Cycle

Regular interaction with Sponsors and leadership team for providing insight on progress/issues/critical path analysis

Ensuring that the status of each testing project is clearly monitored and reported to internal and external senior management

Teema Group

Client: Atco Utilities Feb 2022-Sep 2022

Project : Salesforce Implementation (SaaS Project)

Role: QA Lead

Develop Test Strategies/Plans, estimation for overall program and Test cases

Manage and Coordinate with Vendors and developers for all defect management, deliveries

Regular status meeting with cross functional leads on project requirements, prioritization, and test management

Guiding and mentoring testing team providing technical guidance on testing

Manage test management process, test environment, implement best practices, defect management processes

Providing weekly status to Sponsor, Technical Leadership and Strategic direction to the multiple Testing teams during Project Delivery Life Cycle

Regular interaction with Sponsors and leadership team for providing insight on progress/issues/critical path analysis

Attending and running defect triage meetings

Creating dashboards in Jira for daily reporting

Ensuring that the status of each testing project is clearly monitored and reported to internal and external senior management

Client: Sobeys Sep 2020 – Oct 2021

Senior QA Lead/Architect Team Size: 30+

Project: SAP Project and Voila (Ecommerce) Transformation Project

SI Partner: Deloitte/IBM

Develop Test Plan/Strategies for SAP and multiple other transformation programs on Azure implementations

Coordinate with Deloitte (implementation partner) for all defect management, deliveries

Regular status meeting with cross functional leads on project requirements, prioritization, and test management with onsite/offshore team

Coach/Mentor testing and UAT teams with Test approach/ best practices for overall delivery and performance of QA and testing services across multiple projects/lines of business for complete testing lifecycle including planning/ execution and closure.

Triage issues quickly and accurately, align resources, manage escalations and risks, monitoring and follow through on tasks to resolution, and adjust plan in order to meet schedule.

Experience working in Database environments (MSSQL, Oracle)

Managed project working with Backup

Testing of new Windows Server environments

Managed internal and external communication activities associated with project and release efforts

Regular interaction with Directors and leadership team for providing insight on progress/issues/critical path analysis

Measure KPI for plan Vs actual testing for managing multiple work stream testing in SIT and UAT

Manage test process, best practice, automation testing

Providing weekly status with VP, Technical Leadership and Strategic direction to the multiple Testing teams during Project Delivery Life Cycle

Regular interaction with Sponsors and leadership team for providing insight on progress/issues/critical path analysis

Managing UAT teams, guiding, coaching and mentoring on UAT testing and best practices

Ensuring that the status of each testing project is clearly monitored and reported to internal and external senior management

Performing RCA on defect leakage and set up mitigation plan

Coaching, mentoring and guiding the testing team in their daily project activities

Environment and Tools: Qualitia, Worsoft, Jira/Zephyr

Client: Legal and General America, Washington, USA Oct 2019 – Sep 2020

QA Lead/Manager Team Size: 55+

SI Partner: Tata Consultancy Services

Budget: $15 Million >

Project: Insurance Platform Transformation

Project: Multiple BAU applications (10)

Project: ETL Transformation

Project: Infrastructure Upgrade Testing

Manage large testing transformation project for Insurance project and modernization.

Coach/Mentor System testing and UAT teams with Test approach/ best practices for overall delivery and performance of QA and testing services across multiple projects/lines of business for complete testing lifecycle including planning/ execution and closure.

Develop Quality engineering practice/processes/teams/tools

Developing and producing testing dashboard using Jira and HP ALM

Implementing Shift left approach for setting up automation community across the projects as per the business priority

Managing multiple vendors/SOW/SLA between Onsite and Offshore teams

Providing Technical Leadership and Strategic direction to the Testing teams during Project Delivery Life Cycle

Regular interaction with Client Directors and leadership team for providing insight on progress/issues/critical path analysis

Planning and managing knowledge acquisition and transition for large testing program

Ensuring that the status of each testing project is clearly monitored and reported to internal and external senior management

Ensuring risk mitigation plans are in place and monitored closely; Escalating and resolving issues with senior management

Setting up roadmap/KPI/ plan for various automation initiatives using Selenium, CI-CD, Jenkins, Ranorex, Zephyr, Cross-Browser testing tools.

