Project Manager Senior

VENUGOPAL PIDIKITI

(Venu)

**** * ***** **. **: 303-***-****

Aurora, CO 80016 Email: ***********@*****.***

Link: http://linkedin.com/in/venugopalpidikiti

ABOUT ME

A results-driven Information Technology & Business Process PMP certified Senior Project Manager with a proven track record to execute quality projects on time, in scope, and within budget. Learns and adapts quickly in challenging and fast-paced environments team supporting a federal client’s organizational and digital transformation. Has a wide range of experience with small budget projects to multi-million-dollar programs. Ability to mentor project team members and encourage team collaboration. Unique skillset in understanding both sides of the screen. Involved in a cross-functional organization focused on developing automation and data management solutions for business and IT teams. Oversaw the development and deployment of automation frameworks and best practices/ methodology throughout the enterprise resulting in annual cost avoidance and savings. Communicate and demonstrate the benefits of automation adoption throughout all levels of leadership. Proven to be highly successful and productive in a remote work environment.

Methodologies / Practices: Agile, Agile Hybrid, SAFe, Waterfall

Tools: Six Sigma belt certified, ITIL v3/v4, MS Project, JIRA, Xray, Confluence, Agile Craft, qTest, HP Quality Center, Rational Quality Manager (RQM), Rational ClearQuest (RCQ), Rational Doors Next Generation (RDNG), Rational Team Concert (RTC), QuickTest Pro (QTP), LoadRunner, ServiceNow

WORK EXPERIENCE

December 2023- Till date

Senior Project Manager/Sr Scrum Master

Department of State/Remote/ Secret clearance

Designed, developed and implemented a vendor-agnostic application/endpoint which CA applications can call to send SMS messages at enterprise-scale. Successfully tested the app/endpoint with both Ironbow/Arrow and AWS Pinpoint systems. App/Endpoint has been coded using Agile best practices, stored in ADD Gitlab repo with full security testing and documentation.

Proven experience in leading and managing cloud-based projects using Agile methodologies, such as Scrum or Kanban.

Solid understanding of cloud computing technologies, architectures, and best practices.

Strong knowledge of project management principles, methodologies, and tools (e.g., JIRA, Confluence, Microsoft Project).

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with cross-functional teams and stakeholders.

Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, with the ability to identify and mitigate project risks and issues.

Proficiency in project planning, resource management, and budget forecasting.

Experience in managing and prioritizing multiple projects and competing demands.

Knowledge of industry best practices, security standards, and compliance requirements.

Ensure quality of Scrum execution story cards definition of readiness and done, commitments on-time delivery

Works with Product Owner to ensure proper balance between features and high-quality working software

Studies and educates themselves to ensure updated current knowledge of Scrum

Educates the Scrum Team including the Product Owner on agile requirements, agile planning, backlog creation practices and all things Scrum

Monitors transparency of release vision

Promotes commonly accepted better Agile/Scrum practices

Promotes transparency by ensuring that all Scrum events take place to facilitate opportunities to inspect and adapt

Coordinates among the Scrum Team and monitors adherence to Scrum practices

Keeps team focused on current Sprint goals (Big Visible Charts, standup focused)

Escalates any impediment or roadblock

Educate the Scrum Team on agile practices and Scrum

Causes change that increases the productivity of the Scrum Team

Works with other Scrum Masters to increase the effectiveness of the application of Scrum throughout the organization

Champions quality and technical excellence in the Scrum Team

Maintains and reports team performance metrics

November 2020 – December 2023

Primary Service Delivery Manager (SDM) Lead/ Sr Project manager

Koniag Gov Services/USDA

Working on a project in collaboration with Lumen Technologies.

Responsible for leading project teams using either waterfall or agile standard delivery methodologies with an objective to set and manage all stakeholder expectations towards successful project completion, meeting financial, schedule, and scope targets. Supervised overall project coordination, status reporting, stability, and delivery of high- quality work efforts.

