Business Analyst Project Manager

JODY KOVACHEVICH

Someone who translates users’ requirements into documentation that developers can understand and utilize for application development. Extensive experience as a liaison between development, project stakeholders, managers and external business users. Excellent written and verbal communication skills and the ability to interact with professionals at any level of the organization. Possesses effective management and leadership skills with the ability to work independently or as part of a team. Proven leader that is recognized for handling high-pressure situations and tight deadlines in a professional and effective manner. Core skills include:

Skills

Requirements Gathering

Use Cases (including Diagrams)

Liaison between users and development

Project Documentation

Market/Risk Analysis

QA/Testing Planning & Execution

Training Development & Facilitation

Full Lifecycle Software Development

Change Control Management

UML

Story Boarding

Gap Analysis

RFP Response

First Point-of-Contact/Support

Process Analysis

Project Communication

Change Requests

Systems Analysis

Waterfall and Agile Development Methodologies

JAD Sessions

Web Development

SQL

MS Visio

Team Foundation Server

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Washington University St Louis, MO March 2022 - Present

Senior Business Analyst

Business Analyst with a through strong knowledge of the organization’s technology infrastructure and specific software applications, helped the business address changes through technology. Performed all tasks to achieve an understanding of business change needs, assessing the impact of those changes, capturing, analyzing, documenting and managing requirements, and then supporting the communication and delivery of those requirements with relevant parties.

MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Planning

Worked with Customers to prepared business use cases

Collaborated with Project Manager to plan approach to requirements elicitation and methods for requirements management and communication

Ensured business opportunities and objectives are clearly articulated

Performed current state analysis and/or root cause analysis as required

Worked with Project Manager to plan validation of requirements in managing project scope, user acceptance, installation and deployment; helps determine metrics

Performed feasibility analysis as required for projects

Coordinated planning activities to meet objectives and timelines of overall program or project; works with Project Manager to forecast required time and resources

Analysis, Design, Execution

Implements strategies for gathering, reviewing and analyzing data requirements

Performed requirements elicitation sessions with Customer

Documented requirements and determined strategy for evaluating requirements implementation in systems to achieve business goals

Organized requirements by release and other needed categories and sets up traceability matrix; articulates requirements relationships and dependencies

Prioritized requirements working with Customers and created conceptual prototypes and mock-ups

Collaborated with project management to obtain requirements approvals per project plan; facilitates go/no go decisions

Used requirements to drive the design or review of test cases, process change requests

Provides consulting to all stakeholders regarding requirements management working with Project Management

Independently prioritized the completion of tasks and resolution of issues to ensure compliance to project deliverables

Leadership

Monitored the technical team solution to ensure requirements fulfillment and solution evaluation

Lead and coordinated activities associated with requirements management vehicles

Coordinated activities with other business analysts

Participated in recommending and implementing continuous improvement plans for business analysis

Charter Communications (Contract) St Louis, MO July 2020 – March 2022

Senior Business Analyst

Business Systems Analyst responsible for liaising with multiple Spectrum Enterprise functional areas and boundary partners to understand and extract the true business needs and requirements for all Spectrum Enterprise Business Support Systems (BSS) assigned projects. I worked to continually immerse myself in the various different complex and integrated systems and processes to be able to provide detailed analysis, feedback, and requirements for the project; while working closely with project management, business stakeholders, and leadership to help meet goals and timelines for all assigned projects.

MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Actively engaged in process improvement sessions and provides recommendations for enhancing team efficiencies

Lead meetings with various functional areas and team leaders across Spectrum Enterprise

Built and maintain cross functional relationships across all business units as well as with IT Partners

Presented business requirements back to the functional area owners to ensure agreement on key decisions and approval of the documented needs

Actively and consistently supported all efforts to simplify and enhance the customer experience.

Ensured downstream IT Solution Engineering teams had sufficient business requirement details to allow for implementation of a solution that would meet all the project needs

Provide updates to management level to keep them informed of the project status as well as any risks/issues that may occur so that proactive action could be taken to mitigate those risks

Continually expand personal knowledge and understanding of Charter’s systems and tools

Communicated key project information across the team and with boundary partners to ensure knowledge share and identification of other project interdependencies

Utilized a standardized internal team process for requirements gathering to ensure consistency, accuracy, and completeness

Used MS Office applications (Word, Excel, Visio)

Performed other job duties as required

Marsh & McLennan – St Louis, MO Jan 2020 – July 2020

Senior Business Analyst

Lead Business Analyst responsible for performing detailed business analysis, outlining problems, opportunities and solutions for MMA. The BA responsible for driving in depth discovery with all levels of stakeholders to gather the needed understanding of the challenges. Used the information gathered during these discovery efforts to identify and then prioritize technical and functional requirements. Compile those requirements and use of best practice methodology to to build an interpretation communicated to IT what Business wanted.

