PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY:

• Proven results oriented IT professional with 8+ years of experience as a Business Analyst in the Property and Casualty Insurance, Reinsurance in Commercial Line and Personal lines.
• A vast experience in working with claim center, billing center, policy center of Guidewire Insurance Suite.
• Thorough understanding of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), using Waterfall, Rational Unified Process (RUP), and Agile methodologies.
• Experienced in Requirement Elicitation of techniques such as Interviewing, Questionnaires, JAD Sessions, Brainstorming, focus groups meetings, and structuring meetings.
• Perform duties as a Liaison between Business Teams and Technical Teams.
• Experience in SDLC methodologies and also in writing effective Business Requirements Document (BRD) and converting these into Functional Requirements Document ( FRD) .
• Experienced in Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Business Process Modeling (BPM), Business Process Automation (BPA), Improvement, and Business Analysis.
• Proficient in conducting GAP Analysis, and writing “As Is” and “To Be” documents.
• Collaborating with the PMO in Duration Analysis, Cost Benefit Analysis, RACI Analysis, Risk and SWOT Analysis.
• Thorough understanding of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) . Experienced in creating Use cases, Use case Diagrams, Activity, and Sequence, Dataflow, State chart and Work flow Diagrams .
• Creating Wireframes and also User Interface Documents for improving the understanding of the software solution.
• Collaborated with the testing team for Test Planning purpose that included the design of Test Cases, Report Generation that match Business Requirements and Issue Resolution.
• Experienced in User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Post production Validation (PPV) as well as defect - tracking (Silk Central) to correct issues.
• Thorough knowledge in creating User Manuals and conducting training sessions for users.
• Thorough understanding of SQL and XML

TECHNICAL SKILLS:

Business Skills: Business Process Analysis and Design, Gap Analysis, Impact Analysis, JAD sessions, Requirement Gathering, Use Case Modeling

Methodologies: RUP, Agile, Waterfall

Requirement Management Tool: Power Designer, CaliberRM, MS Project

Databases: MS SQL, MS Access, Oracle, AQS, Access Express

Languages: Java, .Net, XML, SPSS

Graphic Tool: Snag it, Justin Mind Prototype, Power Designer and MS publisher

Defect Tracking Tools: Silk Central, Bugzilla and JIRA

Microsoft Office Suite: Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Confidential, Harleysville, PA

Sr. Lead Business Analyst (Commercial Lines)

Responsibilities:

• Involved with projects mainly from Commercial Lines
• Worked on multiple projects with same release date
• Interact with the Business Area Subject Matter Experts to understand the Product and Business Processes thoroughly.
• Research and Analyzed Business needs and objectives to improve Property & Casualty products, contracts, and processes.
• Developed Business Analysis Plan by interacting with Stakeholders, Business Users, and Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) to identify business needs, business rules, business process specifications and project timeline.
• Review change notice and circular provided by Business.
• Create test policies for different lines of businesses for analysis in the AQS environment.
• Actively participated in JAD sessions for overcoming project issues related to data processing, user interface, midstream and downstream systems.
• Conduct Gap Analysis and made As-is-To-be diagrams to understand new business requirements and challenges in implementing new modules to AQS and PolicyCenter .
• Create Requirement description document to include the business requirements, technical requirements, non-functional requirements and error handling based on the analysis performed while creating the Process flows.
• Create Mock-ups of policy screens for new coverages for different lines of business in Commercial lines
• Created Requirements Document for AQS projects, including Business & Functional requirements, Tables, Forms, Screen Mock-ups.
• Helped the product owner in creating product backlogs and Sprint Backlogs .
• Assisted the Scrum Master in conducting & participating in Sprint Planning, Daily Stand Up, Sprint Review & Retrospective meeting .
• Assisted the Scrum Master to prepare and monitor burn-down charts for the successful completion of tasks within the time-boxes.
• Created User Stories by active interactions with SMEs and Guidewire Specialists.
• Created and maintained Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) to manage requirements and performed Impact Analysis when there was request for change.
• Conducted Walkthroughs of business requirements and functional requirements with the Business, Development and Test teams.
• Closely worked with the Development Team to make sure that there were no scope creeps
• Conduct daily interaction with the development team, stake holders, business users and Quality assurance teams to coordinate all engineered processes.
• Set up definitions and process for Scoping, document test cases, test phases included integration testing, end to end testing and user acceptance test (UAT) and documenting the results.
• Communication with off-shore team to make sure they are in sync with the current project requirements.
• Validated defects and test results generated by the QA team.
• Facilitated the Post Production Validation and actively participated in production call support whenever necessary and ensure smooth running of the system in real time
• Assisted in development of training guides, in deployment with step-by-step instructions and appropriate GUI screenshots.

