Errol A. Blake

• As key personnel, I am primarily responsible for delivering Business Value in the form of stabilizing and enhancing the Waiver Management System (WMS) within the MACPro Suite of Products.
• Worked closely with the CMS Product Management team in defining the MACPro product strategy.
• Worked with CMS Product Manager to define a product vision and roadmap and manage value streams and projects to ensure smooth execution of the product roadmap and vision. Assisted in creating product… Show more

• As key personnel, I am primarily responsible for delivering Business Value in the form of stabilizing and enhancing the Waiver Management System (WMS) within the MACPro Suite of Products.
• Worked closely with the CMS Product Management team in defining the MACPro product strategy.
• Worked with CMS Product Manager to define a product vision and roadmap and manage value streams and projects to ensure smooth execution of the product roadmap and vision. Assisted in creating product vision, mission value, problem, user group, and key success factors, Product Canvas and Product Roadmap for MACPro.
• Prioritize and execute a vision that aligns with MACPro business strategy and the value to our current or future users. Ensuring product aligns with CMCS mission and goal.
• Translate product canvas and roadmaps into the updated and manageable product backlog. Assist in defining and executing product direction.
• Working closely with CMS Product Management to define Epics and Features. Creating user stories, acceptance criteria, and product requirements to satisfy those features; while considering internal and external business needs as well as regulatory impacts.
• Identify and manage product dependencies within and across different value streams and the likely downstream impacts due to strategic and development decisions.
• Traditional product owner responsibilities include the collection, management, and prioritization of the product backlog Features and Stories, change requests, service requests, and requirements from the business and various partners.
• Understanding business circumstances, concerns, contexts, and goals to appropriately prioritize the investment of technology development on behalf of the organization and its stakeholders
• Analyzing data to make the right decision at the right time. Conducting research and using data to build a strategy to maneuver the WMS application from point A to point B.

Show less

• Own, analyze and prioritize tasks within the Appeals and Exemptions Process. Work with customers to extract critical business requirements for ACA Appeals and Exemptions notices, for Large Employer, Individual and Authorized Representative, Hardship, Affordability, and Religious Sect.
• Facilitate requirements gathering sessions; listening to business stakeholders to understand high-level objectives down to the fine details and convert to accurate requirements that the development team can… Show more

• Own, analyze and prioritize tasks within the Appeals and Exemptions Process. Work with customers to extract critical business requirements for ACA Appeals and Exemptions notices, for Large Employer, Individual and Authorized Representative, Hardship, Affordability, and Religious Sect.
• Facilitate requirements gathering sessions; listening to business stakeholders to understand high-level objectives down to the fine details and convert to accurate requirements that the development team can act upon
• Conduct business requirements analysis and generation of requirements. Creation and documentation of Change Requests (CR). Make recommendations to CMS regarding the Appeals Process with regards to the Authorized Representative opt-in/out use case.
• Aggregate input from stakeholders to prioritize features and requirements according to business value and support release and sprint planning meetings. Own the quality and accuracy of all tasks and artifacts/documentation completed with the Appeals product category
• Established credibility with the disperse teams across the United States by improving collaboration through better organization, communication, management and understanding of healthcare policies and concepts and technologies.
• Working closely with product owners and technical leads to understand product specifics. Managing changing priorities within a fast-paced dynamic environment
• Create program documentation such as the requirements document, Appeals Translation Matrix (English to Spanish) and XLC artifacts.
• Lead all requirements discussion for all Appeals Online Adaptive Forms including Proof of Concept. Create all required documents including storyboards for all Appeals Online Adaptive Forms including Proof of Concept utilizing CMS Technical Reference Architecture (TRA).
• Actively participated in proposal writing as a writer and contributor for the Adobe Recompete effort 2018.

