Elizabeth A. Anderson, Project Manager in Birmingham, AL, United States
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Elizabeth A. Anderson

Verified Expert  in Project Management

Project Manager

Location
Birmingham, AL, United States
Toptal Member Since
January 4, 2021

Elizabeth is a highly organized professional with broad experience in Agile project management, specializing in Scrum. She's adept at concurrently managing multiple projects on different products while meeting all deadlines, controlling costs, and staying within budget. Elizabeth has built and supported a wide range of software products (mobile, web, SaaS, BPaaS, IoT, on-premises) across many industries (finance, healthcare, eCommerce, nonprofit, sports, logistics, and more).

Project Highlights

Tocaro Blue
Managed the project and took product ownership for a complex IoT yacht security monitoring system with hardware, mobile app, and web app components.
Alabama Opportunity Scholarship Fund
Oversaw the project and program management and took product ownership for a web app for a non-profit scholarship fund.
FIS XSP
Managed the project for a global corporate actions processing solution.

Expertise

Work Experience

Lead Navigator

2018 - 2020
Airship
  • Managed two departments concurrently: Agile project/product managers and QA. Provided leadership, training, coaching, and guidance across all projects in the company. During this time, profit margins across projects doubled.
  • Successfully transitioned the company from ClickUp to Jira (with client-facing service desk component) and trained employees on how to use it effectively. Set up Jira instance and acted as sole Jira administrator across the company.
  • Set and managed delivery timelines, capacity, resource allocation, and invoicing schedules for all projects across the company to ensure that each project had a team with the appropriate skillsets for the work, and would be delivered on time.
  • Monitored and reported on the company's operational performance; proactively identified project and operational risks, and led efforts to mitigate risk.
  • Monitored and reported on Airship’s financial performance; created future projections to provide guidance on business and operational strategy.
  • Led project discovery workshops as the project/product manager, working with a designer, developer, and stakeholders. Responsible for documentation including scope, risks, assumptions, dependencies, tech recommendations, and testing recommendations.
  • Worked as a program manager and Agile coach across all projects in the company to ensure on-time, on-budget delivery.
  • Led iterative development projects through all phases of the SDLC, from discovery to delivery and maintenance, using Scrum. Projects were on time and on budget, with high customer satisfaction scores.
  • Implemented Scrum on a company-wide level and facilitated all Scrum training within the company. Acted as an Agile coach for all team members/projects. Ensured the entire PM staff achieved Scrum Master certification.
  • Implemented numerous company-wide process improvement changes for improved internal/external visibility and project monitoring.

Project Manager

2011 - 2018
FIS
  • Managed two international Agile dev teams, with projects sized up to 2,000 hours; involved in the full lifecycle of software development, including roadmap prioritization, release planning, resource allocation, documentation, delivery, and invoicing.
  • Oversaw quarterly release handover to support and implementation teams. Worked closely with other project/product managers to ensure that all release activity was complete and ready for delivery and led training sessions on all new functionality.
  • Collected and wrote requirements for new feature development.
  • Managed special projects with many different departments and locations—managing security changes across multiple data centers, coordinating disaster recovery exercises, implementing new internal procedures, and providing Agile coaching.
  • Consistently met goals to deliver quality software products on time and within budget; reported metrics on team velocity, variance, and estimation accuracy; communicated these metrics to teams and management.

Tocaro Blue

Managed the project and took product ownership for a complex IoT yacht security monitoring system with hardware, mobile app, and web app components.

The Tocaro Blue system is a yacht security monitoring system that uses physical hardware to allow end-users to see their boats' statuses through a mobile app and allows an admin/support team to view all boats through a web app.

This system has many complex components, including WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, payment processing, alerts and notifications based on hardware data, real-time data visibility, secure data transfer, and multiple third-party components, including Stripe and ZenDesk.

For this application, I led the project discovery phase as the project manager and product owner, working closely with two designers, a developer, a hardware engineering team, and the stakeholders. I created a project scope, including risks, assumptions, dependencies, technical recommendations, and testing recommendations. Through 18 months of iterative development work, I also led the team using Scrum methodology to create working mobile and web apps to be handed over to an implementation team along with documentation.

This project had many technical complexities that required quick thinking and flexibility from the team, including a change in iOS WiFi capabilities midway through, which required us to shift to using Bluetooth technology.

PRONTO by O'Neal Steel

Managed the project and took product ownership for an eCommerce mobile app selling industrial steel.

PRONTO by O'Neal Steel is a mobile eCommerce platform for selling industrial metal products. It includes inventory visibility to end-users, search capability, quote and invoicing history, volume discounts, metal weight conversions, notifications, and live chat.

I led the project discovery phase as the project manager and product owner for this app, working closely with a designer, a developer, and multiple stakeholders. I created a project scope, including risks, assumptions, dependencies, technical recommendations, and testing recommendations. I also led the fully remote team through eight months of iterative development work using the Scrum methodology to create a working mobile app. I led the team by delivering to the app store and play store, and worked with the client to provide maintenance support six months after production deployment.

