Senior Business Analyst - Process & Data Improvement

ALI TINWALA

Houston, TX ***** 806-***-**** **********@*****.***

linkedin.com/in/alitinwala110

SENIOR BUSINESS ANALYST PROCESS IMPROVEMENT DATA ANALYSIS

Senior-level Business Analyst with extensive experience translating business needs into functional requirements, process improvements, data migrations, system solutions/integrations, and actionable delivery plans across energy, aviation, HR, IT, and enterprise technology environments.

Proven ability to bridge business and technology teams, facilitate cross-functional collaboration, redesign processes and problem-solve from discovery through development, testing, implementation, and transition to operations.

KEY SKILLS

Business Analysis: Requirements elicitation, business/functional/non-functional requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, backlog refinement, BRD/FSD/RTM, process mapping, use cases, mockups/wireframes, business process improvement, UAT, & gap analysis.

Methodologies: Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Waterfall, SAFe, SDLC, & Hybrid.

Data Analysis: SQL, ETL, Excel, data source/target mapping, data lineage, & data modeling.

Tools: Jira, Azure DevOps (ADO), Asana, Miro, Visio, MS Office Suite, SQL Server, & Databricks.

Soft Skills: Communication & active listening, interpersonal, stakeholder management, & conflict resolution.

EDUCATION

Master’s – Data Science, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL. 2019

Bachelor’s – Management Information Systems (MIS), Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX. 2012

EXPERIENCE

Permian Resources April 2025 – Present

Business Analyst Contract

• Partner with Reserves, Reservoir Engineering, Land, Accounting, and Planning teams to redesign the Working Interest (WI)/Net Revenue Interest (NRI) process, improve cross-functional workflow alignment, and address operational pain points across five business functions.

• Conduct gap analysis, stakeholder interviews, and SME workshops to elicit and document detailed business and functional requirements, translating current-state findings into clear specifications to support the WI/NRI process redesign.

• Model As-Is and To-Be business processes using BPMN swim lane diagrams in Visio, identifying process gaps, handoff issues, and improvement opportunities and defining requirements for a proposed WI/NRI application.

• Utilize Databricks on Azure, SQL, data lineage, and medallion architecture concepts to map data flows and understand source-to-report relationships supporting operational reporting and business decision-making.

• Lead BA activities across WI/NRI, HRaaS, and ITSM ServiceDesk initiatives, producing functional requirements documentation, source-to-target data mappings, process workflows, and test cases using a hybrid Waterfall delivery approach.

• Analyze Workday US Payroll and Benefits functionality and collaborate with HR, Finance, and IT stakeholders to refine payroll calculations, benefit-enrollment processes, and related business requirements.

• Define integration requirements and data flows between Workday, Empyrean, and benefits providers, addressing eligibility updates, payroll deductions, and compliance-related business processes.

• Develop Miro-based swim lane workflows for HRaaS onboarding and termination processes spanning Workday, IAM (Entra ID/Active Directory), and ITSM ServiceDesk, documenting cross-system dependencies and handoffs.

• Define ITSM ServiceDesk SaaS requirements and workflow best practices, including request and incident categorization, dynamic routing, approval workflows, and service-level considerations; create conditional logic structure workflows in Excel to support the HRaaS project.

• Support RFQ and vendor-evaluation activities by assessing technical fit, requirements alignment, solution capabilities, and delivery timelines; develop business cases, feasibility assessments, cost-benefit analyses, and ROI models using Excel and PowerPoint to support stakeholder decisions.

United Airlines Nov. 2022 – Oct. 2024

Business Analyst Contract

• Collaborated with Product Owners and stakeholders to elicit, analyze, and document functional requirements in Azure DevOps (ADO); translated requirements into user stories, acceptance criteria, functional specifications, mock-ups, and proof-of-concepts (POCs) to guide development and sprint planning.

• Analyzed Collab application architecture and enterprise features such as Role Selection, EasyChat, and Alerts, to identify opportunities for application enhancements, improved integration, and user experience.

• Led the migration and creation of 70+ enterprise-scale alerts supporting NOC and SOC users; defined business rules, automated triggers, exception scenarios, and role-based-access-control requirements to support operational monitoring and security controls.

