Alex Ashley Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Illinois, Us

• Created dashboards to decrease aging tickets by 20%• Calculated SLAs for service catalog request to improve performance and meet contract specifications• Developed new catalog items and work with Agile development to deliver to the customer/partner• Created SLA metrics from ServiceNow Data to ensure that partners met their contract• Oversaw, socialized, and optimized the inventory of ServiceNow requests and knowledge base articles• Developed and maintained documentation policies to capture new service designs• Modification of existing designs included necessary references for developers, service delivery teams and end users• Identify and resolved any issues, gaps, or risks in the process workflows or knowledge management system • Identify opportunities for automation to be built out by development• Conduct ServiceNow Request training for IT bi-annually and for various groups outside of IT on demand• Participated in UAT testing and defect review, enhancement request validation and setting priorities of the backlog

Sheboygan, Wi, Us

• Created a defined Change Management framework and processes for all production changes based on the ITIL framework• Improved existing processes to leverage out-of-the-box ServiceNow to streamline the change process to decrease the time to market• Led steering committee in the revision of the Change Management process to focus efforts on high risk changes to mitigate risk• Collaborated with senior leadership, Line of Business stakeholders and vendors to deliver results in alignment with corporate goals• Identified areas of high risk and possible negative impact to the business while developing mitigation plans to address those concerns allowing for on-time releases• Ensured appropriate documentation and artifacts related to proposed changes is collected, organized and stored maintaining compliance with all banking regulations and company standards• Led the weekly IT Change Advisory Board (CAB) meetings and emergency CAB meetings when needed• Supported internal and external audit teams to ensure continuous compliance with all regulatory statues and laws• Established KPIs and reported on change metrics related to the IT change management program • Recommended solutions to improve overall success rate of changes as part of Lessons Learned for all unsuccessful releases• On-Call support for Incident Management• Established templates for internal SharePoint sites for reusability and consistency, including a corporate re-design of SharePoint• Established Service Quality Remediation meeting to drive down into changes with incidents, leveraging Problem Management and the 5 Whys to better improve software delivery• Automated metrics for reporting using Microsoft Excel

Sheboygan, Wi, Us

Madison, Wi, Us

• Coordinated deployments of multiple customer-facing programs, identifying cross system dependencies and ensuring infrastructure needs were identified early• Identified areas of high risk and possible negative impact to management while developing mitigation plans to address those concerns allowing for on-time releases• Collaborated with build managers, testing team, infrastructure and change control board in preparing for entrance into production• Deployed Major, Minor, Maintenance and Emergency releases for all products within the portfolio• Coordinated deployments of multiple programs using Agile, helping identify cross system dependencies and ensuring infrastructure needs were identified early• Identified areas of high risk and possible negative impact to management while developing mitigation plans to address those concerns allowing for on-time releases• Developed and implemented a standard deployment schedule across all environments reducing deployment windows up to 20%• Infused ITIL framework and Agile best practices allowing rapid development and controlled deployments to production• Established Enterprise SharePoint Release Calendars for Infrastructure, Scheduled Deployments and Release allowing business units to easily identify possibilities for special projects• Developed on-boarding self-directed training manual for new contract release coordinators reducing on-boarding time from four (4) months to two (2) months

Madison, Wi, Us

• Responsible for overall planning, execution and delivery of COTS Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution for Customer Operation• Managed resources, communications management, people change management, reporting as well as controlling costs and schedule• Worked with vendor management process to ensure milestones are met, quality is delivered as per SOW

• Responsible for all releases within NextGen Point of Sale (NGPOS) team by working with Project Managers, Developers, QA staff, eCommerce, mobile Solutions, Compliance, Loss Prevention, Infrastructure, Security and Support teams mitigating risk while driving new initiatives to market to over 8,200 stores and 64,000 registers• Identified solutions to technical challenges faced by working with software architects, developers and QA staff, communicating the impact and managing the expectations of all teams• Established metrics, set expectations and created an action plan with all teams to deliver quality without impacting the timeline or increased costs• Monthly reporting of forecasts and budgets for projects within each release

