Quality Assurance Financial Services

Michael Jones

Atlanta, GA***.***.**** ************@*****.*** linkedin.com/in/michael-jones-8550633

Program Management QA Strategy & Execution ROI Optimization

Solution-focused and analytical Quality Assurance professional with a wealth of experience in leading foundational and transformational QA activities across onshore and offshore teams. Proven ability to design and implement solutions meeting high quality and compliance standards and managing large-scale enterprise testing programs/projects in the software development industry. Successfully led test planning and execution phases, leading to production operations for external and internal clients. Adept at managing onshore and offshore teams with challenging time and budget constraints to deliver project results. Pioneering self-starter capable of building testing programs and client relationships while maximizing team output and quality. Fosters a quality-first culture focused on iteratively improving product quality. Comfortable collaborating in a fast-paced and uncertain environment and contributing to innovative solutions while demonstrating leadership, technical competence, and meticulousness.

Skills, Strengths, Capabilities

Quality Assurance Plan Development Test Strategy Development Status Reporting Software Test Management KPIs

Test Program Improvement Test Metrics Development Azure DevOps Formal Test Phases QA/Stage/Production Offshore/Onshore Team Leadership Test Estimation & Metrics Issue Tracking/Risk Based Testing Test Tool Expertise SDLC

Accomplishments

Served as QA Train Lead for a $10OM+ program with 6000 global accounts, implemented best practice processes (e.g., test estimation, program level metrics, risk-based testing) for the program and a "train" consisting of sixteen (16) teams and approximately fifty (50) QA resources (leads, testers, etc.).

Established and met quality metrics and achieved 10+ production releases over 2 years, resulting in defect leakage to production reduced across the program by 10% and the QA miss rate(s) reduced by 2%.

Ensured automation coverage exceeded 70% on regression test cycles for targeted applications.

Spearheaded formal test planning and execution phases for five US Tax programs, including DTAS, Mozaic, GSN, 990 DataWeb, and Value Chain Web, resulting in defect identification and corrective activities within time constraints and before production operations were initiated, enabling successful production releases and use by targeted clients.

Ensured automation test coverage for regression tests reached 70% to minimize regression test periods.

Test Lead for the planning phase of the SAP upgrade and implementation project included a project team size of ~ 200 resources and a test team of 90 resources for an Oil & Gas company through Accenture.

Oversaw the $8M+ testing program for an Accenture client, which led to the successful release of 3 major systems over 2 years.

Professional Experience

M&T Bank/BayForce Buffalo, NY 2024 - 2025

Test Manager

Project Rise ERP Transformation Program

Established standards, best practices and formal test strategies for the Oracle ERP upgrade program (Project Rise). Conducted a formal testing maturity assessment across the program to determine opportunities for advancement in test management and delivery. Documented templates (e.g. test plans, closure reports), processes (e.g. defect management), and quality guidelines (test type entrance & exit criteria) which were implemented across the program.

Provided test management services (test planning and test execution guidance, oversight and leadership) for approximately 10 value streams with 30 workstreams across the program. Successfully managed over 8 production releases with full SDLC life cycles.

Hosted and delivered Zephyr-JIRA test tool training for 200+ business testers across Financial Management based ERP applications (AP, PA, FA, EDMCS, GL, etc.)

EY Alpharetta, GA 2014 - 2023

Assistant Director/Test Architect

Global Tax Platform Program

Established best practices, including formal test strategies, web-based daily status reporting, test progress metrics, test tool usage (Azure DevOps), and configuration and pioneered quality root cause metrics (e.g., missing acceptance criteria, enhancement, production data specific, etc.) to capture trends and initiate corrective actions.

Constructed templates adopted by the program for test closure reports and daily status/progress.

Hosted program-wide exploratory testing sessions (“bugathon”) designed to expose production issues related to product usabilitya

Researched and approved vendor resources needed for supporting QA teams within the train.

BTS Program, US Tax Programs

Oversaw the testing for 25+ onshore and offshore QA resources for the BTS program (CTORS-TOCC, CTDM, EY First, eTFV, TP BM) consisting of five applications proceeding through formal integration, system and UAT, and production operation.

Managed onboarding, KT and ensured best practice QA processes were followed by the test teams, resulting in successful production operation and minimized defect leakage through the proper use of regression test cycles and appropriate negative/edge case scenarios.

FSAM Hedge Fund Program--Aggregate Module (AM) and SAT/AM Visualization

Directed onshore/offshore teams through formal test planning and execution phases (Agile Methodology) to produce three major production releases (2- AM, 1-SAT/AM Visualization) within project schedule constraints.

Produced project effort estimates to drive resource needs, formal test plan documentation, and obtained business sign-off on test scenarios to support and drive test execution for Agile-based projects.