Show less

The nature of this project is to support the QualityNet Identity Management System (QIMS) 2.3.3 implementation (User Management and Password Management).
• Created and Updated Business, Functional and System requirements and Use Cases
• Created User Stories on the proposed functionality
• Conducted GAP analysis of QIMS 2.0 to 2.3.2 Requirements.
• Facilitate and manage group requirements review session.
• Manage requirements and artifacts in appropriate requirements management… Show more

The nature of this project is to support the QualityNet Identity Management System (QIMS) 2.3.3 implementation (User Management and Password Management).
• Created and Updated Business, Functional and System requirements and Use Cases
• Created User Stories on the proposed functionality
• Conducted GAP analysis of QIMS 2.0 to 2.3.2 Requirements.
• Facilitate and manage group requirements review session.
• Manage requirements and artifacts in appropriate requirements management tools (Collab tool, Serena ALM, and SharePoint).
• Assure work products comply with established deliverable guidelines including format and content.
Show less

• Manage the Enterprise Requirements for the MACBIS SI Program. Create Enterprise Requirements Management Plan
• Created MACBIS/DSG Tier 1 Help Desk Requirements, including all Service Level Objectives. Created a Resource Management Plan for the Tier 1 Help Desk. Made the Tier 1 Help Desk Requirements a Strategic Initiative that resulted in a new contract for an award.
• Consulting with the Four (4) pillars/data categories of MACBIS and the Data Warehouse. Ensuring data categories are… Show more

• Manage the Enterprise Requirements for the MACBIS SI Program. Create Enterprise Requirements Management Plan
• Created MACBIS/DSG Tier 1 Help Desk Requirements, including all Service Level Objectives. Created a Resource Management Plan for the Tier 1 Help Desk. Made the Tier 1 Help Desk Requirements a Strategic Initiative that resulted in a new contract for an award.
• Consulting with the Four (4) pillars/data categories of MACBIS and the Data Warehouse. Ensuring data categories are following SAFe and agile principles.
• Conducting and writing agile assessments and recommendations of all the pillars and Data Warehouse. Writing Features for Data products based on the direction of the MACBIS SI GTL and creating user personas for data products as needed.
• Collaborating and communicating with the MACBIS Data Warehouse team on all Data product initiatives that are presented by the MACBIS SI GTL
• Created Product Canvases and Product Roadmaps.
• Undertake any Requirement related task given by the CMCS Division Directors. Develop, implement and communicate a standardized process for ensuring the RTM is maintained and updated regularly. Provide regular feedback to CMS regarding RTM risks, issues, and mitigation plans. Assist all MACBIS Directors with Requirements Management when assigned
• Establish, implement, and communicate a standardized process for developing and maintaining an RTM across all MACBIS pillars to maintain the linkage between epics, features, user stories, business, functional, and non-functional requirements to test cases, and test results
• Monitor all MACBIS pillar requirements, ensure that the requirements are documented using the approved CMS requirements management tool (JIRA/Confluence) that accommodates the Agile and DevOps methodologies and make recommendations when needed
• Provide CMS with a weekly and monthly status report on all MACBIS Enterprise Requirements Management activities
Show less

• Lead discovery effort for different business units – understanding how each group is using Business Objects and what they’ve currently have deployed (from the perspective of universe(s), reports, etc)
• Lead requirements planning efforts and Conduct/document analysis on as-is state and identify critical reports to be converted and the requirements of those reports
• Helped business partners identify and clarify their goals and business requirements. Validating requirements elicited… Show more

• Lead discovery effort for different business units – understanding how each group is using Business Objects and what they’ve currently have deployed (from the perspective of universe(s), reports, etc)
• Lead requirements planning efforts and Conduct/document analysis on as-is state and identify critical reports to be converted and the requirements of those reports
• Helped business partners identify and clarify their goals and business requirements. Validating requirements elicited, match the stakeholder’s understanding of the problem and their needs
• Documented business, data and system requirements. Communicates business needs with infrastructure and architecture groups to determine alignment between business needs and infrastructure capabilities.
• Conducted Report Consolidation: Report and Schema Analysis
• Created test plans, detailed test scenarios, and execute system testing
• Guided business resources in planning/conducting UAT
• Used high-level business, product, and system knowledge to offer consultancy to Project Managers seeking to ensure that overall project schedule and priorities are in line with process and system dependencies and design.
• Decomposed all Business Objects reports for different Lines of Businesses. Extracting data elements and metrics. Using those data elements and metrics to develop a MicroStrategy Star Schema
• Kept the Business Objects report Product Backlog up-to-date with all relevant information and conversion statuses and writing intermediate SQL Queries