Cork, Ireland, Ie

• Planned, scheduled and controlled migration of software for global users from development through production, including post-production warranty periods• Re-engineered existing processes using best practices to reduce inefficiencies throughout the release process, increasing functionality delivered to the business users by 15%• Facilitated release readiness change control board meetings with change managers, testing Center of Excellence (on-shore & off-shore), development and governance to ensure best practices were utilized for efficiency• Developed a shared knowledge base across existing environments, support tools and impact assessments for planned and unplanned changes within each landscape• Managed activities and resources for planning and implementation of project, production support and company initiatives to increase overall profitability• Created policies, procedures and work instructions on the various types of activities required for changes to enter production• Worked in tandem with Development, Governance and Testing to identify metrics to work more effectively together, increased quality and responsiveness without additional overhead

Cork, Ireland, Ie

• Responsible for the overall quality assurance of Panoptix™, a subscription-based, software-as-a service (SaaS) for building management systems• Established program level metrics based on customer feedback, with focus on usability and performance; coaching engineering teams to reach higher levels of productivity and quality. Presented options to program management/VP of IT each sprint to provide just-in-time coaching to quickly address those high risk areas• Worked with Agile coaches to identify areas of high risk/cost and established processes to help 14 global teams provide and own robust solutions increasing quality over 60%• Coached Product Owners, Scrum Masters and development team on gathering requirements, documenting and verification through testing, focusing on the customer• Identified gaps on customer personas, based on production data, driving discussion and ultimately redefining who the customer is and what actions need to be taken to provide the customers with the best solution for their needs• Established multiple ways of communicating to various teams across the enterprise, including newsletter, blog, weekly emails, scorecards as well as in-person• Worked with engineering teams to find efficiencies with deliverables, focusing on test automation, reducing the test effort from two (2) days manually testing to several hours with automated testing tied to QA deployment builds• Advocate for continuous improvements through quality to help teams continue to be lean, efficient and innovative

Fort Atkinson, Wi, Us

• Managed a team of eight (8), building rapport, focusing on increased communication across functional teams, including infrastructure, client services, marketing and sales, while motivating staff in terms of achieving goals and objectives.• Analyzed complex business issues generated from multiple platforms and languages, while helping consolidate technologies and generated solutions, both business and technical.• Improved management reporting for team metrics, including velocity, to reduce meeting times for sprint planning from two (2) days to four (4) hours.• Designed and developed JIRA projects, workflows, schemes and reports for issue tracking, replacing a five (5) year old system for enhanced cross-team projects across various sites.• Replaced manual daily updates with automated Google docs form to track daily commitments and impediments reducing daily status meetings by 200%.• Creation, documentation and implementation of testing for server migration/upgrades.• Responsible for the research, request for proposal and upgrade from IBM i5 to Power7 platform, increasing the processing capacity by over 50%.

Madison, Wi, Us

• Coordinated progress of multiple programs for upcoming releases using Agile, helping identify cross system dependencies and ensuring infrastructure needs were identified early• Conducted regular reviews of deployment plan to ensure all criteria for QA/UAT and Production were met• Facilitated discussions with programs introducing new processes for delivery of COTS software in a distributed environment, replacing legacy systems• Identified areas of high risk and possible negative impact to management while developing mitigation plans to address those concerns• Created, communicated and executed release deployment plans for QA/UAT and Production• Created templates, policies and procedures for continual process improvement using SharePoint• Collaborated with build managers, testing team, infrastructure and change control board in preparing for entrance into production• Worked collaboratively with configuration management to identify Configuration Items (CI) for CMDB• Worked with Launch team to provide training environments, release notes and schedule of future releases• Infused ITIL framework and Agile best practices allowing rapid development and controlled deployments to production• Coordinated work efforts for emergency changes, patches, hot-fixes, minor release and major releases• Developed and implemented a standard deployment schedule across all environments reducing deployment windows up to 20%• Established Enterprise SharePoint Release Calendars for Infrastructure, Forward Schedule of Change and Release allowing business units to easily identify possibilities for special projects• Developed anon-boarding self-directed training manual for new contract release coordinators reducing on-boarding time from four (4) months to two (2) months

