Mohana is available for hire
Hire MohanaMohana Gopal
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Toptal member since February 14, 2022
Bio
Mohana is a certified PMI Project Management Professional (PMP), Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), Agile Hybrid Project Pro (PMI-AH-MC), and an experienced scrum master, Professional Scrum Master (PSM-1) certified. She holds a Bachelor's with honors in Computer Science and an MBA with distinction from UEL, UK. She has 7+ years of experience as a technical project manager leading IT security, AI and ML, omnichannel contact center solutions, and digital asset management projects.
Project Highlights
AI-based Chatbot for an Energy Company
Fulfilled all deliverables and closed this project successfully six months after I inherited it while it was stalled in the execution phase for more than three months due to some ongoing issues. The payment was released without any disputes.
SaaS-hosted Contact Center Solution for UNICEF Malaysia
Initiated and got the buy-in from the organization and the client to move from a predictive to an adaptive Agile approach to the project delivery, giving value fast and early to the client and the flexibility to strategize on their service offerings.
SaaS-hosted Contact Center Solution for a Telecommunications Company
Delivered the project end-to-end and managed the change requests that came from the client midway through the project with minimal conflicts and impact to the project budget and timeline.
Expertise
- Agile
- Certified Project Manager
- Change Management
- IT Project Management
- Jira
- Kanban
- Scrum Master
- Technical Project Management
Work Experience
Project Manager
2022 - PRESENT
Woven by Toyota
- Drove the bi-weekly syncs with the product and service teams, enabling the security engineers to identify potential security and privacy risks and detail the security requirements to be complied with by the product team.
- Worked with subject matter experts to derive the Secure SDLC framework, facilitating collaboration between the security engineers and the product development teams. The activities within the framework are then managed and tracked as a project.
- Created an S-SDLC tracker to monitor all the products and services pipelined for business, technical, security, and privacy reviews. The tracker remains relevant to the security team to support the product teams through the service lifecycle phases.
- Helped the team fully onboard using Jira and its available features effectively with quick guides. Helped the team transition from moving Jira tickets over a simple Kanban board to a more structured Jira Scrum board.
- Used the S-SDLC tracker as a data source and built a dashboard using Google Looker Studio, which was envisioned as the information radiator for the team and the team leadership on the progress of S-SDLC works being carried out.
- Analyzed the challenges and needs of the team and drafted a proposal for the team's leadership to consider adopting the Scrum framework for delivering the team's OKRs and operational tasks, which was subsequently approved and adopted.
- Served as a scrum master, coached and guided the team on the Scrum framework, facilitated scrum ceremonies, supported the product owner in refining the backlog, and gave guidance in story point estimations and writing out DoDs and ACs for stories.
- Transitioned to the product owner role while supporting the scrum master and the team with sprint capacity planning and sprint reviews using Jira automation and Jira Query perspectives using JQL.
- Carried out—as the product owner—periodic backlog grooming sessions with the respective OKR owners at each sprint while assessing and helping the team overcome challenges or blockers in delivering the outcome for the current sprint.
- Provided the required support in the initiative to have existing security policies and standards translated and published in Japanese on the Information Security Library site by raising and merging pull requests through GitHub.
Project Manager
2021 - PRESENT
Kloudynet Technologies
- Joined the team as a project manager to deliver Microsoft Enterprise Solutions for clients in telecommunications, finance, public services, transportation, market expansion services, education, and many others.
- Set up the workflow for driving IT projects and security and compliance projects.
- Collaborated and jived ideas with the founder and CEO from time to time on strategies to run lean teams to effectively utilize the available resources while building the team's skillsets to align with the business roadmap.
- Doubled up as the release manager for the DevOps team for development projects consisting of a solution architect, UI/UX designer, and developer.
Project Manager
2021 - 2021
Hayden AI Inc.
- Joined the team as an offshore project manager (PM) to carry out data capture for a local transportation project. However, management decided to utilize my skills as a PM to coordinate the team to deliver a minimum viable product (MVP).
- Liaised with the local transportation company and coordinated with the local team for data capture using smart sensors and computer vision to detect bus lane traffic violations.
