Andrew Walker - Director of Delivery and Client Services, GlobalStep

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Work Background

GlobalStepDirector of Client Services and Delivery

Jun. 2022Farnborough, England, United KingdomAs a Director of Client Services and Delivery I am involved in • Working as a part of a Senior Management team that increased GlobalStep’s Brand industry exposure and recognition, leading to increased queries from new and existing clients. • Manage the Training initiative to increase the UK’s and Pune’s digital offerings, by training testers in Performance, automation, and security, with 0 training budget. • Manage the complete delivery life cycle, from capability introduction meetings, gathering pain points and requirements from the potential client, creating solutions and proposals, winning that work, and then seeing the delivery through, and creating closure documentation. • Create and keep close relationships with our partners, ensuring we are not only delivering BAU to the best of our abilities but looking for value adds to help strengthen our relationships. • Offer cross-disciplinary solutions, that include LQA, Development and Customer Services. • Actively contributed to team initiatives that led to GlobalStep UK being awarded ‘Great Place to Work’.

GlobalStepQA Delivery Manager

May. 2021 - May. 2022The Hub, Fowler Ave, Farnborough, GU14 7JFGlobalStep is a world leader in risk management and mitigation in the development, production, and maintenance of software applications and games throughout their lifecycle. The company provides quality assurance, localisation, live operations support, data analytics, test automation and consulting services to its global customer base ranging from small and medium-sized enterprises to Fortune 100 companies.

QUALITEST SOFTWARE TESTING LTDSenior Test Manager

Nov. 2020 - Apr. 2021

Lombard Asset Finance (RBS)Test Manager

Feb. 2018 - Apr. 2021Birmingham, United KingdomLombard are the Asset Finance arm of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). They are currently carrying out a strategic replacement of their current Alpha and P4rm systems, moving to a configurable off the shelf solution (Ambit) and using Experian Powercurve as their decision Engine. This is a large and complex project due to the many interfaces and providers (both in house and 3rd Party). This role involves managing the Testing phases for Pricing and Credit Sanctioning phases of an Application. Credit Sanctioning is the most complex area, and central to the whole asset loan workflow. I am managing the SIT, UAT and comparison testing teams, which are both UK and off shore based. My role covers contributing to the program test strategy, creating the detailed test plans for the various phases of testing I am managing. Running defect calls, creating and maintaining test schedules, co-ordinating test script workshops to ensure correct business and technical coverage. Contributing to various project and program stand ups. Provide impacts for change requests. Manage priority of work, and assist Off-shore test manager with work allocation. Peer review documents produced by the testing team. Provide daily updates on progress, raise and manage project and program risks. Support and manage the teams training in project areas. Support PM in requests for live data usage, give walkthroughs of testing approach to stake holders and support the training team. The creation of Test Completion Reports (TCR) and Test is Complete (TiC) documentation to achieve sign off of deliveries.

QUALITEST SOFTWARE TESTING LTDTest Manager and Consultant

Apr. 2018 - Nov. 2020Remote and client sites

NCC GroupTest Consultant/SDM

Sep. 2010 - Apr. 2018

Shawbrook BankTest Lead

Nov. 2017 - Dec. 2017Brentwood and RemoteShawbrook Bank were undergoing a complete re-platforming of their car loan application system, replacing existing web front end, through to the back end batch systems. This role involved managing a small team of NCC testers who were at the client site carrying out end-to-end testing of phase 2 of the online car loan solution. This phase covered the legislative letters that needed to be provided to the customer. My role involved organising and allocating the work between the team, coordinating the business support required in testing, leading the daily stand up calls attending by the testing team, Shawbrook and the 3rd party development supplier. Raised and managed risks and issues, the generation of the daily progress reports. Collated and provided handover from NCC to Shawbrook at the end of the project engagement.

IRESSTransition Lead

Apr. 2017 - Dec. 2017NCC became the sole provider of external test resources for Iress. My role was to aid the transition from multiple providers to just NCC. My role involved reviewing CVs, participating in phone call and face to face interviews for the Iress testing team. I liaised with the client on a day-to-day basis to ensure we were providing the correct service to the expected level. Work with the testing team on a day-to-day basis, ensuring they understood the tasks given to them, had the correct support, training and experience to perform those tasks. Peer reviewed any products produced. Maintain the knowledge repository (this was created to reduce on-boarding time for new testers), ensuring the information was up to date, relevant and correct. Ensure all communications and document storing/sharing met the agreement between NCC and Iress. I participated in monthly audits of the knowledge repository, and acted as the face of NCC for general queries from Iress. Visited testing members from the various sites ensuring the on-going support, tasks etc. were as expected. I provided testing coaching/mentoring for the testing team where required.

