Senior Global Project Leader with Transformation Expertise

Denise Ann Garcia

216-***-**** • ******.******.****@*****.*** • https://www.linkedin.com/in/denise-garcia-32189366/

Summary

I am a highly accomplished Delivery Manager / Scrum Master / Project Manager as a liaison to the PMO office and executive steering committee for over 23 years leading complex, large-scale system integration and digital transformation initiatives across major platforms. Proven expertise in managing the full project life cycle, encompassing detailed project planning, rigorous budgeting, resource oversight, comprehensive documentation, and proactive risk mitigation across diverse cross-functional teams.

Proficient in Applications

Adept at establishing corporate Scrum, Agile and Waterfall methodologies and leading large projects, with relevant experience in healthcare, construction, property management, manufacturing, retail, transportation & logistics, pharmaceutical and technology environments. Leveraging deep functional and technical knowledge to excel as a Delivery Manager, Scrum Product Owner, Scrum Master, Program Manager and Project Manager driving strategic objectives in multiple applications and programs.

Driving organizational implementations for government, state, and private sectors, serving end-users, trainers and process management, for over 1.2 million users, incorporated new security protocols and infrastructure for internal and external stakeholders. I worked with a budget ranging from $325K to $107M. Responsible for developing and driving technology strategies in alignment with business directives, as well as administering policies and procedures.

As a Senior Project Manager my business approach is characterized by transparency, executive engagement, focus on data discipline, which are essential for driving alignment, clarity, and action within its global operations, by enhancing cybersecurity and compliance, driving business efficiency and growth, building global governance and accelerating digital transformation.

Responsible for driving HR operational initiatives with a key focus on Talent Acquisition, Employee Retention, Succession Planning, Organizational Development, Capability Development, Legal Compliance, Grievance Management, and Cost & Resource Optimization to reduce overall project funding by 5% to 15%.

Certifications

Education: The Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business, Columbus, Ohio August 1990 - June 1994

Bachelor of Arts Degree in Human Resources, double minor in Computer Science & Management Information Systems

Professional Experience

April 2003 - Present IBM Delivery Manager - Liaison to PMO Office - Client: Westinghouse

Multiple Projects Core Responsibilities & Achievements: Sr. Project Manager/Scrum Manager - SAP AMS Supply Chain – ServiceNow – Salesforce

Listed Below Project Management & Team Leadership: Managed multiple concurrent projects focused on driving projects success from inception to completion. I developed and maintained project plans, defined scope, allocated resources, and tracked progress through tools like JIRA, Confluence and Microsoft Project to ensure alignment with project goals and timelines. Acted as a senior lead to project teams, providing ongoing support, guidance, and mentoring. Ensured that team members were motivated and equipped to meet their objectives and resolve technical or operational issues.

Risk Management & Issue Management Resolution: Proactively identified potential issues and maintaining a risk log for all ongoing projects. implementing strategies to mitigate them and created plans to moderate potential disruptions, even in dynamic high-pressure environments. Worked collaboratively with teams to resolve technical and operational challenges, ensuring project continuity and successful outcomes. Ensured project metrics were tracked and reported, including cost, timeline, resource utilization, and scope changes. Maintained focus on delivering value while balancing competing priorities, ensuring project continuity by mediating discussions, aligning interests, and implementing corrective actions as needed.

•Employed Agile/Scrum methodologies to drive iterative value, conducted all scrum ceremonies, managed competing constraints (scope, quality, schedule, resources) across cross-functional teams to maintain adherence to deadlines and budgets.

•Led end-to-end implementation of SAP S/4HANA, including planning, execution, monitoring and successful go-live across multiple business units.

•Managed project costs and forecasted budgets effectively, allocated resources across multi-disciplinary efforts and reported variances to senior leadership to ensure optimal use of project funds.

•Managed end-to-end project lifecycle for the integration ensuring seamless data synchronization and achieving process optimization across critical business functions.

