I am a highly experienced and accomplished flexible technical expert that takes concepts and makes them a reality. I thrive in fast pace uncertain environments and am able to clear away the clutter to be able to make solid business decisions. Background includes roles in: Process Improvement, IT Product Management, Agile, Scrum, Program Management, Project Management, Business Analyst, Leadership Development, Sales, Marketing, and Performance Management. Areas of expertise include:
| – Certified Scrum Master – Agile Coach – Project, Product, and Program Management – Business and Systems Engineering Analyst – PMBOK, PMP in progress – Process Management – Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) – 4G Cellular Networks – Software Development Life Cycle – MS Tools and Jira – MVNOs – Development of Mentoring programs – End User Training and Documentation Team Development – Management of On-Shore and Off-Shore Teams |
Professional Experience and Achievements
Insurance Technologies May 2019 – December 2020
Senior Product – Project Manager
- Managed scope, requirements, deliverables, risks, timelines, budgets, training and product issues for 19 financial and insurance clients with a total of 28 active SaaS projects with budgets ranging from $4,000 to $200,000.
- Provided customer service and support of end-to-end client software implementations, including client training, presentations, and process documentation.
- Managed first time software deployments for 4 clients and ongoing new software deployments to all clients. Software deployments types included; application form changes, company re-brandings, company merger changes, new applications, and Regulatory mandates.
- Identified, tracked, and resolved product deployment risks for each client.
- Developed new work orders and negotiated annual contracts for products to client.
- Improved work flow and status reporting efficiencies by working with clients to understand their immediate needs and the needs of their upper management.
Colorado Springs Utilities February 2018 – February 2019
IT Project Manager
- Managed Oracle migration project to move 40+ applications from Oracle Solaris to Oracle ExaData hardware platforms.
- Successfully coordinated and delivered software replacement of employee HR database using internal and external company resources.
- Designed and implemented an Agile Waterfall methodology that reduced migration times by 50 percent.
- Responsible for management of upgrading Cyber Security authentication using Public Key Infrastructure with 2 – Factor Authentication.
Cognizant Technology Solutions December 2009 – June 2017
Senior Product Manager / Business Analyst
Product Owner Delegate for AT&T DirecTV/u-Verse Traffic Management System
- Designed, proposed, and implemented up stream process improvements for Agile Scrum teams.
- Provided policy structure for the overall flow of ideas to development of features using Agile processes.
Senior Product Manager for an AT&T Data Correlation Tool
- Took a custom software development tool from concept to trial to a full product deployment by focusing on needs of 500+ engineer user base, which reducing engineering triage time by 20% to 80%.
- Managed all stages of the product including defining Requirements, Scope of Work, Backlog, Sprint demos, and Acceptance Testing.
- Owned the strategy and roadmap for 3-, 6-, and 12-month product enhancements.
- Used Agile principles to deploy an average of two releases per month with no management escalations.
- Provided monthly training on new software releases to over 1,000 tool users.
- Managed backlog of over 140 feature requests and determined features to implement in each release using collaboration and prioritization skills.
- Conducted and documented high level weekly status reports to upper management with updates on schedules, resources, milestones, and planned sprints.
- Improved collaboration between teams by providing agile training to AT&T and contractors.
- Led focus groups on a regular basis to consistently understand work flow pain points and develop product requirements to improve user needs.
- Collaborated with cross functional teams located through-out the United States and India to ensure product enhancements were delivered; on time, on budget with no defects
Leadership/Mentoring/Customer Relationship Management
- Conducted Transforming Customer Relationship client interviews that identified areas for improvement and applied that knowledge to employees via workshops; resulted in improved client relationships.
- Provided leadership training on Personal Mission Statements to help employees gain an understanding of their strengths, competencies, passions, and how it pertains to their work contributions and life purpose.
- Created and implemented a mentoring program for a 35,000+ employee population
Business Transformation Consulting
- Identified advocated, and implemented necessary business transformation changes by identifying Client’s organizational structure issues via interviews across all levels of their organization.
- Recommended solutions to stakeholders to improve engineering work flow.
Team Development
- Led a high-performance team consisting of two direct report associates and six indirect off-shore reports.
- Designed and delivered on-boarding workshops to help new employees acclimate to their client roles.
Alcatel-Lucent September 1980 – November 2009
- Application Technical Sales
- Served as the technical SME to Sprint for all Cellular network and customer applications. Created and delivered cell phone application presentations to other customers across North America and at Trade Shows.
- Worked with AT&T and Sprint to define cellular mobile location-based services and the end user experience.
- Positioned mobile smart phone Visual Mail applications to Sprint and other cellular providers.
- Created requirement to ensure cellular applications would work seamlessly across different cell phone devices and tablets.
- Bell Labs Field Rep/Solution Architect/Technical Sales Lead
- Provided support to position the UMTS/4G solution to ATT/Cingular and engineered cellular transport solutions.
- Software Product Marketing Team Leader
- Team Leader in the Software Product Marketing Group for development of Speaker Support and Value Proposition material for 5ESS Digital Switch annual software releases.
- Member of Technical Staff in Systems Engineering
- Defined and implemented customer interface role for obtaining ongoing customer requirements for product enhancements and assisted with several First Office Application deployments.
- Product Planner in Competitive Analysis
- Provided strategic analysis of competitors short and long term directions which was used to make overall product direction changes to our Digital Switching platforms.
Education
- MBA, Illinois Benedictine University, Lisle IL, – Emphasis on Human Resources and Marketing
- BSEET, DeVry University, Kansas City, MO.
Awards/Appointments
| – National Sales Team Passion for Winning Award – Distinguished Member of Technical Staff – Civil Air Patrol Regional Character Development Instructor of the Year – National Sales Team Passion for Winning Award – Distinguished Member of Technical Staff – Civil Air Patrol Regional Character Development Instructor of the Year |
Al Andersen 