William L. Wooten II
Richmond
Summary
Experienced IT Program Manager specializing in complex project leadership and change management. Proven ability to build high-performance teams and maintain effective stakeholder relationships. Consistently delivers projects on time, aligning with business objectives and industry standards. Strong problem-solving and risk management skills enhance project success.
Overview
24
24
years of professional experience
Work History
IT Program Manager, ServiceNow Platform Administration Lead
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
04.2024 - Current
- Led a team of fifteen contractors performing ServiceNow administrative and operational functions with a focus on Change, Release, MID servers, instance management, and help desk activities for ServiceNow
- Completed seven family upgrades to the ServiceNow platform (Kingston to Xanadu versions). Coordinating all activities, including testing, communications, change control, vendor management, key stakeholders, and Senior executives to ensure success.
- Worked across numerous groups within the VA for ServiceNow development and fostered an environment of communication and collaboration
- Participated in continuous process improvements for Change and Release for the Enterprise Service Management (ESM) ServiceNow team and led changes in the procedures to install new modules and custom code in the ServiceNow environment with a key focus on security and efficiency
- Created and implemented policy documents for code migrations between 15 sub-production and four SDLC instances, culminating in a production release.
- Managed outsourced and internal teams on ServiceNow and local server patches, upgrades, and releases
IT Specialist: ServiceNow Platform Administration and Performance Lead
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
07.2022 - 04.2024
- Led a team of fifteen operations staff responsible for implementing ServiceNow releases, maintaining and configuring MID Servers, and providing expert support for the ServiceNow platform.
- Managed 20 ServiceNow instances, including coordinating access, cloning, patching, upgrading, and load management
- Co-led governance of the ServiceNow platforms, including development, testing, changes, releases, and other ITIL-related activities.
- Participated as a voting member of the Architecture Review Team in reviewing and approving development and significant changes to the ServiceNow platform
- Coordinated ServiceNow code changes with 16 + scrum teams, management, other departments within the VA, and various stakeholders
- Completed two ServiceNow family upgrades, responsible for communications, coordinating testing, vendor management, and release to production
- Supported the ServiceNow Implementation Manager in creating standard procedures, evaluating new technologies and tools, and prioritizing customer requests for the platform
- Worked closely with ServiceNow support and sales, along with the implementation vendor to troubleshoot issues with performance and the overall platform
IT Specialist: Quality Assurance Lead and CORE Product Owner
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
03.2020 - 07.2022
- Performed duties of ServiceNow core system Product Owner from January 2021 to June 2021. Duties included: evaluating development requests, backlog prioritization, design input, and communicating of new functionality
- Led the initial releases of the ServiceNow Mobile App for Incidents and Knowledge modules
- Conducted presentations to VA audiences on Knowledge Management and how to use the Mobile functionalities and modules for ServiceNow.
- Led team of 11 QA professionals and approximately 75 stakeholders for system testing
- Involved in all Service Management Platform Team activities for QA testing and governance over the ServiceNow system
- Created test plans and procedures for ServiceNow major upgrades to the Orlando and Paris versions
- Designed testing strategies and tested Human Centered Design (HCD) changes to ServiceNow
Quality Assurance Manager (lead)
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
11.2018 - 03.2020
- Implemented ITSM Automation Test Framework (ATF) test scripts for functional and regression testing
- Coordinated with the System Architects, developers, ServiceNow employees (via HI tickets, conference calls, and other communications) for OM and configuration activities for enhancements, new functionality, and defect resolution.
- Developed Test Plans for IT Service Management (ServiceNow) functional testing to ensure that ITSM Tool implementation adheres to technical and functional requirements as outlined by the stakeholders
- Improved the existing procedures for ServiceNow testing by implementing IT best practices regarding unit, functional, and regression testing throughout the organization
- Implemented the structure for regression testing, working with stakeholders, requirements analysts, DEVOPS, and QA personnel to support ITSM tool implementations for all contract staff
- Defined QA procedures for test automation, manual test script creation, post-release testing in production, and UAT.
- Worked with Product Owners (SME) to identify and recommend changes/improved uses of the ITSM tool to meet business requirements and streamline processes
- Led testing for all ServiceNow implementations as well as post-production testing for enhancements to ServiceNow
QA and Release Manager
Brenntag Latin America, Inc.
