With over 15 years of professional experience in IT, working as a Senior Project Manager, Senior Business Analyst, Quality Assurance Manager and Consultant, Ms Kanan has expertise in project management and methodology, business and systems analysis, requirements gathering, vendor/package evaluation/ implementation, testing, training, and sales. Her focus is on development processes and methodologies, and she is knowledgeable in the areas of Agile, RUP/UP, CMM, and Waterfall (amongst other methods). She has exceptional facilitation, leadership, management, coaching, communication and organizational skills.

  • 15 years of full systems development life cycle, planning through execution experience in both custom development and package selection/implementation using Agile, RUP and waterfall SDLC
  • Managed multiple projects in multiple organizations with teams ranging from 6 to 40 professionals generating $250K-$1M in revenue per month.
  • Industries: benefits administration, health care, marketing services, insurance, consumer lending (auto loan, mortgage, credit services, and home equity), consumer products, telecommunication, energy, manufacturing, transportation, and market research
  • Application areas: investment management, underwriting, collections, originations/credit and funding, customer service, accounting/back-office, recruiting, submissions and underwriting, claims processing, order processing, customer relationship management, online enrollment, energy management, technology planning
  • Former clients include: Lincoln Financial-AMG, General Motors, TransGuard, Laidlaw, McDonalds, CNA, Farmers, Insurance, Aon-Combined Specialty Group, GE Capital, The Associates, Bank One, Summit Bank, etc.

Monday, October 31, 2011

4 Tips from Agile Masters

Personal responsibility beats job accountability every time.
When individuals opt-in, engage, and own their own actions and consequences, truth happens fast! You don't need to focus on "driving accountability" when people are owning how they execute.

Climbing in the same boat together drives mutual coordination.
A keen sense of shared responsibility is the single greatest predictor of teamwork, collaboration, and partnering.

Tapping into the power of peer motivation.
Teams perform to the level of their least invested members because those members bring everyone else down. Always.

Making and keeping agreements that support flow.
Agile masters ask for, make, and keep responsible agreements with everyone around them.