Manish Patel

My role at Canada Life UK has been to serve as the Lead QA representative on their Cloud Transformation programme. This involved utilising Microsoft Azure cloud capability to consolidate, rehome and re-provision all its existing on-premise and ‘other' cloud platform infrastructure and applications. This also included validating the creation and operation of an effective end-to-end Target Operating Model (TOM) that underpinned the long-term management of the organisation's Strategic Cloud environment, with ITIL best practices applied across all service pillars.

Responsibilities:

· Technical QA on solution architecture for Azure Services.

· Validation of Azure resources deployed via Infrastructure as Code (IAC) including review of Pester Test results.

· Created, updated, and validated ITIL Service Management processes including Incident, Change and Problem Management via ServiceNow.

· Validation of ITIL Service Management changes to support the onboarding of an offshore 3rd party supplier.

· Raising and reviewing RAID items with onshore 3rd party supplier as part of programme risk management guidance.

· Test support to key stakeholders for UAT and BAT testing.

· Execute line management duties to 3 QA resources facilitating their mid and end of year reports.

· QA status reporting and where applicable this was automated thus providing real-time progress.

· Implemented new ‘Ways of Working' as defined by the CLUK QA Policy as the organisation transitioned to more of an Agile delivery model via the use of JIRA and other supporting tools. Strategies included shifting-left, continuous delivery and automate first to name a few.

Operating as a QA Lead Engineer supporting the QA Chapter Lead in developing and implementing QA initiatives across the whole of the Software Delivery Life Cycle. Working across both Agile and Waterfall projects, I have managed up to 7-8 resources both working on manual and automation testing activities. As well as being involved in identifying test approaches and strategizing, I was also given exposure to line management duties and coaching.

Responsibilities:

· Develop and Revise Ways of Working (WOW) Packs for Test Delivery

· Work with Agile Delivery Leads, Scrum Masters and Product Owners on continuous improvement

· Update test practice with new initiatives and WOW

· Support the definition of the Test Strategy and Test Approaches for various programmes or squads

· Facilitate the documentation of Agile "Squad" ways of working

· Coordination of testing with 3rd Parties

· Facilitate Team 121's

· Contribute to Personal Development Plans

· Recruitment

· Manage Costs/Budgets

I joined Cigniti Technologies as a Test Lead with an immediate placement at British Airways HQ. I was primarily responsible for the upgrade of the Core Automation Regression Pack for BA.com. This involves managing a team of resources to review, prioritise and identify gaps within the existing online regression pack and provide inputs to the Core Automation team to action.

Responsibilities:

• Daily and Weekly Reporting of Review Progress
• Liaising with Core Domain experts to expand test coverage
• Providing input to the R&R Programme on test processes and practices to be included as part of the creation of the Test Practice within BA.

As a Test Lead I was placed on client site at Costa / Whitbread supporting the Store Tills Refresh Programme. This involved testing a new Tills Platform which replaced the existing Oracle Caterwide/InnTouch tills system.

Responsibilities:

· Reviewing Business Requirements and Design Specifications

· Constructing test plans, test cases and test conditions in JIRA using Zephyr

· Liaising with 3rd party suppliers on the development and testing of the new applications.

· Working with business users for UAT in conducting documentation and test reviews.

· Test Execution

· Defect logging and management.

At DXC Technology I was brought on board for a short term contract to support the test planning of the new regulatory cheque image based solution for Nationwide Building Society. I was responsible for assisting the new ICS Cheque images through the Kappa Fraud system which identifies whether a cheque is fraudulent and needs to be withdrawn from payment. This role primarily involved defining the test strategy and test approach for the project. My previous experience working on the Kappa Fraud system was one of the primary reasons I was selected to work on this account.

Responsibilities :

• Test Planning and Test Scheduling of all testing activities in the testing lifecycle
• Defect Management
• Daily Status Reporting
• Managing relationships between the project team members such as Solution Engineers, Environmental Management, Configuration Management etc and the test team
• Upkeep of the RAID log for the test project and for escalation where appropriate to the project team.

