Resume

Anitra's LinkedIn profile
Twitter: @apavka
Current Location: Tampa, FL

• Contributing author for the "HTML5 Cookbook", O'Reilly Books, 1^st edition (2011). I wrote the Accessibility chapter.
• Technical editor for "Universal Design for Web Applications", O'Reilly Books, 1^st edition (2009).
• Authored "Practical Usability: what is usability?", a column about Web usability I wrote in 2003 for WOW (World Organization of Webmasters). The column targeted readers who had an introductory to intermediate level knowledge about usability.
• Authored "Accountability of Accessibility and Usability", feature article for the November 2002 edition of Digital Web magazine. I provided an overview of current legal cases for and against requiring a minimum level of accessibility for private company websites and presented ways to improve site accessibility.
• Authored "Accessible By Design", feature article for the April 2002 edition of Digital Web magazine. I provided basic design and layout principles so that someone with a limited knowledge of HTML could understand and create more accessible Web pages.

Tampa Bay User Experience group April 2016 (Tampa, FL)
Apple TV User Experience:
I discussed and demonstrated the Apple TV's user experience at the Tampa Bay UX group's April 2016 meeting.

SXSW Interactive 2008 (Austin, TX)
Targeting Your Web Site: Accessibility Litigation Update panel:
Mike Wasylik and I discussed how recent court decisions expose website owners to liability for lack of accessibility and ways to protect yourself.

SXSW Interactive 2004 (Austin, TX)
Accessing Multimedia: The Object of My Perception panel:
A panel of experts that discussed alternative methods to deliver media content to those with disabilities or using mobile device browsers. My presentation covered multimedia on handheld mobile devices.

SXSW Interactive 2003 (Austin, TX)
Website Demo (Review) panel:
A panel of experts that reviewed audience-submitted websites. I evaluated site usability and accessibility.

Scrum Master Contractor

2015 - 2016
Serve/American Express (Tampa, FL)

• Coached a distributed cross-functional team on Scrum best practices and continuous improvement.
• Removed impediments or helped the team find the right people to remove the impediment.
• Facilitated discussions and team ceremonies, including the daily scrum, product backlog refinement, sprint review, sprint retrospective, and sprint planning.
• Supported cross-team coordination.
• Assisted the Product Owner with refining the product backlog.
• Supported the team in deploying tested code every two weeks for a high-volume customer service application.
• Contributed to the Scrum Master Community of Practice; specifically, the user story title standardization effort that defined content and format standards to enable automated reports.

Lead Business Analyst

2015 - 2015
Wolters Kluwer (Tampa, FL)

• Managed three direct reports, including one offshore resource.
• Defined requirements management best practices for agile (Scrum) teams.
• Facilitated the product backlog refinement for the Scrum teams.
• Planned and led story mapping and requirements workshops with up to 20 stakeholders each.
• Facilitated the definition of team agreements such as the user story Definition of Ready.

Senior Business Analyst/Scrum Master

2011 - 2015
Arbitration Forums (Tampa, FL)

• Assumed the Scrum Master role to support an agile (Scrum) team.
• Ensured on-time software delivery by monitoring Scrum team progress using tools such as sprint burn down charts and release burn up charts.
• Facilitated release planning, sprint planning, product backlog refinement, and sprint review.
• Acted as the Product Owner to write user stories, refine the product backlog, and answer questions.
• Designed and moderated usability tests for a SaaS application. Analyzed the results and recommended ways to improve the rate of task completion and ease of use.
• Designed and analyzed an online card sorting exercise with remote, external stakeholders to identify a more intuitive way to organize information.
• Led the requirements elicitation and analysis for a SaaS application:
  • Managed project scope, milestones, and risks.
  • Managed user acceptance testing with internal and external stakeholders.

Systems Analyst Contractor

2010 - 2010
ES&S (Election Systems and Software) (Omaha, NE)
Short-term contract to write formal use cases and develop data entry forms in Java for election software.

• Wrote UML use cases of proposed system functionality using Enterprise Architect.
• Designed and implemented Java data entry forms using NetBeans IDE.
• Built a custom template using Enterprise Architect to automatically generate use case and requirements documentation:
  • The template eliminated 100% of the previously required manual edits.

Project Manager/Business Analyst Contractor

2008 - 2009
Orchard Brands (Hillsboro, OR)
Long-term contract covered 2 consecutive projects and the re-launch of 7 retail eCommerce sites.

• Managed the relationships and website integrations with 14 vendors for the 7 eCommerce sites.
• Managed scope, milestones, and risks to keep the integrations successfully on schedule.
• Interviewed on-site and off-site business stakeholders on existing processes to reveal system gaps.
• Mentored a junior project manager.

Usability/Information Architect Contractor

2008 - 2008
Daimler Trucks North America (Freightliner) (Portland, OR)
Short-term contract to analyze and improve the usability of the IT department's Intranet.

• Delivered a creative brief that defined the project scope, audience, goals, and deliverables.
• Interviewed key IT department users to assess their goals, common tasks, and information regularly referenced on the Intranet.
• Conducted online card sorting exercises to assess and refine the effectiveness of navigational labels.
• Submitted a final report summarizing major findings and recommended changes to improve the Intranet over the short- and long-term.

Project Analyst - Sourcing Operations

2006 - 2008
H&R Block (Kansas City, MO)

• Managed a strategic vendor relationship, resulting in a 40% average improvement in response time on support issues.
• Provided operations support for the PeopleSoft/Oracle corporate financials system:
  • Managed relationships with four vendors to resolve over $1M in electronic payment (A/P) issues.
• Collaborated with groups of internal and external stakeholders on strategic sourcing process improvement projects to elicit user needs and document the project requirements and timelines.
  • Integrated results and stakeholder feedback from past projects into current projects.

Project Manager/Business Analyst

2006 - 2006
LaGarde (Olathe, KS)

• Managed web-based software projects to meet performance benchmarks for budget, deadline, and customer satisfaction.
• Consulted with clients to elicit and document requirements and design screen mockups.
• Proactively managed client expectations and changes in project scope and requirements.
• Directed three to five team members per project.

Product Development Analyst

2004 - 2006
Perfect Commerce (Kansas City, MO)

• Transformed internal and customer requests into detailed functional requirements, screen mockups, and use cases.
• Contract Manager project, a 1-year $1M software modernization and integration initiative:
  • Collaborated with off-shore and US remote teams to elicit requirements.
  • Conducted stakeholder interviews to create a project gap analysis.
  • Coordinated with Development and QA to ensure proper implementation of functional requirements.
  • Presented weekly project status updates to senior management.

Senior Interaction Architect

2001 - 2004
Kansas Information Consortium (Topeka, KS)

• Designed and built accessible web applications and sites that met state agencies' and citizens' needs:
• • WebFile, Kansas Income Tax online application, won the E-Gov 2003 Trail Blazer award.
• Introduced CSS-based Web design techniques and trained four co-workers on how to implement it. These techniques reduced development time, created modular designs, and made future redesigns easier and faster to implement.
• Represented the company as an expert speaker on web accessibility and usability at the 2003 and 2004 SXSW Interactive conferences in Austin, TX.
• Led the State subcommittee that revised the Kansas Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (2 years).
• Elicited client requirements and defined functional specifications. Coded the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• Planned and moderated usability tests and used the results to improve the web application and sites.
• Ensured the web applications and sites complied with US Section 508 and state Web accessibility guidelines.

Web/Graphics Designer

1999 - 2000
Auction Management Solutions (Tampa, FL)

• Consulted with clients to design promotional websites that fit the clients' marketing needs.