Apr 2020 - Apr 2023 IBM Delivery Manager - Liaison to PMO Office - Client: Panasonic

Core Responsibilities & Achievements: Sr. Project Manager/Scrum Manager - SAP AMS Supply Chain – ServiceNow - Salesforce - Kronos Agile Project Management (Agile Methodology) & Continuous Improvement: Applied Agile methodologies throughout the project lifecycle and facilitated scrum ceremonies to promote continuous process optimization. Worked closely with development teams to prioritize tasks, manage sprints, and resolve blockers, ensuring efficient deliverables. This included facilitating scrum teams and maintaining a strong focus on achieving incremental deliverables while adjusting project plans as necessary to meet evolving business needs.

•Managed multiple concurrent large-scale projects involving integration processes, driving inception through completion using defined scope and resource allocation.

•I used various methodologies and reporting tools throughout many of my projects such as I as Excel, Teams, SharePoint, and PowerPoint tools for planning, tracking, and presenting projects; Project Charter sets for multiple projects and foundation; reported RACI Matrix to define roles; and a Change Control Process to manage changes to keep projects on track. Together, this formed a robust project management framework.

•Worked on implementation and support of SAP S/4HANA across core business processes and aligned deliverables with Global Sourcing Partners (vendors), executing detailed communication plans that ensured transparency regarding milestones, progress, and governances.

•Proactively identified and mitigated project risks and issues throughout the lifecycle, consistently tracking projects metrics including cost, timeline, resource utilization, and scope deviations.

•Tracked data governance and data management approach to assist in best practice EDW testing, validation approach and implementation.

Oct 2019 - Mar 2020 IBM Delivery Manager - Liaison to PMO Office - Client: Harsco - Interim Sr. Project Manager

Core Responsibilities & Achievements: On-Boarded - Trained New Sr. Project Manager/Scrum Manager - Oracle Cloud Upgrade - Salesforce Cross Functional Collaboration: Worked closely with cross-functional teams, including stakeholders, developers, and business analysts, to ensure smooth communication and project delivery. Fostered a collaborative environment to promote the exchange of ideas, resolve issues promptly, and keep all parties aligned on project goals.

•Successfully managed global end-to-end ERP application delivery and support services ensuring project execution aligned precisely with complex customer requirements.

•Directed global test teams, developing comprehensive test strategies and ensuring deployment and execution of test cases, met rigorous quality standards and acceptance criteria for deliverables.

•Provided leadership and guidance on ERP, Oracle and SAP deployments, utilizing industry methodologies to align business objectives for project lifecycle management significantly enhancing collaboration and team performance metrics.

Apr 2019 - Sept 2019 IBM Delivery Manager - Liaison to PMO Office - Client: Cleveland Clinic Hospital - Interim Sr. Project Manager Core Responsibilities & Achievements: On-Boarded - Trained New Sr. Project Manager/Scrum Manager - Oracle Cloud - Jira - Salesforce - Kronos Cross Functional Collaboration: Worked closely with cross-functional teams, including stakeholders to ensure smooth communication and project delivery. Fostered a collaborative environment to promote the exchange of ideas, resolve issues promptly and keep all parties aligned on project goals.

•Developed and maintained comprehensive communications detailing project timelines, governance correspondence, and required metric reporting to ensure full transparency.

•Spearheaded critical integration of Oracle/CRM, leveraging middleware and data mapping techniques to enhance real-time data synchronization and operational efficiencies, relevant to managed care system knowledge.

•Applied Agile methodologies (Scrum/Kanban) to govern continuous process improvement cycles, ensuring rapid iterative delivery of high-quality solutions by managing technical obstacles.

•Managed the full test cycle, designing test strategies and ensuring automated scripts achieved 100% test environment automation, significantly reducing manual effort and ensuring quality adherence.

•Led deep-dive discussions on strengthening partnerships while developing data analytic capacity to support reduction of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity in Medicaid along with Medicare-Medicaid data integration technical assistance understanding.

