Sindhu S.
Sr. Business Analyst
SUMMARY
· Seasoned Sr. Business / Systems Analyst with over 9 years of IT experience executing plans and projects under given timeline, across a variety of industries including healthcare, banking and insurance
· Thorough understanding of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and their variants viz. Waterfall, Agile, RUP and knowledge in complete software development life cycle processes including System Analysis, Design, Development, Testing, Implementation and documentation
· Strong experience in Scrum methodology and lead the scrum team as a Scrum Master
· Skilled in performing Gap analysis and Impact Analysis by identifying existing technologies, documenting the enhancements to meet the end-state requirements
· Created and reviewed various documents including the System Requirement Specifications (SRS), Business requirements document (BRD), Use Cases, Functional Specifications (FSD), Systems Design Specification (SDS), Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) and testing documents
· Extensive experience in requirement elicitation techniques like Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions, Document analysis, Prototyping, Reverse engineering, Brainstorming, Requirement workshop with users, subject matter experts (SME's) and business stakeholders
· Excellent Analytical skills in understanding and identifying the Business process and conducting feasibility studies to develop Scope and Vision Document
· Adept at creating and transforming business requirements into functional requirements and designing business models using UML diagrams - Context, Use Case, Sequence, Activity diagrams in MS Visio and Rational Rose
· Excellent Experience in preparing Project related documents like Field Mapping, Project Management Plan, Weekly/Daily Task Reports and Project Status Reports for Stakeholder audiences
· Facilitated project meetings, reviews, walkthroughs, and customer interviews to gather requirements and relevant information for Business analysis
· Extensive experience in writing SQL Queries and in-depth knowledge of Database Management Systems.
· Strong experience in conversion and re-engineering project for Legacy applications
· Experience in Release management.
· Documented and communicated changes throughout the user organization, supporting Information System Change Management (ISCM) and compliance protocols
· Experienced in handling Change Management, writing Test Plans and executing Test Cases
· Adept at defect tracking and leading User Acceptance Testing with the Stakeholders
· Exceptional Problem Solving and Sound Decision Making capabilities, along with the ability to resolve difficult situations
· Experienced with project management, planning, Issue/risk management, budget and resource management, Executive reporting
· Excellent team player with good communications and analytical skills.
EDUCATION
· Master of Business Administration, Kogod School of Business, American University, Washington DC
· Masters in Electronic Media, College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University, Chennai, India
TECHNICAL SKILLS
Methodologies / AGILE, Waterfall, RUP, PEGA BPMProject Management tools / MS Project, Rational Requisite Pro, DOORS, Rational Rose, MS Visio, Rally, SharePoint, JIRA, SAP R/3, PRPC, OPTIM (IBM)
Testing Tools / QTP, ClearCase, ClearQuest
Test Strategies / Integration, System, Regression, User-Acceptance, Black-Box, White-Box Testing, Functional, Manual
Databases / DB2 UDB 9.5, Oracle 10i, MS SQL Server
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Sr. Business Analyst, Bayer, NJ
Apr 2015- To Present
Responsibilities:
· Gathered business requirements by driving user-group meetings and working with various global, cross-functional and virtual teams
· Prepared User Requirements Document (URD), Business Requirements Document (BRD) and Functional Requirements Document (FRD)
· Generated business process modeling/ workflow diagrams using Visio
· Utilized Rational Requirements Management, Change Management and Configuration Management processes and tools
· Translated abstract business concepts into well-defined requirements and processes
· Used the Rational Suite, RequisitePro to setup and tag the requirements and ClearQuest to track and report defects. Configured additional properties in RequisitePro with appropriate values for the Test Cases
· Verified the detailed Use Cases were all inclusive of the business processes. Established traceability from the high-level requirements, detail-level requirements through to the test Cases
· Experienced in formulating information architectures, including user flows, site map/navigation schema, wireframes, detailed design specifications, and traceability mappings
· Conducted GAP analysis by understanding the AS-IS system and the TO-BE system requirements with the support from SME’s
· Worked closely with Project Manager in setting realistic project deliverable and timelines pertaining to the Requirements Management
· Assisted Project Manager to mitigate project Risks and resolve issues and accommodate Change Requests
· Liaised between the internal/external business community and the IT organization
· Gave presentations to the Senior management and updated them about the status of the project throughout the lifecycle of the project
Environment: MS Office Tools, MS Outlook, MS Visio, Rational Suite, ClearQuest
Business System Analyst, Wells Fargo, Minneapolis
From Feb 2013- Apr 2015
Responsibilities:
· Lead and facilitated meetings with Business and End users to gather business requirements for changes triggered by Business needs and Process improvements
· Performed Gap analysis and Impact Analysis by identifying existing technologies, documenting the enhancements to meet the end-state requirements