Resource management and optimization to ensure testing activity and resourcing requirements are effectively planned

Defining and deploying appropriate training / mentoring practices to ensure teams possess, maintain and develop required skill sets using various Testing tools

Planning and setting up Automation practice with Quality Engineering (QE) as a best practice

Coaching, mentoring and guiding the testing team in their daily project activities

Deloitte, Canada May 2019 – Sep 2019

Client: Employment and Social Development Canada, Ottawa

Sr QA Lead/Coach Team Size: 65+

Budget: $90 Million >

Project: Canada Pension Plan Transformation

Project: Old Age Security Project Transformation

Manage large testing transformation project for Canada Pension plan project and Old Age Security upgrade and modernization

Coach/Mentor System testing and UAT teams with Test approach/ best practices for overall delivery and performance of QA and testing services across multiple projects/lines of business for complete testing lifecycle including planning/ execution and closure.

Implementing Shift left approach for setting up automation community across the projects as per the business priority

Providing Technical Leadership and Strategic direction to the Testing teams during Project Delivery Life Cycle

Regular interaction with Client Directors and leadership team for providing insight on progress/issues

Planning and managing knowledge acquisition and transition for large testing program

Ensuring that the status of each testing project is clearly monitored and reported to internal and external senior management

Ensuring risk mitigation plans are in place and monitored closely, Escalating and resolving issues with senior management

Managing the delivery of improvement activities identified from lessons learned reviews and management reviews

Resource management and optimization to ensure testing activity and resourcing requirements are effectively planned

Defining and deploying appropriate training / mentoring practices to ensure teams possess, maintain and develop required skill sets using various Testing tools like TFS

Coaching, mentoring and guiding the testing team in their daily project activities

TELUS, Toronto, Canada Aug 2018 – Apr 2019

QA Lead Team Size: 55+

SI Partner: Accenture/Xavient/Linium

Budget: $1 Million >

Project: ServiceNow

Manager for leading testing transformation engagement for multiple projects in telecom domain

Overall delivery and performance of QA and testing services across multiple projects/lines of business for Omni Channel platforms for different customer experience in complete testing lifecycle including planning/ execution and closure.

Setting up TCOE at offshore/onsite at program level

Defining, implementing and monitoring key performance indicators and service level objectives

Defining and implementing a roadmap for evolving to a managed testing services model

Planning and managing knowledge acquisition and transition for large testing programs

Ensuring that the status of each testing project is clearly monitored and reported to internal and external senior management

Automation implementation using Selenium for one of their web-based portals for ServiceNow.

Ensuring risk mitigation plans are in place and monitored closely, Escalating and resolving issues with senior management

Managing the delivery of improvement activities identified from lessons learned reviews and management reviews

Resource management and optimization to ensure testing activity and resourcing requirements are effectively planned

Defining and deploying appropriate training / mentoring practices to ensure teams possess, maintain and develop required skill sets using various Testing tools

Coaching, mentoring and guiding the testing team in their daily project activities

Hiring, Mentoring, Goal Setting, and Performance Appraisal of testing professionals (reviews, career planning, salary discussions, etc.)

Fairstone Financials (Formerly: Citi Financials), Montreal, QC Oct 2017 – July 2018

QA Lead Team: 20+

SI Partner: PwC & Trintech

Project: Workday Implementation —SaaS Application (HCM)

Learning, compensation, benefits, Time and Absence, Recruiting, Payroll management

Project: Bank Reconciliation Replacement Project

To support cash and non-cash reconciliations for their Business Operations consisting in Branch Loan & Insurance and Retail Merchant Credit. This solution is replacing the current reconciliation solutions (Frontier Reconciliation from Fiserv, Access and Excel). This solution will need to be implemented COTS application 'Trintech'. All reconciliations to be migrated/reconfigured into the new solution T-Recs Enterprise from Trintech, and all data sources from ledgers, sub-ledgers and banks will need to be integrated in the new solution T-Recs Enterprise from Trintech.

