SUMMARY

• 8+ years of diverse work experience in the domains of financial institutions (Investments & Wealth Management), Banking and E-Commerce.
• In depth knowledge of Software Development Life Cycle processes, including Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, Rational Unified Process (RUP).
• Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills that is necessary to elicit requirements through shadowing, surveys and conducting Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions with Business Owners, Business users, SMEs, and other stakeholders.
• Experience in interviewing Business users & SME providing recommendations to resolve issues for various business/technical groups & defining strategic solutions to business problems in a multiple project environment.
• Extensive experience in creating As-Is and To-Be process models, conducting GAP Analysis to understand areas of improvement and analyzing the risks involved through SWOT and feasibility analysis.
• Proficient in process modeling using Unified Modeling Language (UML), preparing graphical depictions of use cases including state diagrams, activity diagrams, sequence diagrams, Data Flow Diagrams (DFD), use case diagrams, including the business workflow using Rational Rose and MS Visio.
• Skilled in data modeling (Conceptual, Physical and Logical) and creating Entity-Relationship diagrams.
• Highly experienced in creating the Business Requirement Document (BRD), System Requirements Document (SRS), Use-Cases, Functional Requirements Document (FRD) and maintaining artifacts in SharePoint 2010.
• Expertise in creating mock-up screens and prototyping Static and Dynamic UI with HTML, Mockup Screens and creating Wire Frames.
• Experience in using SQL Queries and MS Excel for Data Validation and Data Integration.
• Significant knowledge and experience in data warehousing using ETL tools Informatica, Pentaho and Business Intelligence tools SAS 9.2, Tableau Desktop 8.2, etc.
• Worked closely with the System Architects to implement Service Oriented Architecture, which involved Web services, and Data Mapping.
• Extensively used tools such as Atlassian Jira and Microsoft TFS (Team Foundation Server) in managing requirements and verifying adherence to Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM).
• Experience in defect management using HP Quality Center and facilitating Triage decision-making.
• Familiarity with White-Box and Black-Box testing techniques such as Smoke Testing, Load Testing, Regression Testing, Unit Testing, Functional Testing, Integration, System Testing and Performance Testing.
• Experience in leading SCRUM teams as a SCRUM Master (Certified) and facilitating various meetings.
• Expertise in the management of User Request Change, handling conflicts, work delegation and negotiation .
• Extensive experience in handling Change Management and conducting Impact Analysis to better understand areas affected by the change.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Documentation Tools : MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point, Project), Rational Suite

SDLC Methodologies: Waterfall, Rational Unified Process (RUP), Agile SCRUM

Modelling Tools: Argo UML, MS Visio, Rational Rose, Oracle SQL developer data modeler

Analytics: SAS, Oracle SQL, Tableau, IBM Cognos, Teradata

ETL Tools: Informatica, Pentaho

QA Tools: HP ALM, HP Quality Center, Load Runner, QTP, Bugzilla

Languages: Java, VB, SQL, HTML, XML, UML, JSP

Databases & OS: MS SQL workbench, Oracle 10g on Windows, Unix, Linux

Supporting Tools: Rational ClearCase, Rational ClearQuest, Rational Requisite Pro, Microsoft TFS

Design artifacts: Use cases, Data design diagrams, Business process models, Activity Diagrams, State Charts, ER models

Testing skills

Smoke, Load, Automation, Unit, Regression, User Acceptance, Functional, Systems Integration testing.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Confidential , Hopewell, NJ

Business System Analyst/Scrum Master

Owing to the ever increasing client base, Bank of America needed to refresh their Merrill Lynch Wealth Management platform with new processes and capabilities which include automated asset projection, executive stock option models for analytics, Portfolio Rebalancing for finance clients, Investment management, and Liquidity management. This was a large project with two offshore teams.

