Business Analyst/QA

SHEENA KASHYAP Sammamish (Washington)

Ph: 972-***-****

******.*******@*****.***

http://www.linkedin.com/in/skashyapsharma

Sr. BUSINESS ANALYST/PROJECT MANAGER, CSM, CSPO, ITIL

Highly motivated, creative and versatile Business analyst/Project manager with over 9 years proven experience in multiple industry verticals: Banking, Finance, Insurance, Retail and Telecom. Recognized for strong analytical skills and strategic thinking, creating cohesive teams, effective management of people and projects and outstanding customer and client relations.

CORE COMPETENCIES

•Project Portfolio Management •Strategic Planning/Alignment •Business IT Liaison

•Project Management • Product Vision/Roadmap •Gap/Impact/Root cause

•Business Process Modeling •Requirements Eng.& Management •UML Modeling

•Enterprise Analysis •Process Improvement & Re-engineering •PM/BA Best Practices •IT Service Management(ITIL) •Sarbanes Oxley- Compliance •IT Governance

•Business Process Automation •Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) •SharePoint

•Test Planning &Execution •User Acceptance/End User Training •Release Management

•Off Shore team management •On time delivery and Time-Management •Change Management

•SDLC Adoption & Consulting •Agile/SCRUM,JAD,RUP,Waterfall •KPI

•Status Scorecards & Dashboards

• Successfully applied PMI (PMBOK) project management techniques to manage projects from solicitation of requirements to project completion.

• In-depth knowledge of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC-Agile SCRUM, RUP and Waterfall) and thorough understanding of Requirements Gathering, Analysis/Design, Development and Testing.

• Strong experience with Requirements Elicitation Techniques-conducting user interviews, document analysis, writing User Stories, JAD Sessions, Requirements Analysis, Requirements Management using Rational Requisite Pro and working with requirements traceability matrix.

• Extensive experience with Business process design, modeling and process improvement. Strong

understanding of Business process methodologies such as CMM, ISO and Six Sigma.

• Experience with a broad range of technologies including business process tools such as Rational RequisitePro, Rational Rose, Microsoft Office Suite, Microsoft Visio and quality assurance tools such as Test Director.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

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WORK EXPERIENCE:

T-Mobile, Bellevue, WA Mar’11-Apr’11

T-Mobile (DT) USA is a national provider of wireless voice, messaging and data services capable of reaching over 239 million Americans where they live, work and play.

Lead Business Systems Analyst-Enterprise Program Office (EPO)

Responsible for Enterprise, cross-functional and cross-channel (Web/Retail/Sales/Care) projects with mid and large-level complexity and cross-system impacts. Provided project lead functions for a diverse portfolio of Customer Care projects by applying project management disciplines and documentation.

Cross Channel Parity: Cross Channel Parity refers to the process of bringing the three channels (Web-My TMO.com, SIVR and Device-Handset) into parity with one another.

Responsibilities:

• Planned, directed and led complete analysis of business problems to be solved with automated systems directly supporting internal Customer Care organization.

• Acted as a primary liaison between the user community (Customer Experience/Customer Delivery/Product Manager) and internal IT resources. Provided assistance with identifying, evaluating and deploying solutions and procedures that were cost effective and met user requirements.

• Worked with Sr. Project Manager to create Business Opportunity vision and Concept Approval One pager.

• Led and facilitated requirements elicitation sessions and individual interviews with user groups of varying levels of sophistication to successfully gather business requirements for multiple enterprise-level project efforts.

• Developed 360 functional requirements document using standard techniques (JAD/Stack sessions), use cases, process flow diagrams (swim lanes) and context diagrams.

• Collaborated with Senior Architects/development team and work stream BSA’s during design sessions to ensure proper design of functional specs.

• Provided reporting, data analysis, cost-benefit overviews and business cases to internal customers.

• Developed testing requirements, test scenarios and traceability matrix.

• Coordinated with project managers and other work-stream analysts to develop and maintain project scope, schedule and communication while maintaining the flexibility needed to support project change requests.

• Developed business analysis work plan for managing work stream BSA.

• Active member of the Unified Requirements task force (URTF) dedicated to consolidating, clarifying and refocusing the existing EPO requirements approach.