Show less

The nature of this project is to support the Manage File Transfer Data Exchange Service. As a Sr. Business Analyst on the Data Exchange team:
• Worked with the customer to detail and convert business requirements into system functional, non-functional and operational requirements.
• Actively worked with stakeholders to elicit, analyze, communicate and validate requirements and business processes.
• Created and Reviewed Business, Functional and System requirements in the form of User… Show more

The nature of this project is to support the Manage File Transfer Data Exchange Service. As a Sr. Business Analyst on the Data Exchange team:
• Worked with the customer to detail and convert business requirements into system functional, non-functional and operational requirements.
• Actively worked with stakeholders to elicit, analyze, communicate and validate requirements and business processes.
• Created and Reviewed Business, Functional and System requirements in the form of User Stories, Business Rules and Acceptance Criteria.
• Actively participated in testing Secure File Transfer functionality.
Show less

As a Sr Business Analyst of the Enterprise Services team supporting HQR, QIO, ESRD and PQRS line of businesses for the Program Management Business Requirement (PMBR) contract. I oversaw the analysis activities for the Pre-Submission Validation Application (PSVA) Tool. PSVA is a client-side Application that provides vendors, hospitals, and providers with standardized methods for validating and submitting electronic Clinical Quality Measure (eCQM) Health Level Seven (HL7) Quality Reporting… Show more

As a Sr Business Analyst of the Enterprise Services team supporting HQR, QIO, ESRD and PQRS line of businesses for the Program Management Business Requirement (PMBR) contract. I oversaw the analysis activities for the Pre-Submission Validation Application (PSVA) Tool. PSVA is a client-side Application that provides vendors, hospitals, and providers with standardized methods for validating and submitting electronic Clinical Quality Measure (eCQM) Health Level Seven (HL7) Quality Reporting Document Architecture (QRDA) Cat 1 files.
• Subject Matter Expert for the Pre-Submission Validation Application (PSVA) Project.
• Conducted a Pilot with selected HQR HITECH vendors and hospitals to determine if PSVA is appropriate for use by Health Care Quality Information Systems (HCQIS) programs.
• Lead the Paper Reduction Act Fast Track Process for PSVA 1.0 Customer Satisfaction Survey approval.
• Engaged in Vendor outreach as well as participating in Vendor assessment calls.
• Gathered and documenting feedback from the HQR community regarding the PSVA Tool
• Lead the requirement efforts for PSVA within CMS RRMP process.
• Created User Stories, Business Rules and Acceptance Criteria for PSVA releases
• Consulted with Business SMEs to Elicit Requirements
• Aligned PSVA with the Requirements and Release Management Process (RRMP) established by ISG.
• Utilizing Software Change Form (SCF) to receive Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) and Level of Effort (LOE).
• Load/wrote User Stories, Business Rules, and Acceptance Criteria into Serena RM.
• Refined the PSVA Tool product backlog in Serena SM and leading work planning sessions.
• Met with Application Development Organization (ADO) on a weekly basis to provide insights on requirements and alleviate concerns they may have before design, during design and development.
• Assisted in creating Business Process Models for PSVA
• Lead the efforts of improving the PSVA Tool Security (DES to AES).
Show less

The nature of this project is to support the QualityNet Identity Management System (QIMS) 2.3.3 implementation (User Management and Password Management).
Responsibilities:
•Created and Updated Business, Functional and System requirements and Use Cases
•Created User Stories on the proposed functionality
•Conducted GAP analysis of QIMS 2.0 to 2.3.2 requirements.
•Facilitated and managed group requirements review session.
•Managed requirements and artifacts in appropriate… Show more

The nature of this project is to support the QualityNet Identity Management System (QIMS) 2.3.3 implementation (User Management and Password Management).
Responsibilities:
•Created and Updated Business, Functional and System requirements and Use Cases
•Created User Stories on the proposed functionality
•Conducted GAP analysis of QIMS 2.0 to 2.3.2 requirements.
•Facilitated and managed group requirements review session.
•Managed requirements and artifacts in appropriate requirements management tools (Collab tool, Serena RM, and SharePoint).
•Assured work products comply with established deliverable guidelines including format and content.
Show less

• Managed the Enrollment subject area including all Enrollment related Remedy Tickets and related requirements. Responsible for enrollment product back log of remedy tickets for MARx enrollments subject area.
• Provide support to the Technical Team in developing Functional Specifications for CRs and Data Fix Documents for Remedy Tickets. Actively participate in Data Analysis of Beneficiary issues including Overlapping enrollments, and Error messages that are generated via the MARx… Show more

