Viaggio in Islanda

Click here to download resume in MS Word format

DORA TARVER

e-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Phone:  (212) 725-5912

SUMMARY:

Solutions Architect, Senior Program/Project Manager and member of PMI with extensive experience leading and training teams of professional consultants and employees, including external resources, to successfully deliver IT solutions.  Expertise in change management, resource management, risk management, team development, client management, time & cost analysis, business analysis, and project schedule/project plan development.  Skilled at working directly with CTOs, VPs, Directors, Business Managers, Technical Leads, Developers, and assistants, driving design, development, testing and implementation of new products and services.  Over 20 years experience in SDLC including project closure procedures. Have published papers and spoken across the country for PMI, including at the PMI Annual Seminars & Symposium. 

Project Management Methodologies: Summit D (Process Management Methodology from Price Waterhouse), RUP, Agile Development, Method One (Anderson Consulting), Customized SDLC, Extreme Programming, SMS, Six Sigma, and the PMI PMBOK.

EMPLOYMENT:

Integrity Plus Corporation - 1990 to Present
Provided short term and long term consulting services for several industries that include the following:

Benchmark Education, Pelham, NY – January 2012 – Present (Publishing)

• SharePoint Solutions Architect & Program Manager for a new SharePoint implementation. Analyzed business needs and architected a SharePoint solution to improve business operations.

PepsiCo, Westchester, NY – June 2011 to December 2011 (Beverage)

• Responsible for implementing project management best practices for Microsoft Project.  Set up project schedule with proper milestones, critical path, and predecessors so that changes could be seen immediately. Trained staff to manage and report from the project schedule.

 MediaBrands New York, NY – June 2010 to May 2011 (Media Asset Management)

• Managed web based global client profitability data warehouse and reporting solutions for systems that delivered monthly reporting of actual revenue, labor hours and costs against each client in a market with the ability to drill down into any level of detail. Tracked monthly labor actuals against the quarterly forecast.
• Responsible for gathering and documenting requirements as well as training junior project manager in project management best practices.
• Responsible for budgets, project schedules, weekly status reports, tracking changes, issues, action items and risks during the project life cycles.

IPC, New York, NY – November 2009 to July 2010 (eCommerce)

• Managed and developed online project management training and services products for two e-Commerce businesses: www.CreateAndManageSchedules.com and www.e-ProjectManagers.com.
• Responsibilities included requirements gathering and developing training systems.
• Implemented new products and services for web based clients to learn project management best practices, which included a toolbar that provided access to videos, podcasts and social networking.

CBS Corporation, New York, NY – May 2008 to October 2009 (Media / Broadcasting)

• Managed a large SharePoint portfolio of twelve programs, which contained multiple projects.
• Coordinated activities across 12 programs and managed multiple teams.
• Responsibilities included setting up governance, creating and maintaining a master schedule and resource pool for the SharePoint portfolio.
• Established SharePoint policies and procedures for the enterprise.
• Drove estimate gathering and drove teams to submit status and deliverables.
• Drove requirements gathering sessions and documentation.
• Worked with technical and business leaders to plan resource allocation and tracked issues, action items, and risks weekly.
• Managed vendors and resources located in multiple locations though their project life cycles.

StarPOINT, New York, NY – June 2007 to December 2007 (Contracting)

• Contracted on multiple small and medium sized projects in a SharePoint environment.
• Facilitated weekly status meetings.
• Managed Technical and Business Issues, Action Items and Risks.
• Responsible for creating and maintaining project schedules, publishing status reports, leading technical teams overseas and locally.
• Managed the budget and successfully delivered projected based on the agreed statement of work. Met or exceeded all client’s expectations.
• Directed the requirements gathering process and signed off on requirements.

AXA – Equitable, York, NY – September 2006 to May 2007 (Finance / Insurance)

• Responsible for managing a program for the co-location of existing work to offshore.
• This work included coordination of the build out of new offshore platforms to support the work.
• Worked closely with the business to ensure the requirements were well documented.
• Managed and tracked issues, action items, changes, and risks, as well and project schedules for this program.
• Responsible for managing a program of 10 projects called Life Services Stabilization.
• Provided weekly and monthly status reports, including overall financial status of the program by project.
• Developed a master project schedule and manage issues, action items, changes and risks daily. Facilitate a weekly program status meeting.
• Work directly with business and IT stakeholders and ensure communications are clear and that expectations are met.
• Conducted risks analysis and project forecasting for 2007.

