ARPITA

Summary:
ï ¶ Over 8 years of extensive, practical experience as a Business Analyst in the Fin
ance, Mortgage, Software and Healthcare Industries.
ï ¶ Thorough knowledge on Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) principles and meth
odologies such as Agile, Rational Unified Process (RUP), Spiral and Waterfall Me
thod.
ï ¶ In-depth knowledge in developing Use Case Model, Use Case Diagrams, Structural D
iagrams, Behavior Diagrams, Context Diagram, Process Flows, Data Flows, and Work
flows.
ï ¶ Extensive knowledge of business analysis methodologies and concepts such as Unif
ied Modeling Language (UML), and Joint Application Development (JAD) session.
ï ¶ Extensive knowledge of financial statements, Financing Structures, Derivatives,
Capital Management, Portfolio Analysis, Stock Valuation, Amortization and Budget
ing.
ï ¶ Experienced in all financial instruments within investment banking and brokerage
environments (Equity, FI, FX, Derivatives, Mutual Funds, Options, Asset Backed
Securities, Hedge Funds); Basel Risk Management (Credit, Market, Operational); P
ortfolio Risk (Credit Risk; Market risk across all assets).
ï ¶ Experienced in implementing Normalization/Denormalization techniques for optimum
performance in OLTP/OLAP database environments.
ï ¶ Extensive experience working with a wide variety of business and technology grou
ps (includes developers, QA analysts, data architects, ETL members, project mana
gers) defining business requirements, functional requirements, non-functional re
quirements, use cases, test cases and creating detailed functional/technical spe
cification documents.
ï ¶ Experienced in managing project teams of Business Analysts and Quality Assurance
Analysts ensuring quality, budget and timeliness of the project.
ï ¶ Proficient with Rational Tools (includes Rational Requisite Pro, and Rational Ro
se) and Microsoft Office tools (includes MS Project, MS Visio, MS Access, MS Exc
el, MS Word, MS PowerPoint).
ï ¶ Strong Communication and Presentation Skills substantiated in past assignments w
ith developers, project managers, subject-matter experts, stakeholders, system i
mplementers, and application end users.
Education Qualifications:
MBA with Finance

Technologies:
Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP/2003, MS Office Suites (MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoin
t, MS Access, MS Outlook, MS Project, MS Visio) RequisitePro, MySQL, UML, RUP, T
est Director, Crystal Reports, PDF Generation tools, Rational Requisite Pro, and
Rational Clear Case, Dreamweaver, Adobe Page Maker, Photoshop

Projects Description, Responsibilities and duration:

New York Life Investment Management, Parsippany, NJ
Mar08–Present
Business Analyst
New York Life Investment Management LLC (NYLIM), an indirect, wholly-owned subsi
diary of New York Life Insurance Company, is a premier institutional investment
management firm. NYLIM is an integrated asset management enterprise serving a va
riety of sectors namely retail, institutional, bundled defined contribution and
defined benefit products. The project was to develop a software for the portfoli
o manager enabling him the access to all the market details of the stock price s
o that he can select the best stocks to fulfill clients expectations
Responsibilities:
ï ¶ Gathered business requirements through interviews, surveys, prototyping and obse
rvations of account managers and UI (User Interface) of the existing Portal syst
em.
ï ¶ Analyzed and prioritized user and business requirements, as system requirements,
that were included while developing the software.
ï ¶ Prepared High Level Logical Data Models and BRDs (Business Requirement Documents
) supporting documents containing essential business elements, detailed definiti
ons, & descriptions of the relationships, to analyze and document business data
requirements.
ï ¶ Developed the ability to utilize Point-of-Sale data, transactional level, and Ma
rket Basket data to better understand business trends and help develop plans to
meet changing requirements.
ï ¶ Planned and defined system requirements to Use Cases and test plans.
ï ¶ Created UML Diagrams like Sequence Diagrams, Activity Diagrams and process flow
diagrams to elaborate the new processes using Rational Rose.
ï ¶ Conducted JAD sessions with management, SME (Subject Matter Expertise), vendors,
users and other stakeholders for open and pending issues to develop specificati
ons.
