Technical Writer or Business Analyst Resume

Title
Technical Writer or Business Analyst

Primary Skills
To find a technical writing assignment (a) that makes use of my extensive writing and IT experience, (b) that is inte...

Location
US-NY-New York

Posted
Jan-20-09

SUMMARY: Over sixteen years' writing experience on top of an extensive and varied IT background. Worked in both business and technology areas of client organizations. Excellent communication, management, and professional skills, extremely bright and focused, good perspective combined with mastery of detail, quickly adaptable to new situations and technologies, firm grasp of client perspective and requirements, strong verbal skills, fun to work with.

May 2004 - December 2008 THE PRINCETON REVIEW
AVP of IT Compliance and Administration

COMPLIANCE: Worked with IT- and senior management to define a wide range of policies, standards, workflows and procedures aimed at making the Company compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley IT provisions. Created all related documents and manuals. Ongoing responsibility for internal auditing of IT compliance and for maintaining the policies, procedures, and documentation.
* Completed four consecutive external audits with no major deficiencies.

ADMINISTRATION: Worked with management in producing annual budgets for the four IT departments and the Facilities Department; periodically analyzed actual expenses vs. budget and produced forecasts. Responsible for processing and approving invoices for these departments. Revised and managed the purchase order process for IT hardware and software acquisitions. Managed staff of 1-1/2.
* Saved the Company over $350,000, largely through careful scrutiny of invoices
* Significantly improved relationship with vendors

October 2003 - March 2004 JPMORGAN CHASE
Technical Writer/Consultant. Documented security administration procedures, user-enrollment procedures, change management plan, and disaster recovery plan for tax reporting system; consulted on development of quick start and user guides.

September 2002 - October 2003 VARIOUS CLIENTS
* For a major risk consulting firm, wrote contents pages for the firm's web site, discussing risk issues and the services offered by the firm.
* For Morgan Stanley operations, evaluated current procedural documentation (for clarity, completeness, level of detail, etc.) and produced report with findings and recommendations.
* For CorPro, wrote informational/marketing brochure on long-term care insurance.
* For ASECMO, wrote English-language brochures for Windows-based biometric system-access software based on vendor's original German-language brochures.

April 2000 - July 2002 BARCLAYS CAPITAL
Technical Writer/Consultant. Wrote front office and back office securities trading and investment banking procedures for subsidiary of Barclays Bank. Developed most procedures from scratch based on interviews with subject matter experts; also reviewed and edited Barclays-written procedures. Back office areas included securities lending, settlements, operations control, cash management, money position, and buy-in. Among the many front office desks were high yield trading, corporate bond finance, U.S. government and agency finance, investment grade capital markets, emerging markets FX rates trading, syndicate, prime brokerage, and investment banking. Technical environment: Windows. Tools used: MS Word, Excel, Visio, Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Acrobat.

1992 - 1999 CHASE MANHATTAN BANK
Technical Writer/Consultant. Wrote: on-line help, user guides, functional specifications, system design specifications, interface control documents, installation guides, presentations, workflows and procedures. (User guide received Award of Achievement from Society for Technical Communication.) Applications: asset securitization (mortgages, credit card receivables, auto financing), funds transfer, letter of credit, purchase order, foreign exchange, financial management information, on-line investment services. Technical environments: Windows, C++, Visual Basic, HTML, UNIX, intranet. Tools used: MS Word, Visio, RoboHelp, Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Acrobat, PowerPoint, etc.

Other work: analysis of asset securitization legal documents; system design and project management consultation. SEE SUPPLEMENT AT END OF RESUME RE: EXPERIENCE AS FACILITATOR.

1983 - 1991 LOGICA DATA ARCHITECTS INC.
Director of Consulting. Responsibilities encompassed bid management, sales, and operations management, as well as project management and project participation:
* Bid management: bids ranging from $15,000 consulting assignments to $6 million implementations
* Sales: prospect meetings, proposal writing, sales presentations; wide range of client sectors, technologies, and project types
* Operations management of division with twelve senior-level consultants and subordinates: project status review, timesheet and expense report approval, invoicing, Divisional accounting

In addition to management and consulting experience, was an active member of the Administrative Committee of Logica Data Architects Inc. 401(k) Plan and was Chairman of the Trustees of Logica Systems Inc. 401(k) Plan.