This project required the development team to connect to an existing API, and also required third-party support from LiveChat and Twilio.

Alabama Opportunity Scholarship Fund

https://www.alabamascholarshipfund.org/

Oversaw the project and program management and took product ownership for a web app for a non-profit scholarship fund.

The Alabama Opportunity Scholarship Fund is a nonprofit organization that oversees a state-wide scholarship program helping underserved students access higher-performing schools.
It utilizes a web app to allow scholarship and school administrators to manage scholarship recipients and allow parents to apply on behalf of their students. This web app required complex business logic and security rules, third-party components including Twilio for notifications, and a data transfer from an existing application to the new one.

For this application, I led the project discovery phase as the project manager and product owner, working closely with a designer, developer, and the stakeholders. I created a project scope, including risks, assumptions, dependencies, tech recommendations, and testing recommendations.

When project work started, I passed the daily project work to my direct report project manager/product owner. I acted in a program management and Agile coaching capacity for the duration of development through delivery and into the maintenance phase. This project had an aggressive deadline to meet state-required deadlines; I scheduled the project, allocated resources, and built the team for an on-time, on-budget delivery.

Truckerbux

https://truckerbux.com/

Oversaw the project and program management and took product ownership for a mobile and web app allowing truck drivers/companies to quickly get vehicles repaired (and process payments) while on the road.

Truckerbux is a web and mobile app that connects trucking companies and drivers with service providers to allow drivers/companies to quickly vehicles repaired (and payments processed) when drivers need maintenance on the road.

The app required third-party components including map and traffic APIs, Stripe for payment processing, and Twilio for notifications.

For this application, I led the project discovery phase as the project manager and product owner, working closely with a designer, developer, and stakeholders. I created a project scope including risks, assumptions, dependencies, tech recommendations, and testing recommendations.

When project work started, I passed the daily project work to my direct report project manager/product owner and acted in a program management and Agile coaching capacity for the duration of development through delivery and into the maintenance phase. I scheduled the project, allocated resources, planned capacity, tracked budget and deadlines, and provided internal reporting on project progress.

FIS XSP

Managed the project for a global corporate actions processing solution.

FIS XSP is a corporate actions processing tool with international clients in all sectors of the financial industry. It is SWIFT-accredited and subject to financial regulations. XSP is a large, highly configurable, and complex application that offers SaaS, on-premises, and hosted solutions.

I managed an international Agile development team, including multiple product owners, developers, QA engineers, and designers. I led one of many teams that worked together to deliver features in the product's quarterly releases, meaning that I worked closely with other project and product managers to ensure that all release activity was complete and ready for delivery. I led all Scrum rituals with the team and wrote detailed client-facing documentation on all functionality. When the development was complete for each quarterly release, I oversaw the full release handover to the support and implementation teams and led training sessions on new functionality.

I consistently met goals to deliver quality software products on time and within budget and reported metrics on team velocity, variance, and estimation accuracy.

Fintech Startup Discovery and Planning

Acted as project manager and product strategist during the discovery, design, and planning phase for a fintech startup with a hybrid B2B and B2C business model.

This fintech startup is a mobile-responsive web app that uses a robust API to suggest AI-driven consumer budgets based on peer data. The app has a B2C UI, but the business model allows the API to be sold to financial institutions with a white-labeled UI.

As the project manager and product strategist for this application, I led the project discovery phase, working closely with a designer, technical lead, stakeholders, and end-users.

I conducted discovery workshops to create a feature backlog and roadmap for multiple phases of the product. I outlined the project scope, including risks, assumptions, dependencies, and tech and testing recommendations. I also conducted user research that included multiple rounds of moderated user interviews with usability testing.

Website Redesign Discovery and Planning

Acted as a project manager during the discovery, design, and planning phase for a website redesign.

This project was a large-scale website redesign for a nonprofit Jewish cultural organization, which includes classes and events, as well as a wide-ranging content library with texts and music. It uses some third-party software, including Stripe, an audio player, HubSpot, and more.

I was the project manager for this project during the project discovery/design/planning phases, working closely with a UX designer, multiple stakeholders, and external development and design teams.

I led discovery workshops over two weeks while working through idea validation, feature brainstorming and prioritization, user journeys, and user personas. The client was happy with our team's work and opted to bring us on for additional planning and user research. I wrote a detailed scope document for the development team during the planning phase and managed overall project deliverables. I also led user research efforts and a UX designer to ensure that the redesign work met the clients' needs and goals.
2002 - 2007

Bachelor of Music Degree in Music Theory

University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa, AL, United States

AUGUST 2021 - AUGUST 2023

Certified Scrum Product Owner

Scrum Alliance

OCTOBER 2018 - OCTOBER 2022

Certified Scrum Master

Scrum Alliance

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