Bijal Desai

Business Analyst

Somerset, New Jersey

Email: arvind@itbmsglobal.com

Contact: 732-655-8900 Extn 1032

 

Top performing business analyst with 10+ years of proficiency in financial industry who maintains a proven track record of continued successes, as well as realizing concurrent professional growth. A true professional with an analytical goal oriented personality and work ethic; has an innate ability to identify requirements, influence others, and produce dynamic and long lasting results. A resilient, ambitious communicator with expertise in developing and documenting business and compliance requirements, liaise between business and IT team for developing test plans and training documentation and maintaining RAID (Risks, Actions, Issues, Decisions) logs. Known for streamlined process improvements that have substantially reduced project cost and timelines, while building a strong and recognized team of professionals. Self-motivation, education, diverse experience and loyal dedication have helped create a powerhouse of problem-solving skills, expertise in maximizing quality and minimizing delays due to requirement gaps.

Skills & Accomplishments:

 

·         6+ years of experience as a Business Analyst/Business System Analyst in industry domains including Financial, Mortgages, Life Insurance, & Banking Financial Systems.

·         Strong knowledge of Business Analysis methodologies and Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) using Waterfall and Waterfall- RUP, Waterfall-Scrum (hybrid) and Agile-Scrum.

·         Efficient using various Requirement Elicitation/gathering techniques like user interviews, workshops, email surveys, JAD sessions with clients, developers and QA Analysts and referring to existing system documentation and procedures.

·         Skilled in preparing Business Cases, Business Requirements Documents, Use Cases, Functional and Technical Specification Documents, Requirement Traceability, Traceability matrices, Test plans, Test scripts and Software Development Plans.

·         Skillful GAPanalysis, Cost benefit analysis, Risk assessment and SWOT analysis.

·         Experienced in UML and Use Case Analysis, identifying Key performance indicators (KPI) and Change Management.

·         Experienced in managing client-interactions, project planning, scheduling and development teams.

·         Conducted Joint application development (JAD) sessions with relevant Subject Matter Experts to assess and document current configuration.

·         Comprehensive knowledge of Check21, Retail banking Products, Trade Forex services, Wealth Management, Insurance & Mutual Fund products.

·         Defining Test Cases, analyzing bugs, interaction with team members in fixing errors, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Client Acceptance Testing (CAT) and knowledge of QTP and Quality Center. Excellent knowledge in creating User Acceptance Criteria for various stages of software testing

·         Proficient in formulating Test plans, Test cases and Test scenarios.

·         Expertise in Functional testing, Performance testing, Manual testing, Regression testing and defect tracking.

·         Proficient in problem solving. (Production support capabilities, handling helpdesk tickets, including performance and availability troubleshooting, incident recreation, analysis and resolution)

·         Experience in preparing procedure manuals based on system analysis and design processes to be used as reference by support, sales and marketing teams and for training new employees.

§  Excellent ability to converse, negotiate and liaise between the businessunits, technology teams and support teams.

§  Ability to effectively communicate across multiple levels (Executives to team members).

 

Technical Skillset

Web TechnologiesHTML, DHTML, XML,

Software Applications            MS Office, MS Project, MS Visio

SDLC Methodologies     Waterfall, RUP (Rational Unified Process), Agile

Requirements Management     Rational ClearCase, Requisite Pro, Use Cases, User Stories,

QA/Testing                               Rational Clear Quest, Team Foundation Server, HP Quality Center

Project Management       MS Project (PERT, Gantt charts), Excel spread sheets

Operating System                Windows 95 & 2007, NT/2000/XP

Design Tools      Rational Rose, MS Visio (UML)

Database                             Microsoft SQL Server, Lotus Notes, MS Access

ERP  Lawson

 

 

Education

 

 

MBA, Finance & Marketing                                                                         University of Mumbai, 2004

Bachelor of Science in Accounting& Economics                                      University of Mumbai, 2001

Certification for MS Excel, VB, Java, ASP & SQLAptech Institute

 

Professional Experience

 

Client Name:JM Family                                                                                                              Feb 2015 – Till date

Role: Business Analyst

Location: Deerfield Beach, FL

 

The client's financial system had become too expensive to maintain and operate. An upgrade to the core financial system was approaching. This expensive investment into a system whose business process architecture was outdated and which did not support industry leading practices, led JM to seek an alternative approach - SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) to replace their current Mainframe based integration.