• Define business requirements and reporting them back to stakeholders

• Using best practice to integrate a standard process of Business Analysis methodology that was used by Business Analyst teams

• Mentor and develop MMA Business Analyst team capabilities

• Assist/Support project teams with various implementations

• Help visualize technical data in a way that is meaningful to business decision makers

• Work with operational stakeholders and the project management team to assess needs and document requirements

• Engage and consult with team members on new data, business needs and opportunities to improve system effectiveness

• Assist with the development of Test(s), designed to perform confirmation and validation of project efforts that Analysis was performed on

Kemper (Contract) – St Louis, MO July 2019 – Dec 2019

Consultant - Business Analyst

Lead BA on the eApp project. The eApp project was to automate the manual process that the Health Agent go through to sell Health Insurance to client in their homes or work place.

Serve as a senior Business Analyst and Quality Assurance tester in an emerging Agile Scrum development and delivery IT organization

Lead in the analysis of complex business requirements across all Kemper Life business units including Underwriting, Claims, Agency, Legal and Compliance.

Capture business process flows as necessary

Document system workflows and use cases. Identify opportunities for process improvements and recommendations.

Utilize business requirements to create User Story and acceptance criteria

Drive detailed application testing and participate in user acceptance testing.

Identify Minimal Viable Product (MVP) for each phase of the project

Groom user stories identifying complete acceptance criteria, story point effort, assigned Sprint and development resource

Assist Product Owner, key stakeholders in delivering a solution that meets the business needs

Drives benefit analysis as necessary for all desired features and functionality being willing to explore new solutions or challenge existing processes.

Used MS Office applications (Word, Excel, Visio)

Create and execute test cases for mobile web and native applications

MASTERCARD (Contract) – O’Fallon, MO Dec 2018 – May 2019

Consultant - Business Analyst

Lead BA on the India On-Soil project. The Indian government required that all transaction made by an Indian citizen to an Indian company stay in India. This required Mastercard to create a data warehouse in India to transfer these transactions and store them.

Worked with business to understand what tables needed to be copied to the India Data Warehouse

Worked with DBAs to implement Exadata in the India Data Warehouse and the Data Recovery site

Assisted with creating stories to support the features

Monitored the features to ensure they were on schedule for the release

Attend all demos to ensure that business was receiving the desired functionality

The release occurred on schedule and occurred without the customer knowing there was a change.

SPECTRUM (Contract) – St. Louis, MO July 2017 – Dec 2018

Senior Business Analyst

Worked with business stakeholders to understand their needs, then created all necessary project documentation. Collaborated with QA to ensure they understood the functionality and that they were testing correctly. Worked with PM to assist when needed in the managing of the project to ensure all project related issues were addressed and the project stayed on track and on time. Served as the IT BA on Web Services and Back Office projects, and on Waterfall and AGILE Projects. Used the ArchiMetric application to develop project documentation for Waterfall projects and the ALM application for all testing.

Responsible for all of the reporting requirements for Roku/Apple TV launch. This launch occurred on time.

The Lead BA on the Preferred Communication rewrite. I had two other BAs on the project. This project launched on time.

The lead BA on the Sales Force addon. I had three other Bas on the project. This project launched on time.

US BANK – St. Louis, MO June 2016 – July 2017

Project Analyst

Performed research, analysis, review, development, implementation, and monitoring of new and/or revised products/services. Analyzed current costs and estimate the cost or cost savings and enhanced benefits that may be achieved by implementing a recommendation. Acted as a project liaison with other departments. Gathered requirements from Business for projects. Compiled and analyzed information for an assigned project or area and makes recommendations based on findings. Supervised a team of project staff of 2 when needed.

BLACKHAWK ENGAGEMENT SOLUTIONS (Contract)– Fenton, MO Dec 2015 – Apr 2016

Business Analyst / Project Manager

Served as a liaison between customer community (internal) and the software development team. Developed requirement specifications according to standard templates. Worked closely with software development team during software development lifecycle to ensure accuracy of enhancements. Project Coordination on Agile projects. Worked with QA to ensure test cases were correct and that defects were addressed. Conducted Production Launch events.

CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS (Contract) – St. Louis, MO Mar 2015 – December 2015

Business Analyst /Project Manager

Served as a liaison between the business community and the IT organization in order to provide technical solutions to meet user needs. Elicited requirements using interviews, document analysis, requirements workshops, surveys, business process descriptions, use cases, scenarios, and task workflow analysis. Developed requirements specifications according to standard templates using neutral language. Conducted UAT testing events. Worked closely with software development team during software development lifecycle to ensure accuracy of enhancements.

BIOMEDICAL – St. Louis, MO Feb 2014 – Mar 2015

Business Analyst / Project Manager

(Consultant initially; converted to direct employee January 2015)

Provided analysis and business solution definition, technical recommendations, testing, and project execution in support of the organization’s technical initiatives, strategies and products. Elicited requirements using interviews, document analysis, requirements workshops, surveys, business process descriptions, use cases, scenarios, and task workflow analysis. Served as a liaison between customer community (internal) and the software development team. Evaluated information gathered from multiple sources, reconciled conflicts, decomposed high-level information into details, and distinguished user requests from the underlying true needs. Developed requirements specifications according to standard templates using neutral language. Worked with developers and subject matter experts to create technical design specifications and analyze tradeoffs between usability and performance needs. Identified organization’s strengths and weaknesses and suggested areas of improvement. Drove and challenged business units on their assumptions of how they will successfully execute their plans. Developed and facilitated both formal and informal training programs. Planned projects in order to accomplish goals within constraints such as time, cost and agreed quality standards. Managed resources in accordance with project schedule and ensured requirements, functionality, and resource allocations met the project deliverable based on the nature and scope of the project. Led testing efforts. Ensured issues were identified, tracked, reported, and resolved in a timely manner. Efficiently and competently managed issues when things went off plan (due to scope-creep, missed deadlines, etc.) and brought them back on plan, or created a new plan.

ACLARA SYSTEMS – St. Louis, MO July 2013 – Feb 2014

Senior Business and Data Analyst

(Consultant July 2013; converted to direct employee Sept 2013)

Gathered and documented user requirements, provided full review and analysis of the requirements, as well as defining the scope and objectives of assigned projects. Documented business processes, software specifications and developed logic flows to support solution design. Supported the production environment by troubleshooting the issue and performing complex data analysis under strict timelines. Worked closely with users and process owners to define scope and system requirements for new and existing applications to support the business process. Analyzed requirements and documented technical functional software specifications. Worked closely with software development team during software development lifecycle to ensure accuracy of enhancements. Performed software testing. Used SQL during testing to ensure data was following properly. Analyzed performance of business solutions, interpreted results using a variety of techniques ranging from simple data aggregation via statistical analysis to complex data mining. Provided live support and troubleshooting for production issues and complex data analysis. Supported MS Access applications and coded development in VBA.

SAVE-A-LOT – St. Louis, MO Feb 2013 – July 2013

Senior Business Analyst (Contract)

Collaborated with the business owners to gather and translate business and/or technical needs into relevant deliverables for assigned projects. Assisted in developing comprehensive performance and the delivery of an IT Solution on behalf of the supported business function(s) spanning support, enhancements, projects, and roadmaps. Assisted the Project Manager with project delivery (scope, budget, time, and quality) and ongoing system performance as needed. Established consensus among stakeholders and/or project team members on the assigned deliverables. Provided leadership and a collaborative approach to integrate the stakeholder needs with the project activities and facilitated communication across the project and IT service teams involved in solution development related activities. Assisted with the tracking, management, and optimization of budget across projects, enhancements and support areas. Gathered and documented requirements and created Use Cases to supplement the requirements, collaborating with QA to ensure test cases were correct and that defects were addressed. Worked with Development on UI design. Created all release documentation according to standards.

Triceps Analyzer – I supported the implementation of this 3rd party Supply Chain application. I gather the requirements, created process flows, and test case to support this implementation.

LORD and TAYLOR - St. Louis, MO Mar 2012 – Feb 2013

Senior Business Analyst

Performed Business Analysis functions for the OCC PO project, a total reinvention of Lord and Taylor’s E-commerce written in Java. Responsibilities included the Sterling implementation for the project. Sterling affected all work streams in the project. This was the number one project at Lord and Taylor for 2012.

Gathered and documented requirements from the business. The following content is almost identical to the role above; even if the functions were the same, revise this content to avoid sounding repetitive: Gathered and documented requirements and created Use Cases to supplement the requirements, working with QA to ensure test cases were correct and that defects were addressed. Worked with Development on UI design. Created all release documentation according to standards. Worked with all work streams to ensure they were sending or receiving to and from Sterling correctly. Trained the people who would be conducting all training of the Sterling application.

