Kathy Howe Email & Phone Number

Saint Paul, Mn, Us

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Assist with turning business vision into reality by establishing a detailed roadmap, outlining roles & responsibilities within the organization, and proactively identifying & addressing issues. Facilitate forward-facing brainstorming strategy sessions to identify new opportunities for the organization, and ensure continuous alignment with current activities and schedule. Identify opportunities to develop or streamline business processes and continuously prioritize efforts to ensure resources such as time and money are leveraged effectively. Holds team members accountable for their identified deliverables as needed.

In this role, I was directly responsible for ensuring organizational readiness of Enterprise programs and projects. The primary responsibility was to create and implement change management strategies and plans that maximized stakeholder adoption and usage while minimizing resistance. Organizational Change Management was a new capability at the firm so I was also responsible for developing templates, processes and best practices.I leveraged strengths in areas such as problem analysis, risk assessment and divergent thinking around communication opportunities to ensure important strategic initiatives were adopted and delivered the intended benefits.I also managed the Quality Assurance Analysis team that supported production maintenance of in-house technology, as well as test planning, execution and quality assurance leadership for the Enterprise Project Management Office.The Quality Assurance team was responsible for developing comprehensive test plans and test cases. They oversaw the identification of test participants, ensured all phases of testing were completed successfully, managed the defect - remediation - retest lifecycle, and ensured that testing efforts were compliant with ISO standards for the firm.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

In January of 2014 I assumed responsibilities for the Technology Project Management Office (PMO) and added the Project Management team to my existing staff of Business Analysis, Quality Assurance and Process Improvement (Lean Six Sigma Black Belt) resources.Working in the IT department, my team serves customers throughout the firm on strategic and operational projects. Additionally, we look for opportunities to improve our own IT operations through detailed analysis, quality reviews and process improvement exercises.As the Manager of the team, I am also responsible for coordinating staff training (internal & external), implementing best practices and developing tools that allow us to better serve our internal customers & improve efficiencies in everything we do.Other responsibilities include: mentoring resources, managing staff allocation to projects (current & future), conducting performance reviews, providing team recognition, championing communication throughout the department, ensuring company policies are adhered to, participating in project roadmap planning with the PMO, and conducting adhoc analysis of software requests.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

I'm currently managing a team of Business Analysts, Quality Assurance and Process Improvement (Lean Six Sigma Black Belt) resources. Working in the IT department, my team serves customers throughout the firm on strategic and operational projects. Additionally, we look for opportunities to improve our own IT operations through detailed analysis, quality reviews and process improvement exercises. As the Manager of the team, I am also responsible for coordinating staff training (internal & external), implementing best practices and developing tools that allow us to better serve our internal customers & improve efficiencies in everything we do. Other responsibilities include: mentoring resources, managing staff allocation to projects (current & future), conducting performance reviews, providing team recognition, championing communication throughout the department, ensuring company policies are adhered to, participating in project roadmap planning with the PMO, and conducting adhoc analysis of software requests.

Manage a global team consisting of ITS resource roles that include: Software Development, Business & Quality Analysis, Release & Project Management.Directly responsible for the ITS relationship with internal business units such as Global Support and Product Development.Drive & participate in process improvement initiatives such as Incident Management, Problem Management, Software Development and other various ITS operational process improvements.

In April of 2008 I was tapped to fill a Senior Technical Project Management role within the ITS organization. The project I am assigned to is tasked with the development of a new global application using proprietary software. My responsibilities are typical of a Project Management role.

In 2005 I came to Lawson as a Consultant in the Business Analyst role. After approximately one year on the job I was hired as a full-time employee and promoted to the Lead Business Systems Analyst position. In addition to project responsibilities I was also charged with the development of a Business Analyst Toolkit for myself and other (future) Business Analysts that were to be hired for the department. I am also frequently tapped for special projects and committees for the ITS department. As a Business Analyst my responsibilities are rather typical. I facilitate requirement gathering sessions, document and validate requirements and work closely with developers and quality analysts throughout the process. I have also worked to develop our Quality Analysis/Testing Methodology for large internal projects and have executed that process against a large system upgrade project in 2007.

Freelance Writer for "Who Stole My Stapler?". A blog about surviving and thriving in the corporate workplace.Responsible for authoring all content and overall blog management including managing the comment approval process, hate mail and spam. Grew the Who Stole My Stapler community by drawing Work It, Mom! members from other areas of the website, other (external) websites and my own personal network. Researched "hot" topics in the media and around the Work It, Mom! community to ensure that I was posting content that was relevant, interesting and engaging. Created content on my blog space that initiated dialogues between the visitors.Created long term relationships with and between community members outside of the Who Stole My Stapler web space.http://www.workitmom.com/bloggers/whostolemystapler/

Associates, Broadcasting

Business Analysis Fundamentals

Completed Business Analysis Fundamentals course in October 2009.

Cbap Certification Preparation

Completed CBAP Certification course in April 2008.

Use Case Modeling

Completed Use Case Modeling course in September 2008.

Principles Of Managing Iterative Development/Rational Process & Tools

Completed a course offered to consultants and employees in the Project Management office at Wells Fargo in March 2005.

Leading Successful Change Workshop