• Managed the Enrollment subject area including all Enrollment related Remedy Tickets and related requirements. Responsible for enrollment product back log of remedy tickets for MARx enrollments subject area.
• Provide support to the Technical Team in developing Functional Specifications for CRs and Data Fix Documents for Remedy Tickets. Actively participate in Data Analysis of Beneficiary issues including Overlapping enrollments, and Error messages that are generated via the MARx UI.
• Participate in requirements reviews and other quality assurance activities and Provide production support, if necessary. Perform analysis and writing Functional Requirements for major and minor releases. Ensure all document goes through the entire peer review process including PPQA, 508, Review Board (if necessary) and Approval.
• Consult with MARx Enrollment Business Owner (CMS) on a Bi weekly basis and on an as need basis, presenting and reporting findings/updates on RTs or CRs. Assist in leading Enrollment meetings. Leads external reviews for Functional Requirements and System Design Walkthrough. Present requirements overview during contractors Preliminary Design Review (PDR).
• Creating lessons learned from previous release implementation. Recommending process improvement to the process improvement group.
• Implemented CRs that will help CMS adhere to legislative requirements most notably ACA Section 6402(a)-The implementation of Overpayment Rules. Lead JAD sessions, facilitated functional requirements meetings for the legislative change.
• Created presentations, diagrams, and process flows for CMS to make it easier to follow the complexity of the system changes and requirements. Created User Interface and Report Mockups for CMS approval.
• Report to the Review Board/Change Control Board when there is a change in the existing requirements, thus facilitating the change control process. Loading requirements and attachments into DOORS prior to the implementation of a release.
Show less

• Charge with the task to assist in automating test scripts in HP quick test professional 11 (QTP11).
• Test scripts automation include testing the BI portal environment and the BI Reports
• Charged with the to review and update the System Design Document for transitioning to the new contractors of MIS

This investment, funds the maintenance & operations for the Drug Data Processing System (DDPS). The primary purpose of DDPS is to collect, maintain & process information on all Medicare covered & non-covered drug events, including non-Medicare drug events, for Medicare beneficiaries participating in Part D voluntary prescription drug coverage under the Medicare program.
Responsibilities:
• Report to the Project Manager and Participate in business analysis and testing activities… Show more

This investment, funds the maintenance & operations for the Drug Data Processing System (DDPS). The primary purpose of DDPS is to collect, maintain & process information on all Medicare covered & non-covered drug events, including non-Medicare drug events, for Medicare beneficiaries participating in Part D voluntary prescription drug coverage under the Medicare program.
Responsibilities:
• Report to the Project Manager and Participate in business analysis and testing activities, developing and reviewing test plan/test script documents. Provide support in testing the system enhancements
• Provide support to the technical team in developing design documents and providing user requirement related information
• Participate in design reviews and other quality assurance activities and Provide production support, if necessary
• Wrote CR requirements and analysis for major and minor releases. Responding to and verifying CRs in eChimp.
• Organizing, leading requirements, design, and code and testing walkthroughs for current legislature such as the Affordable Care Act, more specifically Coverage Gap Discount. Verifying tester’s results in quality center.
• Perform Internal and External Data Synchronization, by accounting for every PDE record received from Palmetto from Initial receipt to IDR target table and Identifying logical inconsistencies in the incoming external data feeds
• Perform Month end validation, by assuring that month end reports present accurately the state of the data and improve delivery time
• Run SQL queries and conduct monthly analysis of Lag Report of all PDEs and present findings to CMS. Enhance Lag Report as per CPC requirements. Using the Lag Report, answered more complex questions that CMS may have.
• Consult with DDPS Business Owner (CMS) on a Bi weekly basis. Comparing approved Brand Name Drugs (via FDA Data feed/file) and Generics.
• Update the Pace Calculator allowing plans to access the most updated pace bands and threshold information
Show less

The scope of the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) project is to develop and implement a pay for performance model to improve the quality and cost effectiveness of services provided to beneficiaries. CMS is facilitating this endeavor through the collection of information about the outcome of services rendered on submitted Medicare claims that have had CPT and HCPCS Quality Data codes populated by the provider. These codes are then used to compute analytical statistics for provider… Show more

