Resume of DEEPTHI BASALINGAPPA

Resume of DEEPTHI

Resume of DEEPTHI

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS

· Seasoned Release Manager with over NINE years of solid IT experience with outstanding project planning, execution, monitoring and resource balancing skills with ability to support multiple simultaneous projects in a matrix organizational structure.

· Successfully deployed multiple business solutions in Insurance, Banking and Finance domains.

· Demonstrated abilities to manage a project through its complete lifecycle viz. Initiation, Planning and Design, Execution, monitoring and controlling through Closing.

· Extensive experience in Release/Change Management, Project Management, writing technical specifications, complete Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), Use Case Modeling, VISIO Diagramming.

· Proven effectiveness in building good client interaction, partnering with senior business leaders and working collaboratively at all levels to assess, plan, and implement IT solutions. Excellent facilitation skills in conducting walkthroughs, brainstorming sessions and conducting core team meetings.

· Proficient experience in production implementation support and defect management. Excellent communication and presentation skills, quick learner, enthusiastic team player with an ability to perform individually.

CERTIFICATIONS:

· Life Office Management Association (LOMA) 280 and 290 Certifications.

· Domain certifications (Banking Foundation, Equities Overview, Brokerage Operations for Equity).

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Platform/Technologies: MVS/IBM Mainframe.

Languages: COBOL, CICS, JCL, FOCUS, NOMAD, PACBASE.

Databases: DB2, IMS, SQL Server 2000.

Software Tools/App Server used: XPEDITOR, CHANGEMAN.

Modeling Tools: MS Visio2000, Erwin.

Others: PowerPoint, Excel, Word, TEXT Pad, Microsoft VSS, HP Quality Center 9.2.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Jan ‘10 - Present Ameriprise Financial

Release Manager (Jan ‘13 - Present) Minneapolis, MN

Beta Host Release:

Our Brokerage vendor Thomson Reuters follows a monthly release cycle for all of its customers of the BETA platform. The monthly release is a combination of both AFI and non-AFI product enhancements and defects. The BETA monthly release dates are well defined and published a year in advance. However the details of changes within the release are typically communicated 3 weeks in advance, leaving Ameriprise little time to evaluate the changes.

Business Benefits/Goals:

Defines the process by which BETA monthly Host releases are analyzed, reviewed and authorized within Ameriprise. Performance Improvements.

The goal is to ensure the integrity and availability of Ameriprise applications are not impacted by vendor changes.

Responsibilities:

· Retrieve, store and communicate release notes and problem record details. Retrieve, store and communicate functional specs and supporting information. Facilitated Host impact analysis sessions and any other required meetings or communications with cross commit teams.

· Set up, facilitate and follow up on actionable items from the impact assessment, problem record review, production support walkthrough and post implementation review meetings. Retrieve, store and communicate production readiness and production validation signoffs from stakeholders.

· Set up vendor work requests for any changes that require any testing exception.

Release Manager (Apr ‘14 - Sep ‘14)

DB2V10 Upgrade:

Ameriprise DB2 upgrade from Version 9 to 10.

Business Benefits/Goals:

Primary Reason for the software upgrade is to keep the environment updated with supported releases which allows us to meet business outcomes of availability, performance and data currency.

Performance Improvements.

Availability Enhancements.

Application Enhancements.

Responsibilities:

· Interaction with cross commit group across various bundles for detailed implementation plan including RFC #, Tasks, Person responsible for tasks, back up plan and escalation contact. Co-ordination with IBM DB2 team for the project script as part of implementation planning.

· Co-ordination with internal DBA group for the DBA script and plan that will be executed during implementation.

· Pre implementation activities including Change/Release management process, production support walk-throughs and implementation plan walk-through with all stakeholders and leadership.

· Participating in implementation activities including facilitating conference call with Ameriprise and IBM teams and tracking the tasks, documenting any issues during install. Documenting cross commit production validation and summarizing the results for Go/No-Go checkpoint calls.

· Post implementation support till warranty phase.

Environment: COBOL, CICS, JCL, DB2, Changeman, HP Quality Centre 9.2, MS Word, Outlook, Excel, Power Point, MS Visio 2000.

