Dr. Kara Terrell Coston, Spc5, A-Csm, Icp-Acc, Ssm Email & Phone Number

Memphis, TN, US

• Directs and manages the design, development, and support of multiple teams and/or their supporting processes to meet customer expectations.
• Leads strategic direction and functions as a liaison across the Technology organization and business partners.
• Responsible for leading and developing a team of Scrum Masters to help create a culture of agility with their teams.
• Defines overall process and methodology to be followed by Scrum Masters.
• Defines and monitors required team and organizational level metrics to be tracked.
• Establishes and manages Program Dashboard to coach Agile teams on ways to improve their Agile practices and delivery.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States

• Responsible for practice strategy creation, execution & growth, client management, people management, resource coaching & development, and recruiting.
• Acts as a senior manager for approximately 3 managers and 30 employees in the Baton Rouge Client Innovation center.
• Manages programs of varying complexity and operates in a tightly regulated services environment.
• Develops, manages, and builds strong relationships / partnerships with clients, vendors, peers/other teams, and staff to ensure a high level of personal and team understanding of the client’s business operations, IT.
• Directly responsible for managing Project Managers, Scrum Masters, and Business Analyst in program delivery ensuring the execution of all key steps in program delivery.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Area

• Acts as a first-line manager for approximately 12 employees in the Baton Rouge Client Innovation Center. Works with employees in achieving career progression goals, training and skill enhancements, and performs.
• Agile knowledge in Scrum and Kanban and Scaled Agile Frameworks.
• Works with Scrum teams to develop the mindset necessary for product-oriented teams to be successful
• Helps to balance technical debt against new features and delivery
• Creates and documents processes to help teams self-manage and avoid re-solving the same problems
• Manages medium / large size Agile projects

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Area

• Translates client requirements into technical requirements and recommends a solution.
• Defines current and future operational scenarios and works with client to ensure proper translation of business requirements to I/T solution requirements.
• Documents and analyzes requirements from a business perspective.
• Troubleshoots data availability and quality issues, and provides detailed and precise design documentation for reporting solutions based on service contract language and customers' business needs.
• Develops and maintains formidable client relations for understanding business needs.
• Adheres to maintaining focus and scope of enhancements.

Greater New Orleans Area

• Provides financial improvement support by serving as an advisor to Department of Defense clients and engaging in dialogue with business and IT unit management and various control partners to identify and assess risks.
• Accountable for document requirements definition for FISCAM and NIST guidelines to ensure ongoing compliance.
• Assist with efforts to evaluate the operating design and effectiveness of IT general and business process application controls by leveraging industry best practices
• Leads meeting with stakeholders to perform process gap analysis, and identifying solutions that will transform the client's business environment while improving the timeliness and quality of financial information.
• Provides oversight and leadership for tasks and deliverables, ensure the timely and successful completion thereof in accordance with project management plan, and present findings and solutions to the client in a clear.

Memphis, TN

• Directed all activities and functions associate for managing the process used for provisioning, modifying and terminating end user access using IdentityIQ application. Accountable for role design requirements gathering.
• Accomplish testing of the identity management system counting coordination of business unit end to end tests.
• Competently collects and analyzes data to enable decision making and process improvement for ecommerce platform. Skillfully works with internal and external customer to implement recommended solutions for ecommerce.
• Standardized shared Service Process Optimization Model (SSPOM) experience, highly focused on improving efficiency, data integrity, shared governance and accountability.
• Accountable for documents requirements definition for SOX, PCI and separation of duty restrictions and guidelines and to ensure ongoing compliance.
• Third Tier support of the identity and access management process.

Cordova, TN

• Executed analysis, definition, and documentation of client requirements, employing subject-matter expertise of application features and functions to assess the scope and impact of individual projects. Identifies and.
• Enhanced existing systems, designing interface and conversion needs for data management and workflow improvements.
• Reduced cost of client requirements by analyzing and defining business processes and functional requirements to identify opportunities for efficiency.
• Broadened client opportunities to implement leading-edge application products, analyzing and recommending products that scaffold with existing infrastructure.

NAS Millington

• Headed project planning and scheduling of data-centric projects for the Bureau of Naval Personnel. Developed and implemented a work breakdown structure and resource-loaded schedule, conducting scheduling updates by.
• Averted potential regulatory repercussions by ensuring compliance with governmental policies and procedures.
• Advanced process improvements, facilitating the development of automated data collection tools for the Naval Personnel Command.

Memphis, TN

• Spearheaded projects to analyze business processes for development of software deliverables, managing project scope, tracking milestones, and communicating progress. Researched, reviewed, and authored requirements.
• Organized and facilitated drafted and reviewed documentation in compliance with the FedEx Global Development Process.
• Established business model that reflects current processes and business rules, executed test scripts against requirements. Amalgamated input to scoping and impact analysis for future deliverables.

Newport News, VA

• Monitored process for continuous improvement to developed e-learning, interactive multimedia instruction and distributive learning products, software analyst for the distributed learning education and training products.
• Expertly created test scripts, scenarios and tested plans. Facilitated verification of installation relating to the correct installation, operation and maintenance of the system.
• Liable for reporting all test incident report documentation and deliver appropriate follow-up with client to guaranteed accuracy and precision of project requirements

Norfolk Naval Shipyard

• Assisted with detailed test plans and procedures conducted performance tests on computer systems, examined and interprets results, settled and maintained test scripts and sample test data.
• Utilized SQL tools to assess test data structures. Tested software and generated test incident report documentation. Interacted with client personnel to record and resolved problems.
• Performed verification of system performance using test methodologies to ensure valid results.
• Effectively worked with vendors and software developers to resolve numerous software conflicts and the ability to use multiple resources to research and resolve conflicts.

Doctorate Of Management, Information Systems And Technology

Master Of Business Administration (Mba), Business

Master Of Science - Ms, Information Systems

Bachelor Of Business Administration - Bba, Management Information Systems