Nishit S Kotak
IT Delivery Manager/ Test Manager/ IT Project Lead
Thane,MH
Summary
Results-driven Delivery Manager with over 18 years of expertise in IT project delivery, quality assurance, and client engagement within the banking and financial sectors. Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and execute projects from inception to completion, consistently delivering on-time, high-quality results that align with scope and budget. Proficient in stakeholder management, risk mitigation, and process optimization, with a strong emphasis on continuous improvement initiatives that enhance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. Dedicated to driving success through strategic planning and effective communication across all organizational levels.
Overview
19
19
years of professional experience
Work History
Delivery Manager/ Test Manager/ Project Lead
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd
01.2016 - Current
- Project Planning & Delivery
- In Take Management:
- To validate request completeness
- Categorize by type (feature, bug, enhancement etc)
- Identify dependencies, constraints & alignment
- Defining Prioritization based on business value, impact, risk & effort
- Quick Technical assessment by developer
- Review potential implementation challenges
- Estimate high-level resource needs & duration
- Track requests throughout the lifecycle
- Track Project Progress: Monitoring & controlling project timelines, ensuring that SharePoint & xPages projects are delivered on time.
- Incident Resolution: Oversee the resolution of SharePoint & xPages incidents, ensuring the SLAs are met.
- Change Management: Managing change requests for SharePoint & xPages, ensuring changes don't disrupt the existing system or operations.
- Risk Management: Identifying, assessing and managing risks that could impact delivery timelines or quality.
- Standup's/Status meetings: Organize & facilitate daily or weekly stand-up meetings with the team to discuss progress, blockers & immediate actions.
- Tools: Leveraging tools to improve operational efficiency, monitor project progress, and track delivery (e.g. Jira, ServiceNow, Team Studio for LN Archived data migration).
- Team Leadership & Collaboration
- Resource & Task management: Monitoring resource utilization & ensuring that the necessary resources are assigned appropriately for tasks like development and support activities.
- Resolve conflict: Act as the point of escalation to address conflicts within teams and between clients or stakeholders, ensuring smooth communication.
- Manage & Lead Cross functional team: Managing & leading Application development & maintenance for SharePoint & xPages team.
- Mentoring: Mentoring team members, help them improve their technical and soft skills.
- Track & Escalate issues: Ensuring any impediments (SharePoint tickets with MS) are tracked & escalated to senior management when necessary. Collaborate with Microsoft team & stakeholders to implement effective resolution, mitigating any impact on project delivery timelines.
- Team appraisals: Conducting comprehensive team appraisals by establishing clear project expectations, continuously monitoring team performance throughout project deliveries. Provide specific actionable feedback to guide individual & team development, ensuring alignment with project goals, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
- Stakeholder Management & Communication
- Client Engagement: Primary point of contact for customers during development & support phases. Manage expectations and address concerns.
- Stakeholder alignment: Ensuring alignment between the team & business stakeholders on requirements, timelines, and deliverables.
- Regular Reporting: Provide updates to senior management/ stakeholders regarding the status of the project and any challenges.
- Quality Assurance
- Ensure High Quality deliverables: Ensuring the final product meets both technical requirements and user expectations.
- Compliance & Governance
- Ensure Adherence to Policies: Ensuring the SharePoint & xPages team follows all relevant governance, compliance and regulatory standards (e.g. GDPR, security policies).
- Audit & Reporting: Ensuring that all project activities and delivery are compliant with the organization and reporting requirements.
- Customer Satisfaction & relationship management
- Customer Satisfaction: Ensuring customer satisfaction through timely delivery, quality, & communication.
- Lotus Note to SharePoint Migration
- Coordinate Pre-Migration assessment: Ensured a thorough assessment of existing Lotus Notes environment. This includes reviewing databases, applications, customer coding, access management, and the complexity of the database.
- Lotus Notes Migration Strategy: This includes defining tools such as Quest Migrator for Data migration and detailed mapping of Lotus notes content (email, calendars, contact etc.) to SharePoint.
- Data & User Migration Estimation: Creation of the Lotus Notes to SharePoint migration proposal & migration estimations.
- Led cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality software solutions, ensuring timely project completion and stakeholder satisfaction.
- Developed and maintained project schedules and resource allocations, optimizing workflow and driving operational efficiency across multiple initiatives.
- Enhanced team performance by providing regular feedback, coaching, and training opportunities.
- Mentored junior team members to develop their skills and advance within the organization.
- Managed resources effectively to avoid unnecessary delivery delays.
- Oversaw daily operations of the delivery team, ensuring timely completion of tasks and adherence to company policies.
- Maintained open communication by presenting regular updates on project status to customers.
- Developed and implemented project plans and budgets to ensure successful execution.
- Scheduled and facilitated meetings between project stakeholders to discuss deliverables, schedules and conflicts.
- Monitored project progress, identified risks and took corrective action as needed.
- Spearheaded risk management strategies to identify potential project challenges early, mitigating impacts and enhancing delivery timelines.
- Mentored junior team members in best practices for testing and project management, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and knowledge sharing.
- Conducted regular project reviews and retrospectives, promoting a proactive approach to process enhancements and team accountability.
- Collaborated with stakeholders to define project scope and objectives, aligning team efforts with business goals and customer expectations.
- Reduced customer complaints by implementing proactive communication strategies with clients.