As a primary SDM, working collaboratively with other branches to gather all the requirements and participated in Tabletop exercises and several working sessions to develop Service order Management process flow. This process helps to monitor and track all the service requests from inception to completion.

Working as Sr Project manager, lead the PDMB Portfolio Intake process automation project in ServiceNow, guided the team to gather all current state business requirements, and reviewed with the ServiceNow team to develop technical requirements and wireframes for the project development.

Managed human resources and staffing functions to ensure project performance is exemplary (e.g., hiring, performance management).

Demonstrated experience providing high-quality service in environments on incentivized KPIs/performance standards.

Assisted the Program Manager and Chief Technology Architect in partnering with senior management of the business community to identify and prioritize opportunities for utilizing IT to achieve the goals of the enterprise.

Assisted to identify future challenges and to lead project candidates, as well as to contribute to find out of the box solutions.

As an SDM, lead & assigned other service delivery managers to an intake requiring a project manager to drive the PI through typical PMI PM role, they are now also a “jack of all trades” in Risk Management, Business Process documentation, Facilitator.

Applied industry-standard project management processes and methodologies to track and report progress. Responsible for the quality and timely delivery of all project artifacts, tracking key project milestones, risks and adjusted schedules and resources to meet project needs

Closely collaborated with team members to successfully execute development initiatives by participating in large-scale development projects involving multiple areas outside of the core team. Demonstrated value-based decision-making and Agile principles across teams.

Shared knowledge and experience to contribute to the growth of overall team capabilities, Participated in the deployment, change, configuration, management, administration, and maintenance of deployment process and systems.

Ensuring projects are delivered on time and within budget, adhered to high- quality standards, and met stakeholder expectations.

Managed and directed multiple project teams by establishing roles & expectations for all project team members and providing performance feedback to project team managers.

Worked closely with the Product Development teams, feedback for new requirements, needs, and roadmap on release plans for delivery capabilities.

Liaised with senior leaders to gather and prioritize business challenges, while also strengthening knowledge of the service organization to self-identify opportunities

Looked to continually improve the service delivery to meet or exceed customer experience

Expertly managed Service Delivery and Customer escalations, Manage, and oversaw multiple project/transition efforts simultaneously.

Implemented new tools, capabilities to drive customer adoption, was accountable to help with Customer Executive and Customer for adoption.

January 2015 – October 2020 Sr IT Project Manager Anthem Inc.

Coordinated project kick-off, requirements elicitations, assisted with obtaining estimates (Level of Effort), create a project schedule, budget forecasting, and resource allocations (including updating hours/allocations in Plan View)Identified program team & develop contact list + approval matrix

Determined scope for reporting across multiple project tracks within the program.

Coordinated prioritization efforts including developing Reporting Matrix to present to leadership for various approvals on program strategy

Facilitated all project weekly status calls engaging both Business & IT and coordinated any ad-hoc or follow-up meetings, as necessary. Followed up on Action Items and tracking Risks, Issues, Decisions, and Change Requests at both project and program levels. Tracked and reported overall project status to various levels of leadership

Assisted in defining and writing business & technical requirements for multiple project tracks

Collaborated with Business PM and Clinical Operations Team on Project Change Request submissions, and developed resource, risk, quality, cost, and scope management plans

Assisted with UAT planning and coordination of testing activities in conjunction with UAT Lead. Assisted with establishing and managing the project warranty period in a joint effort with the Business PM.

Developed & tracked Business Readiness project plans for Process, Communication, and Training while all deliverables were coordinated and met in conjunction with the IT project schedule. Coordinated & documented Lessons Learned with the project team.

Created and assisted the team to build an automatic process to sync the mapping tracker with the group changes from the sequencing document which helped Claims and Accums tracks to identify the Accums to be synced ahead of the time. Further implemented the solution in WGS causing millions of cost of care leakage and saved fines to the company by implementing the solution 6 months before as planned.

Designed and developed a complete solution for TDM teams using machine learning and AWS.

Completed large pharmacy migration project with 60+ team members (employees & contractors) within the allocated $6 million budget.