Chicago, Us

• Led multiple global Oracle and Siebel releases from planning to deployment into production improving release readiness by 14% and doubling the number of releases using Agile methodology• Worked with Qualification Managers, Configuration Managers and Validation Managers to ensure all projects met FDA, SOx, validation and compliance requirements throughout the release• Tracked and reported release readiness status throughout the project lifecycle using various metrics• Communicated schedule, milestones and status to various program stakeholders and management throughout the release, including release readiness• Worked with regression and performance test leads to schedule all releases for testing in their environment• Participated in strategic workouts to increase frequency to production and meet validation/compliance regulations, by combining the Agile methodology (SCRUM) with a waterfall approach• Led post-release reviews, identifying areas of success, areas to improve upon and delivering an action plan to address those areas for improvement• Developed and communicated standard deployment schedule across all environments, both individual and comprehensive for the year• Developed comprehensive training program for new Project Managers and Release Managers

Jacksonville, Fl, Us

• Collaborated with Product Manager and lead business analysts to identify business/functional requirements for a custom financial asset managed solution, including writing test plan, test cases, and traceability matrices• Implemented Quality Center 10 (QC10) for several internal teams for requirements, test plans, test cases and defects including customizations for greater efficiencies• Executed tests, logged issues, retested resolved issues and provide weekly metrics to management to gauge readiness for release

Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, Us

QA Lead for an infrastructure project replacing existing batch processes with XML messaging Responsible for creating, updating and executing the test strategy, test plan and test scripts Team Lead for RF conversion from embedded Visual Basic to .Net

• Gathered business, functional and system requirements from stakeholders, identifying their needs and present a robust solution for the client• Held walkthroughs of new functionality with development, QA and other BAs to leverage code reusability and minimize rework• Piloted execution of a training guide for new BAs on Implementation ensuring consistency throughout the SDLC

• Managed a team of 14 QA analysts and 12 business analysts testing a web-based commercial insurance application• Involved in the company’s QA training program, designed to leverage existing experience, quickly ramping up new hires while deploying monthly releases and new state implementations• Worked with the client’s QA team to develop a defect management process during the User Acceptance Testing phase

Milwaukee, Wi, Us

• Managed a team of 10 QA analysts and business analysts testing a java-based health insurance application for a major health insurance company• Implemented software quality best practices, using Agile approach for the team to meet the aggressive bi-weekly build schedule• Worked with business analysts to ensure requirement coverage releases was thorough, testable and measurable• Defined the scope testing including performance testing, stress testing, load testing, system integration testing, and functional testing, internally and externally• Executed formal system integration testing at the client site, testing over 500 test cases, resulting in only 12 errors and executing the phase 48% faster than scheduled• Managed multiple defect tracking systems, transitioning the development and QA staff from StarTeam 4.0 to TestDirector 7.0 to align the project to company standards• Reforecast work based on historical trends, developing a schedule with the technical manager to ensure delivery of a high quality product• Estimated future change requests, analyzing the impact these change requests would have on the current work plan and communicating the results to management• Instrumental in identifying key criteria for hiring new QA Analysts, establishing annual performance metrics and team evaluations for annual performance reviews

• Created and executed test plans, procedures and scripts for both manual and automated testing using Mercury WinRunner and QuickTest Pro• Implemented Mercury’s QuickTest Pro 6.5 and 8.0 which reduced manual testing from 24 hours/test case to 1 hour/test case

Chicago, Us

• Managed team resources throughout the SDLC, documenting results which resulted in the acquisition of an automated test suite, which in turn reduced the time ratio of new errors by 27%• Coordinated release schedules and obtained end-user support for pilot and Beta test sites Coordinated a $5M field laptop retirement program. Procured, scheduled and managed the technical staff ensuring all end-users received replacement laptops within four (4) days• Managed a multi-million dollar hardware/software rollout including customization of a new OS and new hardware in synchronization with the major release of proprietary sales software• Worked with the shipping vendor to coordinate the shipping life cycle. Procured all materials for shipping and receiving laptops. Developed education materials for remote users• Mentored and educated global management teams on effective quality assurance methodologies and testing practices for future Oracle releases. Standardization of all test plans, cases and procedures relating to the software utilized in both the PET and CT devices, including conversion to PDF and archival• Designed, documented, and implemented QA methodologies during the global upgrade to Oracle 11i and created standard testing templates following Six Sigma, allowing teams to consistently report progress• Performed automation and standardization of documentation of the internal website using HTML and SQL, to allow cross-department teams consistent testing materials and results• Six Sigma methodology was utilized throughout the process and costs were reduced through greater efficiencies

Detroit, Mi, Us

Master'S Degree, Information Technology

Ba, International Relations - Economics

Mathematics