|
Details:
|
In this engagement, Anthony provided full time support to the SAP enterprise wide implementation during the period June 2011 to December 2013. More roles were gradually introduced over this timeframe starting with Project QA lead for the majority of his project involvement.
1. QA Lead – Key accomplishments:
- Led a team of up to three members. Anthony reported to senior PMO leadership
- Developed project QA strategy and review plans for each major phase of the project
- Reviewed and provided real-time feedback on key project deliverables and processes including strategies, process design documents, business requirements specs, technical requirements specs, testing plans, testing results, change management strategies and plans, training materials, security models, business operation procedures, PMO processes (including risk and issue management), IT support processes (primarily incident and change management), cutover and hypercare processes
- Performed deep dive reviews on various areas including requirements traceability and a test plan quality review. In the test plan review, Anthony coordinated a team of three people in the review of test script quality and linkages to business requirements. The team was able to identify test scripts that needed to be enhanced or completed (were not yet fully run), helping to ensure the system functionality was fully tested and verified
- Led four tollgate phase reviews and two post implementation assessments through interview with project leads and key team members and review of documentation. Reports including recommendations for addressing key areas of risk were provided to PMO leadership who developed action plans to guide remaining phases.
2. Internal Controls Lead – Key accomplishments:
- Led a team of up to three members. Anthony reported to senior PMO leadership; primary deliverables were provided to key business leadership
- Worked closely with the firm's Internal Audit group to coordinate review efforts
- Developed the Internal Controls strategy and developed budgets and plans from realization phase to go-live
- With team member assistance, developed internal controls matrices that addressed the key risks around business operations and interfaces. Controls were determined that focused on access restrictions (authorization, confidentiality, SOD), system configuration (completeness, accuracy), manual/business procedures and reports (authorization, completeness, accuracy) and interfaces (completeness, accuracy).
- Requirements for enhancement were provided to functional and business team members on controls that needed to be improved.
- Testing of controls was specifically performed for higher risk controls or tests were identified within the functional testing to confirm the correct implementation of the controls.
- Led a deep dive assessment of the user access restrictions and processes, including the provisioning process and tools, Active Directory integration, SAP security roles and authorizations for the BU go-live
3. Data Validation Lead – Key accomplishments
- In November 2012, Anthony was requested by project leadership to step into an area of the project that was not proceeding to schedule and assist, rather than critique, in order to bring more process and rigor to data validation.
- In this role, Anthony worked with the technical Data Management team and the Canadian and US data owners to establish a methodical process for confirmation of the data load procedures. Provided key insight to business data owners on validation requirements and procedures to be performed.
- A model was developed that provided procedures to be performed and ultimately, assurance over the integrity of the data load of each of the key master data and transactional values loaded to SAP
- Key process and technical mapping issues were ironed out over several test cycles. Procedures were established that helped provide confidence on the load accuracy and quality, working with the business team to resolve problem areas within their process and data and the technical team, to provide explanations and support on the logic behind the conversion routines.
- Managed up to two team members and worked through issue resolution logs throughout the testing and go-live load cycles.
4. UAT Testing Support – Key accomplishments
- Anthony assisted the Canadian business team with UAT support through providing a leadership role to the planning and monitoring of the performance of UAT.
- With a broad understanding of the SAP environment, Anthony was able to coordinate a comprehensive, yet streamlined end to end test approach that had not been able to be completed in past cycles. Anthony worked with business and functional testing team members to develop a UAT script that touched all areas of the system which helped confirm the overall integration of the environment.
- Areas of weakness were identified and accelerated for more action and resolution. Further on, this assistance developed into a more hands on role in design and oversight of the UAT script development and execution phase. Anthony worked with numerous business and technical support team members who were often already busy with many other activities, to help progress these scripts to execution and reveal any further issues with the system operability.
- Subsequent to UAT testing, Anthony continued to support testing activities and system preparations to help reduce the likelihood of system issues at go live. Beyond go-live, Anthony continued to assist with testing of key defects and remaining areas of system functionality.
|
|
Benefits to Client:
|
Anthony received commendations throughout the project and notes of appreciation from PMO leadership, business leaders and Internal Audit. Overall, the project benefited from my strong technical skills and experience in audit and controls as well as problem solving and commitment to resolving challenging areas and issues in the project.
Within the project QA role, risks and issues were identified in a timely manner and corrective measures were able to be introduced to resolve these risks.
In the Data Validation role, the extent of issues experienced were substantially minimized to the point that PMO leadership did not have concerns on this area by the time go-live occurred. Business data owners were appreciative of being assisted through the validation exercise and minimal concerns occurred at go-live.
Effective and appropriate internal controls were also implemented as an outcome of Anthony's leadership in this area, protecting the firm from risks due to confidentiality, authorization and integrity.
|