MortgageGymTest Manager

Jun. 2017 - Sep. 2017RemoteMortgage Gym is a new online mortgage company, looking to change the way Mortgages are applied for. Unhappy with the current process they wanted to make the process slicker, more user friendly, and reduce the average mortgage application. This role involved managing a small remote team of NCC testers to test the new Mortgage Gym’s suite of products, which included a website and a mobile application. My role included peer reviewing of test products developed by the team, including test scripts and defects, attending update calls with stake holders, providing daily update reports, defect triage, allocating work, raising and managing testing risks and issues, escalating project issues, reviewing products delivered by the 3rd party development company. Creating and maintaining the test plan and schedule. Allocation the work load to the testing team, producing monthly forecasts and writing business cases for contract extensions.

Equiniti KYC SolutionsTest Manager

Feb. 2017 - Apr. 2017Amsterdam Area, NetherlandsThis role involved creating the Test Strategy and Test Plan for Phase 1 of the Bank of Ireland (BOI) integration with the Post Office. Participate in the Scrum Rituals (Daily stand ups, Story Sizing, demonstrations, story grooming, retrospective) work with the team to create and peer review Acceptance Criteria, peer review test scripts, coach existing test team members around testing methodologies and Scrum. Mentor Offshore Test Lead in best practises via calls, screen sharing, and finally face-face). Mentor and train junior tester, Coach and train existing Test Manager in Agile principals. Review CVs and conduct Face-to-Face Interviews for Permanent Test Lead. Review and provide feedback for process documents created by the Defect Manager and Scrum Master

Equiniti KYC SolutionsTest Consultant

Jan. 2017 - Feb. 2017Amsterdam Area, NetherlandsKYC-Net is a Know your customer provider, offering a workflow package, as well as analysts. Which were rapidly expanding after being acquired by Equinity. They were also in transition from waterfall to Agile. This role involved working with the testing team, coaching the Test Manager on testing practises and techniques. I implemented standardised templates. Coached the test manager on his role (ensuring his time was spent on the activities he should be focusing on, and not spreading himself too thin), attended meetings to provide my experience. Coached and mentored the whole testing team on testing techniques and practises. Actively worked with other teams to make the approach to development, configuration and testing more collaborative. Worked with the scrum master around making the processes more Scrum. I assisted in the recruitment of a test lead by assisting HR with job advert, sifting CVs, attending interviews and providing feedback. Introduce extra processes and quality controls to manage work produced by the off shore team.

allpay LimitedTest Lead

May. 2016 - Nov. 2016CheltenhamAllpay were in the process of transitioning to a full agile methodology. They created small agile teams, each team would work with a Scrum master consultant for 2 complete sprints, and then become self contained. I worked with the small satellite team in Cheltenham. My role included participating in Backlog refinement, daily stand ups, sprint planning and retrospectives. I actively worked with the team, assisting in the development of agile practices. Leading the test team, allocating work, making decisions around test processes/approaches. I wrote SQL queries to interrogate the Notification databases. Wrote weekly testing reports, testing and raising issues. I participated in the end of sprint demos to the team and the product owner, and weekly QA meetings, where I represented the Cheltenham QA team in the weekly Allpay QA Organisation meeting. I provided feedback on QA team members to their offsite manager. Assist and support other sprint teams with agile methodologies and practises. Managing builds into QA environment.

CelesioTest Manager

Dec. 2015 - May. 2016CoventryCelesio were replatforming their whole EPoS system, due to their expansion of pharmaceutical companies (They owned Lloyds, and had recently expanded to include Sainsbury’s). They were updating their Website, and backend systems. I was managing the back end systems which included EPoS, Ordering, Time recording etc. This role involved preparing a test strategy for the integration testing of the new EPoS and HR system. Writing the User Acceptance Testing test strategy, writing and managing the test plans, writing the tri weekly test reports to the business, participating and managing a team of 4 full time testers and 2 business users. This role also included managing the defects between Celesio and several development 3rd parties, using ALM. Creating, managing and escalating risks. I Managed the forecasts of the team members, requesting contract extensions of the team etc. Provided walkthroughs and demonstrations of functionality to the business. Arranged on site and remote demonstrations from the development team, and design walkthroughs and QA sessions between the testers and the Business analyst. Having meetings with the business to fully understand the current processes, and ensure a joined up understanding of their involvement in the UAT testing process, including cross team meetings to ensure joined up data and schedule to mimic the live process.