Responsibilities :

• Reviewed the business case to analyze the business objective from an IT point of view.
• Conducted a high-level business stakeholder analysis to identify subject matter expertise on the business side.
• Decomposed the scope on Excel to identify high-priority objectives to aid in requirement elicitation.
• Conducted a structured walk-through with the business stakeholders to understand the As-Is, and followed up by generating a high-level As-Is model with preliminary scope identification within the model.
• Performed gap analysis, identifying opportunities for enhancements, and making recommendations based on key findings during requirement gathering.
• Created the To-Be process model with the high-level scope as reviewed by the business.
• Engaged the project stakeholders with a series of SME analysis to identify the technical project stakeholders.
• Once the PM was on-boarded, assisted the project team in understanding the business objective and scope of project with a GAP presentation on WebEx. This was followed by the initial gathering of low-level requirements.
• Conducted a 1-week sprint to fully define the high-level requirements and create a high-level requirements document (Final)
• Loaded the requirements onto Microsoft TFS (Team Foundation Server), which was used for requirements management.
• Followed the sprint for requirements gathering by JAD sessions for gathering technical system-level requirements and building an initial working prototype for decision support.
• Worked with a cross-functional AGILE team post requirements gathering for project iterations in dev, test & prod.
• Documented User Stories and facilitated Story Point discussions to analyze the level of effort on project specifications.
• As the acting ScrumMaster, facilitated team activities like release & iteration planning, daily scrums, impediment resolution, sprint reviews (demos / retrospectives) and developed burn down charts.
• Assisted the Product Owner in user story creation/prioritization and product Backlog grooming via emergent requirement elicitation while supporting overall organizational goals.
• Convened meetings with users and stakeholders to identify problems, resolve issues and improve the process to ensure a stable and accurate solution.
• Utilized Informatica to Extract asset data from the source, transforming the data and Loading into the target.
• Assisted the BI developers in data integration and reporting using SAS for predictive modeling.
• Worked extensively on Quality Center all the way from requirements loading, creating/updating test cases and tying them back to requirements, test execution and defect logging/tracking.
• Ported project artifacts from VersionOne to JIRA. After customizing input screens, imported Epics, Stories, and Tasks via CSV files.
• Tracked defects using JIRA (Bonfire). Analyzed test progress and sent weekly progress reports to the Project Manager.
• Actively trained Business Users involved in User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
• Assisted the PM in project closure by creating project actuals on Excel, creating project cost assessment on Tableau desktop, and creating a lessons-learned presentation to the project team.

Environment: MS Office, MS Word, MS Visio, MS Projects, JIRA, HP (Quality Center 9.2, ALM, Microsoft TFS, Quick Test Professional 8.2/9.2), MS-SQL, Informatica, Tableau.

Confidential , Pittsburg, PA

Senior Business Analyst/Scrum Master

The scope of the project was implementation of a new Loan Origination System for Direct Lending. This included the implementation of LaserPro (Document generation system) and eSign capabilities (eLynx).The system was designed to enforce a rule based system by revamping the existing credit evaluation and pricing engines thereby minimizing the risk of default and foreclosures in future. The loan originator system helped in faster and accurate processing, better and quick communication with the borrowers and helped the internal users achieve higher efficiency.

Responsibilities:

• Worked as a Senior Business Analyst to support the re-design of the Mortgage Asset Management System.
• Participated in the research and development of business opportunities and ideas within the scope of the project.
• Contributed to the definition of scope, preparation of work plans and definition of business requirements.
• Worked with major business areas including customer service, escrow and reserve administration, collateral inspection and monitoring, purchase acquisitions.
• Reviewed and assessed information gathered, defined key facts and issues, identified potential problems and facilitated problem resolution.
• Assisted the BI developers to identify data elements from the source systems, performed data analysis to come up with data cleansing and integration rules for transformation and mapping in ETL process.
• Facilitated and managed meeting sessions with committee of SMEs from various business areas including Mortgage Servicing, Loan Monitoring and Asset Management.
• Conducted interviews with key business users to collect requirements and business process information.
• Performed extensive requirement analysis including data analysis and gap analysis.
• Developed business requirement specification documents as well as high-level project plan.
• Comprehensively performed requirement gathering for enterprise reporting system-using RequisitePro.
• Established a business analysis methodology around the RUP (Rational Unified Process).
• Designed and developed all Use Cases and UML models using Rational Rose.
• Set up definitions and process for test phases including integration test, system test and user acceptance test (UAT).
• Developing strategic partnerships with the business unit to develop a solid knowledge base of the business line, including the business plan, products, processes and revenue streams.
• Used Rational ClearQuest to understand the impact of changing a requirement and decide whether to include it in the current project and to define the traceability across the entire project lifecycle.
• Functioned as the primary liaison between the business line, operations, and technical areas throughout the project cycle.
• Analyzed research on operational procedures and methods and recommended changes for improvement, with an emphasis on automation and efficiency.
• Prepared project reports for management and others, assisted project managers in the development of weekly and monthly status reports, documented process flows, policies and procedures.
• Conducted benchmarking activities to identify best practices.
• Developed training materials and executed training .