Specific project experience included:

* For a major life insurance company, consulted to the management office responsible for a very large, multi-year project to rethink and revise the way the Company services its clients. Advised on the process that should be used to plan the project, the appropriate level of management controls, the structure of the development effort, organizational issues, and the selection and use of a project planning tool.

* Managed a high-level voice and data communications strategy study for a regional bank in New England.

* For a company developing an international trading and market information network service, managed a Logica study aimed at recommending encryption products to satisfy the service's security requirements. Subsequently, managed the implementation of the recommended approach, working with representatives of the Client, the encryption vendor, and the supplier of the network switching equipment.

* Manager of and chief participant in Logica's role in the development of a Tandem-based network of communications processors for a major financial institution, incorporating telecommunications and data processing facilities. After a successful initial engagement culminating in vendor selection, was retained by the Client to participate in the development of the system. SEE SUPPLEMENT AT END OF RESUME RE: EXPERIENCE AS FACILITATOR.

* For the European Marketing Division of a major computer manufacturer, was member of two-person team that conducted an audit of the service the U.S. head office provided the Company's European subsidiaries.
Senior participant in a technical and business audit of a major bank's branch automation strategy.

* Manager of a team of Logica consultants that undertook a communications strategy study for a large regional bank aimed at recommending the best approach for integrating and rationalizing the Bank's assortment of data communications networks based on cost and technical considerations.

* Led a two-person team in providing communications consulting to a regional bank that was migrating from Burroughs to IBM mainframes.

IT Experience prior to 1983
Business analysis; computer system design; network design; hardware and software evaluation, procurement, installation and maintenance; project and departmental management; programming.


SUPPLEMENT TO RESUME

OTHER WRITING EXPERIENCE
Concurrent with my IT and technical writing activities, for twenty years I have been a theatre and cabaret critic/journalist/commentator in several media: newspapers (bi-weekly column, reviews, and feature articles), magazines, national public television (monthly), radio (weekly), Internet.


EXPERIENCE AS FACILITATOR
One of the roles I have played with considerable success is that of facilitator. This function makes use of my background, professional judgment, and skills in a variety of ways; following are examples:

* CITIBANK contracted a computer vendor to develop a transaction networking application. I was engaged by the Bank's development group to do the following:

1. Sit in on project meetings between Vendor and Bank staff to: assure that communications were clear, unambiguous, and understood by both parties; evaluate alternatives and choices; assure that decisions were consistent with prior decisions and current plans; document agreements reached as well as follow-up activities/responsibilities.

2. Coordinate the development of functional and acceptance test specifications by Bank staff. In addition to writing portions of these documents directly, I reviewed all documentation for clarity, thoroughness, reasonableness, and consistency.

3. Test portions of the application. (I also oversaw the development of an exception tracking system.)
Citibank retained me in this capacity for 2 1/2 years.


* At CHASE, though my job was essentially that of technical writer, I also did work that could properly fall under the category of facilitator, usually as an adjunct to my documentation responsibilities:

1. For one development project, I presided over meetings/conference calls between the development group in New York and the users in the U.K. to assure clarity, consistency, and mutual understanding. My minutes of these proceedings served as specifications for both the development effort and user acceptance.

2. For a system that had already been placed in production, I reviewed the lengthy and complex legal documents underlying the system design, comparing contractual provisions against system functionality to identify potential areas of non-compliance.

3. On nearly every system for which I wrote documentation, I also evaluated the system design from the point of view of consistency (within the application and with other applications), processing prudence, and user clarity/friendliness.

Certifications
See above


You must be logged in and have a current resume access subscription. Login or Register »

Resumes in New York, NY | Resumes in New York

View other Technical Writer or Business Analyst resumes, Technical Writer resumes