Functional Area: Telecommunications, Service Provider

Environment: .NET, SQL Server, MS Project, MS Visio, MS Excel (Pivot Tables), MS Power Point, Clarity, Speech Interactive Voice Recognition (SIVR),Call Routing, Remedy ,Streamline, HSO,LiveMeeting, Sharepoint .

WORK EXPERIENCE:

SEABRIGHT INSURANCE, Seattle, WA Nov’09-Jan’11

SeaBright Insurance Holdings (SBX), based in Seattle, Washington, is a specialty provider of niche workers compensation insurance for upper middle market employers with severity exposures.

Project Manager/ Sr. Business Systems Analyst

Responsible for concurrently managing (defining and executing) a diverse portfolio of mid sized business (Underwriting) critical projects by applying project management disciplines and documentation.

Enterprise Content Management (ECM): Enterprise Content Management refers to the processes and technologies that would allow SeaBright to: Scan/capture and store paper/digitally born documents, index and categorize documents for easy retrieval, assign retention schedules so that documents are kept and/or disposed of appropriately, move from manual, paper-based processes to more automated, paper-“less” processes.

Responsibilities:

• Led scope discussions with the Underwriting business unit to understand their business process, documented “As-Is” and future business process workflows. Also created business cases utilizing project lifecycle and methodology.

• Acted as primary liaison between stakeholders, IT executives, technical teams and vendor in developing, communicating and negotiating requirements and key deliverables. Assisted KeyMark (vendor responsible for creating Underwriting ECM workflows) in creating functional specifications. Collaborated with development team on a weekly basis to ensure proper design of functional specs.

• Scheduled and facilitated Milestone Review meetings with the Project Team and various stakeholders such as the Business System Owner and Project Manager. Communicated project issues, risks and status to key stakeholders during each Milestone Review.

• Managed all Quality Assurance activities within team, including creation of test plan and scripts, monitoring, tracking and resolving incidents, user acceptance testing and sign off, execution of production testing to ensure readiness for production environment and post production/go-live support.

• Worked with the PMO team to implement new project management processes, standards, templates and artifacts across all business units which ensured better solution delivery in an environment where project oversight did not exist.

• Implemented a project/portfolio management framework to improve portfolio metrics/ reporting capabilities and bring greater consistency to project management processes. Facilitated monthly Underwriting-IT portfolio meetings to plan and prioritize Underwriting initiatives.

• Worked extensively with the business unit during Underwriting planning sessions to identify business needs and subsequently translated these strategic initiatives into projects to create 3 year Product road map.

• Established work intake process for improving the tracking of Underwriting production support items and new project requests. Worked closely with development support team to triage troubled Triton (in-house Underwriting system) tickets by investigating root cause of issues. Also managed weekly unresolved production support meetings with business unit to prioritize top ten break fixes and enhancements.

• Created a Master Release schedule/Triton build calendar consisting of release schedule to Pre/Post production with UAT start and end dates and Go-Live date for production. Coordinated release schedules with IT Operations, build-team and user-support team for Pre-Production and Production and sent build status to stakeholders. Also provided four weeks of post go-live production support to triage defects.

• Conducted Post-Mortem/Lessons learned sessions after each subsequent release and presented findings to stakeholders.

• Prepared weekly IT Metrics report (Resource Utilization and Production support) for CIO, Director of Planning and Analysis and Director of Development.

Functional Area: Finance, Insurance-Workers Comp

Environment: .NET, SQL Server, MS Project, MS Visio, MS Excel (Pivot Tables), MS Power Point, Dovico, PivotLink, Citrix, OnBase, E-forms.

PENSON FINANCIAL SERVICES, Dallas, TX Aug’08-Oct’09

Penson Financial Services, Inc. (PFSI), based in Dallas, Texas, a is leading securities services firm that provides flexible, technology-based processing solutions for the execution, clearing, custody and settlement of securities transactions

Project Manager/ Sr. Business Systems Analyst/SCRUM Master/Product Owner

Responsible for leading multiple strategic initiatives (Margin Project, Compliance and Options Symbology Initiative).Also led multiple AGILE development projects for various Penson departments Banking -ACH projects and Margins -Cash Sweeps/Good Faith.

Margin Project: This project involved development of a web based user interface for FINRA’s (The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) Regulation T system. Through this system firms will have the ability to submit extension of time requests by completing an online request form, uploading a file via the file upload page or transmitting a file via a batch processing feed using FTP. In addition clearing firms would also be able to submit their monthly reporting of Correspondent’s firm’s extensions via the FINRA Firm gateway.

