Muhammad is available for hire
Hire MuhammadMuhammad Ammar Yasir
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan
Toptal member since December 24, 2021
Bio
Muhammad is an expert solutions delivery lead who runs the E2E application development of complex, bespoke, and commercial software in Agile and Waterfall environments. He's led the transformation of a monolithic application into an enterprise-scale HA service as the first IT transformation delivery to the City of London. Muhammad brings in-depth expertise to enterprises and startups and deftly manages cross-functional on- and off-shore teams of analysts, designers, developers, and testers.
Project Highlights
Transformation of Motor Pricing Service for The AA
Led the transformation of a monolithic application into an enterprise-scale HA service, introducing AA's in-house underwriter for the first time on the broker panel, enabling brokers to move to a next-generation insurer-hosted pricing solution.
Expertise
- Agile Delivery
- Delivery Management
- Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
- Software Project Management
- Solution Design
- Stakeholder Management
- Team Leadership
- Technical Project Management
Work Experience
Solutions Delivery Manager (Contract)
2016 - 2023
The AA
- Managed the delivery of the next-generation capability of Insurer Hosted Pricing (IHP) in conjunction with motor insurance underwriting panel members.
- Led the home insurance pricing transformation program, rationalizing legacy systems and delivering new capabilities such as address-level rating.
- Acted as the delivery manager for the motor insurance pricing service as part of the AA's IT transformation program.
- Managed technical and delivery liaison with partner underwriting panel members and 3rd-party solution providers.
- Interacted and managed senior IT and business stakeholders, including technology directors and the director and head of insurance pricing at the AA.
- Led a delivery-focused cross-functional team consisting of a solution architect, business analysts, solution designers, developers, and system testers.
- Successfully transitioned motor and home insurance pricing services for AA's in-house underwriter for a brand new policy administration system.
- Introduced a new AA Motor Insurance brand named "Beam" through the broker pricing service with a flexible solution to allow panel members to participate or not in the program.
- Delivered a time-sensitive regulatory change to the UK insurance industry under GIPP (general insurance pricing practices) with numerous requirements impacting all parts of the insurance systems.
Technical Solutions Lead
2013 - 2016
The AA
- Led delivery of pricing and integration services work-stream in the IT transformation program providing an enterprise-wide shared service.
- Delivered motor insurance pricing service transformation.
- Created a technical solution for AA’s in-house underwriting capability to retain the declining book through a broker panel and expand it by writing the risk that the rest of the panel refers or declines.
- Introduced broker commission and insurer underwriting rules near real-time in conjunction with market trends.
- Added additional data enrichment services through parallelization without impacting SLAs with clients such as price comparison websites.
- Interacted and managed senior IT and business stakeholders, including the IT transformation director and directors of insurance and roadside breakdown.
- Served as a key technical member of the decision committee for selecting an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) solution RFP process.
- Served as a member of the change request board and estimation process.
- Ensured FCA and DPA compliance during the software development lifecycle.
- Oversaw business and time-critical services, including motor, home, and travel insurance, fulfillment, and third-party data and service integrations.
Development Team Lead
2012 - 2013
GulfTalent
- Led and mentored a team of front- and back-end developers in an Agile environment (distributed Scrum with teams in London and Dubai).
- Acted as a scrum master introducing scrum practices and ceremonies, including daily stand-ups, sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives.
- Led the development operations transition from Dubai to London.
- Spearheaded the business and technical analysis, design, development, and release to production at the end of a sprint for a time-sensitive system with three million candidates and 5,000 clients.
- Managed stakeholders, including senior managers, sales teams, end users, and technology partners.
- Recommended technology and infrastructure choices based on in-depth reviews and analysis of various available options.
Technical Team Leader
2011 - 2012
Abritas
- Led and mentored a team of eight developers and L2 support.
- Interacted with external clients during requirements gathering, analysis, and elicitation.
- Managed a small work order workstream, including systems impact assessment, projects estimation, and timely delivery within budget in an Agile environment.
- Introduced a formal delivery process for a workstream focused on small work orders.
- Documented, formalized, and ensured technical processes received approved.
- Managed team with regular one-on-ones and annual performance reviews.
- Recruited the development staff and ensured Abritas' Microsoft Partnership compliance.
Lead Developer
2009 - 2011
Panovus Group (Slipstream Global & United Image Ltd.)
- Led the development of complex bespoke web-based applications and CMS in a digital agency environment.
- Analyzed, estimated, and presented technical solutions.
- Managed and implemented change requests on daily basis.
- Developed software using ASP.NET and PHP-based frameworks.
- Created advanced database-driven websites using Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL.
- Designed compatible user interfaces (UI) using jQuery.
