Gaurav Kansal, Project Manager– PMI Certified PMP

2891 Rio Ct, Unit # 84 | Mississauga, ON L5M0S3 | 647.261.2609 |

Career Profile

  • Experienced Project Management Professional (PMI certified PMP) offering close to 12 years of success leading all phases of diverse technology projects; experienced in quickly understanding complex project objectives, generating project scope documentation, building stakeholder consensus to delivery approach
  • Business strategist;plan and manage multimillion-dollar projectsaligning business goals with technology solutions to drive process improvements, competitive advantage and bottom-line gains. Applies Common Sense Project Management Principles to engender cooperative and collaborative efforts, deliver business strategic objectives and fill the end customer needs
  • Excellent communicator;leverage technical, business and financial acumen to communicate effectively with client executives and their respective teams. Collaboratively manages global team (including onshore-offshore model) resources to deliver project objectives. Able to mitigate and resolve issues, re-establish project momentum throughout all stakeholder tiers including end users, partners, subject matter experts as well as management in both business and/or operations
  • Expert in waterfall project management methodologies.Able to manage large project teams and known for high-quality deliverables that meet timeline and budgetary targets.Relies on extensive legacy technical background to quickly assimilate new information technologies within project scope, and organizational culture to build rapport needed to deliver successfully on projects

Achievement Highlights

  • Lead teams across broad technical, financial and business disciplines. Focused teams on business objectives and tracked progress to ensure project milestones were completed on time, on budget and with the desired results
  • Mitigated risk factors through careful analysis of financial and statistical data. Anticipated and managed change effectively in rapidly evolving global business environments
  • Defined processes and tools best suited to each project. Moved between agile and waterfall approaches depending on project specifics and client goals, creating detailed project road maps, plans, schedules and work breakdown structures
  • Honored with best managed project across the portfolio of global wealth management in Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in 2010
  • Won the project work for TD Canada Trust based on successfully creating the proof of concept for performance improvements
  • Achieved the perfect client satisfaction scores of 5/5 across all the projects completed
  • Completed projects and gained vast knowledge across different domains such as Insurance (P&C, Healthcare), Telecom, Automotive Industry, Retail and Investment Banking, Utilities & Energy sector within North America

Skills Summary

Project Management & Value Added Leadership
-Managing IT system development
& implementation
-ROI Analysis
-Business & IT Planning
-Vendor Management
-Testing/QA/Rollout/Support / -Scope Management
-Requirement Analysis
-Client Relations & Presentations
-Cross-functional supervision
-Team Building & Mentoring
-Negotiations / -Project Planning
-Costing & Budgeting
-Project Scheduling
-Status Reporting
-Risk Management
-Change Management
Technology Skills
Language & Database / Quality Control/Quality Assurance / Other IT Tools
COBOL, JCL, C, Java, VB, J2EE Architecture, .Net, PL SQL, CICS, IMS DB/DC, DB2, RDBMS, Oracle / Test Planning, Use cases, Test Automation suite creation using QTP and Q/C ,Manual Testing, Strobeperformance testing, Clear Quest / MS Office Suite, MS Project, MS Visio, Clarity, Mercury ITG, X-Peditor, File-Aid, QMF, SPUFI, CA-7, Endevor, STROBE, Changeman

Career Progression

Ford Motors (Oakville, ON)IT Project Manager (Contractor) 01/2013 - Current

Cognizant Technology Solns.IT Project Manager 01/2012 - 01/2013

AccentureIT Project Manager 05/2006 - 12/2012

Infosys TechnologiesTeam Lead 03/2003 - 05/2006

Having worked with one of the nation’s leading IT & Management consulting firms to provide project management over large-scale, top-priority and complex technology initiatives; Managed budgets of up to $5M and cross-functional teams of up to 30 developers, programmers, analysts and testers.Drove the high-quality completion of softwaredevelopment/enhancements, systems engineering and enterprisewide implementation projects for F500 clients including:

● Ford Motors of Canada ● TD Canada Trust ● Loblaws ● Hartford Insurance Group
● AT&T ● WellPoint Insurance ● Duke Energy ● Aetna Insurance
● Morgan Stanley Smith Barney

Education

Bachelor of Engineering from Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology, INDIA. Educational qualifications along with experience is evaluated equivalent to Bachelor of Science Degree with Dual major in computer information systems and engineering by Fordham University, New York.