• Redesigned alert-management functionality, including alert templates, user actions, and administrative workflows, enabling business users to manage alerts through a self-service administration console.

• Designed a comprehensive role architecture and role-based security model by analyzing existing user attributes and defining unique identifiers, supporting secure access for 75,000+ end users across desktop and mobile environments.

• Documented role groups, permissions, and security requirements and partnered with business and technical stakeholders to support a phased security rollout, improving visibility into access controls and downstream system behavior.

• Developed use cases, functional scenarios, and exception scenarios for ACARS uplink/downlink transmissions, incorporating IMI/SMI codes to define system behavior and support communication between air and ground.

• Served as a Proxy Product Owner for the development team, facilitating stakeholder engagement, user-story and backlog refinement, Agile delivery activities, and alignment between business stakeholders and technical teams.

Occidental Petroleum (OXY) Sept. 2021 – Oct. 2022

Business Analyst Contract

• Translated business, functional, and technical requirements into actionable user stories and acceptance criteria in Jira, collaborating with development teams within an Agile/Scrum delivery environment to support efficient feature development.

• Designed As-Is and To-Be data models using Entity-Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) and developed Visio process flows to analyze and improve alarm-assignment processes to reduce dependency on third-party vendors.

• Defined integration requirements between Nexus and Asset Manager (PI tags) to capture real-time well data by well attribute, supporting a time-series data model for improved uptime and downtime tracking and operational metrics.

• Supported enhancements to the Field Mobility application for well operators, including route mapping and real-time alarm notifications, aligning application functionality with operational requirements and improving field workflows.

• Analyzed Nexus web and Field Mobility mobile application architectures to identify enhancement opportunities and ensure proposed functionality aligned with technical capabilities and operational needs.

• Developed mock-ups and functional representations of proposed functionality to communicate requirements, facilitate stakeholder feedback, and improve alignment between business stakeholders and development teams.

• Prioritized product backlogs and supported sprint planning and iterative Agile delivery, working with stakeholders and development teams to maintain alignment between business priorities and product enhancements.

United Airlines March 2021 – Sept. 2021

Business Analyst Contract

• Assessed customer-facing applications, including ISA (Inflight Service Application) and the United App (UA), to identify, evaluate, and prioritize enhancements based on business requirements and customer needs.

• Maintained and prioritized the Jira product backlog, developing and refining user stories and acceptance criteria and forecasting two sprints ahead to support sprint planning, prioritization, and iterative Agile delivery.

• Designed To-Be process workflows in Visio for the pre-order economy buy-on-board enhancement, translating business requirements into future-state processes and functional workflows.

• Defined a new response data structure for Couchbase within the AWS environment, establishing requirements for efficient data storage and retrieval and generating JSON payloads for transfer to the ISA iOS mobile application to support application performance and data handling.

• Defined business rules for flight segments, preorder windows, eligibility, and FMS catalogs, creating event-based logic and nested segments to optimize data-volume capture and application performance across United.com and the United App.

• Collaborated with UI and development teams to integrate pre-order purchases into the ISA seat map, defining data-mapping requirements and using adapters to map and merge food-product data with seat assignments for flight-attendant visibility.

• Participated in User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with QA and business teams to validate delivered functionality against documented requirements and confirm business readiness for release.

National Oilwell Varco (NOV) Feb. 2020 – March 2021

Business Analyst Contract

• Led requirements elicitation and analysis, ensuring clear, concise, complete, and testable requirements; facilitated backlog refinement and planning sessions within a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) delivery environment.

• Translated business requirements into actionable user stories and acceptance criteria, partnering with QA to validate test coverage and requirements throughout the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).

• Developed 10-week roadmaps during PI Planning, mapping epics and features in Azure DevOps (ADO) and decomposing higher-level requirements into actionable user stories aligned with business priorities.

• Created Visio process flows and Balsamiq UI mockups to visualize requirements and future-state functionality, improve stakeholder understanding, and reduce development rework.

• Developed data models and business information flows supporting custom RMS reporting and data-driven decision-making, aligning reporting requirements with underlying business processes and data structures.

• Supported the migration of RigSense Core to a cloud-based Edge environment, analyzing requirements and integrating existing and enhanced functionality for well management, wellsite’s, pads, and drilling operations.