Completed SPIDER project ($8 million including the cross-functional teams) on the product side developing different search engines for plan configurator, group configurator, Benefit Configurator working with external client FJA which is greatly appreciated by Sr leadership and Executives.

Successful completion of Commercial capitation expansion to 12 states involving 30+ systems.

Designed and completed STAR to WGS project by working closely with the stakeholders.

Achieved successful completion of new product build-out in the Student Health Plan project with a team of 25 members both onshore and offshore.

Key focus on cost reduction and continuous reduction in manual tasking by providing automated functionality.

Provided Leadership, Mentoring, & Coaching to numerous IT Management employees.

Managed a team to prioritize and resolve software defects increasing revenue by almost 20%.

Managed a team that built a project that would have taken 6months to build but took 3months cutting the delivery time in half.

Managed a geographically diverse (onshore/offshore) team of 50+ (employees and contractors). These were technically diverse teams.

Managed multimillion-dollar (5+) programs that include conversion, end state, and new initiatives.

Owning the largest portfolio within the company with multiple awards and recognitions.

January 2014 – December 2014

Rate Release & Product Portfolio Implementation, Program & Project Manager Anthem Inc.

Functioned initially in a dual role, serving as both the IT and Business PM, as the project scope increased, evolved to Business PM working in collaboration with IT PM.

Coordinated project kick-off, requirements elicitations, assisted with obtaining estimates (Level of Effort), create a project schedule, budget forecasting, and resource allocations (including updating hours/allocations in Plan View).

Identified program team & develop contact list + approval matrix.

Determined scope for reporting across multiple project tracks within the program.

Coordinated prioritization efforts including developing Reporting Matrix to present to leadership for various approvals on program strategy.

Facilitated all project weekly status calls engaging both Business & IT and coordinated any ad-hoc or follow-up meetings, as necessary. Followed up on Action Items and tracking risks, issues, decisions, and change requests at both project and program levels. Tracked and reported overall project status to various levels of leadership.

Assisted in defining and writing business & technical requirements for multiple project tracks

Collaborated with IT PM and Clinical Operations Team on Project Change Request submissions and developed resource, risk, quality, cost, and scope management plans.

Assisted with UAT planning and coordination of testing activities in conjunction with UAT Lead. Assisted with establishing and managing the project warranty period in a joint effort with the IT PM.

Developed & tracked Business Readiness project plans for Process, Communication, and Training while all deliverables were coordinated and met in conjunction with the IT project schedule. Coordinated & documented Lessons learned with the project team.

Rate Release & Product Portfolio Implementation:

Provided program level management of the end-to-end process for quarterly product and rate release

Enhanced overall product launch and rate release processes, when deemed necessary

Created and maintained quarterly rate release project plans, status reports, issues, and risks logs. Managed Change Control process, and tracked Issues, Risks, and Action Items

Identified and monitored external projects impacting product and rate release

Oversaw Implementation and Product Launch teams.

Led testing and remediation activities

Facilitated Implementation, Implementation Oversight, and Executive Oversight meetings. Developed and distributed executive-level leadership status reports every week.

January 2009 – December 2013 Information Technology Project Manager Anthem Inc.

Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment (EBPP) System Implementation and Enhancement:

Managed a new web development effort to implement an off-the-shelf EBPP (Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment) eBilling application onto the BCBS portal.

January 1999 – December 2008

Test Program Manager/Test Architect

Anthem Inc.

The TPM plans and coordinates Test Environments, Test Data, End-to-End Testing, Test Automation, and Test Execution of complex projects.

Communicated with both IT and Business stakeholders, escalate impediments, help manage risk and drive continuous improvement.

Have a solid grasp of scaling Agile and understand the unique opportunities and challenges associated with testing a large development/test program.

Provided technical expertise for testing and partners with the Project Manager to determine the overall Test Strategy for a complex project/program.

Always Championed the QA Community of Practice including agile best practices and guidelines for testing.

Managed Testing for multiple complex programs, including the following:

Lean SDLC - Testing Process:

Worked with the interdisciplinary team to write processes and procedures for Testing Competency in the new Software Delivery Life Cycle (SDLC) methodology with a focus on Lean principles.