· Participated in creating RFP, vendor evaluation, research, analysis
· Created and managed a Master Project plan from requirements phase to implementation for the RFP process
· Managed and created issue log, risk register and project schedule
· Organized requirements into high level Use Cases and low-level Use Case Specifications and modeled them into Activity and Sequence Diagrams using Workflow modeling
· Applied UML notations and methodology in developing models that accurately represent the business processes and workflows for clear and concise communication to the stakeholders
· Lead JAD sessions involving the management, development and user teams for requirements gathering
· Assured that all Artifacts are in compliance with corporate SDLC policies and guidelines
· Reviewed the Test Plan developed by the testing team for testing the application and meeting business needs
· Involved in performing version control and defect tracking activities
· Worked with the QA team for designing Test Plan and Test Cases for the User Acceptance testing (UAT)
· Generated training materials/ cheat sheets with custom screens and conducted end user training
· Tracked project tasks/deliverables using Microsoft Project 98. Provided meeting minutes/status reports
Environment: Waterfall, Agile, Windows 2000, MS Office, DOORS, Visio2010, DB2, Jira, Rally
Business System Analyst, United Health, Minneapolis
From Sep 2010- Feb 2013
Responsibilities:
· Prepared Project Plan and conduct Project Kick Off Meeting
· Performed current state analysis; prepared analysis documents (Current state and future state), project scope and vision documents
· Conducted GAP Analysis, Cost Benefit Analysis and Business Impact Analysis
· Worked on preparing new products and services in line with Healthcare regulations
· Developed Business Requirement Document and Use Case Specification Document for Use Cases
· Responsible for converting the business requirements into functional and non-functional requirements
· Conducted JAD sessions for eliciting requirements with Project Sponsors and Stakeholders and created process workflows, functional specifications and project initiation artifacts
· Responsible for writing Functional Requirement Specifications (FRS) and User Requirement Specification
· Analyzed Business Requirements and created Use Cases, Activity Diagrams / State Chart Diagrams using Rational Rose according to UML methodology thus defining the Data Process Models
· Performed extensive requirement analysis including Data analysis and Gap analysis
· Defined Functional Test Cases, documented, executed test scripts
· Coordinated QA activities across Functional QA and Performance QA teams
· Assigned tasks among development team, monitored and tracked progress of project following Agile methodology.
· Created Process Flow diagrams, Use Case Diagrams, Class Diagrams and Interaction Diagrams using Microsoft Visio and Rational BPM
· Wrote Test Cases and performed User Acceptance Testing, documented the in-detail defects using the Defect Tracking report
· Used Test Case distribution and development reports to track the progress of test case planning, implementation and execution results
· Involved in compatibility testing with other software programs, hardware, Operating systems and network environments
· Prepared lessons learned documents, maintained risk/issue logs (using Clarity) and developed risk mitigation strategy
Environment: MS Office, MS Visio, EDI, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Power Point, Visio.
Business Analyst, AARP, Washington DC
From Aug 2008- Sep 2010
Responsibilities:
· Elicited requirements using interviews, document analysis, requirements workshops, business process descriptions, scenarios and workflow analysis.
· Developed ‘as-is’ and ‘to-be’ process mapping.
· Proactively communicated and collaborated with internal Stakeholders to analyze information needs and functional requirements and deliver the needed artifacts (i.e., Project Charter document, Use cases, Wireframes/ Screen mock-ups and Requirements Traceability Matrix).
· Participated in product requirements review sessions with business; understand the assumptions, dependencies and constraints.
· Managed meetings and facilitated projects by leading action item lists, schedules, status updates etc.
· Served as the conduit between the customer community and the software development team and supported requirements throughout design, development, testing, implementation and transition phases.
· Worked as a SME responsible for creating and maintaining functional requirements to handle all the queries and concerns of development and testing teams.
· Performed risk analysis and mitigation and managed requirements change control throughout project lifecycle.
· Worked with parties across multiple functional and departmental boundaries to conduct process development sessions, negotiate issues, and reach consensus.
· Used Agile methodology for the iterative development of the application and participated in weekly sprints and daily stand up meetings
· Worked closely with the Product owner to understand the Epics and decompose them into User Stories, preparing the Product Backlog
· Worked with the Scrum Master and the development team to identify and understand how many user stories to be included in the sprint
· Contributed in Sprint Planning, Review and Retrospective meetings to guide the project along its development process
· Involved in User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with the business team to validate accuracy of the enhancements being developed
· Conducted walkthrough and made presentations to the client and senior management
Environment: Waterfall, Agile, Windows 2000, MS Office, DOORS, Visio2010, DB2, Jira, Rally