 

Responsibilities:

·         Developed an IT questionnaire to understand the current system landscape, processes and issues; interviewed key stakeholders to complete the questionnaire

·         Led a team of two BAs to analyze the responses in the questionnaires and developed an interface catalog (40+ interfaces) of existing integration between Mainframe, distributed systems and Lawson (financial system)

·         Reviewed interface catalog with key stakeholders and recommended performance improvements related to P2P, R2R and vendor data de-duplication

·         Reverse engineered financial system processes (GL, AR, BL, AP) within Mainframe and distributed systems through JAD sessions with business stakeholders, Solution Architects and Developers

·         Created Use Cases and drew out requirements. Also created other UML diagramslike activity diagram, sequence diagram-using MS-Visio.

·         Developed business and functional requirements specifications for the SOA solution

·         Assisted data analysts with STM (source target mappings)

·         Documented a UI guide and trained business users on new user interfaces to map legacy and new COA (chart of accounts)

·         Assisted in development of test plans and UAT test cases

·         Managed defects in TFS and conducted daily meetings with developers, testers and key stakeholders to review and triage defects

Tools & Technology: SOA, ESB (BizTalk), Mainframe, Lawson, SQL Developer, MS Visio, SQL, PL/SQL, TFS, XML, FTP

 

 

Client Name:US Bank                                                                                                                           Feb 2014– Jan 2015

Role: Business Analyst

Location: New York, NY

 

The bank’s key remote deposit solution (Web, mobile & standalone) enables customers to electronically deposit checks, remittance & General Documents using desktop check scanners, Mobile devices, and create electronic deposits. This application manages over $1 billion transactions each night. It also features a variety of online reporting capabilities.

 

Responsibilities:

·         Facilitated JAD sessions to plan, identify, research business rules and requirements.

·         Documented requirements related to check 21, ACH, POP, BOC, and settlement processes (same & next day) with inputs from client SMEs

·         Worked with client SME to gather the business requirements and writing user stories.

·         Developed RAID log (Risks, Actions, Issues, Decisions) which was reviewed by business and technical SMEs

·         Recommended procedural improvements/efficiencies and shared those with management/group as applicable

·         Created wire frames and developed a prototype of the graphical user interface (GUI) and demonstrated to the client SME and took feedback from them.

·         Facilitated daily scrum and ensure the integrity of the agile process capturing velocity and removing obstacles to drive success and grooming.

·         Assisted development team with interface requirements and QA team with test cases/scenarios and strategy. Analyze defect logs and documented enhancement / change requests

·         Maintained a strong working relationship with developers, testers and senior management through regular 1x1 sessions and group meetings / weekly status calls

·         Performed impact assessment (Risk Management) of planned fixes and patches to the production environment and communicated the same to key business stakeholders

·         Planned, created, executed UAT test scripts and implemented system enhancements and conversions

·         Obtained sign-offs from key players for deliverables produced throughout the testing cycle

·         Engaged with Operations in identifying and resolving critical production defects

Tools & Technology: MS Outlook, MS Visio, MS Project, MS SharePoint, MS Lync

 

 

Client Name:Prudential Financial                                                                                   July 2012 – Dec 2013

Role: Business Analyst

Location:Newark,NJ

 

The project scope was to decommission a manual reporting system for fixed income, money market securities, OTC and ETF Derivatives securities by normalizing and enriching daily transactional data from global source systems. The data feeds were then stored in a metrics data warehouse thereby enabling automated reporting for senior management on a daily basis.

 

Responsibilities:

·         Conducted JAD sessions, meetings, focus groups, and live conferences with SMEs, global heads, and operational line managers to understand business process flows and trade life cycle from execution to settlement, and gather business requirements

·         Liaison with Business Stakeholders, scrum teams to translate business and system needs into Solution Requirements for Developers and Testers using Agile methodology.

