Shireen Higgins

Experience

• 

  Ferranti

  Jan 1981 - Jan 1985

  Trainee/Junior Programmer
• 

  Racal Avionics

  Jan 1985 - Jan 1986

  Programmer
• 

  ITT World Directories

  Jan 1986 - Jan 1992

  Senior Analyst Programmer
• 

  Yellow Pages Sales Ltd

  Jan 1992 - Jan 2003

  During this period managed all technical aspects of a replacement of Yell's core applications with a new enterprise wide SAP solution, including legacy system integration, 6 month stabilisation and the formal release/development processes required to support delivery of agreed business priorities. Following this managed a number of major initiatives as part of an ongoing SAP Release Programme for Yell. This included a number of SAP based (R/3, CRM and BW) projects and also utilising Microsoft's .Net framework. Key achievements of the SAP implementation included:Defined and gained agreement and Stakeholder sign-off to the scope of the solutionManaged build, all test phases, data migration/transition, implementation of new SAP solutionManaged blended resources from several third party suppliersManaged post SAP implementation warranty/live issue resourcing/structure, incident managementManaged Service Acceptance and handover of new SAP solution into BAU support processesKey achievements post SAP implementation included:Defined new working practises for Yell's SAP release process for a quarterly release programmeEstablished change, release and configuration management procedures for key IT systemsPortfolio and Stage manager for various stages of SAP Releases planning and managing up to 20 Analyst/designers, 30 Developers and 20 testers to deliver various projects Show less

  • SAP Delivery and Implementation Manager

    Jan 1999 - Jan 2003

  • Project Manager

    Jan 1992 - Jan 1999
• 

  Yell Group

  Jul 1994 - Jan 2011

  Senior IT Project Manager

  An experienced Project manager, Technical Stream lead, Scrum master and Portfolio Delivery Manager with a strong track record of leading, delivering and implementing IT and Business initiatives across various platforms including those with a SAP and SOA solution focus.

• 

  Scrum Master

  Jan 2004 - Dec 2010

  Project Manager

  Full project lifecycle traditional and agile projects including Legacy system transformation, Online and Agent Sales/service, Billing, Telephony, Output management, iPhone, Laptop solutions plus business process change elements Portfolio manager for 25 projects for rationalisation of Yell's product offerings to move customers from Sales led content strategy to a self-service model, including delivery of Java/IBM Websphere servicesManaging project managers/scrum masters internal and external, defining roles and accountabilities, documenting new delivery and release processes and quality controls and communicating to teamsPerformed effective risk and issue management, propagation of standards and governance, change control, status reporting, and resourcing for all lifecycle stages (analysis/design, build, test, implement-including migrations and transitions- and warranty)Defined test and go-live criteria and ensured project deliverables met agreed levels of quality through management of QA teams and quality systemsDefined warranty strategies, managed post warranty resourcing, delivery/communication/resolution of live issuesQuality assured project/portfolio integration touch points/deliverables and interfaces/dependencies and ensured corrective actions were carried out to ensure successful delivery to time, budget and agreed SLAsPropagation of standards and governance including waterfall and lately SCRUM techniquesReduced time to market from 12 weeks to 5 weeks through release cycles and Agile methodsKey member of team transforming development to an off-shore model including managing blended on shore and off shore teams, delivering commercial SOWs to ensure key milestones were metConducted post implementation reviews/retrospectives and implemented appropriate changes Initiated the review and subsequent early termination of a £5.8m project when risk and issue materialisation impacted the delivery timescales and commercial viability of the project Show less

• 

  British Gas

  Jan 2011 - now

  Senior IS Project Manager

  Centrica is involved in every step of the energy story, and is a key force in leading and shaping change in the energy and Services industry. IS Project manager on transformation Programme moving core systems from Siebel to SAP CRM and delivering Online change to meet Centrica's Online Business strategy. Working in a semi-Agile methodology from Requirements gathering through to implementation delivering transformation of Products, Pricing, Financials and Post-processing change.Managing overall Release plan including key milestone identificationDependency management for complex cross project and scrum dependencies Show less

• 

  Centrica

  Mar 2020 - now

  Senior Scrum Master