VENKATA KARRA, _{PMP and PMI-ACP}
Phone: 214-893-1428(M), Email: vkarra22@yahoo.com; www.linkedin.com/in/venkatakarra/

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY: Senior level professional with experience in Software Quality Assurance and Project Management. Have proficient understanding of industry standard Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) process in both Waterfall and Agile QA methodologies and demonstrated ability to manage people, programs, projects and initiatives. As a QA manager for multiple projects, have been involved in evaluating the scope, establishing test strategies, defining test process, estimating testing effort, resource planning, and schedules for various projects in Telecom and Health Care domain. Adept in designing the Measurement plans, metrics, dashboards and scorecards and has the aptitude of providing overall testing status, risk management, resource planning, test environment planning and tracking various SLA’s with relevant stakeholders and vendors. Able to foster a positive and productive work environment with ability to lead, build and motivate teams.

v      Solid and proven experience of delivering large and complex projects with teams across multiple R&D locations both onsite and offshore. Drove test execution schedule to stay within 10% of forecast.

v      Managed project assignments and performance tracking for 100+ employees offshore and on site.

v      Using Six Sigma methodology, analyzed customer issues for three releases, Designed and developed internal verification processes which resulted in a reduction of 50% of external documentation issues compared to previous releases.

v      Optimized the regression packages with savings of 20% offshore resources.

v      Spearheaded training program for product verification team and trained 60 overseas IBM contractors at five different Nortel sites in US, Canada, India and China. Produced 60-trained Quality Assurance engineers within 16 weeks installed and commissioned two test beds in India.

Computer Skills: CA Technologies Clarity Project and Portfolio Management (PPM), Microsoft (MS) Project, MS Office Suite, MS Visio, MS SharePoint, HP Quality Center, HP Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), IBM Rational Team Concert (RTC).

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Test Architect, UST Global, September 2013 – July 2015.

Step It Up America – A UST Global National Program that provides training and employment to inner-city minority people. It equips the graduates in the program with the technology skills to launch successful IT careers and provide job opportunities.

·               Coach for Step It Up America (SIUA) Quality Assurance (QA) Graduates in various key corporations to which the graduates are assigned in Atlanta, Georgia.

·               Lead SIUA graduates on completing an automation project with South West Airlines and one UST internal IT project. Validate artifacts being created by SIUA QA testers to meets UST-Global TCoE guidelines

·               Servant leader, responsible for leading and measuring the overall improvement of the STLC techniques, tools and results, as well as for continuous growth and retention of the SIUA graduates.

·               Responsible for teaching and guiding QA Graduates in all aspects of Quality Assurance.

·               Prepare the graduates to be ready for QA interviews, which includes mock interviews.

·               Introduce initiatives that they deem as valuable additions to both the participants and the program.

Independence Blue Cross of Philadelphia; Test Architect for HCR Projects. CMS software improvements (changes to RAPS system) and HCR initiatives (limit on Out of Pocket Maximum).

·               Client delivery role, Project Management and general business management, leading teams, motivating people and building relationships in complex project environments.

·               Help team members design software testing strategies and mentor team members on test case creation techniques.

·               Established overall testing practices for the offshore teams and on-site QA contractors to ensure quality, integrity, and performance.

·               Consolidated regular project status reports for all reporting teams and communicated all risks and issues to the QA and project leadership in a timely manner.

·               Collaborate with leadership team for proper resources and budget to support testing.

·               Ensure all test artifacts (Test Plan, Test Cases, Requirements traceability matrix, and Test Summary report) submitted to client with high quality.

Ericsson Business Unit CDMA Product Verification, Richardson, Texas, January 2010 – July 2013

Project Manager - Functional Interface to Tata Consultancy services team, Product line management team, Design team, Network and Systems Engineering team, Documentation team, and Customer Account teams.

·               Established and implemented QA processes and methodologies for the test community to ensure testing activities are delivered on time, adhering to high quality standards meeting customer expectations.

·               Implemented solutions using Software Development Life Cycle methodology (SDLC).

·               Have managed Agile projects using Scrum, activities include conducting Scrum ceremonies, creating roadmap, release planning, iteration planning, daily stand up, demos, and retrospectives.

·               Provided expert direction to QA team leads and TCS Contractors in Test planning, Test suite development, Test case execution for Sanity testing, Feature testing, Regression Testing, Capacity and Performance testing, customer documentation verification, backward compatibility testing and Installation & Upgrade testing.