Nomura Holdings New York, NY – April 2006 to August 2006 (Bank / Finance)

• Responsible for implementing project management best practices and supporting technical leaders in a back office conversion project.
• Normura began converting from NTAPS to an in house back office processing system a few years ago which was scheduled for implementation this past April.
• Was brought in by a manager who wanted to implement project management best practices so that they had better control.
• Created a master schedule, coordinated and facilitated status meetings, tracked issues, risk, action items and changes.
• Managed the relationship between the SOX (Sarbanes Oxley) team and technology leaders to ensure control requirements were met.

AXA – Equitable, New York, NY – May 2004 to March 2006 (Finance / Insurance)

• Responsible for monitoring, reporting project status, project schedule development and management, status meeting facilitation, issue and action item tracking and management, and overall project analysis, requirements gathering and status reporting. 
• Provided Project Management functions by developing and driving schedules, scope documents, change control documents, issues logs, analysis, and status reports.
• Managed project costs in the form of time entry for employees and consultants as well as collected project budget estimates, developed budget forecasts, reviewed monthly financial reports to track variances and budget related issues.
• Organized and drove the project communications, including recurring project coordination meetings from team members to senior executive management.
• Utilized solid project management skills in an IT environment and implemented project management best practices and system life-cycle standards.

ECommerce Partners NYC, NY – January 2004 to April 2004 (eCommerce)

• Conducted business analysis and introduced Project Management Best Practices to support technology solutions to Global 2000 enterprises and emerging Internet businesses.
• Worked directly with clients and ECommerce staff to define best practices that worked 'best' in their environment.
• Created a process for project planning and initiation that helped ECommerce partners more successfully define the project scope, costs, and conduct analysis and requirements gathering.
• Successfully implemented project management best practices into an environment that had none.
• Created templates and forms that other project team members used to manage their projects.
• Created a project management repository in SharePoint that outlined the project life-cycle, steps, deliverables, and recommended templates and forms.
• Successfully provided ECommerce partners with best practices customized to their business model.

Weight Watchers.comm, New York, NY – June 2003 to December 2003 (eCommerce)

• After conducting business analysis, established best practice processes and procedures in the Engineering Department so that they would have better control of costs and risks.
• Gathered details for and delivered a requirements document for a website translation project (English to German).

Cendant, New York, NY – January 2003 to June 2003 (Consumer Services)

• Member of the PMO during merger of AVIS and Budget systems in a SharePoint environment.
• Managed three project teams through the project life cycle, including the requirements gathering process..
• Provided coaching, mentoring and training to staff Project Managers within IT on project management best practices and MS Project use.

Bowne, New York, NY – July 2002 to January 2003 (Publishing)

• Project Manager for application enhan cements to web based systems.
• Managed teams through analysis, design, development, QA, and implementation phases.
• Successful in introducing processes to provide structure and organization to help achieve common objectives.

New York Times, NY – December 2001 to June 2002 (Publishing)

• Project Manager for an advertising system upgrade.

NYK, New York, NY – April 2001 to October 2001 (Logistics / Shipping)

• Managed a team of engineers through the design and development of a global web based booking application that communicated with legacy systems.
• Adopted a methodology that was similar to the PMI PMBOK.
• My responsibilities included development and maintenance of the project plan, requirements gathering and documentation, and installation of network servers with firewall configuration.

New York Interactive, New York City, NY – November 2000 to February 2001 (eCommerce)

• Developed a detailed design document and prototype for the client to bid on a project.
• The design document was a proposal for a web based content management tool.
• My assignment involved travel, research, analysis, and close client and vendor interaction.
• Managed user interface developers through the development of prototype and the development of engineering specifications.

New York Life – July 2000 to October 2000 (Insurance)

• Tailored a methodology from Anderson Consulting (Method One) to better support the needs of project managers.
• Conducted business analysis and made recommendations based on interviews with department staff.
• Wrote project management templates and provided examples for project managers to follow.

Dean Witter (Morgan Stanley) – April 2000 to July 2000 (Financial)

• Conducted an analysis and implemented Project Management Best Practices into the Web Services Division.
• Managed the implementation of an off the shelf methodology to support the management of a large portfolio of web based projects.

Cablevision – October 1999 to April 2000 (Broadcasting)

• Managed the global roll out of "Vignette", a web content management tool.
• My responsibilities included project schedule development, budget management, resource management, hardware purchases, and PMO analysis and reporting

Marsh & McLennan - June 1999 to October 1999 (Insurance)

• Managed the implementation of an off the shelf Fixed Asset Management System.
• Was responsible for the development of the project plan and assignment of project resources.
• Also was responsible for managing vendors and other business managers located across the country to deliver the system ahead of schedule.

