Experience Summary

Confidential has 21 years of automated information systems software, project, and program management experience in the areas of operations management, system implementation, business process design, and functional accounting experience on progressively more technical and complex projects including 9 years of project management experience with automated information systems in the pension industry and 15 years of financial system and technical experience. Along with her active certified Project Management Professional (PMP) status from Project Management Institute (PMI), she has demonstrated the ability to direct and deliver complex projects encompassing all aspects of System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) from concept to fully operational status. In addition to clear managerial direction, Confidential’s communication skills enhance her execution skills of business analysis, training, and testing. Her ability to connect with customers and understand the business processes has been proven in the positions she has held in the past projects.
Recently, Confidential managed a 40 person team to modernize a pension calculation system and provide operations and maintenance support for the legacy systems until fully phased out. In applying CMMI and PMI practices, she managed the projects to receive independent audit scores that averaged 99.5%. Additionally, she stayed on the front line of customer meetings and internal meetings to assist in deliverable reviews, training material development, design session facilitation, and generation of critical testing reports. Additionally, Confidential successfully managed a $16 million defined benefit pension administration system implementation – after 3 failed attempts by 3 former vendors. She has used her pension industry knowledge, finance technology expertise, and excellent communication and management skills to design and implement change management and training programs at client locations, to inject enthusiasm and optimism into projects, and was instrumental in acceptance of new systems. 
Confidential’s organizational and leadership skills are demonstrated by her ability to ensure that tasks are completed on time, within budget, and meet requirements. Confidential was even able to limit the schedule impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita (weather events which transpired less than one month apart) on her project to 2 months by relocating staff and operations to cities outside of Louisiana.

Employment History

Confidential. 10/2010 – Present
Senior Project Manager 
Established Program Management leadership by directing two teams in parallel efforts for developing and maintaining a custom pension solution including production support, application upgrades, and application replacement. Developed resource loaded schedules in Primavera, managed multiple subcontractor companies, and coordinated all communication between the team and customer staff for scope change requests, change orders, risk identification, and issue identification and resolution. Managed the engagement according to customer SDLC, CMMI, and PMI processes that netted an average PPQA score of 99.5 percent.

Commanded team of 40 staff members in the system design, development, and deployment of a custom pension solution utilizing Oracle and Microsoft technology.Oversaw a team of business analysts in requirements gathering and definition activities, business case development, alternatives analysis, and presenting the recommended solution.Supervised technical staff including system architects, developers, and QA engineers through development, data migration, testing, quality assurance, training, documentation, rollout, and post implementation support.Provided hands-on guidance for the training planning and material development for the 300+ users of multiple roles. Coordinated critical communication channels during user acceptance testing, and verified configuration management practices were followed for all project artifacts.

Led Operations Support team in production application support and maintenance release development simultaneously with system design and development of replacement applications. Managed 5 maintenance releases of legacy modules that were all completed on or ahead of schedule and exceeded the customer quality metrics including zero defects in production.

Confidential 12/2005 – 09/2010
Owner/CEO 
Demonstrates organizational and leadership skills by owning and managing a 10-employee public service related company. Researched and implemented business and technology processes in compliance with strict Federal and local regulations. Developed, implemented, and maintains successful interfaces for front-end, communications, and financial system solutions to automate systems and business processes for total business operations. Responsible for setting company direction, negotiating and managing all contracts, managing and directing resources, profit and loss, and customer satisfaction.

Confidential 10/2008 – 11/2009
Project Manager
Provided pension industry expertise while leading research, analysis and presentation of alternatives for pension-related software solution redesign initiatives for New York State and Local Pension System, Mississippi State Employee’s Pension, Tennessee State Employee’s Pension, and Massachusetts State Employee’s Pension. Supervised 10 team members and Oracle technical staff to design a customized $20 million/year solution with financial and actuarial functionality through upgrades to legacy PeopleSoft Pension software.Demonstrated thorough knowledge of pension industry and Oracle’s Pension Administration system by assisting state pension agencies to understand the viability of solution pension management tools.Led the effort to identify business needs and technical requirements to ensure module cohesion and compatibility. Made recommendations to business stakeholders based on the independently developed requirements for the enhancement of end-to-end business processes, rule configuration, and reporting. Facilitated design sessions for teaming agreement with Oracle to co-develop upgrades to existing PeopleSoft Pension module.

Confidential 11/2004 – 10/2008
Deputy Project Manager/ Business Lead
Project: Louisiana State Employees Retirement System (LASERS) 
Led project management, system design, and change management activities for BearingPoint’s 4-year $16 million Pension Administration Solution (BPAS) implementation project that contained both financial and actuarial functionality through each phase of the System Development Life Cycle.Supervised a team of 18 business and technical resources.Oversaw a team of business analysts through requirements gathering and definition activities, business case development, alternatives analysis, and development of solution recommendations.Supervised 10 technical staff including system architects, developers, and QA engineers, through development, data migration, testing, quality assurance, training, documentation, rollout, and post implementation support.

