EXECUTIVE SUMMARYI am a results-driven, cost-conscious IT professional that has made project deliverable deadlines all of my adult life. I specialize in using proven strategies that consistently result in successful product development done on time and within budget. Although I have significant experience in the older system development methodologies, I am especially skilled in Agile development in the .NET environment. Its combination of team-wide collaboration and quick results perfectly complements my working style. Also I combine the skills of a certified neuro-linguisitic programmer (NLP) with thirty years of corporate consulting to organizations that range from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies (mostly insurance) to State and Federal agencies. This particular skill set allows me to be able to quickly assess a company’s strengths and weaknesses, read the personnel involved and mentor a team that believes in their project, themselves and each other.

CORE COMPETENCIES

Business Domain Knowledge

• Subject matter expert in insurance, government and financial industry products processing and documentation
• Ability to quickly absorb information about any organization in order to speak knowledgeably and confidently with staff

Business Architecture

• COBOL/JCL
• .NET
• SDLC (Waterfall, RUP, Agile)
• Oracle DB (with Oracle Discoverer – their reporting tool)
• SQL
• Excellent understanding of the streamlining of business processes

Planning/Project Management

• Experienced with Agile project management in the .NET environment
• Excellent ability to plan, manage projects, and evaluate complexity, assumptions and constraints
• Proven experience in Business Intelligence tools
• Proven ability to participate in multiple projects using expert organizational skills to meet deadlines effectively and efficiently
• Excellent ability to identify stakeholders and coordinate activities with others
• Demonstrated expert skills to select appropriate business analysis approaches
• Supports change initiatives and can adjust priorities with ease
• Strong knowledge of process modeling
• Solid experience performing gap analysis to turn future process models into business requirements documentation Mentoring/Leadership
• Strongly advocates for the relevance of Agile methodology and all technological advances across an enterprise
• Demonstrates ability to mentor/coach others
• Embraces change and serves as a change agent for new techniques and approaches
• Ability to manage/lead complex requirements projects

Problem Solving/Analytical/Decision Making

• Expert ability to recognize and analyze business needs using strong knowledge of business analysis approaches and techniques
• Extremely detail-oriented
• Takes initiative to escalate issues and mitigate risks when appropriate
• Takes responsibility for decisions and actions and encourages other teams members to do likewise

Communication/Facilitation/Influencing Skills

• Highly effective in written and verbal communications with proven ability to communicate to technical and non-technical audience
• Expertise in conducting presentations and highly skilled at adjusting communication style to the audience
• Excellent facilitation skills within small or large group settings
• This skill has especially served me well explaining new methods (like Agile) to upper management as well as business users. Has also helped me consistently engage the business users during Agile sprints.
• Successfully collaborates within team and throughout organization to bring together desired results
• Strong ability to influence outcomes by clearly articulating needs and demonstrating benefits in order to gain buy-in
• Strong ability to interact effectively with individuals at all levels within organization including senior management
• Proven expertise in using effective negotiation skills

Technology/Techniques

• Requirements modeling/documentation/management tool expertise
• Expertise in using MS Office and various System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) tools and templates
• Functional decomposition
• Context modeling; System architecture modeling; Business process modeling
• Requirements management and traceability

EXPERIENCE

Confidential, Glastonbury, CT 2012-present Project Manager/Senior Business Analyst Managing projects using the Agile development methodology. Projects are written in .NET. Also assisting on multiple projects in areas of document management, business process re-engineering, testing, and vendor management for small consulting firm. Current projects include:

• Developing an agile technology presentation to introduce it to an organization’s upper management, highlighting its many features and benefits
• Serving as vendor liaison for all accounts
• Developing test scripts for mid-sized project for Medicare D
• Training BA staff on Agile methodology

Confidential 2006-2012 - Consultant Project Manager/Senior Business Analyst Responsibilities include:

• Develop and maintain all project artifacts including project plans, business and system requirements, communication plans, test plans, training plans and materials; Develop use cases, workflow Visio diagrams, and PowerPoint presentations for stakeholders and upper management. Introduce Agile technology to State of Connecticut.
• Develop solid and collaborative relationships with both business owners and IT staff to ensure completeness, accuracy and comprehensiveness of all project artifacts through JAD sessions, small and large work groups and personal interviews
• Conduct gap analyses to ensure that current states were thoroughly documented for IT and vendors and future states were clearly explained in order to produce products that met strategic business goals
• Use knowledge gained though developing project artifacts to suggest and implement business process improvements and changes
• Develop standard templates for project artifacts and ensure their enterprise-wide use
• Identify and mitigate risks, processing redundancies and opportunities for fraud or security breaches
• Liase with vendors to ensure completed, tested and timely deliverables
• Train and mentor team of business analysts in requirements building, flowcharting, and development of use cases and high level and detailed design and test documents