·         Documented business requirements with mockups to explain in detail the business implications and impacts

·         Wrote specification for upgrade /support for different groups covering asset classes (Interest Rate Derivatives, ISDA, Swaps, Equity options, Swap options, FX Options Equity/Index Derivatives)

·         Created Use Case Diagrams, Activity Diagrams, Sequence Diagrams, Dataflow Diagrams in MS Visio

·         Analyzed source systems that would be applicable/relevant for procurement of transactional data

·         Analyzed raw data feeds to identify attributes and level of detail to match the reporting requirements defined by the stakeholders

·         Conducted data mapping exercises to map the source system field names with the ATRS field names

·         Acquired ETL logic and business rules for counting of new, cancelled, modified trade’s status for enrichment of raw data

·         Facilitated scrum activities such as daily scrum, sprint planning meetings and sprint reviews

·         Interfaced between the development and project teams to ensure project objectives were met in a timely manner

Tools & Technology: Data Warehouse, STM, UML, MS Visio MS Office SUITE, MS Project, MS SharePoinT

 

 

Client Name:RBS Citizens BankJan 2011 – June 2012

Role: Business Analyst

Location:  Cranston, RI

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

The scope of the project was to implement a web based application for the bank’s call center agents that improved the customer experience, increased revenue through relationship building, improved efficiency, standardization and simplification of phone bank processes and procedures. This application provided easy access to the customer information and supported relationships by replacing 25 legacy applications and integrating 50 applications.

 

Responsibilities:

·         Developed an over-arching business requirements documents to aid the underlying functional requirements specifications for each integrated application

·         Interacted with SME’s, asking detailed questions and carefully recording the requirements in a format that can be reviewed and understood by both business and technical resources

·         Performed Gap Analysis and elicited business requirements through meetings with UI agents and Business Line SME and provide remedies and solutions to the existing problem

·         Analyzed software requirement specification documents and created process diagrams in UML using the business process information captured in the business context analysis document

·         Participated with QA management in the development and maintenance of QA procedures and guidelines

·         Documented the change request from the requirements as an enhancement of functionality

·         Tracked defects in Quality Center and worked with QA team to resolve defects.

·         Assigned problems to appropriate software development team for fixes.

·         Prepared UAT test cases created a list of UAT users and conducted UAT along with them

Tools & Technology: Rational Clear Case, Rational Clear Quest, Rational Rose, MS-Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Access, Excel, Outlook), MS  VISIO, SQL Server.

 

 

Client Name: HDFC BANKJul 2008 – May 2010

Role: Business Lead

Location:Mumbai, INDIA               

                                                                                                                                                                                     

Business lead SME for a CRM project that created a unified customer view (360®) by collating and massaging data from various sources including the data warehouse. It aimed to get all the data available in different parts of the bank to work together and synthesize data into a modern database with a metadata "catalog". This information was controlled on basis of role of the user. It enabled a single view across various channels of the bank like the Branch, phone banking, asset team, cards team etc.

 

Responsibilities:

·         Business Lead SME for managing branch and relationship manager roles within the CRM system

·         Participated in brainstorming sessions with project focus groups that led to development of RACI matrix

·         Took active part in Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions for communicating and managing the business expectations

·         Managed the work program for the QA and testing for data intensive major applications.

·         Reviewed Test Strategy and Master Test Plans for all projects in the work program

·         Approved releases for UAT and production

·         Determined the schedule and sequence of testing activities for all projects in the work program

·         Determined and utilized automation technology and processes for efficiency and cost reduction

·         Provided test progress status/reports to management and executives

 

Client Name: HDFC BankJul 2005 – Jun 2008

Role Retail Branch Manager

                                                                                                                                                                                     

Key lead in setting up a new branch and managing the liability base, $16M, within an 18 month time span, by leveraging professional networks and market intelligence to develop new strategies of sourcing business. The strategies leveraged enabled the branch to make a national record by breaking even on the cost in less than 18 months in 2009 – 2010. Expertly assisted in growth of the 3rd largest retail bank in India, with assets worth $92.64B, and a branch network of 4,024 branches across the country. Led a team of 40 staff members, managed all aspects of branch operations, which included opening of saving bank accounts, current accounts, cash credit accounts, term deposits, cash management, remittances, bill collections, clearings, and cash.