Jan 2019 - Mar 2019 IBM Delivery Manager - Liaison to PMO Office - Client: The City of Cleveland - Interim Sr. Project Manager/Scrum Master Core Responsibilities & Achievements: On-Boarded - Trained New Project Manager/Scrum Master - Kronos

Risk Management & Issue Management Resolution: Proactively identified potential issues and created contingency plans to moderate potential disruptions, even in dynamic high-pressure environment. Worked collaboratively with teams to resolve technical and operational challenges, ensuring project continuity and successful outcomes.

•Executed robust ITSM processes for IM, CM, PM, SRM, and SLM adhering to corporate project management methodology standards.

•Performed proactive risk management planning, risk identification workshops, and established necessary mitigation strategies in collaboration with technical resources.

•Ensured quality deliverables of team tasks strictly aligned with the master project plan, obtaining formal sign- offs on all major system deliverables.

•Developed comprehensive detailed project Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) and identified critical paths then mitigated for successful upgrade execution.

Oct 2018 - Dec 2018 IBM Delivery Manager - Liaison to PMO Office - Client: University Hospital Interim Sr. Project Manager/Scrum Master Core Responsibilities & Achievements: On-Boarded - Trained New Project Manager – SAP – Oracle - Salesforce Oracle & SAP Application Management Expertise: Provided guidance and leadership on Oracle and SAP deliverables. This ensured that both technical and business teams were aligned to meet project objectives to achieve the highest standards of quality. Which assisted in the development of roles and policies to meet compliances with security standards and best practices.

•Supported IAM initiatives, defining business processes, policies, technology requirements for digital identity controls to meet Healthcare IT governance.

•Produced functional documentation for acquired business requirements and standardization of master data processes to meet University Hospital Oracle Standards.

•Managed multiple application analysis workstreams during new business acquisitions, ensuring smooth transition and integration of operational systems.

•Performed rigorous meta-data testing across all newly created business acquisition processes to validate functional integrity prior to go-live.

•Integration of IT is crucial for streamlining Medicaid operations, ensuring data accuracy, and supporting business processes.

•Led business discussions on utilization of data analytics to improve decision-making and operational efficiency.

Sept 2015 - Sept 2018 IBM Delivery Manager - Liaison to PMO Office - Client: The State of Ohio, DoDD

Core Responsibilities & Achievements: Sr. Project Manager/Scrum Manager - TFS (Azure DevOPs) SAP - Oracle - ServiceNow - Salesforce - Workday Stakeholder and Vendor Alignment: Collaborated with Global Sourcing Partners to ensure deliverables were met according to scope, quality, and schedule requirements. Manage expectations and addressed all project issues. Additionally, monitored the progress of multiple concurrent projects, ensuring that resources were optimally allocated, and budgets adhered to.

Communication Planning & Reporting: Created comprehensive communication plans that outlined all key milestones, deliverables, stakeholder interactions, project progress, governance and fostering transparency and collaboration keeping all relevant parties informed of progress.

•Streamlined core business processes by identifying and eliminating redundancy, resulting in a documented 24% efficiency gain, ensuring seamless dovetailing with broader IT initiatives.

•Provided PM’s/BA’s functional assistance on multiple phases of a project and reporting up to COG’s. To facilitated the management of electronic and digital identities within the IAM framework in place IT Managers to create roles surrounding controls of a user access to critical information within their county.

•Led discussions on quality measurement on a three-part measure development contract led by IAP, the Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office, and CMCS’s Disabled and Elderly Health Programs Group. Over the course of three years, the IAP developed or refined approximately 12 measures in key gaps areas across the IAP’s four program areas.

•Conducted requirement gathering support sessions with PM’s and BA’s for various projects during the inception and scope phases. To create a new workflow extension which identified risks issues at all stakeholder levels.