Responsibilities:

• Championed and architected the transition of the company from heavyweight waterfall development to a lightweight Agile-Scrum project management process.

• Served as a Scrum Master to build, reinforce and drive the Agile SCRUM process for the Reg T project.

• Responsible for Sprint planning /execution and coaching and mentoring of Agile team members. Conducted all Scrum meetings including daily stand-ups, sprint demos, sprint retrospectives and sprint pre-planning. Identified and managed cross-team dependencies by working with other Scrum Masters and Project Managers.

• Created Product Backlog using “User Stories”. Prioritized and sequenced stories in product backlog according to business value.Facilitated the estimation of product back-log items with the help of team members. Tracked Scrum team progress using Release burn-down charts posted on REG T SharePoint site.

• Created wire frames and mockups for the web based Reg T system user interface using BALSAMIQ. Created and updated Business Requirements Document (BRD) per Sprint Release. Created Domain Model to document the key concepts and the domain-vocabulary of the REG T system.

• Actively supported resolution of project issues (between Dev and QA) by assisting in follow-up actions and regularly communicating with internal users (business/ team members) and external users (offshore development).

• Provided weekly status reports (reported on project risks, impediments and sprint release progress) to the PMO Director. Participated in monthly project prioritization and planning meetings. Prepared and presented cost-benefit analyses (planned vs. actual costs), project charters, and project plans with cost and resource information.

• Worked under the direction of the PMO Director to establish a framework for the standardization of the Business Analyst practice.

• Conducted new hire (BA) screenings and technical interviews. Mentored and developed junior colleagues in project management and business analysis skills allowing the team to take on additional, more complex work.

Functional area: Finance, Clearing and Execution Firm

Environment: Agile SCRUM ,Track Record, At-Task, SharePoint2.0,SQL Server, MS Project, MS Visio, MS Excel, MS Power Point. Mind Maps, SnagIt.

HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS, Frisco, TX July’07-Aug’08

HPS (HPY) offers credit card processing, payroll services and check management products to its clients. It is the number three clearing services firm in the US.

Project Manager/Sr. Business Analyst

Passport Monitoring: This project involved development of a set of monitoring tools for various Passport functions (File monitor, Fraud monitor and FMS monitor). Passport is the payments and billing vehicle for Heartland’s Merchants transaction and billing fees. The File Monitor System was primarily developed to monitor the incoming and outgoing files in the Passport backend.

Responsibilities:

• Utilized Agile development methods to capitalize on and respond to changing business needs. Assisted business in determining which business processes could/should be automated & how they could integrate with other business processes.

• Collaborated with stakeholders to define project vision, develop product backlog and facilitate acceptance criteria definition. Decomposed user stories, estimated task sizes and tracked progress using burndown charts on the OBPM SharePoint site. Organized and facilitated retrospectives that resulted in valuable and actionable improvements.

• Developed Functional Requirements Document (FRD) and Business Requirements Document for the new application functionality. Used Visual Studio Team Foundation Server for creating requirements, reporting and project tracking for various projects across Passport.

• Created Visio Swim lane flowcharts for documenting Passport suite of process flows (Inbound, Pipeline and Outbound) for both the Daily Cycle and the Next Day Funding Cycle.

• Acted as a liaison for resolving OBPM (Operational Business Process Management) Passport escalations for merchant issues. Primarily used SQL queries for problem solving.

• Created and maintained Passport Operational Metrics spreadsheet (which captured information on Passport Cycle Run times, Statement Accuracy, Statement timeliness and Passport escalations) for the purpose of reporting monthly to Executive Directors.

• Actively assisted in testing and validating the usability of various applications. Planned and implemented User Acceptance testing. Wrote Test Plans and Test Scripts. Conducted manual testing for checking the functionality and security of application during various phases of development. Interacted with developers to report software bugs and to re-test fixed issues.

• Created User Guide for the File Monitor tool to explain its functionality. Trained Level 1 on the various failure points of the Passport pipeline.

• Performed Financial Reconciliation for the different Passport submitters to ensure balancing at the end of the business day.