ï ¶ Scheduled meetings with the DA’s (data analysts), developers, and SA’s (System An
ï ¶ Worked closely with the PMO group in defining timelines & schedules for the proj
ect.
ï ¶ Updated the project plan regularly & provided the status of the project to all i
nvolved groups.
ï ¶ Coordinated daily activities with the IT Developers, QA and Product teams along
with the project management group.
ï ¶ Assigned problems to the appropriate software development team for fixes.
ï ¶ Created and managed project templates, use case templates, requirement types and
traceability relationships in Requisite Pro.
ï ¶ Wrote Test Cases and developed strategies with Quality Assurance group to implem
ent them.
Software Environment:
.NET, Windows XP, RUP, UML, Visual Basic, Rational Rose, Rational Requisite Pro,
Rational Clear Case, UML 2.0.
Scottrade, New York, NY
Jan 07 – Feb 08
Business Analyst
Scottrade is a leading online brokerage firm that offers a full line of investme
nt products, online trading platforms and market research tools to help investor
s take control of their financial future. It provides a real-time stock trading
data from exchanges around the United States. To enhance its RealTick suite of a
pplications for analyzing, tracking, and trading stocks, futures, options, forei
gn exchange, and fixed income instruments for the North American market, Scottra
de recently upgraded its website that allows the customers to have in depth rese
arch of the ETFs that they are interested in like analyzing the historical data,
charts, latest news and financials. The project was about enhancing the existin
g trading site for incorporating it with the trading platforms and integrating i
t with the trading platforms.
Responsibilities:
ï ¶ Obtained a detailed knowledge of business process involved in the project enviro
nment.
ï ¶ Interacted with SMEs, Directors, IT and Vendors for overall understanding and ne
ed of the system. Was able to fine tune the business rules with inputs.
ï ¶ Analyzed and prioritized user and business rules as system rules that must be in
cluded while developing the software.
ï ¶ Modified the workflows to depict the future workflow and suggested adjustments t
o the flow to improve the efficiency.
ï ¶ Prepared High Level Logical Data Models and BRDs (Business Requirement Documents
) supporting documents containing the essential business elements, detailed defi
nitions, and descriptions of the relationships between the actors to analyze and
document business data rules.
ï ¶ Extracted the business requirements for the end users keeping in mind their need
for the application.
ï ¶ Established Business Analysis methodology using Agile Extreme Programming to cre
ate Architecture and Interaction models.
ï ¶ Conducted Gap Analysis to show the current and proposed functionalities of the s
ystem.
ï ¶ Extensively involved in JAD sessions to converge early towards a design acceptab
le to the customer and feasible for the developers.
ï ¶ Created artifacts and defined milestones and iterations plans for inception and
elaboration phases.
ï ¶ Created Use Case Diagrams, Activity Diagrams, Sequence Diagrams in MS Visio.
ï ¶ Conducted JAD sessions with management, SME (Subject Matter Expertise), vendors,
users and other stakeholders for open and pending issues to develop specificati
ons.
ï ¶ Scheduled meetings with data analysts, developers, System Analysts to explain th
e business needs and fine tune the requirements. .
ï ¶ Made recommendations to improve the current application performance depending on
time limitations and capacity constraints with the aid of SCR’s (Scope Change Reque
sts).
ï ¶ Authored progress and completion reports, which were then submitted to project m
anagement on a weekly basis.
ï ¶ Assisted in testing the application for Usability testing to verify whether all
the user requirements were catered to by the application.
ï ¶ Involved in preparing a simple and detailed User manual for the application for
intended users and tools that will be released out to the field users.
Software Environment:
MS Word, MS Visio, MS Projects, Mercury Quality Center, .Net framework 3.0, ASP.
Net, XML, HTML, MS SQL Server 2000 and 2005, MS SharePoint, M&O Serve ME (Integr
ated business system).