Aug 2014 - Aug 2015 IBM Delivery Manager - Liaison to PMO Office - Client: Kellogg

Core Responsibilities & Achievements: Sr. Project Manager/Scrum Manager - SAP – Oracle – ServiceNow - Salesforce - Kronos Ensured project metrics were tracked and reported, including cost, timeline, resource utilization, and scope changes. Maintained focus on delivering value while balancing competing priorities, ensuring project continuity by mediating discussions, aligning interests, and implementing corrective actions as needed.

•Established a streamlined acceptance criteria sign-off procedure, streamlining approval flows by 50% and accelerating milestone validation.

•Executed comprehensive risk management by collaborating with cross functional teams to define clear escalation paths to effectively mitigate critical project risks.

•Controlled project execution by formally communicating scope, goals, status, change requests, critical issues to all stakeholders and project team members.

•Partnered with PMO leadership to align, optimize resource allocation across competing enterprise projects to maximize efficiency.

July 2012 - July 2014 IBM Delivery Manager - Liaison to PMO Office - Client: State of New York BWC Core Responsibilities & Achievements: Sr. Project Manager/Scrum Manager – Kronos - Salesforce - Oracle Cloud - SAP

Vendor & Team Collaboration: Managed cross-functional teams, stakeholders and external vendors to deliver quality solutions, to guide project success and ensure all project deliverables met business needs to resolve issues.

Project Planning & Documentation: Maintained comprehensive project documentation, including BRD’s, test cases, and risk management logs. Ensured all project data was properly archived and accessible for audits, future upgrades, and troubleshooting. Led the creation of detailed project plans, schedules, financial tracking documents, and risk management strategies. Maintained up-to-date project documentation, ensuring that all project phases were properly tracked and communicated to state agencies.

•Trained and mentored junior project managers on proactive risk identification during early design and development phases to mitigate potential project pitfalls.

•Acted as the primary liaison to the steering committee, consistently communicating to all organizational levels and state agencies that deadlines were met and projects-maintained budget adherence and reduced project cost by 23%.

•Carried out all phases of the SDLC process to modernize legacy mainframe applications by working closely with technical team to ensure high quality output.

•Managed critical paths and potential risk issues through rigorous contingency planning and developing detailed mitigation strategies.

Apr 2012 - June 2012 IBM Delivery Manager - Client: Home City Ice - Fortis - Workday

Core Responsibilities & Achievements: I coordinated Fortis/Workday solution alignment and worked closely with cross-functional teams to ensure that the implementation was aligned with organizational goals and addressed complex business challenges. Additionally, lead the team as a Workday HCM Lead, that managed the implementation process, ensuring that all components aligned with business objectives. And, followed a structured approach that included planning, design, configuration, testing, deployment, and stabilization to ensure a smooth transition.

•Led development of HR business plans and conducted multi-phase product road mapping to determine strategic Workday module lifecycle decisions.

•Completed full application deployment, developed comprehensive written documentation, implementation strategies, for Workday system.

•Directed and supported cross-functional team members during Workday development cycles along with administered formal training sessions on new HR systems functionality.

•Identified system defects, a detailed fit-gap analysis and documented meticulously for break-fix solutions, ensuring functional integrity post-deployment.

Mar 2010 - Mar 2012 IBM Delivery Manager - Liaison to PMO Office - Client: State of New York DOT Core Responsibilities & Achievements: Sr. Project Manager/Scrum Manager - Oracle - SAP - Legacy Applications Application Decommissioning & Migration: Led the decommissioning of legacy applications and developed migration strategies for integrating systems into the new environment, ensuring smooth transitions while maintaining system functionality. Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement: Frequently engaged with state agencies, stakeholders, sponsors, business leads and end- users, to understand their needs, define business requirements, and communicate the value of delivered solutions. Additionally, I created contingency plans to mitigate potential disruptions and focused on building strong relationships to ensure project success and alignment with business objectives.

•Authored detailed gap-fit analysis documentation and functional specifications necessary to fulfill complex business objectives for implementations.