Projects included:Real ID project – initiative to make State of Connecticut DMV compliant with Federal Real ID Act of 2006. Compliance (required in order to maintain Federal funding) was achieved on time and within budget. ReROD (Re-engineering of Registration of Drivers) project – in-house effort to implement state-of-the-art hardware and software to radically improve DMV processing throughout the agency. Artifacts became basis of Request for Proposal when management decided to procure a Customized off the Shelf (COTS) solution from outside vendor. Business Process Re-engineering for Branch Operations – LEAN project that sought to engineer new business processes for DMV branches. Produced immediate results in several key problem areas resulting in better customer service Document repository project - Designed OCR scanning and document repository; resulted in immediate Return On Investment by replacing data entry manual process with automatic scan and storage of 5000 documents per week; Designed document audit website that checked statistically significant number of all Connecticut credential transactions; Designed document management system for all DMV policies

1984-2006 Confidential

• Co-owner of a technology company that provided services to corporate and public accounts. Areas of expertise included document repositories, business process management, knowledge management, intellectual capital capture, design, documentation, development and deployment of software and hardware solutions, etc.
• 25 years of experience managing functional, technical, and quality assurance teams
• 25 years of experience working with customers and external vendors
• 25 years of experience managing budgets, schedules and task assignments with overlapping resources
• 25 years of experience managing sales, marketing, business strategizing and trending analysis

Clients included the following: Confidential, January 2005- August 2006

• Researched, analyzed and documented all business workflows for corporate General Ledger system. Wrote functional specs for PC-based program. Results of effort included $1 million savings for all corporate general ledger activity.

Confidential May 2003-December 2004

• Assessed corporate knowledge culture and made appropriate suggestions for improvement. Developed succession planning documentation and job profile online surveys delivered to select departments, management and customers. Result was that the company had a secure and sustainable repository of employee intellectual capital that greatly reduced the negative impact of retirements, transfers, etc. and saved $1 million in the first year of implementation.

Confidential Sept 1998-Dec 1999; Sept. 2001April 2003

• Architected and implemented first knowledge/documentation repository in insurance industry. Developed taxonomy, designed user interface, identified feeds from other systems, managed data gathering and presented to C-level staff. Result was single source of information for nearly all information needs and a $2.5 million savings in the first 18 months.
• Researched, analyzed and documented work request process for IT department users (programmers, analysts, testers). Result was a consistent development and maintenance process that closely aligned business needs with technical resources.

Confidential December 1999-August 2001

• Designed and documented Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process for new projects and maintenance projects for Medicare D. Result was a consistent, department-wide adherence to structured development.
• Researched, analyzed and documented both business and systems procedures for security and disaster recovery. Result was conformance to Federal auditing requirements.
• Developed and analyzed business workflows for data warehouse application. Workflows were used in system redesign and training. Designed and developed electronic training and system process documentation repository for data warehouse application. Conducted needs analysis and designed repository for development staff and end users. Result was immediate productivity in an unfamiliar application.
• Designed and developed documentation solution for IT claims department at United Healthcare's Medicare Division. Evaluated needs and designed architecture to contain both systems development documentation and internal and government publications. Result was central source for information to meet corporate business intelligence needs.

ConfidentialSeptember 1997-November 1999

• Assisted prime vendor in developing comprehensive business process documentation in anticipation of a national database project using state-of-the-art imaging, electronic document management and automated workflow software. Effort was used as a basis for the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), the most widely used crime database in the U.S.

Confidential– December 1996 – August 1997

• Wrote and organized all systems documentation and business process documentation into a knowledge repository that was used by CSC teams to whom UTC had outsourced their entire IT department. Worked with senior and junior level employees on a fast-paced schedule to deliver clear, accessible documentation that team members could use to immediately begin performing their jobs.

Education I was a Dean's List student and finished with a BA in English and History. I am a certified Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) facilitator and certified Clinical Hypnotherapist. Received PM Certificate and LEAN Certificate.