HalfordsTest Lead

Oct. 2014 - Dec. 2015RedditchThis role was working with a small team of testers who tested the various ecommerce releases which were planned through the year. There were many releases, which included, the introduction of Miracle, which was their equivalent of Amazon Market place, allowing third parties to sell products to the Halford’s website, introduction of an Halford’s App, testing desktop and mobile optimisation, black Friday etc. This role involved analysing Halfords requirements, producing test estimates and schedules, raising risks and preparing test scripts. Peer reviewing test artefact, execution of test scripts and creating defects in JIRA, retesting and regression testing. I participating in UAT walkthroughs with the business representatives, and represented the QA test team in stake holder meetings when required and participating in live proving.

NCC GroupTest Consultant

Nov. 2013 - Aug. 2014This role involved working with the sales team to help prepare test estimates, test proposals, request for information documents and attend calls with potential clients, for new business.

Transport for LondonOAT Tester

Dec. 2013 - Feb. 2014London Area, United KingdomWorking part of a 2 man team creating and executing the OAT scripts to adhere to the OAT test strategy. This included:- Reviewing the training material Reviewing the live support material including architecture diagrams Smoke testing the environment after live services span up environments using the instructions provided Running Chaos Monkey to ensure environment could recover from data centres going down Ensure updates could be rolled out without issue to the environment and rolled back if required

Jimmy ChooTest Manager

Aug. 2013 - Nov. 2013Manchester, United KingdomJimmy Choo were re-platforming their ecommerce website, which was being created by a third party company (eCommera) This role involved analysis of the Jimmy Choo requirements for their replatformed ecommerce website and creating a detailed test strategy and test plan to fit within the agile development. Managing a NCC internal test team, allocating work, assisting the test Centre Test Manager with estimates, reviewing test scripts. Executing test scripts, reporting defects, retesting defects, attending daily scrums, creating by weekly test reports and attending end of testing phase meetings. Mentoring and supporting members of the test team. Provide an end of project evaluation review of the development company, and wash up report. Represent the NCC QA team in stake holder meetings.

NCC GroupTest Lead

Mar. 2013 - Jun. 2013Manchester, United KingdomThis project was to take some of the in-house testing carried out by Capita for their client Zurich, and move it to NCC in house testing team in Manchester. I was one of 2 leads sent to help with this transition. This role involved spending time with Capita in the Isle of Man, analysing their projects and approaches. Transferring this information to the junior testing team in Manchester. Leading a team of junior testers to deliver remotely the testing for Capita on the Zurich account. The role also included coaching juniors in testing techniques, resource management, creating test plans and strategies, reviewing test scripts, reviewing defects, attending meetings with Capita PMs.

Ted BakerTest Consultant

Mar. 2013 - Mar. 2013RemoteThis role involved analysing requirements and liaising with the client to create a test proposal and test estimate, putting forward NCC’s approach to testing their new ecommerce site, and the time required to deliver.

CapgeminiTest Consultant / Senior test Analyst

May. 2012 - Mar. 2013Telford, United KingdomThis role involved working as a member of internal Cap Gemini testing team, working on the Aspire account. This involved primarily working as one if the end-to-end testers, on projects such as the introduction of the Gambling tax. The role involved engaging with different Heads of Duty (HoDs) to ensure data and schedule synchronisation. Analysis requirements, and creating test estimates, test risks and test scripts. Peer reviewing testing artefacts. Executing tests, recording and reporting results, raising defects, attending defect meetings, and escalating issues.

IKEA GroupTest Manager

May. 2012 - May. 2012London, United KingdomThis role involved remotely managing a small team of testers working on the IKEA EPOS system, roles included, work allocation, reviewing work, attending update meetings, and advising testing team on testing approach, and helping to resolve issues.