•Utilized business analysis methodologies to elicit requirements to determine the timeframe, budget baseline, and procedures for project completion.

•Assisted the integration team in documenting Business Requirement Documents (BRDs) for Oracle Workforce Management solutions covering HCM modules.

•Analyzed existing operational processes to map future state needs and developed strategic communication plans to enhance stakeholder relationships.

•Led discussions on adopting value-based payment models to align incentives with patient outcomes.

Feb 2008 - Feb 2010 IBM Delivery Manager - Liaison to PMO Office - Client: State of Michigan - Maintained Governmental contracts (CareSource) Core Responsibilities & Achievements: Sr. Project Manager/Scrum Manager - Oracle Cloud/SAP – Workday Global Project Delivery: Successfully managed global projects, including the Oracle Cloud Delivery and support services across multiple industries. Led the delivery of end-to-end Oracle ERP applications driving successful deliveries and aligning the projects with customer requirements.

•Led the scrum team in adopting Agile methodology and Scrum practices, successfully coaching the team toward achieving higher levels of process maturity.

•Executed complex requirements for Medicaid and health eligibility/delivery systems ensuring compliance with ICD9/ICD10 coding standards and EDI transaction sets.

•Led test script sessions and executed test plan initiatives, coaching the scrum team to effectively remove impediments impacting sprint delivery.

•Functioned as an Integrated MES Project Manager, reporting project status and critical delivery milestones directly to the PMO Director and CIO.

Jan 2006 - Jan 2008 IBM Delivery Manager - Liaison to PMO Office - Client: GE Aviation Core Responsibilities & Achievements: Sr. Project Manager/Scrum Manager - ERP - EDI – ServiceNow Collaboration & Leadership: Acted as a servant leader, guiding project teams to meet milestones, resolve issues, and foster a collaborative working environment. Leveraged strong leadership skills to inspire and direct teams, facilitating effective communication between cross- functional departments, including development, business analysts, QA, and product owners.

•Managed critical cutover plans for legacy system migration to webMethods, minimizing production disruptions by analyzing technical challenges with relevant teams and communicating findings to stakeholders.

•Developed long and mid-range strategic plans, setting standards and goals to align divisional workload and technical roadmaps with overarching business objectives.

•Defined precise scope for User Acceptance Testing (UAT), ensuring established processes and procedures were met and validated by the UAT Manager.

•Triaged incident tickets across webMethods and SCWC solutions to resolve key business issues, directly impacting customers' critical success factors and performance metrics.

Sept 2005 - Dec 2005 IBM Delivery Manager - Liaison to PMO Office - Client: Abbott Nutrition - FDA Regulatory Systems

Core Responsibilities & Achievements: Sr. Project Manager/Scrum Manager - SAP - FDA Regulatory Systems I collaborated with the FDA local and state partners and their associations to document and develop three sets of standards to date for manufactured food, animal feed, and retail food recall regulatory program. Abbott nutrition used a similar systems-based approach for establishing reciprocity process.

I documented the standards and framework related to prevention, intervention and response activities related to the food regulatory programs can use the framework to build, maintain, evaluate and continuously improve their operations in a methodical and systematic manner to ensure high quality services and products.

•Collaborated with regulatory governmental authorities and internal stakeholders to design and develop a corporate-wide FDA-compliant Recall Process.

•Mapped complex multifunctional business processes to clearly communicate Tier 1 through Tier 5 functional and technical responsibilities across delivery teams.

•Designed the end-to-end Recall Process procedure, encompassing all logistics from intake and out-take task assignment to final hazardous material disposal certification.

May 2005 - Aug 2005 IBM Delivery Manager - Client: Pacer International

Sr. Project Manager On - Boarded/Trained New Project Manager - ERP - EDI - Governmental Contract

•Led the Business Analyst team in requirement gathering sessions to construct a comprehensive technical model for evaluating and defining new IT solutions.