Software Development Lead
2007 - 2009
FrizCon Web Solutions
- Led and mentored a team of software developers and testers.
- Interfaced with US- and Europe-based clients and an outsourced team in Pakistan.
- Groomed the product backlog, assigned priorities, and triaged defects and bugs.
- Facilitated cross-functional team meetings and resolved team blockers and impediments.
- Acted as a liaison between the technical and business stakeholders.
- Managed the day-to-day change request implementations.
- Played a key role in defining technical standards and best practices.
Assistant Manager
2005 - 2007
National Development Complex
- R&D on wide-scale deployment of FileNet P8 ECM and BPM solutions across various organizations supported by NDC.
- Researched and developed a network-based cryptographic handshake management solution based on generating pseudo-numbers.
- Managed networks and systems of the organizations served by NDC.
Design Engineer
2004 - 2005
Vasona Systems International
- Analyzed, designed, and developed XML Comparer to deploy rates to VSi's state-of-the-art FreshStart-based remote Business Center machines.
- Kicked off the Blue Whale project using Visual Basic .NET and ASP.NET to provide VSi customers a self-service portal to create quotations and submit orders.
- Supported VSi customers via telephone in the US and Europe.
Project History
Transformation of Motor Pricing Service for The AA
Led the transformation of a monolithic application into an enterprise-scale HA service, introducing AA's in-house underwriter for the first time on the broker panel, enabling brokers to move to a next-generation insurer-hosted pricing solution.
Managed a team of 20+ architects, analysts, solution designers, developers, and testers, internal to the AA, third-party integrators, and partners, to deliver a multi-million-pound solution, the first transformation within an enterprise-wide program transforming the AA's IT solutions.
The project was challenging as two new technologies, TIBCO and Radar Live, were introduced to an already complex technology stack. TIBCO partnered as the system integrator. Architects, analysts, and part of the development team were a mix of in-house and contractors. Testers came from the testing partner, Cognizant. The project was highly visible to the executive chairman and CEO of the AA as it was the first promised IT transformation delivery to the City of London, where the AA had gone public recently.
Engaged directly with the IT transformation director were the insurance director and head of pricing. Managing a diversified team from various backgrounds and ethnicities, bringing brand new technologies to the enterprise mix, and collaborating with executive-level stakeholders and development and testing teams was a challenge worth taking on. The successful delivery is something to be proud of.
The project was challenging as two new technologies, TIBCO and Radar Live, were introduced to an already complex technology stack. TIBCO partnered as the system integrator. Architects, analysts, and part of the development team were a mix of in-house and contractors. Testers came from the testing partner, Cognizant. The project was highly visible to the executive chairman and CEO of the AA as it was the first promised IT transformation delivery to the City of London, where the AA had gone public recently.
Engaged directly with the IT transformation director were the insurance director and head of pricing. Managing a diversified team from various backgrounds and ethnicities, bringing brand new technologies to the enterprise mix, and collaborating with executive-level stakeholders and development and testing teams was a challenge worth taking on. The successful delivery is something to be proud of.
Education
2001 - 2004
Master of Science Degree in Computer Science (MCS)
International Islamic University - Islamabad, Pakistan
1998 - 2001
Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science (BCS)
Allama Iqbal Open University - Islamabad, Pakistan
Certifications
OCTOBER 2016 - PRESENT
PRINCE2® Foundation
Axelos
JULY 2015 - PRESENT
EMS351: TIBCO Enterprise Message Service 8.x Administration
TIBCO
JULY 2015 - PRESENT
BW406: Developing Applications with TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.x
TIBCO
JULY 2015 - PRESENT
W306: TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.x
TIBCO
OCTOBER 2014 - PRESENT
Coaching for Performance
Private
APRIL 2014 - PRESENT
People and Team Management
Private
Skills
Tools
Jira, Microsoft Visual C++, Visual Basic, TIBCO Enterprise Message Service (EMS), Confluence, IBM Filenet
Paradigms
Agile, Agile Delivery, Change Management, Agile Product Management, Scrum, Agile Project Management, Implementation Project Management, UX Design
Other
Solution Design, Technical Business Analysis, Stakeholder Management, Delivery Management, Team Leadership, Software Engineering, Systems Analysis, Project Delivery, Solution Architecture, Team Management, Technical Project Management, Software Development, Large-scale Projects, Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Estimation & Planning, Databases, New Product Development, TIBCO, Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), .NET, C++, Product Management, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), ASP.NET, C#.NET, App Support, JavaScript, Scrum Master, Data Migration, Client Delivery Management, UI Design, Backlog Grooming, Feature Analysis, Compilers, Networks, PHP, Kohana, MySQL, Radar Live, Software Project Management, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Web App Deployment, Sprints, Agile Sprints, Insurance Broking
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