Mahalakshmi Harish
Ashburn,VA
Summary
An experienced IT professional with over 12+ years in Agile development, I specialize in leading teams to deliver high-quality software products, particularly in the healthcare sector. I am proficient in Agile and Waterfall methodologies, Scrum framework, and project management practices, with a strong background in process analysis, requirements gathering, wireframing, and both manual and automated testing. My expertise includes business process modelling, change and risk management, and the creation of detailed documentation such as BRDs, FRDs, use cases, and UML diagrams. I have successfully led complex, high-value projects, improved data engineering processes, and translated stakeholder requirements into actionable deliverables. I am detail-oriented, customer-focused, and skilled in fostering collaboration, driving continuous improvement, and engaging cross-functional teams to ensure project success.
Overview
17
17
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Project Manager
Humana Inc
09.2021 - Current
- Collaborated with stakeholders to facilitate financial space planning including estimation, budgeting, risk management, and financial reporting for multiple projects like canvas reporting, marketing sales.
- Well versed with Medicaid Enterprise Systems, including Medicaid Management Information Systems (MMIS), supporting enhancements for claims processing, eligibility, enrolment, and provider management.
- Played SME role in supporting multi-million-dollar initiatives to modernize MMIS modules, aligning with CMS mandates and state Medicaid modernization efforts.
- Handled high profile complex projects across domains - Modelling projects (Media Mix Modelling and Commercial Mix Modelling solutions, consumer centric model), Infrastructure upgrades/migration and Reporting (canvas reporting and marketing sales) ensuring...?
- What impact your brought
- KPIs. - (e.g., "increased team velocity by 15%"), cycle time (e.g., "reduced average cycle time to under 5 days"), and throughput (e.g., "increased throughput by 20%")
- Led Agile ceremonies including Backlog management, Planning, Daily Stand-ups, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives to meet business deliverables and Sprint goals.
- Addressed communication gaps to improve coordination between development teams and business stakeholders to ensure alignment on project objectives and expectations.
- Collaborated with Product Owners to continuously prioritize and refine the product backlog, ensuring the most business critical, high impact features were prioritized and delivered
- Identified and removed impediments to the team's progress, enabling the team to focus on delivering high-quality increments during each sprint. – what kind of impediments
- Identified and removed (add impediment) to address .... And drive efficiency
- Enhanced .... UAT team, SIT, SCS implementation services, Web team, Leadership team and Business teams across multiple applications to drive towards impactful...
- Environment: SDLC, .NET Framework, MS Office, CRM, Project management, Agile Methodologies, Kanban, Jira, Scaled Agile Framework, service now, change management, PI planning
Project Manager/Scrum Master
DISH Network
07.2018 - 08.2021
- Led multiple cross-functional Agile teams in the successful delivery of software products, managing sprint planning, backlog refinement, and sprint reviews.
- Fostered a culture of continuous improvement by facilitating sprint retrospectives and implementing action plans to address identified areas for improvement. What was the problem and how did you address it through the action plans
- Contributed to the evolution of Agile processes and practices within the organization, leveraging feedback and lessons learned to drive continuous improvement. – what evolution did you bring
- Worked with Program managers, Architects and Business owner to drive projects (what project) to production, meeting deadlines and outcomes.
- Helped product owners improve Scope refinement, Feature definition and acceptance criteria, leading to increase in customer satisfaction by what %
- Utilized JIRA for Scrum and Kanban frameworks to track team activities, visualize workflows, and reduce cycle time by 12%
- Developed Kanban metrics to monitor lead time, cycle time, throughput in order to make data based decisions, identify bottlenecks, and driving towards an improvement of or improvement in
- Environment: Project management, Scrum Master and PO PMO role, Agile methodology, CRM Salesforce, PI Planning and execution, Scrum ceremonies, experience in SAFe Agile, RTE, Service now, SQL, .Net, Java, ASP.NET, C# Azure DevOps, JIRA, Kanban.