Paradym4 (NYC Contractor) – May 1999 to June 1999 (Contracting)

• Converted a large “Primavera” project plan into “MS Project 98”.
• Responsibilities included training staff on how to use MS Project 98.
• “Paradym4” managers were new to the nuances of MS Project, however they quickly learned and were successful in delivering the project plan along with two large PERT chart models to meet the project deliverables.

Schroeder’s Capital Management – October 1998 to May 1999 (Financial)

• Managed Y2K testing and contingency plan phases for a portfolio and financial account management system.
• Developed and implemented the project plans for the Y2K testing and remediation, Y2K contingency plans, and the migration from one portfolio and financial account management system to another.  .

Bank of New York – May 1998 to October 1998 (Banking)

• As a member of the Year 200 project office, was responsible for overall management of upgrades and new system development projects.
• Delivered all projects on time, met or exceeded quality expectations and stayed within budget.

Met Life – 11/97 to May 1998 (Insurance)

• Managed the process for enhancements and quality assurance for a Financial Management Information System’s application that collects and summarizes reserves.
• Directed the technical interview process for prospective full time employees, directed research and analysis phases of an object modeling and automated testing tool.
• Performed an impact analysis outlining time, cost, and performance variables for the implementation of new technology.
• Wrote and conducted high level presentations.
• Applied Price-Waterhouse- Coopers “SUMMIT D” methodology to provide a structured approach to the systems delivery life cycle including the development, implementation and maintenance of systems.

Ross Labs – August 1996 to October 1997 (Pharmaceutical)

• Managed several enhancements to product tracking applications.
• Worked with managers to identify requirements, code and test the new functionality

Founder of Team Alliance Orlando-Jacksonville – 1993-1995 (Recruiting)

• Founded a technical placement firm.  Personally built the back office software “Online 2000” using PowerBuilder. Automated the business and after two years sold the company in 1995 to a competitor.

Contract Programmer Analyst - 1985-1993

• Began my IT career as a programmer analyst and evolved into a technical leader.  I consulted as a developer and worked in many technologies including the following:

Joomla, Drupal, Vignette, SAP, SMS, Subversion, MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, Bulldog, Sybase, Informix, SQL Anywhere, Dbase, and Paradox, XHTML, HTML, CSS, Java, JavaScript, SQL, COBOL, JCL, PHP, C, C++, Power Script, VB Script, Easel, Pascal, FORTRAN, Jira, .Net,  PHP and BAL, SharePoint, Documentum, MS Project 1 thru 200X, MS Office, Power Point, Visio, Internet Explorer, Fire Fox, Safari, Netscape Communicator, Rational Enterprise, Lotus Notes, Flash, Dreamweaver, Homesite, Artemis, WebObjects, Photoshop, PaintShop Pro, ABT Project, ABT Team Workbench, GroupWise, PowerBuilder, PowerJ, Visual Basic, Access, PFC, Erwin, Power Tool, Xsite PPro, TSO/ISPF, Verify-testing system, LAN Manager Software, Presentation Manager, REXX, SAS, SPSX, Realia COBOL, Crystal Reports, ScreenIO, QMF, and Medical Manager Software, MS SharePoint (web based file sharing), Nikko, DL Formatter, Artemis, WebObjects, Confluence, Jira, Project Server.

EDUCATION:

Brandeis University, BA                                 Boston University, MS

Additional Management Training:

Microsoft University - Microsoft Project          IIL- Project Management Excellence

Cablevision - ABT Project Workbench                IIL – Project Management Excellence

PMI - PMP Review                                                       PMI – Project Management Controlling Process

PMI - Capturing Project Requirements & Developing Project Scope

Infinity Plus Consulting - Project Management

Project Management Methodologies: Summit D (Process Management Methodology from Price Waterhouse), RUP, Agile Development, Method One (Anderson Consulting), Customized SDLC, Extreme Programming, SMS, Six Sigma, and the PMI PMBOK.

Additional Technical Training:

PowerSoft - PowerBuilder advanced programming techniques

PowerSoft - Object Oriented Design

PowerSoft - GUI Design

PowerSoft - JBuilder (JAVA Development tool)

Corporate Computing - GUI Design

Infinity Plus Consulting - Advanced JAVA, JavaScript & HTML

Infinity Plus Consulting - Relational Database Design & Coding

Infinity Plus Consulting - AI - Expert Systems

Infinity Plus Consulting - GUI Design

Infinity Plus Consulting – C Programming

Certifications: http://www.e-projectmanagers.com/certificates/certificates.html

 Click here to download resume in MS Word format