Project: AWS Upgrade

Lead and managed multiple applications with multiple business testers for complete test management solutions.

Triage issues quickly and accurately, align resources, manage escalations and risks, monitoring and follow through on tasks to resolution, and adjust plan in order to meet schedule.

Managed internal and external communication activities associated with project and release efforts

Lead a variety of meetings to accomplish project and release efforts

Track and report status to all levels of the organization (team members, Senior management, Business owners)

Defining the scope, objectives and schedules for testing business applications during the business application life cycle; Managed and directed test teams offshore onsite for large implementation replacing existing legacy bank reconciliation project.

Providing Technical Leadership and Strategic Direction to the Testing teams.

Vendor management with Trintech and PwC for QA/defects/requirements/change management

Validation of system, unit, integration and regression testing done by the vendor/ UAT and SIT team.

Identifying roadblocks/challenges/ opportunities and implementing successful solutions

Consulted with business representatives to resolve issues and to clarify testing requirements when necessary.

Manage people and technology changes; ensuring necessary stakeholders are informed and training requirements met

Identify roadblocks and devises solutions in collaboration with stakeholders to resolve challenges

Planning and managing knowledge acquisition and transition for large testing programs

Cigniti Technologies Inc., US Mar 2017 – Sep 2017

Client: Employers Insurance Group, Reno, Nevada, USA

QA Program Lead Team: 20+

SI Partner/Vendor: Insurity & IBM & PwC

Budget: $3 Million >

Project: Policy Administration System Replacement (Transformation)

This project was designed to Modernize and automate all the functionalities and features from old legacy system for claims center and create web-based system which will handle end to end Workers compensation insurance processes and cycle for customer. Insurity Policy admin system is being implemented on AWS.

Managed and directed test teams offshore onsite for large implementation replacing existing legacy application.

Providing Technical Leadership and Strategic Direction to the Testing teams on business & technical requirements for software & processes

Test Leadership & Management at the project and program level along with Business & Technology teams.

Define end to end testing Strategies for Project Delivery Life Cycle

Vendor management with Insurity and PWC for QA.

Validation of system, unit, integration and regression testing done by the vendor during product QA.

Leading large-scale transformation initiatives, in agile environment.

Identifying roadblocks/challenges/ opportunities and implementing successful solutions

Consulted with business representatives to resolve issues and to clarify testing requirements when necessary.

Manage people and technology changes; ensuring necessary stakeholders are informed and training requirements met

Setting up automation community/SOA testing/web service/Rest API using Parasoft/ QTP/ HP ALM

Identify roadblocks and devises solutions in collaboration with stakeholders to resolve challenges

Planning and managing knowledge acquisition and transition for large testing programs

Accenture, Toronto, Canada Nov 2016 – Feb 2017

Client: TD Bank, Toronto, Canada

QA Manager Team Size: 10+

Managed and directed large test teams for large implementation replacing existing legacy application.

Providing Technical Leadership and Strategic Direction to the Testing teams.

Test Leadership & Management at the project and program level

Developing master test strategies and plans.

Agile Testing

Application Design & Architecture

Leading large-scale transformation initiatives, leveraging a variety of delivery models

Identifying roadblocks/challenges/ opportunities and implementing successful solutions

Consulted with business representatives to resolve issues and to clarify testing requirements when necessary.

Manage people and technology changes; ensuring necessary stakeholders are informed and training requirements met as per business & technical requirements for software & processes

Identify roadblocks and devises solutions in collaboration with stakeholders to resolve challenges

Planning and managing knowledge acquisition and transition for large testing programs

Tech Mahindra, Toronto, Canada July 2016 – Oct 2016

Client: Scotia Bank, Toronto, Canada

QA Delivery Lead Team Size: 140+

Budget: $350 Million >

Managed 4 Portfolios

Responsible for delivery and transformation of QA modernization program. This includes modernization, implementation of TCOE, community of automation practice, Agile, waterfall and hybrid model. This is multi-year engagement for bank's critical portfolio.

Managed and directed test teams offshore onsite for large modernization program

Ensure the test process, methodologies and tools are applied appropriately and that test phase criteria are agreed to by stakeholders.

