Zakir Hussain is a Quality Program Manager at Cisco Systems with over 20 years of experience in quality assurance, testing, and IT services. Some of his accomplishments include achieving a 10% gain in productivity by simplifying audit processes, gaining a 20% productivity increase through automating audit tools, and realizing 15% cost savings through contract negotiations. He has skills in test automation, database management, and programming languages such as Java and PHP.
Associate, I have worked for major client sites such as PWC, Deloitte, ITC Infotech (payroll Data-Core Systems Inc.) during my career. Until recently, I led web data associate, in this role 1.6 years experience in a directory listing website, to add listing data to these directories with the application of WordPress, and Maintaining Dashboard optional features also active social networking websites.
Associate, I have worked for major client sites such as PWC, Deloitte, ITC Infotech (payroll Data-Core Systems Inc.) during my career. Until recently, I led web data associate, in this role 1.6 years experience in a directory listing website, to add listing data to these directories with the application of WordPress, and Maintaining Dashboard optional features also active social networking websites.
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Program / Project Manager with a successful record of managing full project life-cycle initiatives. Expertise includes a combination of both Application Development and Infrastructure experience. I’ve acted as both developer and then App Dev PM while with the State of Missouri. I rate my SDLC experience as an 8/10 as I personally did VB development and acted as the PM for entire application delivery from development through SQL and into production. An exceptionally strong Program / Project Manager with the following qualifications:
• PM experience covers product planning, scheduling, testing, change management, implementations and ROI analysis
• Successfully managed projects for domestic and international corporations including BP, State of MO-DOR, Salton/Toastmaster
• Recognized for surpassing corporate and customer expectations for quality and focus by configuring, implementing, training, mergers and acquisitions
• Experienced in handling projects in rapidly changing functional, procedural and engineering environments including international offshore (Brazil, Columbia, UK, Trinidad, Argentina, Mexico) testing/development teams
• Provides disciplined, assertive, tactful leadership to resolve challenges in an efficient, cost-effective manner
• Skilled in developing and maintaining strong customer relations and fostering cohesive, consensus-building project team interactions
• Recognized for being a highly-motivated, self-directed, enthusiastic project manager with a positive, creative attitude for balancing schedules, costs and priorities
• Recognized as an “idea leader” with flexibility to handle assignments with analytical test equipment and to develop quality assurance best practices/processes
• Excels in developing and maintaining project plans without being dependent on technical resources for input.
• Successfully transitioned to a portfolio of 65 projects International with a blend of waterfall and agile teams with ~$75 million budget. Overseeing multiple vertical project managers, business analyst, functional analyst, and working with the communications team. All in a ~2 month onboarding to the account.
• Apply communication strategies to engage International-level stakeholders in order to understand product objectives, customer service processes, development teams, and define strategies for opposing developing techniques to timely and with budget constraints. Supports SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) as the “Release Train Engineer.
• Manage the flow of value through the program and value stream Kanban’s to increase outlook into new work and into the work flow. Establishing connections among the Portfolio, Journey mapping, value stream, and programs levels.
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Program / Project Manager with a successful record of managing full project life-cycle initiatives. Expertise includes a combination of both Application Development and Infrastructure experience. I’ve acted as both developer and then App Dev PM while with the State of Missouri. I rate my SDLC experience as an 8/10 as I personally did VB development and acted as the PM for entire application delivery from development through SQL and into production. An exceptionally strong Program / Project Manager with the following qualifications:
• PM experience covers product planning, scheduling, testing, change management, implementations and ROI analysis
• Successfully managed projects for domestic and international corporations including BP, State of MO-DOR, Salton/Toastmaster
• Recognized for surpassing corporate and customer expectations for quality and focus by configuring, implementing, training, mergers and acquisitions
• Experienced in handling projects in rapidly changing functional, procedural and engineering environments including international offshore (Brazil, Columbia, UK, Trinidad, Argentina, Mexico) testing/development teams
• Provides disciplined, assertive, tactful leadership to resolve challenges in an efficient, cost-effective manner
• Skilled in developing and maintaining strong customer relations and fostering cohesive, consensus-building project team interactions
• Recognized for being a highly-motivated, self-directed, enthusiastic project manager with a positive, creative attitude for balancing schedules, costs and priorities
• Recognized as an “idea leader” with flexibility to handle assignments with analytical test equipment and to develop quality assurance best practices/processes
• Excels in developing and maintaining project plans without being dependent on technical resources for input.
• Successfully transitioned to a portfolio of 65 projects International with a blend of waterfall and agile teams with ~$75 million budget. Overseeing multiple vertical project managers, business analyst, functional analyst, and working with the communications team. All in a ~2 month onboarding to the account.
• Apply communication strategies to engage International-level stakeholders in order to understand product objectives, customer service processes, development teams, and define strategies for opposing developing techniques to timely and with budget constraints. Supports SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) as the “Release Train Engineer.
• Manage the flow of value through the program and value stream Kanban’s to increase outlook into new work and into the work flow. Establishing connections among the Portfolio, Journey mapping, value stream, and programs levels.
Strong technology manager who excels at understanding customer requirements and who utilizes technology and best practices to achieve company goals; utilizing existing applications to streamline and improve performance transparency. Extremely passionate with respect to process improvement, implementing best practices and accurate reporting resulting in actively being sought after by clients. International and domestic expertise in process improvement and application deployment. Repeatedly reduced costs increased productivity and expanded marketability using a technological approach to implementing software solutions across multicultural environments.