- Implemented risk mitigation strategies to minimize potential disruptions caused by unforeseen events or issues.
- Coordinated efforts across multiple teams during peak periods or special events to optimize staffing levels while meeting customer demand.
- Championed a customer-centric approach, consistently seeking feedback from clients to make improvements and enhance the overall delivery experience.
- Managed relationships with key stakeholders to ensure smooth project deliveries and overall satisfaction.
- Established performance metrics to track progress towards goals, allowing for adjustments as needed to ensure success.
- Fostered a culture of continuous improvement through employee engagement initiatives such as recognition programs and open forums.
- Monitored customer quality metrics and took proactive steps to implement resolutions and restore acceptable levels.
- Implemented quality control measures for all deliveries, resulting in fewer errors and increased customer satisfaction.
- Achieved significant reduction in project costs by optimizing resource allocation and workflows.
- Conducted regular review meetings to assess project status and adjust plans accordingly, ensuring alignment with client expectations.
- Managed risk assessment and mitigation strategies to protect project timelines and deliverables.
- Tailored project management approaches to fit unique needs of each client, leading to enhanced partnerships.
- Improved client satisfaction with proactive communication and problem-solving techniques.
- Enhanced team productivity by establishing clear delivery timelines and milestones.
- Mentored junior team members in testing best practices, contributing to knowledge sharing and skill development within the team.
- Oversaw project timelines and deliverables, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives and timely completion of milestones.
- Engaged in continuous process improvement initiatives, leveraging feedback and data analysis to enhance project outcomes and team performance.
- Improved project delivery timelines by efficiently managing testing resources and schedules.
Test Manager/ UAT Manager/ Test Lead
JP Morgan Chase
01.2007 - 02.2016
- Managed end-to-end UAT and QA for corporate banking systems.
- Defined test plans, ensured traceability, and drove defect resolution.
- Automated key testing processes, reducing manual efforts by 50–66%.
- Awarded multiple client and organizational excellence recognitions.
- Led cross-functional teams in executing end-to-end User Acceptance Testing, ensuring alignment with business requirements and enhancing product quality.
- Developed and implemented comprehensive test strategies, resulting in improved defect detection rates and streamlined testing processes.
- Mentored junior testers on best practices in test design and execution, fostering skill development and ensuring high-quality deliverables.
- Coordinated defect triage meetings to prioritize issues, enhancing resolution times and ensuring critical defects were addressed promptly.
- Analyzed testing metrics and provided actionable insights, leading to more efficient resource allocation and optimized testing timelines.
- Collaborated with stakeholders to define testing scope and objectives, facilitating clear communication and driving project success.
- Defined testing and acceptance strategies and determined quality assurance benchmarks.
- Reduced defects in production with thorough regression testing and identification of root causes.
- Mentored junior team members by providing guidance on industry best practices and advanced testing techniques.
- Collaborated with development teams to establish clear test objectives, ensuring alignment with project goals.
- Reviewed bug reports and error logs, translating data into digestible reports for senior leadership personnel.
- Streamlined communication between testers and developers through detailed defect reporting and tracking systems.
- Cultivated strong working relationships with key project stakeholders, enabling seamless integration between teams during product roll-out initiatives.
- Incorporated delivery requirements into planning of testing schedules.
- Built automated test scripts to handle repetitive software testing work.
- Kept scripts and test cases updated with current requirements.
- Documented testing procedures for developers and future testing use.
- Authored and maintained well-organized, efficient and successful manual test cases for entire team.
- Managed and motivated employees to be productive and engaged in work.
- Accomplished multiple tasks within established timeframes.
- Maximized performance by monitoring daily activities and mentoring team members.
- Enhanced customer satisfaction by resolving disputes promptly, maintaining open lines of communication, and ensuring high-quality service delivery.
- Resolved staff member conflicts, actively listening to concerns and finding appropriate middle ground.
- Cross-trained existing employees to maximize team agility and performance.
- Mentored junior team members for career advancement, fostering a pipeline of future leaders within the organization.
- Developed a strong company culture focused on employee engagement, collaboration, and continuous learning opportunities.
Education
Bachelor of Commerce - Commerce
Mumbai University
Mumbai, India05.2006
Skills
Interests
Energy Healing & Mindfulness practices, Weight training
Accomplishments
- Increased in CSS score: 100% Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) for 2018.
- Lead a project to develop an ALM Execution tool. This tool is intended to execute test cases in ALM on a single click. The tool will pick required data from excel and will update results in ALM.
o The Process Improvement resulted in the reduction of manual efforts by ~66%
o The Process Improvement also realized a save of $48000.
- Lead a Process Improvement to Automate a Test Script. Considering the volume of test policies to Process per project (approximately 100) an average time required for QA to execute manually was 12 mins which was time consuming & required lot of manual efforts
o The Process Improvement resulted in the reduction of manual efforts by ~53%
o The Process Improvement also realized a save of $4500.
- Lead a Process Improvement to Automate Tax Reports. The Reports have bulk tax related data which was time consuming & required lot of manual efforts
o The Process Improvement resulted in the reduction of manual efforts by ~50%
o The Process Improvement also realised a save of $2300
Timeline
Delivery Manager/ Test Manager/ Project Lead
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd
01.2016 - Current
Test Manager/ UAT Manager/ Test Lead
JP Morgan Chase
01.2007 - 02.2016
Bachelor of Commerce - Commerce
Mumbai University