Environment: Rational ClearQuest, Rational Rose, RequisitePro, Informatica, Microsoft Excel (pivot tables, v lookup), Microsoft word, Microsoft Access, Power Point, RUP

Confidential , ST. Louis, MO

Business System Analyst

The scope of the project was to enable MasterCard® Credit Cards with PayPass™ technology – a “contactless” and convenient way to pay for user’s purchases. The “contactless” payment reader at the checkout and purchase will be completed which includes Secure encryption technology, along with MasterCard’s Zero Liaibility¹ protection, which will make MasterCard® Credit Card with PayPass™ a safe method of payment for all your purchases. The requirements included implementing PayPass within a magnetic stripe card payment environment and within an EMV contact chip payment environment. The incremental changes were made to enable merchants’ POS host/payment application software to accept PayPass transactions.

Responsibilities:

• Primary responsibilities include establishing relationships with business partners and technical stakeholders to elicit, analyze, communicate, and validate requirements for new system implementations and changes to business processes, policies and systems.
• Took the lead business analyst role on the project team to understand end-to-end process, business needs as well as build solid relationships with project members and stakeholders.
• Prepare business requirement documents, current state, future state, use cases, process models and document business rules document.
• Facilitate requirements review and signoff with stakeholders to ensure that the business needs are accurately documented.
• Extensively used waterfall and agile methodology’s best practices during the SDLC.
• Gathered business requirements by conducting meetings, interviews, and JAD sessions with stakeholders.
• Elicited requirements from users through user stories, incorporated these user stories as requirements in the Sprint Backlog and further expanded them into tasks for each sprint.
• Create user stories on JIRA, created tasks/subtasks and track the status. Analyzed the Iteration Burn Down charts and Cumulative flow charts, log and review defects.
• Participated in peer code reviews, daily stand up meetings, follow-up activities with clients/stake holders
• Provided the detailed inputs to the Scrum Master about the tasks completed and assisted in the creation of the Sprint Burn Down Chart.
• Moderated everyday scrum meetings along with the other senior business analysts to improve the efficiency and productivity of each sprint
• Developed user test cases and validates test results during user acceptance testing (UAT).
• Used various SQL commands like create, delete, update, left joins, right joins and full joins to update the database and retrieve data for analysis
• Work closely with Quality Assurance analyst to develop the Traceability Matrix from business requirements, use cases and business rules to test plans and test scripts.
• Created test plans, scripts and performed SIT (system Integration testing).
• Organized and Performed GUI testing, functional and regression testing and support for User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
• Performed ad-hoc MS SQL Server queries for data correction to facilitate reporting.
• Assisted BI Developers in converting MS Access queries to SAS, automated them for monthly reporting thereby improving the performance by 70% and performing outlier analysis on various accounts for quality control to manage bank's assets and liabilities in a better way.
• Track and manage sprint progress using Rally Agile project management software.
• Report progress and lessons learned to senior management in”Scrum of Scrums” and “Retro of Retros.

Environment: Windows XP, Rally, MS Visio, MS SQL, Microsoft Excel (pivot tables, v lookup), Microsoft word, Microsoft Access, Power Point, Agile Methodology

Confidential , Hyderabad, India

Business Analyst

The scope of the project was t o provide a convenient way for merchants to generate and store documentary verification of e-commerce transactions. The verification systems were designed to collect and retain transaction details pertaining to the customer as well as provide legal recourse for merchants.

