PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY:

• Client focused professional with over 6+ years of diverse experience as an IT Business Analyst in Insurance, Healthcare & Banking
• Solid understanding of different business management strategies in Business Processes such as Business Process Automation, Business Process Improvement and Business Process Re - engineering
• Experience working in all phases of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), and using industry standard methodologies like Rational Unified Process (RUP), Agile and ITUP
• Excellent working knowledge of requirement management tools like Requisite Pro, Rational DOORS, Power Designer
• Experience in conducting Gap Analysis, in depth knowledge of the AS-IS and TO-BE business processes
• Excellent documentation of Business Requirements gathered using Interviews, Brainstorming Sessions, Surveys and Questionnaires; Evaluating Data Sources, Translating Requirements into Specifications and Application Design
• Experience in facilitating Joint Requirement Planning ( Confidential ) sessions with Business User Groups, conducting Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions with IT Groups, SMEs and other project stakeholders
• Competent in creating Unified Modeling Language ( Confidential ) diagrams for Business Process Modeling like Use Case Diagrams (UCD), Activity Diagrams (AD), Sequence Diagrams (SD), Data Flow Diagrams ( Confidential ) and Wireframe Prototypes
• Proficient in Prototyping application User Interfaces using wireframes and mock-ups with focused attention to detail in enriching User Experience and User Interaction
• Highly proficient in the use of SQL and Relational Databases for querying and reporting purposes
• Facilitated Change Management and Conflict Resolution at various stages of the project life cycle by streamlining communication among the project stakeholders and interacting with Change Control Board
• Expert in Tracking and Managing the requirements using Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) that links and controls numerous artifacts produced by several teams across the deliverables of the project
• Assisted QA team in generating Test Plans, Test Scenarios, Test Cases, and managed complete defect tracking life cycle using various defect tracking tools
• Expertise in conducting User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to guarantee all the business requirements have been fulfilled by the application
• Involved in Pre-Production activities to make sure Go/No Go call is smoothly taken as a critical metric of stability of the system before Production
• Participated in Post-Production Validation (PPV) and worked with the Production support team for issues reported by the user group in the production environment
• Excellent analytical and problem solving skills; listening, oral, and written communication/presentation skills with strong ability to influence people at all levels and in various functions

TECHNICAL SKILLS:

Business Modeling Tools: Power Designer, MS Visio

Requirement Management Tools: Requisite Pro, Rational DOORS, Rational Clear Case

Project Management Tools: MS Project (Gantt Charts, RACIWBS), Crystal BallFMEA

Analytical Tools: JMP, Node XL, SAS Enterprise Miner, R

Methodologies: Waterfall, Agile, RUP, ITUP

Testing Tools: SilkCentral, Test Director, Jira, Rally

Designing Tools: SmartDraw, Just in Mind, MS Visio, Confidential

Languages: SQL, HTML, XML, Visual Studio

Operating Systems: MS Windows XP/NT/2000/Vista

Database: MS SQL, MS Access, Oracle

Utility: MSOffice Suite Word, Excel, VisioPowerPoint, Adobe, Acrobat Suite

WORK EXPERIENCE:

Confidential, Owing Mills, MD

Sr. Business System Analyst

Responsibilities:

• Functioned as the liaison between the business line, operations, and the technical areas throughout the project life cycle.
• Interfaced with the client as part of requirements gathering and elicitation to finalize the project scope.
• Conducted Confidential sessions with SME and manager to understand business processes, functionality detail.
• Developed business process models in both Agile & ITUP environments.
• Worked as scrum master for the major part of the project.
• Managed end-to-end requirements process using tools to define the set of processes and approach for each project, as well as issue resolution.
• Helped to create and translate user stories to define the functions the system must provide, and to facilitate requirements management.
• Assisted the scrum master to conduct daily/weekly scrum to summarize what has been done, plan what needs to be done, and recognize impediments.
• Helped to create burn down charts to show remaining work in the sprint backlog.
• Identified “As is” process and “To be” process as parts of gap analysis for new functionality requirements, as well as prioritizing them based on actual business needs so as to align them with the project roadmap.
• Created Unified Modeling Language ( Confidential ) diagrams for Business Process Modeling like Activity Diagrams, Sequence Diagrams, Data Flow Diagrams, and Flow Charts.
• Assisted the Project Manager to develop both high-level and detailed application architecture to meet user requests and business needs.
• Assisted the PM in setting realistic project expectations and in evaluating the impact of changes on the project plans accordingly and conducted project related presentations.
• Conducted User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to ensure all the business requirements have been fulfilled by the application.
• Worked with PM during Confidential review process and release management.
• Worked with development and testing teams to accomplish timely release objectives.
• Prepared user manuals and conducted training sessions.
• Good understanding of the business and its systems, services and conceptual understanding of technologies like XML, PL/SQL

Environment: Requisite-Pro, Rally Dev, Microsoft Office Suite, Microsoft Visio, Confidential, Windows XP, SQL Server, Microsoft Project

Confidential, Columbus, Ohio

Sr. Business Analyst

Responsibilities:

