Radhika Aekka

Canton, MI ***** 313-***-**** ad46rb@r.postjobfree.com LinkedIn

SENIOR BUSINESS ANALYST

Experienced professional with a strong background in driving product development and enhancement across the supply chain, automotive, healthcare, and utility sectors. Demonstrated expertise in Agile methodologies and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). Known for overseeing product backlogs and developing comprehensive product roadmaps. Skilled in creating, prioritizing, and detailing features and stories aligned with organizational objectives and deadlines across multiple Agile Release Trains (ARTs). Adept at leading Program Increment (PI) planning while fostering effective collaboration among cross-functional teams for the implementation of new enhancements.

Track record of developing project roadmaps, eliciting requirements, and leading quality assurance efforts, including system, integration, and user acceptance testing.

Expert in setting up and refining processes on ADO boards, integrating insights from leadership and architects into initial project planning.

Exceptional communicator and leader with strong problem solving and project management skills.

Collaborates effectively with US and international teams to achieve strategic goals and maximize performance.

Experience in gathering and defining requirements for ETL processes and RESTful and SOAP APIs and validating the functionality.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Product Roadmap Development Agile Methodology & SAFe Project Administration Requirement Elicitation & Documentation PI Planning & Backlog Refinement User Acceptance Testing Coordination Staff Training & Leadership Stakeholder Engagement Feature & Story Creation Data Analysis API Testing Data quality ETL process

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Requirement Management: Azure DevOps (ADO) Jira HP Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS)

Database: SQL Oracle PL/SQL and PostgreSQL

Testing Tools: ADO TFS ALM Micro Focus Unified Functional Testing (UFT) Load tester SOAP UI

Modeling Tools: MS Visio MS Projects Balsamiq

Business Intelligence: IBM Cognos Power BI Reporting

Mainframe: TSO IMS OpenText Reflection

Methodologies: Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Agile (Scrum) Waterfall and Iterative Methodologies

Microsoft Tools: Microsoft Office 365 Apps Outlook Excel PowerPoint Teams Visio Notes Project

ETL: Informatica DataStage

Incident Management: ITSM

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

General Motors - Warren, MI 09/2021 – 02/2024

Senior Business Analyst

Led the development of the product vision and strategy to align with Global Purchasing and Supply Chain (GPSC) business objectives and technological advancements. Managed the entire lifecycle of IT products within the supply operations business unit, from conception to development, launch, and ongoing enhancement. Evaluated market trends and emerging technologies to inform the product roadmap and maintain a competitive edge. Collaborated with cross-functional teams, including Engineering, Finance, and Manufacturing, to deliver Material Global Optimization (MGO) reports on schedule and within budget.

Increased team velocity by 50% and delivered clear, concise Cognos reports, resulting in significant improvements in process efficiency, time and resource savings, and better business outcomes.

Successfully replaced outdated mainframe reports with new Cognos reports, saving $5M in licensing fees and improving report accessibility for multiple plants.

Managed requirement gathering, user acceptance testing, backlog refinement, and development processes.

Led the Mainframe Modernization Effort, conducting gap analysis for the transition to a new solution. Created product roadmaps and features covering functional, technical, and interface requirements and effectively communicated them to stakeholders and the IT management team.

Collaborated with interface teams to transmit data from GPSC to the Finance domain seamlessly. Gathered all necessary requirements for ETL modifications, new table designs, file formats, and file availability timelines for the interface team.

worked with data and business teams to create clear documentation of the requirements needed for the ETL process.

Gathered requirements and conducted comprehensive testing of RESTful APIs to validate data transfer and ensure functionality and security compliance.

General Motors - Warren, MI 12/2012 – 08/2021

Business Analyst

Led collaboration with stakeholders to gather comprehensive business requirements, applying skills from both QA Lead and Business Analyst roles. Guided the QA team in executing effective test strategies and developed meticulous test plans. Facilitated User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with business users to ensure alignment with their needs.

Drove Agile/Scrum project successes as a Business Analyst within Global Product Development (GPD) IT organization.

Managed Calibration management and soft part release initiative backlog. Established stakeholder partnerships and seamlessly integrated with interface applications.

Led software upgrades for Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products such as vector calibration management (vCDM) and Global Calibration Management System (GCMS). As a liaison between Vector, the Business team, and the IT Teams, I oversaw the project backlog and identified necessary system and process changes to improve performance measures and metrics reporting.

Written SQL Queries to retrieve test data for various functional scenarios.

Excelled as Test Lead, crafting superior test strategies for four critical software applications, contributing to business value and IT optimization projects.

Worked with interface teams to ensure smooth transmission of data from GPD to Manufacturing application. Collected all required specifications for ETL modifications, new table designs, file formats, and file availability timelines for the interface team.

Validated SOAP APIs to ensure secure data transfer and functionality.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan - Detroit, MI 07/2012 – 11/2012

Senior Test Analyst

Led testing efforts as Test Lead for Blue Cross Blue Shield's (BCBS-M) Customer Contact Systems (CCS) program, overseeing the testing of the Individual Family Plan (IFP) enrollment web application. This critical application allows customers to enroll in the diverse plans offered by BCBS-M easily.

Analyzed functional requirements and developed Test Strategies, Test Plans, Test Scenario, and Test Cases.

Successfully led the full testing life cycle functional, regression, system, performance, and user acceptance testing of a web application.

Performed end-to-end testing of the health plan enrollment process and verified Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and XML files.

Written SQL Queries to retrieve test data for various functional scenarios.

Worked as a liaison between vendors, business users and the IT team regarding system-related issues.

Validated external customer-facing web applications to ensure application functionality is working as per business requirements.

Maintained defect list and coordinated efforts with all stakeholders for defect resolution.

DTE Energy - Detroit, MI 03/2005 – 07/2011

Principal Analyst

Conducted in-depth analyses of energy market trends, regulatory changes, and technological advancements to inform strategic decision-making. Managed large datasets from various internal and external sources to ensure data integrity, accuracy, and accessibility for analysis. Collaborated with cross-functional teams to identify and resolve issues and improve overall project quality.

Spearheaded the creation of product backlogs, facilitating strategic backlog review sessions with business and IT teams. Coordinated with stakeholders to gather and analyze requirements, translating them into testable specifications. Participated in project meetings, providing updates on testing activities and addressing any concerns or issues raised.

Developed detailed Test Strategies, Plans, Scenarios, Cases, and Scripts, ensuring Requirement Traceability and creating Test Data sets.

Utilized SQL queries to extract test data tailored to various functional scenarios.

Continuously seek opportunities to improve testing processes and methodologies to enhance overall project efficiency and quality.

Developed and implemented test strategies, plans, scenarios, cases, and scripts for various projects.

Ensure that testing activities meet project requirements and are completed on time and within budget.

State Farm Insurance - Bloomington, IL 11/2004 – 03/2005

IT Consultant

Led testing efforts as a Lead Test Analyst for State Farm's Business (TAB) team, overseeing all activities to ensure applications and systems met the highest standards of quality. Contributed to the success of numerous projects and the overall organization.

Validated and verified that business solutions meet business, functional, and technical requirements, resulting in the delivery of high-quality business solutions to the organization.

Provided testing strategy and planning, as well as risk mitigation to ensure timely completion of testing deliverables throughout the project life cycle.

Provided testing process expertise to assigned project teams; Led the Community of Practice for the HP Test Directory (HP TD) toolset and participated in the global Quality Control COE.

Managed new/enhancement projects for the Quality Control (QC) organization web portal, Resulting in a streamlined process to request testing resources by development project teams and efficient management of QC resources

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Engineering, Electrical Engineering

Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University

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