Developed timelines, managed subcontractor budgeting, and coordinated communication between team and client staff for scope change requests, change orders, risk identification, and issue identification and resolution. Mediated discussions as a hands-on technical manager and proposed alternative solutions identifying costs, benefits, efficiency, time and resource commitments, issues, risks, and legal ramifications. Defined requirements, evaluated and engineered processes, and oversaw data modeling conversion including migrating legacy mainframe data to web-based (Microsoft .NET) systems. Worked utilizing excellent oral and written communication skills with project staff to design system and develop conditional page logic for financial aspects of the application including the application of Internal Revenue Service code to benefit calculations.

Co-wrote eligibility rules and calculations involving translating state and federal laws into syntax used by the SOA architecture. Created project procedures and regulated team practices consistent with CMMI Level 3 requirements. Ensured logging and tracking of defect resolution to completion. Monitored developers, QA engineers, and testing team through the transition from development and testing into production. Earned awards for exceptional contribution to company and client success by consistently meeting timelines and milestones and maintaining successful on-time/on-budget performance throughout the life of the project.Achieved the fewest number of scope changes, design fixes, and client-identified programming errors of any team on the LASERS project.

Confidential 09/2001 – 10/2004
Project Manager 
As an independent consultant Project Manager and Team Lead, Confidential successfully managed multiple simultaneous projects and project sub-teams through the various stages of the project lifecycle. She managed projects with average project lifecycle ranging from 2 to 4 years, ranging from $3 million to $7 million, and directly managed teams of between 5 and 10 personnel with various technical and business backgrounds. She led efforts including migration of mainframe legacy systems to web-based solutions, process design initiatives, change management, and post-deployment training.

Project: Georgia Department of Administrative Services Project05/2004 – 10/2004
Led a team of 6 providing alternative analysis to develop business cases for system simulations for system redesign effort involving upgrades to PeopleSoft Financials modules by leveraging the PeopleSoft user productivity toolkit. Developed and delivered system simulations used to train users on system and process functionality. Developed measurement metrics and testing methods used by Human Resources to determine employee comprehension and skill level.

Project: Employees Retirement System of Georgia Project 12/2003 – 05/2004
Led a staff of 6 on $3 million in change management initiatives for business process design, alternatives analysis, and training activities.Oversaw analysis and documentation of existing system, performed alternatives analysis for process redesign solutions, and made recommendations for migration. Documented change management analysis and designed instructional processes to aid with remedial user training on legacy system. Provided process design and analysis used to evaluate vendors for the system redesign solution including PeopleSoft. Controlled change orders and scope changes to meet requirements and maintain budget and timelines.

Project: Thrivent Financial Project 03/2003 – 09/2003
Led a staff of 5 on a $5 million effort and designed process improvement program, information sharing, and knowledge warehouse for implementation of new financial software modules including data conversion, application of defect fixes, and load testing.Provided technical guidance regarding migration to online analytical processing (OLAP) Essbase cubes by facilitating understanding of data setup and structure.Also created company-wide standards and templates for user documentation, training, forms, and reports.Oversaw creation of testing and training environments for PeopleSoft Financials.

Project: Teachers Retirement System of Georgia Project 07/2002 – 06/2004
Supervised automated information systems program activities that had a team that averaged 10 staff per year and $7 million budget for the migration of legacy mainframe system to a custom Delphi client-server-based system with financial and actuarial functionality. Provided business and technical guidance using alternatives analysis to identify optimum solutions for change management process design. Led change management and documentation teams to create technical system maintenance and process-based documentation providing end-users step-by-step directions for operation and maintenance of the new system. Oversaw the design of instruction methods and materials for cut-over training reducing the amount of retraining and post implementation support issues. Controlled change orders and scope changes to keep the projects in line with the original project charter, budget, and timelines.

Project: Coca Cola Project 09/2001 – 08/2002
Managed project scope, identified process improvements and technical issues with testing, data conversion, and training environments on this $3 million effort to implement JD Edwards Financials. Set and managed timelines for team of 5 instructional designers and technical writers. Verified data conversion results and recommended solutions for system configuration optimization. Established testing standards adopted by other teams on the project. System and process flaws identified testing and training efforts were used to evaluate the system’s readiness for production.

Confidential 07/2001 – 08/2001
Business Consultant 
Mentored mid-level management on company reporting. Worked alongside managers to understand the new financial reports during transition from a mainframe financial system to a client-server based system.

Confidential 09/1997 – 07/2001
Consultant 
Consulted with Case Corporation, Freddie Mac, and Underwriter Laboratories on operational issues including currency conversions, value added tax (VAT) conversions, and reporting compliance. Facilitated design and prototyping sessions, and managed establishment and testing of technical environments. Planned and managed training engagements worldwide for PeopleSoft financial applications and received awards for effective customer interactions.

Confidential 01/1991 – 09/1997
Consultant/Analyst 
Provided instruction for internal and external customers on financial software and reporting tools including Cognos and OLAP. Addressed implementation and accounting issues associated with the system. Processed operational accounting transactions, performed monthly reconciliations, and analyzed financial data. Awarded for outstanding customer focus.

Education

• Bachelor of Business Administration

Certifications & Awards

• Project Management Professional (PMP),

Training:

• Hyperion Training, Oracle Partner Enablement,
• Agile Methodology
• HelpDesk Solution, Oracle,
• Oracle Policy Automation/Haley Rules Engine, Oracle,
• Siebel CRM, Oracle,
• Oracle Pension Solution, CedarCrestone,
• PeopleSoft 9, Oracle,
• Project Management,
• SOA Architecture,