•Collaborated closely with stakeholders to generate necessary test data and translate complex business requirements into actionable functional specifications for the IT organization.

•Partnered with the Data Warehouse team to build a comprehensive backup of the existing environment, facilitating seamless data migration into the new Pegasus application.

Apr 2003 - Apr 2005 IBM Delivery Manager (Maintained Governmental Contracts) - Liaison to PMO Office - Client: Cardinal Health Core Responsibilities & Achievements: Sr. Project Manager/Scrum Manager - Workday - ERP - EDI - Governmental Contract Global Project Delivery: Successfully managed global projects, including the Oracle Cloud Delivery and support services across multiple industries. Led the delivery of end-to-end Oracle ERP applications in over 32 countries, driving successful Delivery s and aligning the projects with customer requirements.

Financial Tracking & Budget Management: Led financial tracking for multiple projects, ensuring proper allocation of resources and adherence to budget constraints. Used tools like SWIFT for financial metrics reporting, tracking costs, and comparing planned versus actual spending to forecast surpluses or deficits.

•Managed successful Global Delivery initiatives for 12 operating units dispersed across multiple client sites and completing complex deployments within aggressive 6-to-12 months’ timelines.

•Led BA teams in defining required data elements, format standards, and transaction sets necessary to meet stringent EDI business process requirements.

•Directed the elicitation, analysis to capture and validate business needs into final documentation of functional and technical requirements.

•Developed ITIL models to promote complete visibility and accuracy in cost/budget analysis across project deliverables.

•Led deep-dive discussions with business regarding healthcare processes, particularly within the Medicaid business context. They contribute to the overall effectiveness and efficiency of Medicaid operations, ensuring that beneficiaries receive high-quality care while managing the program's financial and operational challenges.

Mar 2001 - Mar 2003 Business Management & Associates

Core Responsibilities & Achievements: Corporate Trainer - Governmental Contracts - Scrum Master - Iteration Manager - Project Manager

Project Management & Team Leadership: Managed multiple concurrent projects focused on driving project success from inception to completion. I developed and maintained project plans, defined scope, allocated resources, and tracked progress through tools like JIRA, Confluence and Microsoft Project to ensure alignment with project goals and timelines. Acted as a support leader providing ongoing support, guidance, and mentoring. Collaborated with end-clients to develop robust business solutions, ensuring that complex requirements were met through effective project delivery.

•Implemented quality standards utilizing effective quality assurance methodologies, producing comprehensive reports detailing all testing activities and results.

•Contributed to the development of SAP, Oracle, Workforce, WorkDay and ServiceNow EBS proposals, RFPs, and SOWs congruent with defined project scope.

•Led elicit sessions solutions for domestic and international global midmarket organizations to optimize their HR service delivery.

•Worked with end-clients to understand their business requirements to provide status updates to all stakeholders.

•Coordinated the development team on new HRMS, HRIS, SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, Workday, Kronos and EDI application projects.

•Assisted B.A. teams in identifying business requirements and aligned them accordingly to upcoming projects.

•Global Delivery for 12 operating units dispersed in multiple client’s sites and completed within 12 to 24 months. .

•Jira, Confluence, MicroSoft Project

•IT Security & Cybersecurity Applications

•TFS, Azure DevOps Server, Project Management

•SAP

•Oracle

•Gentran

•Kronos

•Workday

•Salesforce

•JD Edwards

•PeopleSoft

•SharePoint

•Workforce

•webMethods

•ServiceNow

•ERP & EDI Applications

•Learning Management System

•Microsoft 365 Suite Delivery

•Program Management (PgMP) Certification

•Scrum Master-CSM Certification

•Scrum Product Owner - CSPO Certification

•SAFe Advanced Scrum Master Certification

•IBM Complex Program Manager Certification

•Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification

•Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification

•PMI Agile Practitioner PMI-ACP Certification

•Agile SAFe Consultant Certification

•Project Manager Professional - PMI.PMP Certification

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