Professional Experience

Client: Ford Motor Company, Oakville, ON 02/2013 -Present

Role Title: IT Project Manager –Vehicle Incentive Systems

Working as IT Project Manager with Ford Motor Company in the Vehicle Incentive Systems domain. The project deals

with changing the Vehicle Incentive System applications to use the 17 digit VIN instead of 10 digit for Asia Pacific

Market. Currently, the Asia Pacific market is using 10 digit VIN in the Incentive Systems and is using java based online

applications as well as mainframe based green screen applications

Responsibilities

  • Define and initiate project
  • Project planning, manage project scope, cost, schedule, quality, execution and delivery
  • Business Requirement gathering, Creating WBS, Cost management and schedule baselines
  • Define and manage all project deliverables
  • Ensure all project constraints are monitored and risk mitigation is in place
  • Prepare and manage project management plan
  • Manage and prepare changes through change management
  • Weekly Status and monthly metrics reporting to Client Senior leadership and all stakeholders
  • Creating and utilizing processes to continuously improve quality
  • Ensure All Entry & Exit Criteria are met
  • Participate in test planning activities and test execution progress
  • Defect management
  • Motivate Team members and manage their performance evaluations
  • Project Closure activities

Client: Loblaws Inc., Mississauga, ON 06/2012 -02/2013

Role Title: Manager –Projects

Working as Project Manager with a large retail account Loblaws Inc. leading the Merchandising portfolio. The portfolio

consists of multiple projects in Space planning, Intactix, Assortment Planning & Optimization, AMP, Vendor Portal.

Most of the projects deal with the Intactix integration with SAP. The toolbox which contains the planogram information

is replaced with another third party tool called Intactix. The planogram data needs to flow from Intactix to SAP and then

down to other downstream applications such as IPFR. Assortment optimization is another product within the Intactix

application being integrated with SAP. Other projects include reporting and vendor portal integration with SAP.

Responsibilities

  • Define and initiate project, and manage budget, schedule, execution and delivery of the project
  • Prepare business cases, project charter, project plans and maintenance of project plan
  • Estimations and Resourcing
  • Financial forecasting and budgeting
  • Project Reporting
  • Capacity planning, allocating work to Resources and tracking the progress
  • Creating initial work plans and coordinating dependencies with the onshore and offshore teams in a multi-vendor, multi-facility environment
  • Manage End to End Testing and provide expertise on the processes and standards
  • Ensure all Entry/Exit criteria are met
  • Manage client deliverables and milestones
  • Manage risks, issues, challenges and escalations in the project
  • Organizing and conducting the daily status and weekly status meetings
  • Monthly metrics reporting to client senior leadership
  • Project Implementation, Closure activities and Warranty Support
  • Prepare, plan, execute, track and report strategies for quality improvement
  • Co-ordinate between different groups like Program Managers, Business Analysts, Development Team, QA Team and Release Management Team to ensure that all the activities are performed as planned and ensuring successfully delivery of the project

Client: WellPoint Inc., Los Angeles, CA 01/2012 -6/2012

Role Title: Manager –Projects

Working as a Project Manager with a large Healthcare Insurance client in the Membership Enrollment & Billing area for

large groups, small groups & individual for development and maintenance of multiple applications. Major applications

are Group Setup, Member Enrollments, Billing, Payment & Reconciliation, Delinquency, ID Card Processing, and

Reporting. Team size is 50 with an annual budget of $5 M. In addition to this project, driving other initiatives towards

process improvements, quality and documentation inventory.