• Worked with Business User Representatives, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and other Business Analysts to understand the existing system and the current business process and methods to identify deficiencies and areas for improvement and enhancement.
• Assisted in development of a thorough and repeatable software requirements methodology utilizing the Rational Unified Process (RUP) model.
• Performed Gap analysis for new functionality requirements, identified and documented improving areas to meet the end state requirements as well as prioritized them based on actual business needs so as to align them with the product release roadmap.
• Conducted Elicitation and Focus Group Sessions with several business user groups to determine and gather requirements.
• Worked with DROOLS tools particularly in the areas of business logic and business rules management in addition to workflow activities, event processing and database configuration management.
• Visually modeled several Use Case Scenarios using MS Visio and SmartDraw to create effective business requirement documents like Functional Requirements Document ( Confidential )
• Prototyped the application changes using Justinmind Prototyper providing mock-up screens and wireframes.
• Designed and developed various Confidential diagrams including Use Case Diagrams, Activity Diagrams, and Sequence Diagrams to both management and development teams to ensure uniform understanding of the business scope, and detailed business and functional requirements.
• Extensively used SQL to verify the integrity and consistency of the data in the database.
• Facilitated Change Management in the project by performing Impact Analysis for Change Requests obtained during early stages of the Project Life Cycle.
• Widely used Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) for identifying and tracing the linkages among several connected project artifacts to analyze the impact of a desired change.
• Extensively used Borland’s Silk Central for defect management that included bug tracking, review, assignment and reporting.
• Created detailed periodic status reports to provide end-users, top management and implementation team visibility into the progress of the implementation.
• Organized and participated in Release walkthroughs, demos & presentations of the new releases and documenting the feedback.
• Assisted in development of User training materials for the upgraded version of the existing system technology and process improvements.

Environment: Rational DOORS, Microsoft Office Suite, Just in mind Prototyper, Microsoft Visio, SmartDraw, Borland Silk Central, Java, Oracle, Windows XP

Confidential, Chicago, IL

Sr. Business Analyst

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for understanding business requirements and actively participating in design discussions and preparation of design document, Confidential diagrams, Use Cases using Enterprise Architect.
• Involved in creating process flow diagrams and process maps using MS Visio.
• Driving discussions with cross functional teams/ stakeholders to capture and translate data and requirements
• Identifying options for potential solutions and assessing them for both technical and business suitability
• Produce detailed and comprehensive software documentation, such as requirements specifications, design documents, and change logs.
• Involved in Estimate and schedule projects, allocate and monitor resources
• Provided support to the ETL and data warehouse teams by eliciting the Business requirements and translating into technical requirements for reporting concerning new developments and updates to the compliance data warehouse.
• Conducted multiple walkthrough of the requirements and got approval from all stakeholders.
• Gathered requirements and designed the modules using Enterprise Architect design tool.
• Review of Integration Test Plan, UAT Plan, defects, testing guidelines, checklists and entry & exit criteria for different phases of the project during the project
• Responsible for reporting the Testing status (Weekly Status reports) of the project to the senior management
• Define Test Strategy, establish Test Plan, Requirements Traceability Matrix & provide inputs and guidance to testing teams and defect tracking
• Actively involved in designing database structure. Developed procedures, Indexes and triggers to make the data retrieval and data access efficient.
• Lead complex initiatives and coordinated tasks with multiple team members.
• Used SQL language and wrote procedures, created triggers and indexes to create relationships in database tables to establish data integrity.
• Provided 24/7 on-call supports through telephone and Ticket solution systems.
• Automated the manual reporting processes for the customer and contractor tracking reporting databases integrated MS Excel files that included complex formulas, vlookups and other functions and MS Access databases.

Environment: Rational Rose, MS Visio, UMLMS Office 2000, Oracle 9i, Windows, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, Quality Center and Power Designer.

Confidential, Austin, TX

Business Analyst

Responsibilities:

• Involved in all the phases of a System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) to ensure that business objectives were met.
• Gathered Business Requirements by interacting with the Users, Designers and Developers, Project Manager to get a better understanding of the Business Processes.
• Evaluated solutions for business problems/bottlenecks and evaluated alternate methods to increase efficiency and improve control. Analyzed and documented information system requirements and the corresponding impact on business processes.
• Maintained the Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) across the deliverables of a project.
• Conducted Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions and well experienced in interacting with individuals at all levels.
• Consulted with users, resolved problem to meet specific technical and business needs.
• Validation and Verification accountability for all the deliverables of s/w development projects.
• Assisted the testing team in preparing Test Plans and Test cases, detecting bugs in the system.
• Conducted functional walkthroughs, User Acceptance Testing (UAT) sessions, and supervised the development of User Manuals for customers.
• Prepared reports and presentations for weekly management meeting to update senior management staff on project deliverables, progression and timelines.
• Trained team members with project knowledge and business processes.

Environment: Confidential, MS SQL Server, MS Visio, MS Excel, MS. NET Framework, ASP.NET AJAX, JavaScript.