Release Manager (Apr ‘13 - May ‘14)

Sysplex Split:

Sysplex Split involves dividing the current production SYSPLEX consisting of four (4) LPARs with SYSID names of SYSA, PS61, DS11, and SYSB into two separate and independent SYSPLEXes. This is for Mainframe specific environment.

Business Benefits/Goals:

Provide a highly available MF environment with a virtually continuous operation.

Higher availability through true separation of Production and Development environments - separate test and production data providing better data management.

Provide a production environment that supports failover if one machine goes down.

Provide a MF environment where throughput is optimal to meet business needs.

Responsibilities:

· Holds overall responsibility to plan, develop, coordinate and lead software release activities with application and support teams beginning with the Software Testing phase till production implementation.

· Risk mitigation planning and documentation identifying key issues and risks, dependencies and create backup plans. Manage checkpoint conference bridge while duty managing a deployment.

· Responsible to maintain RFC\'s and make sure the processes adhere to Change/Release management standards. Communicate overall completion status to Technology Project managers. Coordination with cross commit teams and track deployment activities as they occur using implementation plans.

· Facilitate resolution of issues during deployment and escalate issues where necessary. Create and maintain Release Notes.

Environment: COBOL, CICS, JCL, DB2, Changeman, HP Quality Centre 9.2, MS Word, Outlook, Excel, Power Point, MS Visio 2000, Microsoft Project Plan.

Release Manager (Jan ‘12 - May ‘13)

NBP Conversion:

New Brokerage Platform Conversion project involves systematically converting set of selected advisors, client data, accounts and assets from one platform (Phase 3) to another (BETA) in multiple waves. Each wave includes non-financial and financial conversion activities. Conversion is a major event which involved converting 1.2M accounts in every wave with the below statistics.

Total Number of Advisors that went through last wave of conversion 8,515.

Total Number of accounts that went through Non Financial conversion 740,205.

Total Number of accounts that went through Financial Conversion 1,248,023.

Responsibilities:

· Preparing monthly score card details with forecasted and actual spent on the project along with project highlights and challenges for client leadership review.

· Complete responsibility to plan, develop, coordinate and lead software release activities with application and support teams beginning with the Software Testing phase for NBP Conversion.

· Meetings with Cross-commit teams for the detailed implementation plan documenting RFC, Tasks, Person responsible for each task during implementation, escalation contact during implementation. Facilitating all agreed entry/exit criteria in the production environment.

· Ensure the consistency of test environment and production. Track corrective actions of change related incidents. Monitor and report success/failure of changes.

· Develop and manage the roll out schedules, implementation plans and activities/tasks for and across all functional groups involved in the release and work across functional groups involved in the release. Prepare and present weekly status reports to leadership in the weekly team meeting.

· Document risk and issues to the implementation and identifying Plan B.

Environment: COBOL, CICS, JCL, DB2, NOMAD, Changeman, HP Quality Centre 9.2, MS Word, Outlook, Excel, Power Point, MS Visio 2000,Compare and Merge, Microsoft Project Plan.

Technical Lead (Jan ‘11 - Jan ‘12)

Brokerage Access Management (BAM):

The scope of the project is to create data integration for T1.com through Brokerage Access Management (BAM). As part of this project BAM would generate a standard interface to T1.com project; this interface would provide user access to T1.com. T1.com is a Web based application from Thomson Reuters that would enable advisors to continue with their daily activities like Trading, Market alerts and quotes etc.

Responsibilities:

· Interaction with business to understand the requirements. Working with architects and constructing the context flow diagram, User requirements and detail design. Participating in low level design review and Code reviews.

· Meetings with Cross-commit team for getting estimates from them for their requirements and driving the dates. Completing the monthly forecast workbook for all Tech effort.

· Meetings with offshore tech teams to explain the requirements, provide a high level design flow and driving the phase end dates for delivery. Follow up meetings with business stakeholders for any open questions and issue resolution during testing.

· Planning and participating in implementation plan walk-through with all the stakeholders.

· Pre-implementation planning following Change and release management process, Production support walk-throughs, implementation support during install and post implementation support till warranty phase.

· Transitioning the project to Application Production Support and BAU (Business As Usual) teams after the warranty phase.

