Cision | Vocus, Beltsville/Lanham, MD || Full-Time

  PRINCIPAL QA – GLOBAL SUPPORT LEAD | Cision 2/2015 to 5/2015

  MANAGER OF QUALITY ASSURANCE (PR) | Cision / Vocus, Inc. 5/2014 to 2/2015

  (LEAD) QUALITY ASSURANCE ANALYST | QA ANALYST (SENIOR) | Vocus, Inc. 9/2007 to 5/2014

  QA ANALYST | Vocus, Inc. 4/2001 to 4/2004

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With 10+ years working for global leaders in News Monitoring & PR Automation, Vocus (later Cision), provided end-to-end functional manual testing for this SaaS product. As a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) & Agile practitioner, led new feature project teams responsible for bug reporting, production support gating, and product deployment on iterative release cycles.

Highlights include:

  • Client-facing Help file documentation.
  • Deployment-related product Release Notes using FogBugz.
  • Bug Tracking using Jira & Fogbugz.
  • Root Cause Analysis using Google Sheets.
  • Process Modeling using Visio.
  • SQL Scripting using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (lab & production).

To learn more about my Quality Assurance background, please visit my resume page on this site.

Key Accomplishments

PRINCIPAL QA – GLOBAL SUPPORT LEAD 2/2015 to 5/2015

  • Defined and oversaw numerous KPMs/KPIs, including culling data for bug/fix reports and delivering root cause analysis to key stakeholders, allowing them to make informed decisions on product and process health. 
  • Coached, supported, and led a cross-functional data enrichment team as Scrum Master, allowing them to focus on work without distraction, while constantly hitting targeted tech delivery dates. 

  MANAGER OF QA (PR) 5/2014 to 2/2015

  • Promoted to manage and mentor the PR Quality team as a result of top performance in the years leading up to and through the merger of Cision and Vocus, successfully guiding a distributed team of 12 testers in a fast-paced Agile environment.
  • Lead efforts to eliminate test case backlog for this enterprise PR & News Monitoring application, using a peer writing strategy as well as the coordination and training of off-shore & near-shore resources.
  • Managed release planning & scheduling + owned internal build & deploy process, including gating off-cycle & HotFix deployments. Directed the coverage, organization, & scheduling of Regression Testing Cycles, as well as final acceptance and distribution of weekly releases.

Vocus, Inc,  Beltsville, MD

  LEAD QA ANALYST & QA ANALYST (SENIOR) 9/2007 to 5/2014

  • Returned to Vocus (previously – QA Analyst from 4/2001 to 4/2004) to help orchestrate manual testing efforts across a full line of Public Relations and Marketing products.
  • Produced test scripts & formulated a test case template design, review framework & flow.
  • Enhanced regression testing through the implementation of Kanban boards.
  • Developed Agile User Stories, and helped facilitate weekly Scrum ceremonies/events.
  • Served as the Lead Technical Editor of the wiki-based Release Notes, producing end-user & internal documentation, including client-facing Help files for bi- & tri-weekly releases.
  • Assisted in the development & maintenance of test software staging & dev environments.

To find out more about the transformative power of Documentation in Quality Assurance, and the Content that is generated, reach out any time on LinkedIn. ~jb bartkowiak