TBG DigitalTest Lead

Apr. 2012 - May. 2012London, United KingdomThis role involved creating and executing test scripts for the Sun Olympic well wishing campaign, raising and retesting defects, and working closely with the developer over issues found, and the remote testing of the Dell Jazz Festival Facebook app, which involved executing pre-written scripts, raising and retesting defects

ImaginationTest Manager

Mar. 2012 - Apr. 2012London, United KingdomImagination were taking their road show to Japan for the first time, and requested to SLDC that I returned to managed this project. This role involved updating the test strategy to include multi-lingual events. The creation of a comprehensive test plan to cover the new features in the Ford road shows. Manage the test team (including work allocation), create and review test scripts, execute test scripts, report defects and attend daily scrums and management meetings.

AQATest Consultant

Mar. 2012 - Mar. 2012RemoteThis role involved analysing requirement documents and creating a test approach and proposal for their online teaching solution, and supporting the test manager to create the testing documents.

ImaginationTest Consultant / Test Manager

Nov. 2011 - Jan. 2012London, United KingdomImagination is a leading digital media company, creating websites, games, and digital exhibition artefacts for large companies such as Ford and Shell. I was managing the testing of these artefacts for the Ford Road show, which toured many different countries through the year. This role involved reviewing the client’s current processes, creating a test strategy and test approach to fit within the agile development for up and coming Ford Road Shows. Reviewing test requirements and preparing a comprehensive test plan, covering functional and integration testing for a multi-technology event. Provide a walkthrough of the proposed testing approach, explaining the reasoning and benefits, and why they should use SDLC to provide the testing. When this got approved, the role then included building a testing team (assisting HR in creating the advert, sifting CVs, phone and face-to-face interviews). Reviewing testing artefacts, organising and managing the executing scripts, reporting defects. Managing the test team, and test plan/schedule.

CAP GeminiSenior Test Analyst/Stream Lead

Sep. 2006 - Oct. 2011Telford, United KingdomDuring my time working on the Aspire Account I worked on a wide range of functional testing projects which encompassed both internal and web based applications. Operating at Senior Test Analyst and Test Lead level and delivered end to end testing on a variety of projects including: • VAT – Moving the Online VAT return process from Southend to Aspire • C97 – Moving the CIS (Construction Industry Scheme) and DOM (PAYE Simplified Domestic Scheme) Online forms from the old Flex platform (run by third party) to RSA (strategic in house solution) • C5 – Moving CIS from the old ChRIS database platform to the new SOA ChRIS platform • NDDS – Testing the New Direct Debit System My role included creating test designs and test scripts. Reviewing test scripts and designs from other team members. Reviewing documentation such as requirements, use cases etc. Attending walkthroughs of documents giving feedback and comments. Attending internal Risk Based Assessment Meetings to identify risks for up and coming projects, within the business. Creating XML test files, Web testing, Interrogating databases, raising and managing defects. Reporting on progress within projects. Attending meetings with both senior management and business sponsors to discuss the progress of projects. Managing and allocating work within a test team. Scheduling work with Head of Duties for End-to-End testing. Running testing Quality reviews with HMRC representatives, going through the testing process, defect management etc. Impacting new pieces of work

SDLC SolutionsSenior Test Analyst

Sep. 2006 - Sep. 2010Create Test strategies, test plans, analyse and create test scopes, test scripts. Peer review test deliverables, allocate work, manage testing team, raise defects, manage defects, create test progress reports, test completion reports, support Account Managers

HM Revenue & CustomsSenior Test Analyst

Sep. 2002 - Sep. 2006Southend on Sea, United KingdomWorking as a Senior Test Analyst within TD (Testing and Deployment). Projects and roles undertaken included: • Single Administrative Documents (SAD) Harmonisation – Test Manager • Payroll Replacement Project - Senior Test Analyst • European Commission Sales List & Simple Improvement Program -Test Manager • EBTI 2 (Electronic binding Tariff Information) -Senior Test Analyst – Regression testing • EBTI – Senior Test Analyst • Government gateway upgrades – E-business solutions • NCTS(New Computerised Transport System) – Test Analyst • NES (New Export System) – Test Analyst • E vat declarations and Variations site – Test Analyst My role included, creating test strategies, plans and schedules. Creating and executing test scripts. Raising defects, attending defect reviews. Raising risks and issues. Coaching and mentoring the business in testing. Creating a testing training program that was delivered to all members of the business who were involved in UAT for various projects.