Managed Release management and played the role as Test Environment manager.

CRF/Change Management (Review, Approve, Reject incoming Change Requests on behalf of TEM)

Environment Support/Patching (Schedule and execute test environment patching schedule as determined by CC)

Host environment rebuilds for IST (IMI1/2, IMI3/4, IMI5/6) and DEV (IMA1) environments and manage many applications on Service now.

Responsible for planning and coordinating the build requirements along with Project Delivery Life Cycle

Collaborated with relevant operational and build teams to construct testing and implementation strategies

Managed effective use of testing tools and testing automation process fundamentals

Liaised with relevant business change teams to gather non-technical business requirements

Ensure that any new design of software for company systems meets system compliance and interface specifications

Planned resource requirements and usage (test databases, scheduling, resourcing etc.) with the Project and Program manager.

Forming a core team of staff at onshore and offshore, for the transformation program from BNS (Bank of Nova Scotia) SMEs and incumbent vendor via video conference, parallel training (at Bank location) and help in monitoring the transition progress

Anchor the Transition Planning, scheduling, requirements and execution as per business & technical requirements for software & processes

Implementation of QTP with Maven/Jenkins (CI/CD development) under DevOPS for Digital/online banking application for Automation and HP ALM for test management

Guiding the Agile teams on mobile testing Automation best practice and framework support for hybrid models.

Developing and debugging regression suite for multiple applications.

Infrastructure testing, Data Centers, Network components and Firewalls

Hiring, Mentoring, Goal Setting, and Performance Appraisal of testing professionals.

Effective Communication, monitoring, governance and reporting of transition

Reviewing at least a weekly basis with BNS Transition Manager the progress of the project against the agreed schedule, staff and plan

Help in organizing testing for the following channels to Omni Channel platforms

Application group:

Retail Lending and Borrowing Products

Cheque Processing

Bank Channels /Online Banking (Digital)

CRM (IVR/Call center)

Payment

Wipro Systems, Chicago, US January 2015 – Jun 2016

Client: Zurich Insurance, Chicago, IL (USA)

Test Program Lead Team Size: 60+

SI Partner: Capgemini & IBM & Cognizant

Budget: $25 Million >

Project: Predictive Modeling (14 projects)

Project: MDM Release (3 projects)

Project: Data Warehouse (10 projects)

Project: SAP Hana (1 project)

Project: Salesforce (1 project)

Test Program Manager for leading Testing engagements for multiple projects in Insurance domain & Dataware housing.

Overall delivery and performance of QA and testing services across multiple projects/lines of business

Defining and implementing overall QA and testing strategy, process and practices

Defining and implementing the operational framework and delivery model

Setting up TCOE at offshore/onsite at program level

Defining, implementing and monitoring key performance indicators and service level objectives

Defining and implementing a roadmap for evolving to a managed testing services model

Developing estimates for large testing programs

Planning and managing knowledge acquisition and transition for large testing programs

Financial forecasting, budget management, RFP preparation, tracking and reporting to senior management

Ensuring that the status of each testing project is clearly monitored and reported to internal and external senior management

Pre-sales activities with Practice Director at program level.

Ensuring risk mitigation plans are in place and monitored closely, Escalating and resolving issues with senior management

Managing the delivery of improvement activities identified from lessons learned reviews and management reviews

Resource management and optimization to ensure testing activity and resourcing requirements are effectively planned

Defining and deploying appropriate training / mentoring practices to ensure teams possess, maintain and develop required skill sets

Coaching, mentoring and guiding the testing team in their daily project activities

Hiring, Mentoring, Goal Setting, and Performance Appraisal of testing professionals (reviews, career planning, salary discussions, etc.)

Pre-Sales activity for guidewire testing with Horace Mann.