Responsibilities

  • Responsible and accountable for the coordinated management of multiple related projects directed toward strategic business and other organizational objectives
  • Build credibility, establish rapport, and maintain communication with stakeholders at multiple levels, including those external to the organization
  • Relationship development at the most senior and junior levels – facilitating program ‘buy-in’ and engagement, overcoming resistance to change and driving value added services
  • Define and initiate projects, and manage budget, schedule, and performance of component projects, while working to ensure the ultimate success and acceptance of the program
  • Creating transition plans, conducting knowledge sharing sessions
  • Estimations and Resourcing
  • High level architecture reviews, estimation reviews
  • Capacity planning, allocating work to Resources and tracking the progress
  • Working with senior leadership on various initiatives
  • Manage risks, issues, challenges and escalations in the project
  • Defining and managing the process of deploying and integrating IT capabilities into the business in a way that is sensitive to and compatible with business operations
  • Organizing and conducting the weekly status meetings
  • Ensure the timely delivery of different delivery milestones
  • Prepare, plan, execute, track and report strategies for quality improvement
  • Mentor, motivate and lead the team to achieve project and individual goals
  • Bi-Annual Performance feedbacks and goal settings for next Performance periods
  • Coach, mentor and lead personnel within a technical team environment
  • Conduct recruitment interviews

Client: Aetna, Hartford, CT 04/2011 -12/2011

Role Title: Manager-Program Level End to End Testing for ACE Program

Worked as a Test Manager for Program Level End to End Testing Team for Aetna's Mail Order Pharmacy Processing

and Claims Adjudication Engine Migration to CVS Caremark in the Pharmacy Benefits Management domain. There are

about 15 projects in the program for which End to End Testing needs to be done in collaboration with CVS Caremark.

Team size is 40 with the budget of $3.5 M.

Responsibilities

  • All project management processes from project initiation through closure
  • Project planning, tracking and status reporting to client and senior management
  • Creating initial work plans and coordinating dependencies with the onshore and offshore teams in a multi-vendor, multi-facility environment
  • Estimations and Resourcing
  • Manage budget, schedule and delivery
  • High level architecture review, estimation review
  • Designing End to End testing strategies for the program
  • Subject matter expertise on testing approach for multiple concurrent projects
  • Creation of Test deliverables
  • Working with Aetna clients and Co-ordinate between different groups like Project Managers Business Analysts, Development Team and Release Management Team to ensure that all the activities are performed as planned
  • Manage risks, issues & escalations
  • Defect management & quality improvements

Client: TD Canada Trust, Toronto 10/2010-04/2011

Role Title: Project Manager-Application renovation & modernization

Worked as a Project Manager for Application Renovation and Modernization project for performance improvement of

core retail banking applications such as Mortgage, ATM. Also, lead the efforts for automating testing efforts using QTP.

Team size is 35 and the project cost is $3M.

Responsibilities

  • Project planning, tracking and status reporting to client senior leadership
  • Creating initial work plans and coordinating dependencies with the onshore and offshore teams in a multi-
  • vendor, multi-facility environment
  • Discovering strategies for performance improvements and preparing project charters, project plans for multiple

small scale projects

  • Manage project execution, delivery, budget and schedule
  • Analyzing & Developing approach for testing batch programs, online programs and automating testing
  • Implementation of test approach & manage test cycles
  • Prepare, plan, execute, track and report strategies for quality improvements
  • Deliver bi-monthly releases in support of the overall program releases and ensure the timely delivery of

different delivery milestones

  • Offer Subject matter expertise on the testing processes, quality improvements
  • Manage risks, issues & escalations for the successful delivery of the project

Client: Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, New York 11/2009 -10/2010

Role Title: Development Manager-Integration Projects Global Wealth Management

Worked as a Project Manager for leading multiple projects involving end to end delivery of strategically new applications as well as integrating existing applications on a common shared platform for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in the global wealth management. Team size is 40 with the budget of $5.3M. Also, lead the initiative of building a documentation inventory and knowledge repository as most of the documentation was destroyed. Proposed and deployed a web based application to help financial advisors assign a policy number real time which saved about $2M annually.

