Senior Business Analyst • UAT Analyst • Financial Services Technology

Karina Herrera

I help business, technology, QA, and operations teams turn complex needs into clear requirements, workflows, user stories, acceptance criteria, traceability, and release-ready UAT outcomes.

Worcester, MA • wkh102301@gmail.com • linkedin.com/in/wkarinaherrera

Professional Overview

Senior Business Analyst and UAT Analyst with 20+ years of experience in financial services and enterprise technology environments. Proven background in requirements elicitation, functional documentation, user acceptance testing, gap analysis, process improvement, requirements traceability, defect lifecycle management, and release readiness.

Known for bridging business and technology teams, clarifying ambiguity, documenting current-state and future-state needs, and ensuring that requirements are understandable, testable, and aligned to the business problem.

Quick Snapshot

20+ yrs
Business analysis, QA/UAT, delivery, and enterprise technology experience

Fortune 500
State Street Global Markets Technology, Fidelity Investments, and other enterprise environments

Remote-ready
Strong written communication, documentation discipline, and cross-functional collaboration

Core Expertise

Requirements Elicitation Business & Functional Requirements User Stories Acceptance Criteria Current/Future-State Analysis Process Mapping Workflow Documentation Requirements Traceability UAT Planning & Execution Test Scenarios & Test Cases Defect Triage & Retesting Release Readiness Agile/Scrum Delivery Backlog Refinement Data Validation Stakeholder Facilitation

Representative Portfolio Samples

These are sanitized, representative examples based on the type of work I have performed in enterprise and regulated environments. No confidential employer, client, system, or proprietary information is included.

1. Requirements Discovery & Documentation Package

Scenario: Enterprise financial services platform enhancement requiring stakeholder alignment across business, technology, QA, and operations.

Representative deliverables:

  • Business requirements and functional requirements
  • User stories and acceptance criteria
  • Current-state / future-state analysis
  • Open questions, assumptions, dependencies, and risks log
  • Requirements traceability matrix from business need through UAT

2. UAT Planning, Execution & Release Readiness

Scenario: Mission-critical financial application requiring structured UAT, defect management, retesting, and go/no-go readiness.

Representative deliverables:

  • UAT test plan and test execution approach
  • Test scenarios mapped to requirements and acceptance criteria
  • Defect log, triage notes, and retesting status
  • Release readiness summary and implementation support notes

3. Workflow & Process Improvement Analysis

Scenario: Manual business process with gaps, handoff issues, reporting inconsistencies, and operational risk.

Representative deliverables:

  • Process intake summary and stakeholder needs analysis
  • Workflow map showing current-state pain points
  • Future-state workflow and recommended control points
  • Impact analysis across users, systems, training, and reporting

4. Agile Backlog & User Story Readiness

Scenario: Large business need decomposed into smaller, actionable work items for development and testing.

Representative deliverables:

  • Epic-to-feature-to-user-story decomposition
  • Acceptance criteria written for testability
  • Backlog refinement notes and decision log
  • Dependency and risk tracking for delivery teams

5. Legal Documentation & Case Workflow Support

Scenario: Pro bono documentation and program coordination support involving complex timelines, exhibits, procedural events, stakeholder communication, and bilingual documentation needs.

Transferable BA value: This work demonstrates disciplined information organization, requirements-style traceability, issue tracking, timeline creation, document version control, stakeholder communication, bilingual translation, and the ability to structure complex facts into clear, usable documentation.

Selected Experience Highlights

Fidelity Investments

Senior Systems Analyst / Business Analyst

  • Elicited, analyzed, refined, and documented business and functional requirements for enterprise institutional client platforms.
  • Created user stories, functional specifications, acceptance criteria, and requirements traceability matrices.
  • Supported UAT, defect tracking, issue follow-up, release readiness, backlog refinement, sprint planning, and documentation in JIRA and Confluence.

State Street Global Markets Technology

Assistant Vice President — Project Manager / Business Analyst

  • Led requirements, gap analysis, documentation, stakeholder facilitation, UAT readiness, and implementation support for enterprise trading and risk platforms.
  • Supported global rollout of Direct Market Access and Smart Order Routing platforms across North America, Europe, and Asia.
  • Improved operational throughput, execution speed, and release quality for high-availability financial technology platforms.

State Street Global Markets Technology

Assistant Vice President — QA Lead Analyst

  • Developed enterprise UAT and QA strategies, test plans, test scenarios, and reusable test case frameworks.
  • Managed defect lifecycle, triage, validation, retesting, and production readiness using ClearQuest and HP ALM/Quality Center.
  • Performed SQL data validation and root cause analysis to support defect resolution and release quality.

Program, Legal Documentation & Operations Work

Program Coordination / Documentation / Process Analysis

  • Created structured documentation, workflows, evaluation frameworks, correspondence, and requirements-style packages.
  • Maintained continuous professional practice in documentation, analysis, stakeholder communication, and process coordination.
  • Supported bilingual communication and complex stakeholder needs across business, legal, educational, and community settings.

Tools & Technologies

JIRA Confluence HP ALM / Quality Center ClearQuest SQL API Testing MS Project Visio SharePoint Excel Agile Boards

Education & Languages

B.S. Management Information Systems
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

B.A. Communications • B.A. French Literature
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian

Contact

I am available for remote Senior Business Analyst, Business Systems Analyst, UAT Analyst, QA/UAT Lead, and related roles requiring strong requirements, documentation, stakeholder facilitation, and delivery support.

Email: wkh102301@gmail.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/wkarinaherrera

Portfolio note: Prior employer work involved confidential enterprise systems. This portfolio uses sanitized, representative examples to show the type of analysis, documentation, UAT, and delivery work performed.