Technologies: ETL, Informatica, DB2, SQL Server, Netezza, SOA, SAP Hana, Salesforce, BI/BO reporting, HPQC, CQ

Government of Saskatchewan, Ministry of Justice, Regina, SK Sept 2013 – Jan 2015

Test Manager Team Size: 45+

SI Partner: Dell

Budget: $50 Million >

Project: Criminal Justice Information Management System (CJIMS) Transformation Legacy Modernization (TLM) project

The CJIMS TLM project is a partnership between the ministries of Justice and Attorney General (JU), Corrections and Policing (CP), the Information Technology Office (ITO), and Dell (the TLM vendor). This multi-phased, multi-year effort will modernize and replace four separate legacy applications used by JU and CP with modern Java-based applications. This is a web-based project using Java, DB2, Cognos reporting.

Managing 6 test teams with 6 test leads directly reporting and 45+ testers.

Managed and directed large test teams for large implementation replacing existing legacy application.

Providing Technical Leadership and Strategic Direction to the Testing teams.

Setting up TCEO and implemented that testing uses and conforms to leading practice testing methodologies and process.

Plans arrange and control meetings, workshops, and relations with Project Team during test planning and throughout subsequent development and testing activities.

Ensure an appropriate amount of due diligence is used so the ministries receive a quality integrated system that fulfills business needs and supports business operations.

Ensure there is minimal duplication or overlap of test effort with the vendor to manage cost, time, and effort.

Control scope creep and minimize re-work by managing the process used by SMEs and the vendor to identify potential change requests resulting from test planning and test execution.

Formulate & Develop effective Test Architecture, Testing strategies and approaches per organizational needs

Developed Training Program for new employees, reduced learning curve and improved employee productivity

Mentored team members in QA procedures and processes and facilitated onboarding with the Data project.

Develop a testing plan that includes User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Differential System Testing (DST) and Business Simulation Testing (BST) for approval by the PD and Steering Committee that represents both industry leading practices and a tailoring of those practices to the unique business environment. This plan must have minimal overlap with the effort that is being conducted by Dell (Vendor).

Validation of system, unit, integration and regression testing done by the vendor during product QA.

Development and supervision of the data migration and data cleansing tests to ensure data in the new system is accurate and validated.

Oversee and report on the technical and system testing including load, security, and interface operations.

Coordinate all activities and SMEs during the testing process.

Co-operate with Business and Vendor as required to ensure that business fit, and the needs of the business have the utmost priority.

Work with Project Director on RFP/business case for presentations to steering/governance committee.

With the PD, PA and BA ensure that any risks associated with the agreed test strategy and the system test plan are clearly documented and described to the project stakeholders.

With the PD, PA and BA manage all risks associated with the testing and take preventative action when any risks become unacceptable or require escalation.

Coordinate testing and manage the day-to-day testing activities of the business SMEs.

Oversee rigorous scope control by managing the interaction between SMEs and the vendor to minimize change requests resulting from test planning and execution.

Report regularly test results and metrics to the PD, Business Owners and project oversight committees.

Liaise with the Dell regarding testing and development efforts and work closely with their process and staff.

Husky Energy, Calgary AB Aug 2012 – Sep 2013

SAP Program QA Lead Team Size: 20+

Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Husky Energy Inc. is one of Canada's largest integrated energy and energy-related companies, with upstream, midstream and downstream segments operating from Western Canada, to offshore Canada's East Coast, the United States, China, Indonesia and Greenland.

SI Partner: SAP & others

Lead and Managed SAP SCM (Supply Chain Management) Transformation Program.

Budget: $15 Million >

Project: SAP Contract Management System – Pre-Award and Post-Award

Project: P2P (Procurement-to-Pay)

Project: Material & Service Master Project

Project: Vendor Master Project

Project: Application Modernization Project Windows 7 Upgrade for 1000 applications

Lead a large geographically dispersed team in US, China, India and Canada.

Lead the multiple teams for multiple projects of business testers for complete Release and test management solutions.

Application interface are web based and client server.

Worked with C-level executives for process improvements and various project management activities.

Analyzed and verified requirements for completeness, consistency, comprehensibility, feasibility, and conformity to standards

Provided trainings on HP Quality Centre (11.0 ALM) and used for project requirements, test plan, execution and dashboard.

Created Quality Assurance Plan for re-implementation of all SAP projects.

Coordinated

Contact this candidate