Environment: Agile and Waterfall Methodology, Snagit, MS Visio, SQL Server, MS Office, MS SharePoint, AQS, Access Express, CL direct, Guidewire.

Confidential, Lincoln, RI

Business Analyst (Property and Casualty)

Responsibilities:

• Interact with the Business area Subject Matter Experts to understand the Product and Business Processes thoroughly.
• Research and Analyzed Business needs and objectives to improve Property & Casualty products, contracts, and processes.
• Lead JAD sessions with users and Business to bridge the gap in Reinsurance requirement captured and Design.
• Regular updates of Forms, Tables in Underwriting and Claims System as per the IRDA Regulations of Insurance and Reinsurance business.
• Identify opportunities for business process improvement (BPI) by conducting meetings with business users and developers and performing formal and informal benchmarking, cost benefit analysis and duration analysis and evaluating all potential costs and benefit that may be generated if the project is completed
• Capture business requirements in form of user stories using JAD sessions, brain storming sessions, focus groups and personal interviews and ensured coverage on business values, story points and acceptance criteria
• Expertly performed Gap Analysis to identify the deficiencies of the current system and to identify the requirements for the proposed system for Treaty and Facultative Reinsurance.
• Elicited, documented, modeled, validated and prioritized functional and non-functional requirements using interviews & data analysis.
• Involved in generating Test cases for property and casualty Insurances for Different Levels of Business.
• Create Requirement description document to include the business requirements, technical requirements, non-functional requirements and error handling based on the analysis performed while creating the Process flows.
• Helped the product owner in creating product backlogs and Sprint Backlogs .
• Assisted the Scrum Master in conducting & participating in Sprint Planning, Daily Stand Up, Sprint Review & Retrospective meeting .
• Assisted the Scrum Master to prepare and monitor burn-down charts for the successful completion of tasks within the time-boxes.
• Created and maintained Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) to manage requirements and performed Impact Analysis when there was request for change. Escalated results of the analysis to Change Control Board (CCB)
• Performed Walkthroughs of business requirements and functional requirements with the development and testing teams.
• Constantly worked with the development team to make sure that they understood the user requirements
• Conduct daily interaction with the development team, stake holders, business users and Quality assurance teams to coordinate all engineered processes.
• Set up definitions and process for Scoping, document test cases, test phases included integration testing, end to end testing and user acceptance test (UAT) and documenting the results.
• Validated defects and test results generated by the QA team.
• Facilitated the Post Production Validation and actively participated in production call support whenever necessary and ensure smooth running of the system in real time
• Create training guides, assist in deployment with step-by-step instructions and created appropriate GUI screenshots.

Environment:: Agile Methodology, Just in Mind, MS Visio, SQL Server, MS Office, MS SharePoint, Guidewire.