Collaborated with project test teams, identifying challenges and solutions in new SDLC.

Initiated and launched rollout of Lean SDLC Testing Competency by creating and presenting a series of training sessions for application and project teams across the enterprise.

Developed the overall testing strategy for the program; set the direction and tone for quality delivery to ensure all aspects of quality are considered.

Manage a cross-functional organization focused on developing test automation and test data management solutions for Anthem business and IT teams.

Architected and helped implement the test automation framework for Enterprise Automation Team. Communicate and demonstrate the benefits of test automation and DevOps adoption throughout all levels of leadership.

Oversee the development and deployment of test automation frameworks and best practices/methodology throughout the enterprise.

Key player in helping teams move from traditional waterfall to Agile.

Involved at the enterprise level to transition from legacy processes and practice to agile and other optimized processes to improve quality.

Own/drive/coordinate testing and test artifacts across multiple testing phases, including SIT, UAT, End-to-End, performance, etc.

Managed testing risks and issues developed a contingency plan as appropriate and ensured all applicable SDLC and testing processes are followed; provided mentoring as appropriate.

Responsible for leading the team through the full QA cycle of testing, participating in requirements and design reviews, managing local and offshore test resources, test planning, test automation, test execution, test results review, and sign-off.

Owned QA aspects of Traceability for the program.

Owned a defect management process for the program, ensuring defects are remediated and risks communicated.

Aligned with Configuration Management and Release Management to ensure test data provisioning, test environment, and test automation aligns with the proposed test strategy.

Define quality gates, success factors for each project methodology phase.

APT- Automation and Provisioning for Testing:

APT is a versatile and scalable Automation framework that can perform very complex automation for a diverse set of use cases such as:

•Test Data Provisioning

•Test Automation

•Business Process Automation

•Workflow Automation

•APT is Anthem’s framework for self-service automation. It facilitates automating production business processes, data identification for analytics & testing, test automation, test data collection, creation, and reuse.

•APT integrates with many critical source systems such as ISG (Prime/Legacy), WGS (Prime/Legacy), ACES (Prime/Legacy), NASCO, CS90, CHIPS / VA, Central Facets, GBD Facets.

•It allows users to find test data like Members, Groups, Claims, Provider and Products from both Production & Test systems including EDWard, ISG Billing, ISG Broker, Provider Finder, RMB, RHUB (ASO Billing), E-HUB, BDS, LITES, C-HUB, Employer Portal, AIM, GBD Consumer Portal (for registering members in the portal), EMPI, Spider, Service Now, Jira, Blue 2, etc.

•APT is being used on major projects such as CS90, Central FACETS, CHIPS LG Member Migration for parallel testing and PRIME 606 project testing, etc.

•Also, APT offers the ability to de-identify production data to remove PHI which will help minimize data security risk when providing test data to resources that should not have access to PHI data.

•APT is also used for automating production business processes of HRA rollover to Alegeus from LITES for WGS, to update Primary Care Provider (PCP) for Medicaid members on GBD Facets, manage inventory & issues for Pharmacy Benefit configurations, Prior Carrier Accum update for WGS large group membership.

EDUCATION

Bachelor’s in Engineering

University of Mysore - December 1986

ACHIEVEMENTS, RECOGNITIONS, MEMBERSHIPS, & TRAINING

Project Management Institute (PMI) –Member since September 2007

Agile SCRUM Master with international SCRUM institute.

Agile SCRUM Product Owner with International SCRUM Institute.

Scaled SCRUM Expert with International SCRUM Institute.

SCRUM Team Member with International SCRUM Institute.

Certified DevOps Generalist with International DevOps Certification Academy.

Analysis Certificate Program from the University of Colorado. Mastering the Requirement Process.

Analysis Simulation for Anthem. Survival Skills for Analysts.

Fast Start in Business Systems Analysis. Managing Effective Meetings.

Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) Bootcamp, Anthem Inc.

Professional References Available Upon Request

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