Aegis Mortgage Corporation, Houston, TX
Aug05 – Dec06
Business Analyst
Aegis Mortgage Corporation ranks among the top 30 mortgage lenders in the U.S. A
egis Mortgage Corporation makes first and second mortgage loans to families and
individuals. Aegis concentrates on helping those with less-than-perfect credit i
mprove their financial situations through sensible mortgage lending options. The
project involved building an online pre-approval web-based process where the cu
stomer can input their information and see if they have been pre-approved for th
e loan. Started with limited features, calculators in the first phase added and
enhanced new features for future releases. The system automates the loan origina
tion and underwriting process for serving clients with varying requirements in a
shorter time.
Responsibilities:
ï ¶ Developed scope, assisted in preparation of business case and maintained project
charter and other related artifacts
ï ¶ Worked with the business users, loan officers, underwriting managers to define b
usiness requirements and develop business requirements document (BRD).
ï ¶ Conducted user interviews, gathered and analyzed the requirements
ï ¶ Created Use Case scenarios and maintained use cases (Business use cases and syst
em use cases) and modeled use case diagrams using MS Visio for the application.
ï ¶ Major functionality provided in the system Use Cases are Loan application, Loan
origination, Loan underwriting, Merged credit profile, Property appraisal, Earni
ng verifications, Title search, Rate assessment, Entitlement, Closing statement
etc
Participated in solution design sessions with the technology team, created web p
age mock-ups
ï ¶ Provided assistance to stakeholders on devising effective and efficient approach
es to achieve the project objectives.
ï ¶ Managed Change Control Request meetings, process change requests and updated the
scope with the new changes.
ï ¶ Monitored and assisted the offshore QA team in preparing test plans and regressi
on testing.
ï ¶ Attended review meetings with technical team to prioritize and clarifying feasib
ility of requirements.
ï ¶ Responsible for updating weekly status to the Project Manager.
ï ¶ Assisted the technical writers in preparing help guides for customers support
ï ¶ Involved with problem resolution, adjustments to new procedures, new requirement
s, next phase issues, and other post implementation support
Software Environment:
Rational Suite (RUP, UML with Rational Requisite Pro, Rational Rose), SDLC, Wind
ows 2003, OOA, MS Visio and MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project)
MassMutual Investors Services, Inc., Springfield, MA
Sep04 – Jul05 Business Analyst
MMLISI is a broker-dealer and registered investment advisor that helps clients a
chieve their financial goals by offering a wide array of quality investment prod
ucts and services including mutual funds, variable annuities and variable life i
nsurance, brokerage accounts, portfolio management services, unit investment tru
sts, and direct participation programs.
The objective of the project was to make enhancements to the newly implemented b
ack office system, M&O ServeMe. The project included reporting of Positions, whi
ch are coming from various sources through the Data Warehouse (NSCC, IPS, NFS an
d etc.). Helped in implementing straight through processing solutions to build a
nd automate a mutual fund and variable annuity order entry system. The entire en
d to end STP solution involved integration of the order entry system with the ba
ck office system, work distributor system, field facing portal, file management
system, the information factory and DTCC.
Responsibilities:
ï ¶ Gathered business requirements through interviews, surveys, prototyping and obse
rving from account managers and UI (User Interface) of the existing Portal syste
m.
ï ¶ Build and maintain market financial analysis models.
ï ¶ Conducted controlled brainstorming sessions with project focus groups.
ï ¶ Interacted with SMEs, Directors, IT and Vendors for overall understanding and ne
ed of the system. Was able to fine tune the business rules with inputs.
ï ¶ Analyzed and prioritized user and business rules as system rules that must be in
cluded while developing the software.
ï ¶ Modified the workflows to depict the future workflow and suggested adjustments t
o the flow to improve the efficiency.
ï ¶ Prepared High Level Logical Data Models and BRDs (Business Requirement Documents
) supporting documents containing the essential business elements, detailed defi
nitions, and descriptions of the relationships between the actors to analyze and
document business data rules.
ï ¶ Develop the ability to utilize Point-of-Sale data, transactional level, and Mark
et Basket data to better understand business trends and help develop plans to me
et changing business rules.
ï ¶ Planned and defined system rules to Use Case, Use Case Scenario and Use Case Nar
rative using the UML (Unified Modeling Language) methodologies.