• Appointed Project Manager to facilitate Passport support task transition between the various Passport groups. Worked with Sr. Project manager to prioritize team projects, create project plans and implementation schedules to ensure that deliverables were met in a timely manner.

Functional Area: Finance, Credit card processing

Environment: SQL Server, Visual Studio TFS, MS Visio 2000, SharePoint2.0, Agile SCRUM, MS Excel, MS Power Point.

CINGULAR, St. Louis, MO Nov’06-May’07

Cingular Wireless LLC was the largest United States mobile phone company, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Cingular, formed in 2001, was a joint venture of the American landline telephone companies AT&T and BellSouth.

Sr. Business Analyst

Performance Reporting: This project involved gathering logs and operational measurements (OMs) from Nortel voice switches, post process and translate into performance reports for Management review.

Responsibilities:

• Managed multiple aspects of projects including proposal and SOW authoring, gathering requirements from customers, facilitating status meetings, project estimation, and project analysis documents.

• Led project kickoff meeting with developers and project stakeholders. Defined project scope, milestones, goals, objectives and risks for project team members.

• Conducted JAD sessions with key business users and stakeholders to gather requirements. Applied critical reasoning and analytical probing to elicit well-formed business requirements into Functional Requirements Document.

• Worked with functional team to analyze statistical log data, identify trends and manage dashboards providing business insights. Generated ad-hoc reports for drill down analysis on metrics to support monthly business reviews and key planning milestones.

• Executed fault reproduction in the test environment (with the help of the QA team), performed event-log management, positively impacting technical team’s ability to respond to performance trends more rapidly. Established and maintained effective traceability matrix to enable downstream validation by the technical development team .Touch based with developers on a daily basis to report software bugs and re-tested fixed issues. Reviewed and certified that test results fulfilled business requirements.

• Provided Project Manager weekly status reports to ensure deliverables were met on time. Assisted PM in determining requirements for estimating new project budgets. Ensured seamless communication between business units, systems development, and quality assurance on status of projects, timelines, issues and resolutions.

• Actively advised, guided and mentored Junior Business Analyst in the team.

Functional Area: Telecommunications, Service Provider

Environment: UML, MS Visio 2000, MS Project, MS Excel, MS Power Point.

ZALE CORPORATION, Irving TX Apr’06-Aug’06

As a leading specialty retailer of fine jewelry, Zale operates over 2,200 retail locations throughout the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Project Manager/ Sr. Business Analyst

Pioneered best practices using Agile software development practices through a pilot project, resulting in shorter development time, higher quality and lower overall development costs.

MyZ Portal: This project involved development and deployment of the “MYZ Portal” using the Microsoft SharePoint Portal architecture and framework. Portal allowed controlled user (Zale Vendors, Customers and In-house users) to a variety of applications.

Responsibilities:

• Facilitated the start-up of a pilot Agile project using Scrum to move projects from concept to reality quickly.

• Conducted JAD sessions with project stakeholders and third-party vendor for the definition, finalization and approval of Business Requirements and Functional Requirements document.

• Communicated project progress and strategy using customized SharePoint site. Responsible for initiating, tracking, and reporting common business activities such as document review/ approval and issue tracking on the team site. Successfully created a communication plan to keep all project stakeholders, customers and business partners informed of the project release process.

• Wrote System Design documentation and shared them via technical reviews with project team. Ensured that developers and architects understood what they were to develop, document and deliver. Managed and resolved issues raised by developers.

• Closely worked with QA team to create Test Plans and Test Cases and ensured comprehension and feasibility of requirements. Actively participated in testing to ensure successful implementation and project close out.

• Prepared training documents by incorporating better business practices for end users.

• Worked with Senior Project Manager to create cost benefit analysis and project plans (MS Project). Provided weekly status report to Sr. Project Manager and assisted with managing project budget and tracking hours worked versus estimates to ensure that gaps were identified and that resources were working on critical projects. Solicited client feedback to conduct in-depth lessons learned documentation after post delivery of project.

Functional Area: Retail, Point of Sales

Environment: Microsoft SharePoint 2.0, Windows XP, Test Director, MS Visio, MS Project.

LENDING TREE LLC, Charlotte, NC Jan ‘05- Feb ‘06

LendingTree, LLC, operates the nation's leading online lending exchange, providing a marketplace that connects consumers with multiple lenders that compete for their business.