Environment: COBOL, CICS, JCL, DB2, NOMAD, Changeman, HP Quality Centre 9.2, MS Word, Outlook, Excel, Power Point, MS Visio 2000,Compare and Merge.

Technical Lead (Jan ‘10 - Jan ‘11)

Brokerage Data Integration Layer (BDIL):

The scope of the project is to create data integration using Thomson Reuters Beta Host access files and using at Brokerage Data Integration Layer at Ameriprise end. This application receives Beta input files. Beta input files are pipe delimited VB files. Files are validated for batch date and correct record count. Once validation happens successfully, files are processed to remove pipe & convert it to a FB file. If these files are input Append to Append or Replace to Replace it creates an internal file which will be then NDM to HODS server at Ameriprise end.

Responsibilities:

· Meetings with Cross-commit team for their requirements and driving the dates for delivery. Completing the monthly forecast workbook for all Tech effort.

· Planning and participating in implementation plan walk-through with all the stakeholders.

· Transitioning the project to Application Production Support and BAU (Business As Usual) teams after the warranty phase.

Environment: COBOL, CICS, JCL, DB2, NOMAD, Changeman, HP Quality Centre 9.2, MS Word, Outlook, Excel, Power Point, MS Visio 2000,Compare and Merge.

Oct ‘07 - Dec ‘09 MetLife

Program Analyst Hartford, CT

This was an enhancement project which had the requirement to change the input feed from sequential file to XML. The project focused on modifying the PCTS application to efficiently and effectively support new and existing business through enhanced pricing and load capabilities.

Responsibilities:

· Extensively interacted with the Onsite coordinator to get the business requirements from client. Developed detailed design documents, component design documents and work flow diagrams. Mentored the team of 3 and reviewed development work.

· Created system integration test plans and scripts to ensure the system level functionality. Prepared performance test scripts to ensure the performance stability of the code developed. QA and warranty support. Transition to Production Support team after warranty support.

Oct ‘06 - Sep ‘07 Cardif

Program Analyst Milan, Italy

It is an integrated system that handles Products, Contracts, Persons, Partners, agents, Funds. The system is designed to provide all of the functions needed to handle insurance activities. This includes product creation and modification(adding some features), contract creation and modification(change of funds or subscriber or beneficiary or premium plan), Premium calculation and payment system, Person management and tracking, Partner management, reporting the client by sending relevant letters, Claim System and Total or Partial redemption system.

Responsibilities:

· Implementing maintenance and enhancement Requests. Preparing requirements understanding documents for major development projects. Independent testing of the enhancement Requests. Mentoring juniors and reviewing their work.

· Module Lead activities like preparing Status reports, Time Sheets, SLA Metrics, Quarterly reports. Configuration control activities.

Mar ‘05 - Sep ‘06 Versicherungs Kammer Bayern (VKB)

Software Engineer Munich, Germany

VBK Beko project was developed to maintain and enhance the policy management system for non-life property and casualty insurance service. Using Beko application VKB maintains all the data related to its insurance business. Beko project also handled contract creation, contract maturity, product creation and printing services for VKB.

Responsibilities:

· Performed business requirement analysis and impact analysis for all the change requests. Analyzed and implemented change requests. Prepared impact analysis document and design documents for all the major enhancements. Prepared use cases, test cases based on the functional requirements.

· Analyzed business requirement document and prepared the detailed test strategy. Extensively used Xpeditor tool for batch debugging, to analyze the defects. Performed online debugging to understand the end to end flow.

· Performed end-to-end testing to understand the complete business requirement and functionality. Performed as a configuration controller to maintain the latest sources in production and lower environments. Performed merging and freezing to keep the updated source versions.

· Prepared knowledge transfer documents for testing teams.

Environment: Tools: VSS, MS Office and Microsoft Visio. Languages: COBOL, DB2, MVS, CICS, JCL.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Engineering, Information Science and Engineering, SJCE College, India, 2004.

TRAINING

Awards:

Received Spot Award for Configuration Management activities.

Chairman’s Award for Excellence Honoree for Brokerage Data Integration Layer Project in Ameriprise Financial, 2011.

Chairman’s Award for Excellence Honoree for Ameriprise-IBM Technology Transformation (AITT) SYSPLEX project, 2013.

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