ï ¶ Created Use Case Diagrams, Activity Diagrams, Sequence Diagrams in MS Visio.
ï ¶ Conducted JAD sessions with management, SME (Subject Matter Expertise), vendors,
 users and other stakeholders for open and pending issues to develop specificati
ons.
ï ¶ Scheduled meetings with data analysts, developers, System Analysts to explain th
e business needs and fine tune the requirements.
ï ¶ Played a Major role in Interface testing both functionally and manually.
ï ¶ Made recommendations to improve the current application performance depending on
time limitations and capacity constraints with the aid of SCR’s (Scope Change Reque
sts).
ï ¶ Authored progress and completion reports, which were then submitted to project m
anagement on a weekly basis.
ï ¶ Prepared Test Strategy, Test plans and test cases for testing.
ï ¶ Documented and tracked the defects found while in the testing phase and close th
em in time.
ï ¶ Collaborated with the training department to provide users with training on the
enhanced functionality and tools newly built.
ï ¶ Coordinated with the Communications department to inform and provide images of t
he new tools that will be released out to the field users.
Software Environment:
MS Word, MS Visio, MS Projects, Mercury Quality Center, .Net framework 2.0, ASP.
Net, XML, HTML, MS SQL Server 2000.
Sungard Systems/ Prudential, Infosys, India
Jul02–Aug 04
Business Analyst
SunGard is a global leader in software and processing solutions for financial se
rvices, higher education and the public sector. SunGard also helps information-
dependent enterprises of all types to ensure the continuity of their business.
The project, termed as “Take-On†, was to develop an alternative end-to-end solution that
would enable Prudential to integrate data, with the data repository software “COMPA
SS†that was created & maintained by Sungard Systems. The end result was a seamless
integration of all of its newly acquired positions, portfolios and insurance pol
icies within it’s already extensive database. The integration was accompanied by se
veral functionality enhancements & customizations.
Responsibilities:
ï ¶ Designed the business requirement collection approach based on the project scope
and SDLC methodology.
ï ¶ Established a Business Analysis methodology around the RUP (Rational Unified Pro
cess); helped develop use cases, project plans and manage scope.
ï ¶ Conducted user interviews, gathered requirements, analyzed the requirements and
managed it using Rational Requisite pro.
ï ¶ Conducted interviews with key business users at Prudential to collect requiremen
t and business process information.
ï ¶ Developed business process models in RUP to document existing and future busines
s processes.
ï ¶ Performed extensive requirement analysis including data analysis and gap analysi
s.
ï ¶ Designed and developed project document templates based on the SDLC methodology.
ï ¶ Participated in various stages of data and requirement analysis for project need
s.
ï ¶ Identified internal and external system requirements, designed & configuration s
et-up, and created User Documentation and conducted training classes.
ï ¶ Designed and developed Use Cases, Activity Diagrams, Sequence Diagrams, using UM
L.
ï ¶ Designed and implemented basic SQL queries for QA testing and report / data vali
dation.
ï ¶ Developed strategic partnerships with the business units to develop a solid know
ledge base of the business line; including the business plan, products, and proc
ess and revenue streams.
ï ¶ Translated the business needs into system requirements, communicating with the b
usiness on a broader scale and with an in-depth view too.
ï ¶ Documented and Document delivered Functional Specification to the project team.
ï ¶ Collaborated with the development architect and the business to develop both hig
h-level and detailed application architecture to meet the business needs.
ï ¶ Assisted with user testing of systems, developing and maintaining quality proced
ures, and ensuring that appropriate documentation is in place.
ï ¶ Partnered with the technical areas in the research and resolution of system and
process problems.
ï ¶ Conducted benchmarking activities to identify best practices.
Software Environment:
Windows NT/XP, Apache, Java, Visual Basic 6.0, ORACLE 8.0, Win Runner and Test D
irector, C/C++, PL/SQL, DHTML, MS Visio, MS Word, Rational Rose, Rational ClearC
ase, Rational ClearQuest, Rational RequisitePro