Responsibilities:

• Interviewed SME’s and stakeholders to better understand application requirements
• Conducted JAD sessions to gather business requirements from stakeholders, business users and external users.
• Included features like expenses by category and included options to view expense graphs to help account holders manage their finances.
• Supporting product functional enhancement through requirement gathering, writing of business/functional specification.
• Generated wireframes to get consensus and approval of sponsors and business owners on the look and feel of the application.
• Utilized SharePoint 2010 for collaboration and communication with project managers.
• Implemented the entire Rational Unified Process (RUP) methodology of application development with its various workflows and activities.
• Identified and developed Use Cases from the business and systems requirements. Documented high level and detailed Use Cases to include all the functionalities of the new system.
• Followed the UML methodology to Create UML Diagrams including Use Cases Diagrams, Activity Diagrams, Sequence Diagrams, and Data Flow Diagrams for easy understanding of development team.
• Supervised the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to test the usability of the application.
• Interacted with other teams through walkthroughs, teleconferences, meetings, etc. to resolve various issues.
• Took part in daily test Error Review Team meetings
• Defined Test Conditions/Expected Results for Business Acceptance Test.
• Assisted the QA team in performing Functional, Integration, System and Regression testing.
• Employed Triage decision making in classifying the defects based on priority and severity using HP Quality Center.

Environment: RUP, UML, SQL, MS-Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Access, Excel, Outlook) MS Visio, HP Quality Center.

Confidential , Chennai, India

Jr. Business Analyst

The scope of the project was to provide users with the opportunity to report fraud and submit a request for compensation related to a transaction completed over a network-based transaction facility. This system allows users to report and settle potential fraud cases and, if transactions are fraudulent, users can file insurance claims for such transactions in which financial loss occurred.

Responsibilities:

• Worked with the Project Manager in defining the scope and requirements of the project.
• Conducted budget planning of the project through walkthroughs and meetings involving various leads from Development, QA and Technical Support teams.
• Utilized MS Project to create the Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) , prioritize the tasks and to track the progress of the project.
• Conducted interviews with project managers, business users to collect requirement and business process information.
• Conducted JAD sessions with SME, Sr, Architect and Business Owner to understand the Functional, Non-Functional, Data and GUI requirements.
• Designed the Functional Specifications Document based on the project scope and vision documents.
• Created UML diagrams like Use-case, activity diagrams and data flow diagrams using MS Visio .
• Incorporated UI and UX requirements from FRD by creating GUI mock-ups using Mock-up screens .
• Implemented Agile RUP methodology for the SDLC and identified workflows in the four phases of RUP.
• Developed PowerPoint presentations for monthly meetings with upper management.
• Managed project documents and other deliverables on Sharepoint 2010 .
• Coordinated in developing test scenarios, test cases and implemented test plan with QA team.
• Created the User Acceptance Test (UAT) scripts and Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM ).
• Assisted in development of training materials for new technology and process improvement.

Environment: UML, RUP, SDLC, Sharepoint 2010, Rational Requisite Pro, Rational Rose, Windows 2000, MS Office, MS Project, MS Visio.

Confidential , Chennai, India

Test Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Involved in analysis of end user requirements and business rules based on given documentation and worked closely with tech leads and Business analysts in understanding the current system to develop test cases and test scripts.
• Focal point for making sound decisions related to data collection, data analysis, data security, methodologies and designs.
• Analysed user requirements, attended Change Request meetings to document changes and implemented procedures to test changes.
• Analyzed the Test plan , which detailed the testing scope, strategy, test requirements, and necessary resources.
• Automated test scripts in QTP using VB Script thereby reducing the number of defects by 30%
• Executed SQL queries to verify the database for the relevant test cases.
• Created and executed scenarios in Load Runner controller to analyze system performance in Load Runner Analyzer under load.
• Used rendezvous concept of Load Runner to generate peak load onto the server thereby stressing it, and measuring its performance.
• Documented the defects in HP Quality Center and assigned them to relevant developer.
• Attended the Review meetings and walkthroughs and interacted to Business Analysts and Developers for defects solving. Drove customer satisfaction by ensuring proper system functionality.
• Participated in the team meeting to discuss the requirements/design review and upcoming work, schedule and status.
• Delivered defect-free complex services on time although requirements were altered before the deadline by the client.

Environment : Web testing, Automation Testing, QTP, LoadRunner, Agile, SQL, Quality Center, VMware, UNIX