Functional Architect FA1 A4 SC1 - American Technology Consulting

This request is issued from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Office ofAdministration’s Office of Information Technology (OA/OIT). The position willhave a reporting relationship to the Health and Human Service Delivery Center(HHSDC) within the OAOIT and the Pennsylvania Department of Health (PADOH)Quality Assurance (QA) Office.BACKGROUND/PROBLEM STATEMENTOQA needs a senior functional architect to provide production & operationalsupport, release management and user support for QA’s SAIS COTS and otherapplications. Below is the list of OQA’s application the resource will support:• Survey Agency Information System (SAIS) Web Applications• Survey Agency Information System (SAIS) Windows Applications• Enterprise Licensing System (ELS) Project (SAIS Replacement)• Automated Survey Processing Environment (ASPEN) Windows applications• Internet Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (iQIES) Web Applications• Drug, Device and Cosmetic (DD&C)• Hearing Aid Inspection (HAI)• Indoor Tanning (IDT)• Act 128 - Temporary Health Care Services Agencies - THCSAThis position involves working and coordinating with several teams including butnot limited to – HHSDC network, desktop, security, Business Relations, executiveleadership, PMO, QA program and vendors. Excellent written and verbalcommunication skills are essential for this position.INCURRING COSTSThe Commonwealth is not responsible for any costs or expenses incurred by thecontractor for parking.RESOURCESThis assignment location is subject to change in accordance with theCommonwealth’s COVID-19 response plans. Office space for the contractor will beprovided by the HHSDC as needed. The contractor will be required to report to adesignated commonwealth building, as requested, for in-person meetings and/orwork assignments. In addition, the PADOH will supply all necessary hardware andsoftware, for daily use as needed to complete assigned work items.OBJECTIVES OF ENGAGEMENTThe primary objective of this engagement is to provide functional, operational,basic technical support, and first level triage of tickets raised by theprogram. Additionally, this resource will work with vendors and QA technicallead to plan and execute software releases for the OQA’s applications.OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTSGenerally, the contractor will perform the following tasks:• Coordinate with stakeholder teams across business and technical units toprovide support to all OQA’s applications• Provides daily production support, conduct initial/first level triage of thetickets and issues reported by various teams. Coordinate with the OQA’Stechnical lead in resolving the issues. Additionally, redirect the tickets asappropriate to other teams, as necessary for the QA applications.• Act as a Functional SME for all QA applications.• Act as a release manager for the QA applications. This involves, coordinatesapplication deployments/changes working with QA program and managers. Suchchanges include downloading the release software from the vendor location,versioning the changes, create tasks in Azure DevOps, work with HHSDC databaseand web teams to complete deployment. Also notifies the appropriate manager(s)when these actions are taken.• Works with ADA to create a plan, prepare responses to the change control boardquestionnaire, prepare CCB addendum for each migration to test and productionenvironments.• Work with QA technical SME to plan, coordinate and collect businessrequirements for the legacy QA applications that require technology refresh.Work with the program and other stakeholders to plan platform migration, createtest cases, conduct acceptance testing and support production deployment.• Understand the QA’s business so that the incoming tickets/requests can beprioritized and processed in the order they are received and according to thecriticality/severity of the issue.• Review all deliverables submitted by the vendors, work with program and ITteams to plan testing/testing schedules, identify windows for code deploymentduring testing and coordinate production deployment.• Ability and proven experience in coordinating large scale technicalimplementations/upgrades across large teams consisting of 300 + users – such asand not limited to – server upgrades, server migrations, system softwareupgrades, custom software upgrades on both central servers and client desktopsspanning across Commonwealth locations.• Maintain technical and user documentation relative to Information Technologyrequirements for QA applications as needed• Work with ITM and ADA to create reminders, create HH IT Communication messagefor emergency and planned outages.• Proactively identify issues that could impact QA’s business and address them• Identify risks, work with all stakeholders to identify mitigation strategy andaddress them.• Demonstrates effective communication abilities.• Basic understanding of Microsoft technology – such as - .NET Framework,ASP.NET, VB.NET, IIS, Oracle, SQL Server is required• Work experience required in using, managing, and organizing work items, workitem assignment, updating the Epics, User Stories, Tasks and Bugs in AzureDevOps.• Gain QA’s business knowledge quickly and frequently follow updates publishedin CMS Govt website. Gather details relevant/that could impact QA applications,work with concerned teams and stake holders to update the applications as perthe CMS updates/guidelines.• Manages expectations of the program by providing timely feedback and statusupdates on work assignments.• Maintains and shares operational documentation in a consistent and organizedmanner.• Frequent migration of the application and maintenance support during offbusiness hours or weekends.CONTRACTOR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTSThis position requires a high degree of business and technical knowledge, skill,leadership, dedication, and ability to take initiative. Ability to ramp upquickly and perform independently is essential. Familiarity and experience withthe QA is considered important.Technical skills required are:• 5 + years of experience with foundational understating in programminglanguages – VB.Net, C#, Visual Basic, Classic ASP, .Net Framework versions andIIS is required.• 5 + years of experience with foundational understanding in Relationaldatabases – Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL is required. Hands on experience writingand executing complex SQL queries and understanding database functions, storedprocedures, views, and data models is required.• Ability to triage and provided first level of technical support when troubleshooting issues.• Basic knowledge of operating systems, specifically Microsoft desktop andserver OS is required.• Familiarization with software development methodologies including AgileDevelopment, DevOps, Waterfall, and Rapid application development is required.• Conduct and coordinate manual testing, ability to understand automated testscripts and have fundamental knowledge of automated testing.Functional skills required are:• 5 + years of experience in working with large group of stakeholders, timelycoordination with stakeholders in troubleshoot issues and devising solutions tothe problems. This includes evaluating problems, determining solutions(s),presenting benefits and drawbacks to each approach, and predicting outcomes.• Strong research skills including not limited to – asking right questions,gathering relevant information from appropriate resources, developinghypothesis, and writing comprehensive reports and documents.• Strong documentation skills and experience working with system documentation,user documentation, process documentation, source code documentation isrequired. Additionally, ability to review documentation provided by the vendorincluding but not limited to Change Request Forms, Release schedule andtimelines, test plans and other deliverables is required.• Strong communication skills, and act as liaison between technical andnon-technical teams with proven experience communicating complex and technicalconcepts in ways that are easy to understand for non-technical teams members isrequired.