Aparna Parol

• Dynamic IT professional with over 17 years of experience in IT Industry.
• Experience in Software Development, Testing and Project Management.
• Proven ability to lead teams, manage client relationships, and drive successful testing initiatives.
• Strong expertise in manual and mainframe testing, with hands-on experience in SQL.
• Adept at risk analysis, status tracking, and fostering effective communication between technical teams and stakeholders.

Leading test management efforts for a team of 10, overseeing project tracking, risk analysis, and status reporting. 

Spearheaded client engagement for requirement gathering and project initiatives, ensuring alignment with business objectives.

Testing Skill: Manual Testing, Mainframe Testing, DB testing, UI and API Testing. Regression, System Integration and User Acceptance Testing. Test Strategy and Planning. Technology:SQL, Python, Mainframe-COBOL/DB2/VSAM/CHANGEMAN/Endevor/Xpeditor/File-AID/SPUFI

Other Tools:Postman, JMeter, JIRA, CADIS EDM, Tidal (Job Scheduler)

• UST, Apollo Insurance Solutions Group LP,

Senior Test Lead/ Test Architect- 04/2019- Present

Apollo is a Los Angeles-based investment advisor specializing in investment solutions for the insurance industry and was founded for the express purpose of providing a full suite of investment management services to Athene Holding and it subsidiary companies. Apollo Insurance Solutions Group (ISG) is part of Apollo Global Management, specializing in providing comprehensive asset management and financial services tailored for insurance companies. Their activities encompass a range of services and strategies to optimize the investment portfolios and risk management of their insurance clients., 

Key Projects:

IDH – Integration data hub serves as a centralized database that seamlessly integrates, manages, and governs data across systems. Acting as a data conduit, IDH consolidates information from various sources facilitating efficient data exchange. The hub acts as a mediator, ensuring that data flows smoothly between systems., Strategic MoPos: The monthly asset positions is acritical information that the investment committee require for the decision making. Monthly positions are generated based on the data received from multiple subsystems like PAM (investment accounting System), Pam for Mortgages (Handles Residential Mortgage Loans), and LMS (Loan Management System) etc. ‘’Strategic MoPos” application helps the business users to review the source data from different sub systems and generate the final monthly positions.

Utilities: - Subscription/Excel to SQL loader/ FTP – All the customized applications for the project were in testing scope.

Reporting IT: Deals with generating reports based on customer needs and scheduling of the jobs for sharing the reports according to the business requested timelines.

• UST, Anthem ISG Broker

 System Integration and User Acceptance Testing - Test Lead, 08/2013 - 02/2018

The Individual/Small Group (ISG) STAR Broker Commission system was designed as a comprehensive producer commission and compensation system. It maintains ISG Producers (brokers, agents, general agents, and agencies) appointed and licensed to sell Blue Cross of California and Unicare products. The System supports Individual, Small Group, and Senior businesses. It calculates and pays monthly commissions to producers based on received and reconciled membership premiums. UST Global Provide Project and SSCR support in a Managed capacity mode for the ISG Broker Application, coming under WellPoint Broker/Sales application portfolio.

• Cognizant Technology Solutions,Lowe’s Companies Inc.

Developer/Tester and Team Lead- 06/2010- 06/2012

Lowe's Companies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a home improvement retailer in the United States. The company offers a line of products for construction, maintenance, repair, remodeling, and decorating.

Key Projects:

Lowe's AMS Corporate HR Project mainly deals with maintaining the Lowe’s store and corporate employee details and payroll processing for the North American employees. This application detects changes in employee details in PeopleSoft and sends the change details to the third-party vendors on daily basis. This application also supports all PeopleSoft functionalities from the background., Service platform pricing and promotions - Manage product promotion details to the new applications introduced in Lowe's. The purpose of this project is to load the Sterling Pricing Engine with the necessary promotion details captured from external systems like CMS (for Coupon related information), Rebate (Mail-in Rebates) and RIM ( for BOGO - PR, BOGO- 50% off, SPEND & GET and Free Delivery ) related data.

• Cognizant Technology Solutions, Metlife – UIS

Developer/Tester - 07/2007 -12/2009

UIS – UNIFIED INFORCE SYSTEM is the primary institutional system for employee/personal-level data. UIS is the centralized repository that stores eligibility & participation information of employees & his/her dependents for institutional customers. It maintains employer level control records, member level demographic & eligibility/participation information.

Roles and Responsibilities

Test Architect/Test Lead 

Project Tracking & Monitoring: Led comprehensive project tracking and monitoring initiatives to ensure alignment with timelines and deliverables.

Status Reporting: Developed and presented detailed status reports on a daily and weekly basis to stakeholders, providing insights into project progress and challenges., Risk Analysis & Management: Conducted thorough risk analysis, identifying potential issues early and implementing mitigation strategies to minimize impact.

Team Leadership: Managed a diverse team of approximately 10 members, fostering a collaborative environment and promoting high performance.

Resource Onboarding & Mentoring: Oversaw the onboarding of new resources for project requirements, providing mentorship and support for their integration into the team.

Client Engagement: Engaged directly with clients and business users for requirement gathering and initiation of new testing projects, ensuring alignment with business needs.

Offshore Deliverables Management: Held accountability for offshore deliverables, coordinating assignments across multiple projects and ensuring effective collaboration with track leads and onsite teams.

Team Organization: Organized and structured 3-4 sub-teams of 4-5 members each, optimizing workflow and enhancing collaboration.

Work Allocation: Strategically allocated tasks among team members to leverage strengths and foster subject matter expertise across the application.

Requirement Analysis & Task Estimation: Conducted detailed requirement analysis and accurate task estimation to facilitate effective project planning.

Process 

Project Auditing: Acted as a primary POC for Internal and External Audits

Mainframe Code Review: Served on the Mainframe Code Review Committee, contributing to the evaluation and enhancement of code quality and standards.

Defect Tracking & Quality Assurance: Led defect tracking initiatives and served as the Defect Prevention Coordinator, focusing on quality assurance processes to minimize errors.

Tester/Developer

DB /UI Testing: Performed end to end testing for major application in the system. 

Extensive testing using SQL.

JMeter/Postman – Exposure to Postman and JMeter, 

SDLC: Actively participated in all the phases of SDLC including analysis, design, coding, review Process, testing(Unit Testing, System Integration Testing, User Acceptance Testing) and Production Support