Ø                                                        An accomplished, seasoned Senior IT Manager with 14+ years of experience in

o                                 Program, Project, Operations and Delivery Management

o                                 Transition Management, Agile Development Methodologies, Estimation

o                                 Business Analysis and Business Relationship Management

o                                 Contract Negotiation/Administration, Budgeting

o                                 Risk, Change and Release Management, Team Training/Development and Client Relations

Ø                                                        Managing large projects exceeding the value of $3M. Combine astute strategic, business, and project management skills with an acumen for business consultancy and analysis that enables revenue and profit growth.

Ø                                                        Strategic manager with excellent analytical, leadership, interpersonal, problem solving and decision making abilities to lead, motivate and drive project teams to successful completion of projects with exceptional quality and budget exceeding customer expectations.

Ø                                                        Green card Holder.

 

Ø       7+ years of Program Management experience with fortune 500 companies for Clients like The Hartford Financials and United Services Automobile Association (USAA).

Ø       5+ years of Project Management experience with fortune 500 companies

Ø       4+ years of Implementation experience of ITIL standards in Application Maintenance Projects

Ø       3+ years of Implementation experience of Agile Scrum Methodology based Application Development Projects

Ø       6+ Years of Business Analysis experience with major P&C Insurance clients.

Ø       10+ years of Implementation experience of Waterfall SDLC based Application Development Projects

Ø       Hands on experience in establishing and implementing the processes for Transition management, Production Support and Project development to support roll out activities

Ø       Hand on experience in leading Managed Services Production support model for Clients.

Ø       Hand on experience working in Data Warehouse Information Management projects as Senior Business Analyst & Project/ Program Manager.

Ø       Hands on experience in performing Business Process Analysis and Modeling by identifying & proposing improvement opportunities.

Ø       Experienced in managing multi-cultural, multi-vendor teams at on and offshore.

Ø       Hands on experience in managing Time and material (T & M) and Fixed Price contracts.

Ø       Proven ability to work well with both Business and IT communities and users of all levels in achieving organization objectives and delivering cost & quality benefits to customers.

 

Project Management: Ø    Software Design & Development Risk Management Ø    Change Control Ø    Configuration Management Ø    Portfolio Management

IT Project Lifecycle: Ø    Requirements Analysis Ø    Costing & Budgeting Ø    Project Scheduling Ø    Testing/ QA/ Rollout/ Support

Value-Added Leadership: Ø    Cross-Functional Supervision, Team Building & Mentoring Ø    Client Relations & Presentations Ø    Business & IT Planning

 

Ø       Databases- Oracle, MS SQL Server, MS Access

Ø       OOAD Experience-UML, Frameworks

Ø       Tools  - MS Project 2010, MS Visio, Share Point, Rational Software Architect, Requisite Pro, TOAD, Informatica, Business Objects, HP QC, Rational Team Concert.

Ø       SDLC - Waterfall, Agile, SCRUM

Ø       Operating System – Windows

 

Ø       Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science, Bharathidasan University, India – 1996-2000

Ø       Project Management Professional (PMP®) from PMI® – Dec 2013

Ø       Certified Scrum Master (CSM®) from Scrum Alliance® – Jun 2015

Ø       ITIL Foundation Certified (ITIL®) from AXELOS – Jun 2015

Ø       Certified Business Analyst Professional (CBAP®) from IIBA® – Sep 2012

Ø       Associate in General Insurance from The Institutes® (AINS - INS 21, INS 22, INS 23) – Mar 2010

Ø       Associate in Personal Insurance from The Institutes® (API 28) – Sep 2011

Ø       IBM DB2 Certification – Nov 2006

 

Organization: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd

Role: Program Manager, Scrum Master

Period: Aug 2004 – till date

Key Clients: American Heart Association, The Hartford Financials, USAA

 

United Services Automobile Association – Led a team of Business Analyst and Programmers for Mobile Application Development and Maintenance of Enterprise Money Movement projects.

Project Cost – 1M $ | Tools used –SharePoint, MS Visio, Requisite Pro, Rational Software Architect, IBM Rational Concert Team |

 

Roles – Scrum Master, Program Manager and Senior Business Analyst.