I returned to Nationwide Building Society for the second time due to my experience and knowledge of the Internet and Mobile Banking platforms. I was operating as a test manager on several releases within the Digital Portfolio including the replacement and migration of customer Internet Bank login credentials from a Unisys Mainframe platform to a Microsoft SQL Server. I also operated as a Test Lead on the SRI programme. I had a dual role supporting my programme test manager on planning, estimations and reporting as well as supporting a team of test analysts.

Responsibilities:

Many of my responsibilities this time were identical to my last role at Nationwide. However, under the Test Manger role, I was given the opportunity to fulfil the following additional activities: -

· Point of contact between the Test Lead and the project team.

· Managing relationships between the project team members such as Solution Engineers, Environmental Management, Configuration Management etc and the test team.

· Upkeep of the RAID log for the test project and for escalation where appropriate to the project team.

· Requesting the Project Manager to raise appropriate RRFs for new or extended resources

· Extensive Stakeholder Management working with various parts of the business and product owners during test planning and signoff activities.

I was recalled back at Unisys/IPSL for the third time due to my experience and knowledge of the Kappa Fraud system to assist in testing the roll out of the application to several IPSL's clients including Co-op, Nationwide and Santander. I was part of the testing team involved in the implementation of its rollout to one of IPSL's largest clients, Lloyds Banking Group.

Responsibilities:

· Reviewing Business Requirements

· Constructing test plans, test cases and test conditions based on design or business requirements.

· Mapping of business requirements against outlined test cases designed.

· Liaising with 3rd party suppliers on the development and testing of the new applications.

· Working with business users in conducting documentation and test reviews.

· Test Execution

· Defect logging and management.

As a key supplier of IT consultancy and services my role at Gamcom Solutions Ltd has predominately involved working with one of their most prestigious clients, Nationwide Building Society. My role has varied over the years starting as a senior Test Analyst working on their new Internet Banking application to operating as a Test Team Lead within their Multi-Channel Development Centre (MCDC) which supports many of Nationwide's key customer facing systems and applications including Internet and Mobile Banking platforms.

Responsibilities:

· Co-ordinating Master / Detailed Test Plans for all phases of test for a release.

· Preparation of tests scripts in accordance with the DTP and approved test packs.

· Planning, preparation and delivery of individual test phase activities.

· Monitoring and management of the execution of the test phase to plan including weekly test reports for a release to the Test / Release Managers.

· Defining environment and resource requirements and managing their use on a day to day basis for that release.

· Reporting key testing milestones and deliverables for the test phase to the test manager.

· Delivery of the test preparation and execution on a day to day basis

· Engaging the business, support and operations teams to facilitate and support the planning, preparation and delivery of all phases of test associated with a release.

· Raising test risks and issues to Test Management.

· Leading Production Support test activity when assigned, ensuring all test deliverables and tasks are delivered inline with support SLA's.

As well as being accountable for: -

· The delivery of all phases of test including planning, preparation, execution and reporting activities for a release.

· Managing the tasks of a team consisting of offshore and onshore test analysts; providing direction, leadership and guidance.

· Facilitating Test Gateways and the Sign Off on key test deliverables.

At Unisys/IPSL, I was involved in several projects testing cheque clearing processing systems for Barclays, HBoS and HSBC. My role on return was far more technical than my last project here and I was given more detailed exposure into the end-end process of cheque clearing. Through all these projects I have been given significant amount of exposure to Control-M, a batch scheduling application to assist in the end-2-end process of the cheque clearing system.

Responsibilities:

· Reviewing Business Requirements

· Constructing test plans, test cases and test conditions based on either High Level Design documentation or Business Requirements.

· Mapping of Business Requirements against outlined test cases designed.

· Liaising with 3rd party suppliers on the development and testing of the new applications.

· Working with business users in conducting documentation and test reviews.

· Defect logging and management.

As a key supplier of IT consultancy and services my role at Sopra Group involved working with various clients to identify and analyse key testing areas of their business. This would include writing test plans, identifying testing scenarios, scripting test strategies and reporting testing progress.

My role at HFC involved testing credit card authorisations through Credit Management System otherwise known as CMS for MasterCard and Visa.

Working as part of an integral testing team, my work at ADP entails testing various modules of the British Airways Executive Club, a Java web application that sat in front of an Oracle database.