1. zhussain@cisco.com
+1919-392-4401 (W)
+1919-425-9364 (M)
ZAKIR HUSSAIN (ZHUSSAIN)
ACCOMPLISHMENTS Quality Program Manager:
Achieved 10% gain in productivity by simplifying audit process to a customer
focused industry standard COPC aligned process and optimizing the activities
(eliminating redundant work)
Managed changes by re-training of the quality auditors to the new audit form and
the audit automation tool gained another 20% productivity through automating the
complete audit process without any additional funding.
Gained 15% cost savings through workforce management and contract negotiation.
primarily through migrating managed projects to a managed services contract
reducing cisco overhead.
Re-vamped the customer feedback to include internal and external customers with
additional analysis code to clearly identify the root cause of the feedback. and
track all the issue through a close loop tracker till closure.
Achieved cost avoidance by managing a work assignment tracker, updated
quarterly which helped identify redundant tasks to free-up bandwidth to take on
additional work without increased spend.
Optimized the agent reward and recognition process
Created a model to calibrate agent onboarding and certification model for
recognition
IT Service Lead (Managing Oracle OM, 11i and R12 IT support)
Managed numerous critical periods like quarter end financial book closures.
Worked closely with Customer support team to review and reduce cycle times.
Led the implementation of the RCCA (causal analysis) process in CCIT, and
managed the partnership with EIO (Excellence in Operation) team.
Brought down CCIT-CS PDF (Production data fix) from 175 a week to < 20 a week.
Quality Engineer:
Identified and managed global performance characteristics of all Cisco tools
(external and internal) during Cisco ERP upgrade from 10.7 to 11i.
Automated the Test suite for Order Management and 16 other customer facing web
applications.
Set up and implemented Test Director (Quality Center) in Cisco.
SKILLS & ABILITIES Vendor Management:
Budget, SOW, Vendor Performance, Workforce management, optimization and
Process Optimization
RDBMS Database
Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, Access
Programming language:
Java, JavaScript, PHP, python, VBScript, HTML, CSS
2. Page 2 Zakir Hussain (zhussain)
Test Management Tool: HP Quality Center (HP Application Life Cycle Management),
JIRA
Test Automation Tools: Selenium, Selenium WebDriver, Testing, QTP
Other Test Skills:
Test plan development
Test case (Test Script) development (Positive, Negative, exception, Data
validation, Test data creation
Traceability Matrix (Functionality mapping with Test case)
Waterfall and agile testing methodology
Test management:
Functional Testing: Unit, Integration, System, BAT and UAT testing.
Non Functional Testing: Performance, Security, Usability and compatibility
testing
PROFESSIONAL
EXPERIENCE
QUALITY PROGRAM MANAGER, CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
Feb-2014- Present
Audit Process Optimization, instead of being just a check points we made it to a more
customer experience centric in alignment with COPC guideline.
SERVICE LEAD.II.IT.INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
Nov-2012- Feb-2014
Owned and Actively Managed Support for Order Management, Web Applications and
Oracle Teleservices (CS case management tool).
Acted as the primary liaison between IT and Business Teams, providing critical input to
each team in order to establish priorities, define approach, and craft innovative
solutions.
Successfully improved key business metrics such as: incoming case rates, training
issues, production data fix (PDF) counts, Root cause analysis & corrective action and
case age.
Successfully partnered with key business clients to define scope, priority and options
for production issues to be addressed during upcoming release deployments.
Subject matter expert for various web and back end ERP systems.
Provided key inputs in a broad spectrum of areas in particular for platform and data
migration activities in order to streamline post production support.
Tracked various deliverables, ensured schedules and budgets were met, provided
timely updates to the management team.
SPECIALIST.IV.CUSTOMER SERVICE.CUSTOMER ADVOCACY, CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
Dec-2010 – Nov-2012
As an Escalation Manager booked critical customer Orders for Comcast, Ford, Citibank,
Bank Of America. using Oracle 11i. Customer Specifics, DSA, EDMS, Pricing tool,
Product Availability, CTMP. CIC, Status tool, Ordering Tool, CCW, etc ...
PROJECT MANAGER.I.IT.INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, Cisco Systems, Inc.
Feb-2007 – Dec-2010
Acted as communication focal and coordinator for the cross-functional business testing
of over sixty IC applications.
Developed successful test strategies and managed large scale production releases for
multiple front-end and back-end commerce applications. Developed and implemented
3. Page 3 Zakir Hussain (zhussain)
department wide test strategies and standardized processes increasing communication
efficiency and reducing risks of introducing new application defects.
Acted as subject matter expert in training cross-functional groups on tool functionality
and developed training material on key commerce applications.
Managed QA activities for all development, implementation, and growth of The Order
and Change Order Tool (COT) program. COT functions with a robust backend engine
capable of handling all varieties of change requests and is Cisco’s most complex online
application that contains all the functionality of the Online Ordering System.
Effectively improved and maintained COT usage rates by driving global theatre
partnerships to communicate and train customers to the benefits of using COT.
Maintained and supported COT on a global scale with limited resources and aggressive
timelines.
ENGINEER.II.QUALITY SYSTEMS.QUALITY ASSURANCE, CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.
Apr-2000 – Feb-2007
Defined and tested web tool functionality and design through creation of use case
documentation and test script scenarios. Effectively coordinated and managed user
acceptance testing for major quarterly production releases of Online Ordering Tools.
Developed online training material and documentation for use by external customers.
EDUCATION JAGANNATH COLLEGE, DHAKA, BS
Major: Physics
Minor: Math and statistics