Houston
04.2015 - 06.2018
- Led the in-house development team of twelve, including developers, help desk, testers, DBA, release management, contractor management, and budgeting. Team members were domestic and across Latin America.
- Negotiated a 15% reduction in the software support contract for 2016 to 2018, saving $600,000
- Wrote numerous successful board proposals for new projects and presented them to C-Suite for acceptance with a 100% acceptance rate.
- Worked with Data Warehouse and Customer Relationship Management software using Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce
- Evaluated Human Centered design work for Sales Force and ERP integration.
- Designed manual and automated testing structure for Oracle implementation
- Worked in an Agile environment requiring regression testing
- Project Manager for several high-profile projects with a budget of $1.5 million
- Worked closely with business leadership to create functional specs and testing design
- Created ERP training curriculum for all Latin America
Senior QA Analyst
Brenntag Latin America, Inc.
Houston
01.2010 - 03.2015
- Established testing methodologies and standards for new development and programming enhancements.
- Collaborated closely with Developers to create testing plans to thoroughly evaluate existing ERP and new enhancements.
- Created documentation, including training, release notes, and job aids, for the help desk
Business Systems Analyst
National City Mortgage Company
Houston
01.2007 - 12.2009
- Led a team of 20 testers across the United States responsible for test automation, regression testing, and all other test-related activities.
- Decreased error rate and increased efficiencies by designing and coding a system that analyzed major high-risk software changes and reduced major audit exposure. In addition, developed a call center database to track end-user issues for use by higher-level support.
Operations Analyst
National City Mortgage Company
Houston
01.2005 - 01.2007
- Designed and created test scripts for user and systems testing on 2 products with weekly and monthly releases, providing for timely testing signoff. Reduced testing error rate from 5% to .75% by developing and implementing standard operating procedures
- Standardized methods for new programming by developing reusable manual test scripts to check functionality, reducing testing time by 50% while increasing testing accuracy.
- Created a software change database to track testing time, documentation location, tester, and nature of the change. This resulted in a reduction of research time for all testers by more than 90%.
Second Level Tech/QA
Universal Computer Systems/KeyTrak
College Station
04.2001 - 09.2005
- Worked closely with high-priority clients and programmers to increase functionality and usability of software through onsite installation and maintenance visits as well as phone support.
- QA lead for three software packages involving coordination with multiple internal departments. Created manual and automated scripts for regression and user acceptance testing.
Call Center Representative
Universal Computer Systems/KeyTrak
College Station
01.2001 - 12.2001
- Improved new employee training by revising and directing the training process, increasing the number of classes from four to 12, and reducing the time from hire to being on the phone by 1 month.
- Achieved a first call resolution level of 90% while supporting 8 programs running DOS, Windows 95, Windows XP, and networks, along with associated hardware.
Education
Ph.D. Candidate - History
Texas A & M University
College Station, TX01.2000
M.A. - History
Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, TX01.1998
B.A. - History and Political Science
Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, TX01.1995
Skills
- Team leadership and management
- Cross-functional collaboration
- ServiceNow administration
- Change management
- Release management
- ITIL framework expertise
- Stakeholder engagement
- Performance optimization
- Process improvement methodologies
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
IT Program Manager, ServiceNow Platform Administration Lead
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
04.2024 - Current
IT Specialist: ServiceNow Platform Administration and Performance Lead
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
07.2022 - 04.2024
IT Specialist: Quality Assurance Lead and CORE Product Owner
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
03.2020 - 07.2022
Quality Assurance Manager (lead)
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
11.2018 - 03.2020
QA and Release Manager
Brenntag Latin America, Inc.
04.2015 - 06.2018
Senior QA Analyst
Brenntag Latin America, Inc.
01.2010 - 03.2015
Business Systems Analyst
National City Mortgage Company
01.2007 - 12.2009
Operations Analyst
National City Mortgage Company
01.2005 - 01.2007
Second Level Tech/QA
Universal Computer Systems/KeyTrak
04.2001 - 09.2005
Call Center Representative
Universal Computer Systems/KeyTrak
01.2001 - 12.2001
Ph.D. Candidate - History
Texas A & M University
M.A. - History
Sam Houston State University
B.A. - History and Political Science
Sam Houston State University
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