Business Analyst

Online Loan Origination System: This project involved development of an online loan origination application system. This helped to get rid of a paper intensive process and enabled customers to connect with multiple loan offers, compare options and select the best loan for their individual needs.

Responsibilities:

• Assisted with the overall project management process, which included planning, defining scope, design, testing, quality assurance, compliance, system documentation and user training.

• Assessed business need for online system and determined the cost and benefits of system implementation by working with business users.

• Interacted with loan officers from both commercial and home loan sectors to finalize the Business Requirements .Developed Functional Requirements document from the finalized BRD.

• Worked with the development team to validate wire frames/mockups/prototypes, proof-of-concepts to ensure that business requirements were adequately captured and reflected in design /development models.

• Analyzed the system requirements to develop detailed Test Plans, Test Cases, and Test Scripts to test the functionality of the new application. Assisted with User acceptance testing and coordinated appropriate user involvement in testing. Developed and managed bug triage documentation covering all defects within the new system.

• Conducted post project delivery walkthroughs with the end users and stakeholders to gather new modification requests to upgrade/ change the business specification for the product.

• Conducted Post Mortem session with project team after project Go-Live.

• Designed and produced a monthly dashboard report to provide management with key metrics to target business segments with the greatest potential cost savings and improvement opportunities.

Functional Area: Finance, Mortgage

Environment: Windows XP, Test Director, Rational Rose, Oracle 9i, HTML.

ALLSTATE INSURANCE, Englewood, CO May ’03 –May’04

The Allstate Corporation is the second-largest personal lines insurer in the United States and the largest that is publicly held. The company also has personal lines insurance operations in Canada.

Business Analyst

Online Fund Account Management System: This project involved development of a private Online Fund Account management application. This application was primarily designed to enable its users to select and submit trading requirements, generate holdings and view transaction reports.

Responsibilities:

• Worked actively with Project manager to determine the best methodology and approach for the requirements gathering process.

• Responsible for leading the definition of user interface, data requirements, process requirements, and non functional requirements for the web based workflow application.

• Participated in creation of clear and concise Business Requirements by assisting Business Unit staff during the discovery process. Developed Functional Specification Document and Supplementary Specification (non functional) Document.

• Assisted Project Manager in setting realistic project expectations and in evaluating the impact of changes on the organization. Prepared time and cost estimates for completing the project.

• Used the Functional Requirements document to create Master Test Plan and detailed Test Scripts and ensured that adequate testing was planned.

• Conducted User Acceptance testing for development initiatives while documenting testing results.

• Facilitated implementation of new functionality through training sessions, demos, and the development of appropriate documentation. Coordinated recommended process changes, enhancements and product implementations to ensure successful implementation.

Functional Area: Finance, Insurance

Environment: MS Project, MS Visio, Ms Office, HTML, Rational Rose, Rational Requisite Pro, Test Director, Windows 2000.

GMAC Mortgage, Southfield, MI Nov ‘01- Mar ‘03

GMAC Mortgage is one of the largest mortgage lenders in the US.GMAC Mortgage specializes in purchase and refinance, competitive rates, FHA insured loans and flexible down payment options.

Business Analyst

Responsibilities:

• Conducted brainstorming sessions, development meetings and other collaborative efforts necessary to ensure the thoroughness and accuracy of business specifications.

• Used Rational Unified Process (RUP) as the development life cycle and created Use Case Diagrams (UML) to define the Functional requirements of the application.

• Defined acceptance criteria, which was used in development and testing (UAT, functional unit testing and Integration testing). Created test plans and test scripts and actively participated in Functional testing and regression testing.

• Documented business processes as they were benchmarked. Identified areas where efficiencies could be created in the BPR process. Conducted root cause analysis to recommend product enhancements to improve productivity.

• Developed project plans, prioritized project tasks and provided status updates to Project Manager.

• Provided technical consultation services to customers relating to the company’s business processes, system requirements, and other technical issues.

• Actively mentored new hires and project team members.

Functional Area: Finance, Mortgage

Environment: RUP, UML, Test Director, SQL 8.0, Java.

EDUCATION:

• Post Graduate (PGDBM): Advanced Information Technology. Sep ’98-Oct ‘99

South Bank University, London (UK)

Millennium Scholarship Recipient

• Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.): Electrical Engineering. Jul ‘94-Jun ‘98

University Of Pune, (India)

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