Implemented the Ecommerce platform. The Hub of the platform was IBM Sterling. I work I support the implementation of Sterling in the Warehouse and the Call Center and also gave support to all of the other pieces of the Ecommerce suite that interfaced to Sterling.

WALMART – Bentonville, AR Dec 2010 – Mar 2012

Senior Business Analyst

Performed business analysis functions for several major Java based projects. Gathered and documented requirements from the customers and uploaded the requirements to HPQC.

Used Visio to create Use Cases to supplement the requirements. Worked with QA to ensure test cases were correct and that defects were addressed and with Development on UI design using Visio. Created all Release documentation according to standards. Created Workflow, Business Process modeling, and Story Boards. Projects included:

PIT Ticket Project – Defined and implemented fixes and small enhancements to proprietary software.

Hazmat Project – Corrected the Hazard material and waste management in Walmart and Sam’s Club stores.

OMS – Merged five Supply Chain systems into one and created a new GUI interface.

PROGRESSIVE CORPORATION – Cleveland, OH Sept 2010 – Nov 2010

Senior Business Analyst – Snapshot Project (Short-Term Contract)

Performed business analysis functions for the Snapshot project for Progressive Insurance. Snapshot is a device that was plugged into your car to monitor driving habits which allowed a customer to achieve major discounts on their auto insurance. The Snapshot program is now being advertised on National TV.

PROTECTIVE LIFE INSURANCE – St. Louis, MO March 2010 – May 2010

Senior Business Analyst – Direct to Consumer Project (Short-Term Contract)

Performed analysis for the Direct to Consumer project for Protective Life Insurance, which was a web-based application that allowed a consumer the ability to purchase an extended warranty for their vehicle, watercraft, or RV from a web interface.

Siemens PLM, St. Louis, MO Jan 2004 – May 2009

Product Manager - Ship Design Application

Performed Product Manager functions for a Ship Design Application for NX CAD. Served as the primary liaison between stakeholders and application development teams and gathered, validated, and documented requirements for new application development projects and existing system enhancements. Functioned as the first point-of-contact for end user issues, clearly documenting and resolving issues, including recreating documents and working with development as needed. Evaluated and assessed impact of new or additional enhances, collaborating with the development team on implementation. Created presentations for sales professionals and management, and facilitated presentations for user group meetings, executives and peers, classroom, one-on-one, and webinar settings. Translated end users’ requirements into technical specifications. Responsible for creating, maintaining, and updating all project documentation according to standards, including on-line help. Created software training manuals and project documentation for internal and external users. Ensured all project documentation was data warehoused according to ISO 9000 methodology. Performed Application Packaging testing to make sure licenses were being managed correctly.

Performed cost analysis to determine the most cost-effective way to add new functionality (either to develop the functionality or work with a 3rd party to create an interface to their software). Negotiated with a software company to create new interface between their software and ours. This gave our software the capability to detail all furniture and fixtures throughout the ship.

EDS/UNIGRAPHICS SOLUTIONS – St. Louis, MO Jan 1998 – Dec 2004

Business Analyst - Sheet Metal & Composites

Performed Business Analysis and Application Support functions for a NX Sheet Metals and Composites software. Identified project risk and assessed the project timeline impact when customers requested additional enhancements. Worked with the development team to implement these enhancement changes to the software. Gathered and documented requirements from the business users in a Waterfall development methodology. Served as the primary liaison between customers and application development teams and gathered, validated and documented requirements for new application development projects and existing system enhancements. Worked with the stakeholders to define their business processes and to implement improvements to those same business processes.

Performed Application Package testing to make sure install scripts functioned properly and that the licenses where managed properly.

Created all project documentation according to standards including on-line help. Created software training manuals and project documentation for internal and external users.

MCDONNELL DOUGLAS/ General Motors/Electronic Data Systems – St. Louis, MO Jan 1988 – Dec 1998

Business Analyst – Industry Services

Responsible for gathering and documenting requirements from the business users in a Waterfall development methodology. Served as the primary liaison between customers and application development teams and gathered, validated and documented requirements for new application development projects and existing system enhancements. Involved with supporting new customers through implementation of NX/Unigraphics CAD / CAM / CAE / PLM software as member of several large account support teams.

Created an on-line help tool using MS Word and worked with a developer to convert Word docs into Robo-CAD. The help document was then integrated into the software for the on-line help.

EDUCATION

MS, Industrial Technology – Western Illinois University Macomb, IL

BS, Industrial Technology – Western Illinois University Macomb, IL

ORGANIZATIONS

Vice President of the NW Arkansas Chapter of the IIBA – 2010

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