Ø       Facilitate Iteration planning, Story writing, estimation and accountable for end-end delivery. 

Ø       Conduct daily standup meetings, deliverable demos, and retrospective meetings.

Ø       Coach Scrum Team and Business partners on Scrum process and resolve project impediments.

Ø       Support Product Owner with Prioritization and Planning.

Ø       Accountable for End to End delivery within the given Timeline & Budget right from Inception to Production support and handover

 

Ø       Facilitated meetings to gather business requirements for various projects. 

Ø       Analyzed and drafted business process flow using Visio.

Ø       Explored & proposed improvement opportunities in Business processes. 

Ø       Defined use case models using IBM Rational Software Architect. 

Ø       Followed reusable strategies in deriving and maintaining the business artifacts.

Ø       Involved in analyzing and drafting system requirements (use cases) and activity diagrams.

Ø       Created UI Specifications or data capture rules.

Ø       Conducted review and acquired customers sign-off. 

Ø       Served as a liaison, interacting with offshore and onsite team and conducted effort estimation. 

Ø       Administered analysis design and code for the given requirements.

Ø       Provided strategic and tactical direction. 

American Heart Association (AHA) – Implemented Business Intelligence Data Integration (BIDI) Fixed Price (FP) program to create an enterprise Data Warehouse by enhancing AHA’s Analytical capabilities and efficient data handling through Master Data Management.

Project Cost – 1.5M $ | Tools used – MS Project 2010, TFS, SharePoint |

 

Roles – Program Manager, Business Relationship Manager

Ø       Handling the day to day operations of 20+ member team spread over on and offshore

Ø       Managed Resource Planning, Allocations and effective utilization, setting goals, planned trainings

Ø       Effectively communicate project expectations to team members and stakeholders in a timely and clear fashion. Liaise with project stakeholders on an ongoing basis.

Ø       Identified and managed project dependencies and critical path. Planned and scheduled project timelines and milestones using appropriate tools. Tracked project milestones and deliverables

Ø       Perform resource management and status reporting to AHA CIO, Directors & senior program managers. 

 

Ø       Identify customer needs and partner in delivering end-to-end quality service to the business. 

Ø       Serve as single point of contact for all the delivery, support of the program and address escalations. 

Ø       Explore and support new business growth opportunities. 

Ø       Interface with CIO & directors for program support. 

Ø       Administer accounts receivable, invoicing and providing account’s revenue projections.

Ø       Prepare SOW, facilitate procurement & legal teams for contract executions.

 

The Hartford Financials – Managed Application Development, Maintenance and Production Support of Business critical Personal Lines Data warehouse Information Management applications and services with a team size of 40 members spread over on and offshore.

Project Cost – 3M $ | Tools used – Informatica, Business Objects, MS Project 2010, SharePoint, MS Visio |

 

Roles – Program Manager, Senior Business Analyst

Ø       End to End delivery right from Inception to Production support and handover

Ø       Defined project scope, goals and deliverables that support business goals in collaboration with senior management and stakeholders.


Ø       End to End ownership on executing projects according to identified deadlines and within budget.

Ø       Manage day to day individual workload, monitoring project milestones and critical dates to identify potential jeopardy of the project's schedule and identify / mitigate risks. 

Ø       Identify and solve project issues effectively

Ø       Build, develop, and grow any business relationships vital to the success of the project.

Ø       Managed Resource Planning, Allocations and effective utilization, setting goals, planned trainings

 

Ø       Interfaced with business community in gathering functional requirements. 

Ø       Documented BRDs, MRDs, mapping documents, and process flows for Data Warehouse Information Management Projects. 

Ø       Proposed enhancements and fixes to existing System & Business processes.

Ø       Mentored and formulated Business Analysts team to support Business & Project needs.         

 

 

Organization: Future Focus Infotech

Role: Business Associate (Module Leader)

Period:  Sep 2003 – Aug 2004

Key Client: Tata Consultancy Services Limited (For USAA)

 

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/SabaBala