- Delivered an MVP that reduced traffic violations, improved traffic efficiency, and reduced congestion caused by traffic violations.
- Implemented an automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) to provide car plate numbers in the video snippets as an evidence package.
Project Manager
2021 - 2021
Microtel Technology
- Managed and delivered a cloud-based contact center solution for a bank in the Philippines as an external project manager with the support of a team that spanned across Malaysia, India, and the Philippines.
- Conducted the requirement elicitation exercise and drew up the requirement traceability matrix. Ensured timely delivery of the system design document to kick-start the project's execution phase.
- Utilized Microsoft Teams as the primary collaboration tool to carry out project milestone activities, such as user acceptance testing (UAT) and training.
- Managed the executive stakeholders' expectations with regular and timely updates and escalation when required to avoid delays and expedite showstopper activities.
Project Manager
2019 - 2020
Microtel Technology
- Delivered all projects assigned and ensured team compliance on all established deliverables, milestones, and success criteria for the project delivery.
- Prepared comprehensive project plans and statements of work (SOWs), incorporating estimates on effort, project assumptions, and out-of-scope items.
- Ensured that the project stakeholders were kept informed on the project progress status, issues, and risks on agreed frequencies and formats.
- Established the processes and tools for remote project support and delivery. Reviewed the efficacy of the established procedures from time to time to ensure all intended purposes were met and improvements were made to address gaps identified.
Project Manager and Head of Support
2012 - 2019
Gamlite IT Sdn. Bhd
- Joined the team as a technical writer, got promoted to a project coordinator in two years, and left the company five years later as a project manager and head of support.
- Assisted the project manager and chief resident engineer in a cross-functional team setting as the project coordinator in managing all communications, project documentation, issues, and statuses of all items in the WBS.
- Responded to requests for proposals (RFPs) and drafted proposals for project prospects and tenders. Oversaw the preparation of documentation required for project bids and post-project support.
- Prepared a broad scope of documents, including system design specifications, business requirement documents, user manuals, training manuals, user acceptance test cases, project reports, and meeting minutes.
- Attended and participated in monthly steering committee meetings and maintained records of project deliverables and acceptances.
- Prepared all correspondence with the client and contracted consultants and vendors. Maintained the stakeholder communication register as one of the project requirements.
- Assumed the role of a document controller and stored the documents electronically and in hard copy for the project team. Ensured that accurate information was distributed throughout the organization, on time, and to the people who needed it.
Helpdesk Lead
2011 - 2012
Privasia Technology Berhad
- Joined the team as a level-1 helpdesk but was promoted to the head of the helpdesk in three months.
- Established the workflow processes to manage incident tickets, ensuring monthly reports produced for a client were relevant and insightful.
- Conducted regular training for new hires and refreshers to promote and emphasize the importance of following the established processes.
- Reduced the overall volume of incident tickets. Improved the helpdesk key service-level agreements (SLAs), like response and call handling times.
- Provided canned email responses. Built and populated the knowledge base with articles for frequently occurring or known issues to improve the first call resolution (FCR).
- Developed the standing operating procedure (SOP) documents for the helpdesk to manage the various support channels, such as the email, desk phone, walkie-talkie, and mobile phone, before the handover to my successor.
Service Desk Analyst
2010 - 2011
CSC Malaysia
- Assigned to work on two separate accounts during my tenure. The first was with BHP Billiton Ltd. (an Australian mining company) and the second was AON Hewitt (Insurance broking company from the US).
- Provided the first level of IT support via telephone and email and supported most of the client's business applications that were under the ambit of CSC.
- Strived to achieve the first call resolution (FCR) targets by resolving issues handled and ensuring tickets raised are properly documented for colleagues to pick up if escalated.
IT Helpdesk
2009 - 2010
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- Assigned to work on the Shell IT account to provide Level 1 helpdesk support.
- Attended to calls from Shell IT employees and gave best efforts to resolve issues within the given SLAs that determine the agent's performance scorecard.
- Practiced active listening to analyze and correctly interpret the inquiries or issues raised before attempting to resolve the query or issue.