Confidential, Boston, MA

Business Analyst (Property and Casualty)

Responsibilities:

• Worked throughout the SDLC process, which included requirements, specifications, design, analysis and testing via utilizing RUP methodology.
• Prepared Business Requirement Document (BRD) and Functional Requirement Document (FRD) by gathering requirements through detailed discussions with business users and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for the E-Service model.
• Documenting business rules updates in policy, assumed, retro and accounting modules of reinsurance system
• Performed routine checks on Property and casualty loan litigation and negotiation processing activities as well as received reports from team members on selected claims applications.
• Closely interacted with designers and developers to understand the E-Service application functionality and navigational flow and kept them updated on requirement modifications to continuously improve and develop new features from existing web services to new.
• Worked on Commercial lines Property and Casualty Insurance including both policy and claim processing and reinsurance.
• Assisted in developing a comprehensive and user-friendly online claims filing and monitoring system for the policyholders .
• Developed Use Cases and Data Flow Diagrams (DFD ) for the online claims filing method using UI document .
• Organized and participated in Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions with claims department, development and testing teams.
• Analyzed and tested the user interface for constantly redesigning the system to increase its user friendliness for the clients.
• Tracked open issues using weekly status and progress reports and kept project manager updated.
• Designed Requirements Traceability Matrix .
• Prepared project reports for management and assisted project managers in the development of
• Weekly and monthly status reports
• Assisted the testing team by creating test conditions document to ensure functional accuracy of the testing.
• Facilitated User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
• Involved in Post Production Validation Testing (PPV)
• Organized and facilitated evaluation sessions with end users to examine their experience and improve functionalities of the new application accordingly.

Environment: MS Office Suite, Visio, Windows, Unix, Oracle, JIRA, SQL, .Net, Power Designer.

Confidential, New Orleans, Louisiana

Business Analyst (Property and Casualty)

Responsibilities:

• Worked with business stakeholders and project leaders to gather business requirements and worked with other business analysts to created functional requirements .
• Gathered and documented the business requirements into detailed business requirements document .
• Used the As-is business process maps to identify the gaps in the existing system.
• Created the To-be business process maps to figure out the solutions to all the teams and gain the approval from the SEMs and business management team .
• Created application prototypes and User Interface mock-ups .
• Developed UML Diagrams such as Use Case and Data Flow Diagrams with development and testing teams in order to claim the processing methods.
• Worked with other business analysts to created, brainstormed and redesigned User Interface .
• Conducted Requirement Walkthroughs with the development and testing teams to ensure the requirements are clarified and accurate before the development and testing started.
• Involved in Defect Life Cycle to validated and monitored all documented defects and progress.
• Worked with QA teams to create and approved the test plan and test cases .
• Created the Users Acceptance Testing plans with several business scenarios to ensure the functionality and features are reach the requirements and correct.
• Assisted and coordinated with testing teams to monitor bugs to ensure the system quality meets business standards and users requirements .

Environment: Rational Unified Process (RUP) methodology, Windows XP/Vista, DLC, UAT, Snagit, CaliberRM

Confidential

Business Analyst

Responsibilities:

• Conducted extensive brainstorming sessions with customers, claims specialists, claim adjudicators to collect ideas from end user’s perspective and recommend such functionalities to business owners upon doing a technical feasibility analysis with the help of a customer team consisting of designers, architects, developers and testers.
• Prepared detailed Business Requirement Documents (BRDs) and Functional Requirement Documents (FRDs) to capture the essential functionalities for the proposed PACP system .
• Developed the Use Cases and Data Flow Diagrams (DFD) to understand and communicate the claim processing method to be employed under the new system to the entire development and testing team.
• Closely interacted with database designers and architects to understand the data warehousing needed to support the new system.
• Designed wireframes of the web interfaces that would be used by the internal and external users to load, handle and examine claims respectively, using tools like Microsoft Visio.
• Assisted testers in developing a variety of possible test scenarios and cases to ensure that the system being built is resilient
• Monitored bugs in the system using tools like Silk Central to ensure that the quality of the system meets the industry standards and business user’s requirements.
• Coordinated and Monitored User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with the business user and interfaced with the development and test team with regards to defect status and fixes on a regular basis.
• Facilitated Post Production Validation and actively participated in production call support whenever necessary.
• Helped in preparing user-friendly documents like user manuals and system guides; provided training to user community as and when necessary.

Environment: Rational Unified Process (RUP) methodology, MS Project, Microsoft Office Suite, Microsoft Visio, Silk Central, SQL