Ken Russell

CV

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tel: 07519144659

Profile

I am a senior business analyst with extensive experience of successful project delivery for major UK companies, including enterprise migrations involving several million customers.

I am adaptable, have a good understanding of commercial and business issues, a strong technical background and excellent communication skills. This allows me to fulfil a variety of different roles within project teams, and provide an effective interface between business and technical functions.

Key Skills

Able to analyse problems thoroughly, establish the key requirements, and develop practical solutions.
Good interpersonal skills and the ability to work successfully with both technical and business staff.
Able to communicate the results of analysis clearly and concisely, using effective written reports and diagrams.
Practical knowledge of financial service industry requirements, gained through hands-on project experience.
Facilitation of effective group workshops to successfully identify requirements, using interactive techniques.
Analysis and design using practical Unified Modelling Language (UML) techniques, including use case analysis and business modelling.
Adaptable, with practical experience of using different methodologies to deliver projects, including traditional Waterfall, Iterative and Agile.
Effective management of relationships across multi-disciplinary project teams to ensure that the root causes of challenging issues are correctly identified and successfully resolved.
Strong technical background in web, database and Java technology, gained from working as an analyst and developer on full life cycle delivery of enterprise level multi-tier client/server applications. This experience includes business and system analysis, functional specification, design, coding, testing and implementation.

Experience

October 2011 – March 2012: Business Analyst, Sky IQ, Livingston (Contract)

ISC2 Project

Responsible for analysing existing Sky Group data warehouse reporting, and creating a data dictionary of business terms for a new data warehouse solution. This work included developing UML business models to clarify conflicting terminology and concepts used by different business areas. Designed and developed a custom application to publish the contents of the data dictionary via the Sky IQ intranet.

Feb 2009 - May 2011 : Business Analyst, Tesco Bank, Edinburgh (Contract)

Banking Migration Project – 6 months

Lead BA for business issues in the final 6 months of the project, which moved one million existing savings and loans customers from the Royal Bank of Scotland to Tesco Bank's new banking platform.

Responsible for analysing outstanding issues and defects and ensuring that these were successfully addressed and closed.
Managed complex multi-party relationships involving Tesco Bank business, Tesco Bank IT, Royal Bank of Scotland, IBM and Fiserv, to ensure that the responsibility for resolving issues was correctly identified and action taken by the appropriate parties.

General Insurance Migration Project – 22 months

Lead BA on the team responsible for successfully migrating 2.5 million existing Tesco Bank insurance customers from Royal Bank of Scotland to multiple new underwriting platforms provided by Tesco Bank and external partners.

Responsible for analysing customer migration requirements and devising appropriate solutions. This included commercial requirements, customer experience issues, legal, regulatory and compliance requirements and operational exception processes.
Managed the successfully transfer of existing direct debit payments. This involved coordinating activities performed by RBS, Tesco Bank, BACS and HBSC, to ensure that the required regulatory paperwork was signed at directorial level and the transfer process was implemented prior to migration.
Worked closely with all areas of the Tesco Bank business, Royal Bank of Scotland and new external providers for banking and insurance services. Ensured that all migration requirements were captured, issues were identified and resolved, and key pre-migration activities were executed.
Determined requirements for live proving, performed testing and provided troubleshooting support during the launch of the new Tesco Bank Motor and Home insurance platform.

Apr 2008 - Dec 2008 : Business Analyst, Sky, Livingston (Contract)

Business analyst on a project to replace the existing CRM application for Sky business customers with a new web-based system, using Agile development techniques. Responsible for working with business users and system designers to specify functional requirements, including modelling the existing business structure.

Oct 2007 - Mar 2008 : Senior Developer, Intelligent Finance, Livingston (Contract)

Java code development and system testing for enhancements to the online mortgage application process.

May 2007 - Sep 2007 : Freelance development work (Contract)

Developed Lochmaben Community Initiative website http://www.lochmaben.org.uk to provide new look and feel and full content management system for non-specialist site managers, using open-source software.

Mar 2003 - Apr 2007 : Senior Analyst/Developer, Tesco Personal Finance, Edinburgh (Contract)

Responsible for analysis and full life cycle development for various projects, using Java, XML, SQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Mainframe and Oracle database technologies. All projects involved working closely with business staff to understand and document business requirements.

Business analysis and functional specification for new application to manage order planning and distribution for TPF marketing materials in Tesco superstores throughout the UK.
Responsible for developing and implementing enhancements to the online loans application process, to satisfy Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) requirements, improve usability, and increase sales.
Lead analyst for a new application delivering targeted promotional messages to specific TPF website users.
Analysis, design and development of application code used for internal migration of TPF customers to a new online banking application.
Responsible for business analysis, functional specification and prototyping for a new web application to replace an existing call centre customer support tool.
Analysis, development of demos and creation of functional specifications for new group-wide Royal Bank of Scotland integrated digital banking project.

Apr 2000 - Feb 2003 : Senior Consultant, Spektra Group Ltd, Livingston

Responsible for business analysis, design and development of Java based multi-tier web applications, working in Spektra project teams on client sites.

Bright Grey (Royal London Group) – Code development for a new online application to prepare insurance quotations and process applications.
Bank of Scotland/First Banking Systems (FBS) – Analysis and code development for a new online application system for Business Banking accounts, including training and knowledge transfer for FBS development staff.
Aegon/Scottish Equitable – Responsible for lead business analysis and UML modelling for a new online system used to quote and manage group pension schemes.

April 1998 - March 2000 : Senior Developer, Sema Group, Livingston

Support and development for software application used to process all appeals to the UK Independent Tribunal Service, including workshop facilitation, UML analysis, application design and code development.
Promoted to Senior Developer, December 1998, after joining as a trainee developer in April 1998 from a previous career in mechanical engineering.

Qualifications

M.Eng Manufacturing Sciences and Engineering, University of Strathclyde 1990.

Interests and Activities

Qualified Level 2 British Cycling coach, delivering performance coaching for individuals and group coaching for children with coordination problems from St John’s Hospital, Livingston.
Developer and administrator for www.edinburghrc.co.uk, the website and community forum for one of the UK's largest cycling clubs, Edinburgh RC.