- Provided accurate and prescribed solutions to issues, ensuring all pre-defined quality measurements were met. Escalated the calls as per the guidelines if the need arose.
Onsite Trainer and Support
2005 - 2006
ExxonMobil
- Accompanied the project roll-out team across the country and conducted training to station dealers and cashiers on the new point of sale (POS) systems.
- Trained the cashiers on using the POS function and end-of-day sales reconciliation in a go-live environment upon cut-over to the new system.
- Carried out training for the station dealers the next day on the back-office functions, which covered stocks and financial reporting.
- Provided post-implementation hardware and software support during the one-week post-deployment stabilization period.
IT Consultant
2002 - 2005
Swasti Software Services (Self-Employed)
- Designed and authored training materials, job aids, and user guides for custom-based applications.
- Conducted ad-hoc training programs for clients. Training programs were customized to meet the business needs.
- Managed a team of developers in delivering a web-based solution or product, ensuring it met the user requirements.
- Conducted discovery sessions with the client to assess and understand the pain points of the business and the expectations of the solution to be delivered.
- Managed the delivery of the project end-to-end, ensuring minimal or no slippage in time, scope, or cost.
IT Lecturer
2000 - 2002
Informatics College
- Conducted lectures under the UK NCC Diploma and Higher Diploma programs.
- Graded students on their mid-term and final-term papers.
- Supervised students' final year projects, providing them guidance on how to prepare the documentation and manage their time accordingly to ensure timely delivery of their project proposals, systems design documents, test plans, and final reports.
- Conducted evening classes or corporate training programs for working adults on courses like C, Java, Visual Basic, and HTML.
Project History
AI-based Chatbot for an Energy Company
Fulfilled all deliverables and closed this project successfully six months after I inherited it while it was stalled in the execution phase for more than three months due to some ongoing issues. The payment was released without any disputes.
A pilot chatbot project was initiated to enhance a local energy company's support services and procurement shared services. Users of the AI-based chatbot were to be authenticated via an active directory. The deployed chatbot was expected to reduce the volume of support tickets raised for password reset requests by employees for specific SAP systems, respond to FAQs, and provide the status on purchase requisition inquiries.
An SAP consultant was contracted to deliver a specialized service building on the SAP integration module that was to be the middle-point of communication between the developed chatbot and the client's back-end SAP Materials Management (MM) module.
The project was stalled for about three months due to communication gaps among all parties in the project.
Upon onboarding as the project manager, I sat down with all project stakeholders to understand the issues at hand, prepared a responsibility assignment matrix (RACI), and ensured everyone involved was aware of their responsibilities. I conducted weekly checkpoints to track progress and flag potential issues and risks. Executive stakeholders were kept informed on the progress and the project was successfully closed off in six months.
An SAP consultant was contracted to deliver a specialized service building on the SAP integration module that was to be the middle-point of communication between the developed chatbot and the client's back-end SAP Materials Management (MM) module.
The project was stalled for about three months due to communication gaps among all parties in the project.
Upon onboarding as the project manager, I sat down with all project stakeholders to understand the issues at hand, prepared a responsibility assignment matrix (RACI), and ensured everyone involved was aware of their responsibilities. I conducted weekly checkpoints to track progress and flag potential issues and risks. Executive stakeholders were kept informed on the progress and the project was successfully closed off in six months.
SaaS-hosted Contact Center Solution for UNICEF Malaysia
Initiated and got the buy-in from the organization and the client to move from a predictive to an adaptive Agile approach to the project delivery, giving value fast and early to the client and the flexibility to strategize on their service offerings.
I managed a team of five people and helped them improve their self-management skills when delivering increment solutions. The project was delivered in two-week sprints. The first increment involved the delivery of a telephony module that allowed the contact center to switch over to the new system effortlessly with no impact on operations. We delivered the CRM components in the subsequent releases.
SaaS-hosted Contact Center Solution for a Telecommunications Company
Delivered the project end-to-end and managed the change requests that came from the client midway through the project with minimal conflicts and impact to the project budget and timeline.
The client's contract with the previous service provider was coming to an end and they wanted to make a change.