Project Manager
Navy Federal Credit Union
11.2016 - 05.2018
- Experience in financial space planning including estimation, budgeting, risk management, and financial reporting in various projects.
- Created an environment for high-performing team dynamics, continuer flow and relentless improvement in a SAFe Agile environment.
- Managed key business critical projects of $5 million or more on across multiple software development life cycle teams
- Instilled Agile mindset, SAFe core values and principles in team members by coaching them on agile best practices making sure that teams abide by agile values, principles, and practices. Why and what did you instill
- Identified and eliminated risks that would have affected the team’s performance while working closely with the scrum teams to plan and develop effective risk mitigation plans.
- Environment: Project management, Financial analysis, Business objectives, Scrum Master role, Agile methodology, CRM Salesforce, PI Planning and execution, Scrum ceremonies, experience in SAFe Agile, RTE, Service now, Azure DevOps, JIRA, Kanban.
Project coordinator
Inovalon Inc
04.2014 - 11.2015
- Coordinated SDLC projects for healthcare, Medicaid, and Medicare systems, with emphasis on compliance, eligibility, claims adjudication, and encounter data reporting.
- Gained hands-on experience supporting claims processing, member eligibility, provider enrolment and data exchange with CMS.
- Performed billing and financial analysis for Medicaid/Medicare products, supporting audits and reconciliations to meet compliance standards.
- Developed Kanban models to manage prioritization and collaborated closely with project managers, product owners, business partners for daily operational requests, improving throughput and service levels.
- Environment: Medicare, Member Eligibility, Agile Methodologies, Kanban, T-SQL, Healthcare Data, Billing & Financial Analysis, Compliance & Regulatory Reporting, SDLC
Project Specialist
Tribute Technologies
07.2008 - 06.2012
- Develop SQL queries, analysis, and reports from applications for operations/ management staff of assigned business units Create, design and format technical specifications including descriptive text, process flows, and other information needed to describe required system changes for development, QA, and other units; serve on project team accomplishing these functions.
- Fostered collaboration between development teams, highlighting stake holder management skills, whilst coordinating with production support and vendors, facilitating smooth completion of project deliverables with respect to build, testing and deployment.
- Assisted project manager with other in-progress project documentation like Project Plan, Project Schedule, Scope Document, Issue Tracking report, etc.
- Environment: SQL development, Data Analysis, Agile Training, IT Business Analyst, CRM
Education
Bachelor of Engineering - Computer Science
Anna University
Chennai04.2007
Skills
- Business Analysis: Requirements analysis, Requirements management and communication, Backlog grooming, user stories with appropriate acceptance criteria, wireframes, test cases, feature files, change request design flow, UI, and UML – Data visualization tools (tableau), Excel
- Project Manager: Agile tools (Jira, confluence, Bitbucket), sprint health check, project dashboard, service management, project & program management, MS Project
- Methodologies & frameworks: Experience in Traditional Waterfall, custom agile water scrum fall, Agile-Kanban, Lean, Scrum, and Knowledge in Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Extreme Programming and Spiral methodologies, RAD and Continuous Integration and Development (CI/CD)
- Technologies: Azure Devops, PostgreSQL, Command Line, API and HTTP requests, Redshift, MySQL, Mail Chimp, Windows Server (IIS and Firewall), ERP Tools
- Reporting tools: Tableau, Power BI, MS Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) and MS Excel
- Other tools: MS Office, MS Visio, Figma, and drawio
Certification
- Certified PMP/PMI
- Certified Scrum Master CSM, Scrum Alliance
- Agile Scrum Master, ASM, Scrum Alliance
- Certified SAFe Agile 5.0
Timeline
Project Manager
Humana Inc
09.2021 - Current
Project Manager/Scrum Master
DISH Network
07.2018 - 08.2021
Project Manager
Navy Federal Credit Union
11.2016 - 05.2018
Project coordinator
Inovalon Inc
04.2014 - 11.2015
Project Specialist
Tribute Technologies
07.2008 - 06.2012
Bachelor of Engineering - Computer Science
Anna University