The scope of the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) project is to develop and implement a pay for performance model to improve the quality and cost effectiveness of services provided to beneficiaries. CMS is facilitating this endeavor through the collection of information about the outcome of services rendered on submitted Medicare claims that have had CPT and HCPCS Quality Data codes populated by the provider. These codes are then used to compute analytical statistics for provider feedback reports using Cognos 8 as the OLAP reporting tool. The web interface/portal portlet is based on the Aqua Logic Platform a component of the WebLogic application suite from Oracle Corp (BEA Systems Inc.).
Responsibilities:
• Work with the Cognos 8 administrator and the Project manager for requirement analysis
• Created a series of events for test scripts, created test scripts in Mercury Quality Center
• Serve as the functionality expert while actively participating in the development of test cases/scripts as part of the system testing effort
• Help organize project processes and the rigor associated with CMMI-Level 3 compliance Show less

The purpose of this project is to design, develop and implement a management information system for the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS). This project involve the design and development of a data warehouse using Informatica for the extraction, transformation and load processes and Cognos 8 as the OLAP reporting tool, while the portal interface uses BEA technologies.
Responsibilities:
• Serve as the functionality expert of the Care Transition Theme functionality and… Show more

The purpose of this project is to design, develop and implement a management information system for the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS). This project involve the design and development of a data warehouse using Informatica for the extraction, transformation and load processes and Cognos 8 as the OLAP reporting tool, while the portal interface uses BEA technologies.
Responsibilities:
• Serve as the functionality expert of the Care Transition Theme functionality and deliverables. Worked closely and interact directly with business owners and IT staff to identify, rationalize and document business requirements; then design and document practical, useful, and cost effective solutions in the form of functional specifications which become the basis for development and testing
• Lead the Care Transition Theme (CT) including working closely with other BAs and developers, work closely with business owners and IT staff to identify, rationalize and document business requirements; then design and document practical, useful, and cost effective solutions in the form of functional specifications which become the basis for development and testing.
• Undertook the tasks of creating a security matrix and report hierarchy for reports that are a part of the Care Transition Theme. Working with multiple contractors on this project, I logged all requirements issues pertaining to the Care Transition Theme and submitted issue logs for clarity.
• Created test cases and scripts for the Care Transition Theme as well as creating test data for testing MIS reports. Worked with the team functional lead to communicate project status and issues that arises, manage work load and assist with defining and prioritizing project tasks. Show less

• Support Outlooksoft and Utilities International Planner for Finance and Accounting Dept Finance section. Routine maintenance of systems and documenting process flows, maintaining user guides, and other process documentation.
• Loading of Actuals on a weekly basis ensuring that OutlookSoft and the Business Objects XI report tied out. Discrepancies and variances were analyzed to locate what projects and intersections were causing the imbalances. Updated Hierarchy Tracker to ensure Child and… Show more

• Support Outlooksoft and Utilities International Planner for Finance and Accounting Dept Finance section. Routine maintenance of systems and documenting process flows, maintaining user guides, and other process documentation.
• Loading of Actuals on a weekly basis ensuring that OutlookSoft and the Business Objects XI report tied out. Discrepancies and variances were analyzed to locate what projects and intersections were causing the imbalances. Updated Hierarchy Tracker to ensure Child and Parent projects were added to OutlookSoft Dimension files and remapped in Pyxis for weekend processing.
• Performs and/or coordinates task assignments within team in support of production projects as directed. Runs budget reports and performs other duties to support the smooth operation of financial systems and Sarbanes-Oxley controls.
• Supports Oracle Financials by adding new projects to the database and other maintenance tasks; running routine reports, etc.
• As a member of a cross functional team met with SMEs to clarify issues pertaining to the envisioned system. Researched long-term Portfolio Planning and Prioritization Systems for Utility and potential vendors that has the ability to integrate with other solutions such as Maximo.
• Help create Requirement Traceability Matrix. Creating Demo Scripts, Functional and Technical Requirements using Accenture Templates and RFPs for technical and service specification, Data collection Key Metrics, and detail learning plan.
• Manage and lead vendor research and meetings of research finding based on BGE criteria, which includes Long Term Planning and Prioritization, Resource Allocation, Support for Multi-tiered Project Hierarchies, Market Presence, and Integration and Architecture.
Show less