The project deliverables include a cloud-based omnichannel, telephony, webchats, emails, social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, and a contact center solution with CRM system integration. The CRM system contains the client's existing customers and their subscribed plans and serves as the contact center's support ticket and reporting system. The solution delivered is designed to handle inbound interactions and outbound calls, which is specifically crucial for the sales lead generation team.
A business analyst carried out the requirement elicitation and documented it for the client's sign-off. Two teams were allocated to work on this project, the contact center solution team and the CRM solution development team.
The project deliverables include a cloud-based omnichannel, telephony, webchats, emails, social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, and a contact center solution with CRM system integration. The CRM system contains the client's existing customers and their subscribed plans and serves as the contact center's support ticket and reporting system. The solution delivered is designed to handle inbound interactions and outbound calls, which is specifically crucial for the sales lead generation team.
A business analyst carried out the requirement elicitation and documented it for the client's sign-off. Two teams were allocated to work on this project, the contact center solution team and the CRM solution development team.
Education
2018 - 2020
Master's Degree in International Business (MBA)
University of East London - London, United Kingdom
1997 - 2001
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Science University of Malaysia - George Town, Malaysia
Certifications
DECEMBER 2023 - DECEMBER 2026
CompTIA CySA+
CompTIA
AUGUST 2023 - PRESENT
Professional Scrum Product Owner I (PSPO I)
Scrum.org
APRIL 2022 - PRESENT
Microsoft Certified Security, Compliance and Identity Fundamentals
Microsoft
SEPTEMBER 2021 - PRESENT
Change Management Specialist (CMS)
Management and Strategy Institute (MSI)
SEPTEMBER 2021 - PRESENT
Professional Scrum Master Level I (PSM I)
Scrum.org
JUNE 2021 - PRESENT
Agile with Atlassian Jira
Atlassian University
MARCH 2021 - PRESENT
Agile Hybrid Project Pro | Micro-credential
Project Management Institute (PMI)
MARCH 2020 - MARCH 2023
Certified Cloud Practitioner
AWS
DECEMBER 2019 - DECEMBER 2025
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
FEBRUARY 2018 - JANUARY 2024
Network+
CompTIA
JANUARY 2018 - JANUARY 2024
Security+
CompTIA
JUNE 2016 - PRESENT
ITIL Foundation Certification
Axelos
MAY 2016 - PRESENT
PRINCE2 Foundation
Axelos
MAY 2016 - MAY 2025
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Skills
Tools
Jira, Microsoft Project, Project Management & Work Tracking Tools, Confluence, Slack, Google Workspace, Google Forms, GitHub, Toggl
Paradigms
Scrum, Change Management, Agile, Agile Project Management, Agile Software Development, PMBOK, Kanban, Organizational Change Management (OCM), Requirements Analysis, Waterfall Delivery, PRINCE2, XP
Other
Coaching, Project Management, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), IT Projects, Business Communication, Leadership, Planning, Risk Management, Scrum Master, Stakeholder Engagement, Resource Management, Stakeholder Management, Microsoft Office, Documentation, Project Coordination, IT Project Management, Technical Project Management, Technical Writing, Project Management Professional (PMP), Estimation & Planning, Project Planning, Certified Project Manager, Agile Program Management, Project Tracking, Project Reporting, Project Scheduling, Technical Requirements, Software Project Management, Work Breakdown Structure, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Issue Management, Startups, Agile Coaching, Team Management, Networks, Writing & Editing, IT Service Management (ITSM), Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Reporting, Document Control, Proposals, Software Documentation, Scrum Coaching, User Stories, Security, JQL, Communications Management, Hybrid Project Management, Requirement Traceability Matrices, IT Security, Incident Response, Incident Management, Technical Support, IT Business Analysis, PSM-1, SaaS, Request for Proposal (RFP), Communication Management, Program Management, Japanese-English Translation, Web Development, Backlog Management, Scope of Work (SOW), Dashboards, Sales, Artificial Intelligence (AI), AI Chatbots, Unified Threat Management (UTM), Cybersecurity, Product Owner, Product Ownership, Product Management, Pair Programming
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