·               Analyzed test results and KPI metrics to identify, report and respond to developing trends.

·               Performed Root Cause Analysis (RCA) on field issues and increased test coverage with appropriate test scenarios in future releases.

·               Conduct weekly Triage meetings with stakeholders on the issues seen during project execution and develop mitigation plans.

·               Participated in post-mortem activity such as “Lessons Learned” and identified test areas that needed improvement for future releases..

·               Performed process improvements and initiated quality initiatives based on the trends seen during internal product testing.

NORTEL, Richardson, Texas, October 2000 –December 2009  

QA Manager – Oct 2000 – Dec 2009
Member of Scientific Staff July 1996 – Sep 2000  

QA Manager: Served as a technical liaison for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CDMA Quality Assurance team. Coached TCS project managers and team members with Nortel processes since inception.

·               Established and implemented project management processes and methodologies for TCS project managers to ensure quality project deliverables on schedule and budget.

·               Developed and distributed executive level summary metrics across multiple projects to communicate overall program level testing status, associated risks and recommendations.

·               Review design requirements and develop high-level estimates for management decisions.

·               Led Testing / Verification of five major Software releases – each release consisted of 20+ software loads, residing on 10+ different hardware platforms, supported by over 3,000 pages of documentation.

·               Led multiple product verification teams in creating, maintaining and executing regression packages for releases, with improved quality and efficiency. Accountable to set measurable productivity metrics for TCS.

CREDENTIALS

·               Project Management Professional (PMP).

·               PMI-Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP).

·               Nortel Certified Six Sigma Greenbelt.

·               MBA Marketing, University of Dallas, Dallas, TX / MS (Software Engineering), Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX. / B.S. Electrical Engineering, Andhra University, India.

 

SUMMARY OF ACHIEVEMENTS

v      Scope: Served as a technical liaison for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CDMA Quality Assurance team. Coached TCS project managers and team members with Ericsson/Nortel processes since inception.
Major Achievement: Established clear, realistic timelines for QA projects within TCS. Negotiated favorable hardware purchases and software licenses, developed cost and service review frame work to provide hard numbers for executive decision making. As Management Prime for offshore TCS QA team maintained statement of work and manage monthly invoices for 70 offshore resources.
 

v      Scope: Led multiple CDMA product verification teams in creating, maintaining and executing regression packages for several releases, improved quality, and efficiency.
Technical and Business leadership: Encouraged project primes to review existing coverage and solved problems through innovative ideas and different approaches to optimize regression packages.
Bottom-Line Results: Optimized the regression packages with savings of 20% offshore resources, which are used for other QA activities.

 

v      Scope: Spearheaded training program for CDMA product verification team and trained 60 overseas IBM contractors at five different Ericsson/Nortel sites in US, Canada, India and China.
Technical and Business Leadership: Implemented training program in three phases, with clear objectives and exit criteria for each phase. Guided phase – Class room training on Technology and process, Assisted phase – work with mentors and Parallel phase – execution at par with existing team members.
Bottom-Line Results: Produced 60 well trained CDMA product verification engineers within 16 weeks, have installed and commissioned two test beds in India, and executed assigned regression test cases. 
 

v      Scope: Technical Project Manager for integration of Legacy Ericsson products into CDMA solution.

Business Leadership: Assisted in developing process for integrating SE 1200 into CDMA solution, Reported progress to SE 1200 and Ericsson management.  Developed project plan, established deliverables, identified key risks, developed mitigation plans, Monitored and controlled project work.
Bottom-Line Results: Successfully integrated SE 1200 into CDMA network, deployed at customer sites without any issues.
 

v      Scope: Addressed recurring quality issues with customer documentation.
Major Achievement: Using Six Sigma methodology, Analyzed customer issues for the three releases, identified ways to streamline document verification process, implemented changes, and put a system in place to share best practices.
Bottom-Line Results: Designed and developed internal verification processes which resulted in a reduction of 50% of external documentation issues compared to previous releases.
 

v      Scope: Led CDMA Sanity team providing strategic program leadership for Ericsson/Nortel cost reduction initiatives resulting from combining CDMA Core and Access sanity packages.
Bottom-Line Results: Designed and developed sanity process, combining CDMA Access and Core sanity packages, which resulted in a saving of resources which were utilized for other activities.