• Collaborated across RigSense Core and RMS projects with different development teams, QA, and Product Owners to refine requirements, coordinate delivery activities, and maintain alignment between product objectives and technical implementation.

• Validated requirements and delivered functionality through unit, integration, and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) cycles, identifying and resolving requirement gaps and confirming solutions aligned with documented business requirements and objectives.

LyondellBasell – (contract) Sept. 2019 – Feb. 2020

Business Analyst

• Managed concurrent SAP HCM initiatives across Compensation, Employee Central, and Rewards & Recognition using a Waterfall delivery methodology, coordinating requirements and delivery activities across business and technical stakeholders.

• Created As-Is SAP interface diagrams covering 212 interfaces to document system dependencies, improve application and integration understanding, and support data migration planning and risk mitigation.

• Led the development, testing, and implementation of interfaces supporting SAP SuccessFactors integration, enabling the transformation from on-premises SAP HCM to SAP Cloud Employee Central.

• Developed test cases and supported Selenium test scripts, mapping test coverage to the Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) to validate requirements, improve test coverage, and support defect triage.

Chevron – (contract) Sept. 2018 – Sept. 2019

Business Analyst

• Managed multiple Agile projects, including RMRPDA and WITSML initiatives, coordinating Product Owners, development teams, QA, and offshore resources through requirements, development, testing, and delivery.

• Facilitated backlog grooming, user-story prioritization, and requirements elicitation in Jira, partnering with Product Owners to define functional and non-functional requirements aligned with business objectives.

• Developed and refined user stories, acceptance criteria, and UI mockups, translating business needs into actionable requirements and aligning proposed solutions with stakeholder expectations.

• Created comprehensive Software Requirements Specifications (SRS) and supporting functional documentation to facilitate Transition to Operations (TTO) and ongoing support for newly implemented systems.

• Led daily Scrum meetings and Agile ceremonies as a Proxy Scrum Master, coordinating communication, requirement clarification, and delivery tracking with offshore development teams; also served as a Proxy Product Owner for key project decisions and prioritization.

• Mapped existing tables to new data attributes using Hive and Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) within the Cloudera Data Platform (CDP) ecosystem and developed Power BI dashboards supporting production forecasting and asset performance analysis.

• Developed test scenarios mapped to requirements for QA teams, supporting functional validation, requirements traceability, and quality assurance throughout the delivery lifecycle.

• Collaborated with the Energy Technology Center (ETC) as part of the Enterprise Data Analytics Project (EDAP) team, contributing to strategic data analytics, custom application development, and data integration initiatives.

Oil States International Sept. 2016 – Sept. 2018

Business Analyst Contract

• Elicited and analyzed business requirements across Front Office, Trading, Risk, and Logistics teams to enhance the RightAngle ETRM platform and Trading & Risk Management functionality, aligning trade lifecycle processes, Front Office workflows, and operational needs with system capabilities.

• Participated in solution design and prototyping sessions, analyzing business processes and information flows to identify opportunities for workflow, system, and data improvements.

• Analyzed and optimized RightAngle ETRM configurations supporting Front Office and trade lifecycle processes, data accuracy, reporting, and operational workflows.

• Performed SQL-based data analysis using stored procedures and joins across multiple tables and disparate data sources to assess data quality, data integrity, and reporting requirements.

• Performed ETL using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) and contributed to development of a comprehensive data dictionary to improve data understanding, consistency, and traceability.

• Developed business cases and supporting analysis for software and hardware purchasing decisions, evaluating business needs and technology considerations to support stakeholder decision-making.

• Developed a Functional Specification Document (FSD) for RFGen and Oracle JD Edwards (JDE) integration, defining functional requirements and integration needs within a Waterfall SDLC.

Halliburton May 2015 – April 2016

Business Analyst/QA Contract

• Led workshops and working sessions with functional groups to develop 2 of 11 end-to-end (E2E) test plans, defining test coverage across business processes and supporting comprehensive functional validation.

• Mapped As-Is business processes in Visio and conducted gap analysis to identify process dependencies, improvement opportunities, and requirements impacting the divestiture initiatives.

• Collaborated with project teams to analyze business needs, requirements, and cross-functional dependencies for the Sputnik and Discovery product service line divestitures, while supporting project managers with milestone, risk, mitigation, and achievement reporting.