Responsibilities

  • Responsible for developing credibility, establishing relationship, and communicating with stakeholders at various levels up to Executive Director level
  • Design and start projects
  • Coordination with on-field Financial Advisors to gather requirements
  • Convert business requirements into technical requirements for development team
  • Prepare high level designs with system flow diagrams and mock ups
  • Estimations, project management processes from project initiation through closure
  • Tracking and status reporting to client and senior management
  • Task defining, task allocation, tracking status and deliverables from the development team
  • Conduct reviews for technical requirements and high level designs with business analysts and development team
  • Detailed Designs and Reviews
  • Manage Development, SIT and UAT teams for the multiple concurrent projects
  • Mentoring and knowledge sharing with the team members
  • Align resources to technical mentors and recommend trainings to achieve set goals

Client: Duke Energy Charlotte, NC 08/2007 – 11/2009

Role Title: Project Manager –Customer Billing & Information Systems

Worked as a Project Manager for the maintenance, enhancements and a testing automation project for the Customer

Billing & Information System. This project involves multiple mainframe based applications for Customer billing and

support. Some of the main applications are billing batch cycle, Delinquency, CBIS Server, Power pay and a VB based

front end application CBIS. Team size is 50 with an annual budget of $4.8M on a 3 year contract. Also, lead a testing

automation project which saved $1.2M annual in terms of resources.

Responsibilities

  • Project planning, Estimations, Requirement traceability matrix
  • Creating and maintaining projects plans
  • Managing Project execution, delivery milestone, status reports and closure activities
  • Requirement gathering, High Level and Detailed Design, Test Plan Preparation, Coding, Testing, Code Reviews, Test Plan Reviews
  • Coding new COBOL Modules, unit testing and integration testing
  • Batch Support for Billing and Delinquency applications involving COBOL, DB2
  • Release management
  • Testing VB based applications using Testing tools QTP and Win runner
  • Analyzing and Developing test approach for Batch as well as Online Applications
  • Automate manual testing efforts
  • Documentation and process improvements
  • Daily status reporting for Batch tickets and Weekly status reporting on the multiple concurrent projects
  • Defect prevention activities
  • Tracking of client deliverables and ensuring timely delivery of them
  • Task allocation and effort tracking using custom developed tools

Client: Hartford Insurance Group, Hartford, CT 05/2006 – 08/2007

Role Title: Technical Designer/Team Leader

Worked as a Technical Designer for Property & Casualty Insurance applications General Liability and Umbrella

Insurance products. Lead the development efforts for these applications based on mainframe platform with IMS DC

Online screens.

Responsibilities

  • Understanding business requirements and preparing technical requirement document
  • Impact analysis, High Level Design, Coding, Testing, System Test Support, Code Reviews, Test Plan Reviews
  • COBOL coding using Micro Focus and testing with IMS Screens
  • ProjectEstimations based on the impact analysis and high level design
  • Maintaining Traceability Matrix to track the client deliverables
  • Weekly status Reporting

Client: AT&T, San Ramon, CA 03/2004 – 05/2006

Role Title: Technical Architect/Team Leader

Worked as a Technical Architect/Team Lead for the third party telecom billing platform Account Ready Group (ARG).

ARG supports four different applications one each for MCI, AT&T, SPRINT Telecom service providers and GUIDING

Database. Also lead a performance improvement initiative for Multiple Account Ready Group which used to handle

third party invoices for SBC Local & Long Distance, Pacific Bell Directory and Cingular. This initiative saved $3M

Annually for AT&T in terms of mainframe costs.

Responsibilities

  • Understanding and analyzing functional requirements and creating technical requirements for MCI, SPRINT and AT&T (All three COBOL, DB2 based applications) and Guiding (DB2 database) application
  • Impact analysis and coming up with the high level and detailed designs
  • Create Test Environment and Test CLISTs
  • Coding COBOL-DB2 Modules for the enhancements, Unit Testing, Integration testing and system test support
  • Running STROBE reports for performance testing and rewriting 13 Different COBOL modules based on the CPU time taken by the modules and performance tuning of SQL queries
  • Setup/Remove jobs and files in the MATRIX scheduler
  • Delivery of Code to System test through WORKBENCH and promotion of code to the system test libraries
  • Documentation reviews and following CMM guidelines
  • Production Support and system test support for Billing Batch cycle
  • Offering Architectural changes in the application from the performance perspective

Client: AETNA Healthcare, Middletown, CT 03/2003 – 03/2004