Interviewed resource candidates (onshore/offshore) to build testing teams capable of supporting multiple projects for FSAM.

Commanded defect triage (ALM, TFS) meetings and test status/progress meetings with the project team.

Collaborated with external vendors, EY Advisory, and executive-level business personnel to ensure testing quality and best-practice standards were met and completed formal documentation to maintain communication with all stakeholders during the projects.

Managed the testing teams throughout the test planning and execution phases to ensure proper utilization of resources while maximizing learning, growth, and teamwork to support future projects on the FSAM program.

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Architected test estimation and reporting metric artifacts available to the team for future estimation and metric reporting needs.

Established strong relationships with business and program management stakeholders which enabled the continued use and demand of the FSAM working models, processes, and team for future projects.

Accenture LTD Atlanta, GA 2007 - 2013

Business & System Integration Manager

North Carolina State Department of Health & Human Services Client

Served as the System Test Lead for the IBM Curam-based application supporting eight economic benefit programs.

Led and managed resources and budget for a cross-functional team of seven work streams and approximately thirty resources through test preparation and execution activities.

Tested two phases of the P7 release, deployed for production operation within 6 weeks, and collaborated with the client to present status and progress reporting weekly throughout the project.

Utilized forecasting measures and estimating models to ensure the team size was properly staffed throughout the planning and execution phases.

Program: Project ONE SAP Upgrade & Implementation for a Global Oil & Gas Company

Created the test strategy plan and obtained formal approval from leadership to execute with the support of client resources and assisted the client in determining best practices when utilizing formal testing methodologies required for the project testing tool.

Developed and presented test planning kick-off decks and helped ramp up client testing resources with an understanding of the testing planning process, defect management, and test execution.

Program: Test Assessment and Mobilization for a Multi-National Retail Company

Acted as the Test Liaison between the IT and Business for the formal test assessment and subsequent transformation of the Enterprise Information Management program.

Conducted test assessments across the enterprise, which included six divisions and interviews from 30+ management resources to determine existing testing maturity and areas for improvement.

Program: Global Safety System Implementation for a Global Pharmaceutical Company

Test Lead for the Global Safety System implementation program (CFR 21), which included 30+ applications and 17 interfaces and a team that included six work streams with a 70/30 offshore-onshore mix and an overall project team size of ~ 60 resources.

Leveraged team resources to produce the overall project plan for the test preparation and execution of phases of the project plan.

Calculated test effort estimates based on project parameters to ensure the test team size matched the effort and project schedule.

Program: Chassis Website Tagging for a National Communications Company

Directed the Chassis 3.1 Project – a Pilot to implement site tagging on the client’s core website product.

Ensured the client's understanding of site tagging releases and the impact of new functionality would impact existing testing cycles for the consumer website and improved the client's testing capability by developing new testing processes tailored to program needs and client expectations.

Program: EDC Hosting Implementation for a Global Pharmaceutical Company

Managed and coordinated testing for the Patient Data and Acquisition Management System Electronic Data Capture External Hosting Collection (PDAMEXH) project.

Developed testing estimates, tracked and reported progress per plan, and identified/resolved test issues throughout the project. Minimized project cost by effectively using offshore teams for test execution project phases.

Created the required SLDC documentation, which included an RTM, Test Plan, and Test Specification, and obtained formal approval to initiate testing throughout the project life cycle.

Program: Testing Center of Excellence Assessment for a National Communications Company

Served as the Test Lead for the Data Warehouse (DW) group.

Conducted assessments of DW testing processes, procedures, and tool usage; identified gaps and improvement areas for TcOE operation; tracked resource demands and current use for forecasting and allocation to the offshore team.

Program: Commercial Segmentation for a National Insurance Company

Led the System Test planning and execution of three (3) Commercial Segmentation projects (i.e., BOP Migrate to Rating, Scoring Engine, and BA Migrate to Rating) and supervised teams consisting of Test Coordinator, Test Analysts, and Test Designers.

Collaborated with requirements, design, business, and project management domain leads to ensure test plans and perspectives were properly accounted for during the SDLC.

Developed the “Top-Down” and “Bottom-Up” estimates for testing domain work effort and constructed test team work plans.

Led System Test planning for PCIO Commercial applications, including CIQ, Rating Process, and FMR Mainframe-based applications, and ensured the requirements to support system test and renewal quoting for Nationwide's Exclusive and Independent channels.

Program: E-File Project for a National Insurance Company

Test Lead for an enterprise-level workflow application designed to replace existing manual and legacy processes known to be inefficient and spearheaded the system test team in planning and execution activities for the implementation.

Education

Master’s in Business Administration Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Camden, NJ

BS in Electrical Engineering Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey New Brunswick, NJ

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