• Collaborated with 9 Business Analysts, each responsible for a separate project track, to create and finalize Requirements Traceability Matrices (RTMs), maintaining alignment between requirements and testing across project workstreams.

• Facilitated defect triage meetings within the SDLC using a Waterfall methodology, managing defects in Team Foundation Server (TFS) and HP Quality Center and coordinating resolution across project teams.

• Supported development of the implementation strategy, cutover plan, task schedule, and blackout activities across 22 functional areas, using MS Project and coordinating with cutover leads and project managers.

• Supported a team of 11 in provisioning and managing the cutover of 2,000+ tasks and sub-tasks, coordinating activities spanning infrastructure, mobile devices, applications, and other technology components.

• Prepared SAP and Non-SAP migration and cutover strategies, identified key cutover objects, and developed Visio workflow diagrams mapping activity sequences across functional areas for blackout dress rehearsals and production transition from Halliburton’s domain to DivestCo domain.

HESS Corp. Oct. 2014 – April 2015

Business Analyst Contract

• Developed and maintained Business Requirements Documents (BRDs), Functional Specification Documents (FSDs), and Technical Specification Documents (TSDs) across cross-functional teams, translating stakeholder needs into clear requirements and solution specifications.

• Elicited and analyzed business requirements through stakeholder interviews, meetings, and Joint Application Design (JAD) sessions, serving as a liaison among business stakeholders, the SAP SuccessFactors configuration team, data migration team, and third-party vendors.

• Managed the development, testing, and implementation of 32+ BizTalk interfaces supporting SuccessFactors integration with third-party applications and the transformation from on-premises SAP HCM to SAP Cloud Employee Central.

• Analyzed data segments, data structures, and source-to-target mappings between SuccessFactors test files and third-party subsystems, validating data integrity and accuracy across system integrations.

• Translated functional requirements into a Visio interface diagram, documenting business processes and system interactions across inbound and outbound interfaces to improve cross-functional understanding and alignment.

• Led Scrum and project status meetings with internal teams, identifying impediments, coordinating resolution activities, and supporting project timeline execution within a hybrid Waterfall-Agile SDLC.

• Coordinated with offshore QA teams and application vendors throughout testing, issue resolution, and implementation activities, supporting requirements validation and timely delivery.

• Supported SharePoint administration by managing user access and permissions, configuring views, and maintaining project content to improve stakeholder collaboration and information accessibility; applied E&P IT PMO guidelines to support timely delivery of the Human Resource Transformation (HRT) project.

Service Corporation International July 2012 – Sept. 2014

Business Analyst

• Collaborated with business and IT teams to enhance the HMIS application, translating business needs into UX/UI improvements and functional enhancements to improve user experience and system functionality.

• Gathered and documented business requirements, configuration designs, gap analysis, and test cases, aligning solution development and testing with business needs and project objectives.

• Refined use cases to accurately represent user-system interactions, improving functional clarity and usability for application enhancements.

• Supported Waterfall SDLC testing using Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) to identify, document, and resolve application defects, strengthening software quality and requirements validation.

• Conducted production impact assessments for application changes, addressing Microsoft connectivity issues and evaluating OAS application compatibility to support stable production environments.

• Managed HMIS application security for 10,000+ users using SQL Server and performed data analysis with Excel and SQL/SSRS, developing reports to support business decision-making.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

PM Tools: MS Project, HP ALM/Quality Center, Team Foundation Server (TFS), Asana, Azure DevOps (ADO), & Jira.

Data & Analytics: SQL, Excel, Power BI, MS BI (SSIS, SSRS), & Hue (Impala/Hive).

Platforms & Security: Azure, AWS, Databricks, Cloudera Data Platform (CDP), IAM (Entra ID / Active Directory), & ServiceDesk.

Enterprise Systems: ERP (SAP, Oracle JDE, Quorum), HRIS/HCM (SAP SuccessFactors, Workday), ETRM (RightAngle), & RTMS.

Design & Integration: BPMN, Visio, Miro, Lucidchart, SnagIt, Balsamiq, UX/UI, JSON/XML, API, & CMS (Joomla).

Contact this candidate