John O'Brien

Project Manager

United Kingdom

About

Experience

  • Project Manager at Vertiv
    Apr 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 3 mos

  • Senior Project Manager at Allstate
    Mar 2015 - Apr 2024 · 9 yrs 2 mos

    Key responsibilities my current role include: •Establishing projects and initiatives as a program of work, by working with all stakeholders •Understanding business\technical objectives and how the project will deliver them •Manage multiple project deliveries from initiation through to deploy and close •Helping stakeholders understand the need for clear and concise deliverables; •Identify, project Dependencies, Issues, Risks, Project Status reports, proactively managing changes in project scope & co-ordinate with Change Control Board. •Assess and report health of all projects in an objective manner, maintaining project transparency and accurate status; keeping stakeholders informed & •Finding techniques for effective program\project management including project health status reporting adopting new tools\techniques e.g. Jira •Proactively identify, resolve, and escalate (as needed) project risks/issues to appropriate stakeholder(s) •Manage project budget acting when required any variances to deliver projects in the assigned budget •Drive project execution, leading throughout project lifecycle to enable the project team to meet applicable technology requirements •Engage appropriate stakeholders in risk identification and mitigation •Adapt and respond to changes both inside and outside the projects •Display ownership & commitment by taking personal accountability for achieving the project business & technology goals •Comfortable making decisions in ambiguous environments and capable of making effective decisions in stressful situations. •Asking the necessary probing questions to obtain information to logically solve most situations •Deliver complex projects leading & managing global teams, functional areas, business stakeholder’s including vendors enterprise wide;

  • Test Data Lead at Allstate Northern Ireland
    Mar 2012 - Mar 2015 · 3 yrs 1 mo

    • Managing the Core & Automation teams on a day-to-day basis. • Implementing contingency plans when required. • Preparing project schedules and delegating tasks to the respective Teams. • Prioritising tasks and escalating issues when required. • Giving feedback to team members on documents undergoing review. • Liase with fellow QA in India and Chicago. • Co-ordinates all test efforts within the Derry Office. • Provides weekly updates to the QA Director in Belfast. • Hold weekly status meetings, • Provide regular feedback to QA members in regard to estimates, test strategies, general performance. • Monitoring all Customer bugs in Jira to closure. • Performance Appraisal/feedback. • Test Data Planning and co-ordination: • Manages budget and controls expenses effectively, • Hires, trains, develops and appraises staff effectively, • Keeps up to date on information and technology affecting functional area(s) to increase innovation and ensure compliance. • Deep understanding of the industry frameworks that drive Software application development. • Strong process discipline and experience working with commonly used systems development life cycle methodologies such as waterfall, iterative, agile, etc. • Understanding of IT cost models and estimation processes • Champion innovation across the organization • Implement technical strategy and govern across various development teams. • Manage and provide technical and motivational leadership to multiple teams. • Experience in Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery & Automation

  • QC Lead - Mobile at Allstate
    Mar 2010 - Mar 2012 · 2 yrs 1 mo

    Skills: - Test Strategy and Test Approach Development. - Test planning and metrics reporting. - Lifecycle methodologies. - Definition and implementation of testing guidelines and processes. - Introduction of Test Management Tools including Test Manager - Introduction of Test Installation Automation tools and processes. - Ensuring strong effective channels of communication exist and remain between the teams - Implementing contingency plans when required. - Preparing project schedules and delegating tasks to the respective Teams. - Prioritising tasks and escalating issues when required. - Giving feedback to team members on documents undergoing review. - Liase with fellow QA in USA and India - Co-ordinates all test efforts within the Derry Office. - Provides weekly updates to the QA Manager - Hold weekly status meetings - Provide regular feedback to QA members in regards to estimates, test strategies, general performance. - Monitoring all Customer bugs in Jira to closure. - Performance Appraisal/feedback. Other positions held: Product owner Agile team member Senior Quality assurance

  • Associate QC Analyst at SITA
    Oct 2005 - Mar 2010 · 4 yrs 6 mos

    • Plans test strategy for one or more areas of a product • Responsible for developing test data to test system, • Responsible for setting up test environment for system test phase, • Identifies software problems, determines steps to reproduce them, and enters them into a problem tracking database, • Understands customer/system requirements, • Reviews functional and design specifications • Gives feedback on documents undergoing review, • Identifies and narrows down product defects found through testing and analysis of results. • Analyses complex software problems and proposes workarounds. • Responsible for optimizing the testing of areas responsible by making use of automation tools. • Identifies conflicting tasks/goals and prioritizes based on project needs. • Contributes to schedules and estimations. • Following CMM processes on a day-to-day basis. • Software used: Lotus Notes, Microsoft Office, Microsoft SQL Server, Rationale Robot, Citrix