Kari Ziegler

Current

Owner at Gather Wine Bar

Past

QA Manager at LEVEL Studios
QA Manager at Web Associates
QA Lead at TrueCredit.com

QA Lead at TransUnion
QA Lead at EnerNOC
QA at GTECH Corporation
QA Lead/Manager at Context Media
QA Director at Student Advantage
QA Manager at iCAST
QA Manager at CMGi
QA Manager at ZineZone
QA Manager at EnvoyWorldWide
QA Manager at MessageBlaster
Senior QA Engineer at Cisco WebEx
Senior QA Engineer at Intranetics
QA Lead - Needham, MA office at AOL
QA Engineer at America Online
QA Engineer at ChildPlus
Communications Engineer at United Cerebral Palsy

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500+ connections

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Kari Ziegler’s Summary

Kari brings over 12 years of software experience to Level Studios (Formally Web Associates), with the last 6 years focused on creating and developing Company-wide quality processes, practices and teams in companies that varied from small privately owned start-ups to publicly owned Fortune 500 companies. In 1996, Kari was a founding member of the first AOL Instant Messenger QA team, where she started her practice of tracking test plans, tests and metrics in a database environment. From 2000-2006, Kari built, managed and directed teams for both US and Globally based companies such as CMGi, Student Advantage, GTECH, and TransUnion / TrueCredit. Kari's experience in financial, service based, entertainment and content management software has proven priceless to the companies she has worked for in the past.

Kari Ziegler’s Specialties:

CSQE Certified

Kari Ziegler’s Experience

Owner

Gather Wine Bar

(Restaurants industry)

August 2008 — Present (1 year 4 months)
QA Manager

LEVEL Studios

(Marketing and Advertising industry)

September 2008 — February 2009 (6 months)

LEVEL Studios is an independent digital agency that amplifies global brands by innovating desktop, web and mobile environments. Founded in 1995 as Web Associates, the agency now operates three California studios specializing in user experience, digital media and application development.

Helped institute key systems and processes including but not limited to:
- Company Wiki
- Issue tracking process
- 3rd party test teams
QA Manager

Web Associates

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

September 2006 — September 2008 (2 years 1 month)

* Created and maintained repeatable processes for bug tracking, test case writing and launch management.
* Increased throughput by working successfully with outsourced testing.
* Guided group from 30% Billable to over 65% billable within first year
* Increased revenue by nearly 90% in first year, and 50% to over 1mill in revenue the following year through staffing, education, and optimization
QA Lead

TrueCredit.com

(Internet industry)

May 2005 — July 2006 (1 year 3 months)

Centralized QA group and formalized QA processes, as well as lowered emergency releases from twice weekly to less than once a month by:
o Installing and utilizing HP Quality Center and Test Director to track test case writing and running
o Managed test staff outside of project structure to QA standards goals
o Created regular Monthly release plans for both Engineering and QA
o Increased QA participation in requirements review for new functionality and maintenance releases
QA Lead

TransUnion

(Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Financial Services industry)

2005 — 2006 (1 year )

Employed for TrueCredit.com which was owned by Transunion.
QA Lead

EnerNOC

(Public Company; 51-200 employees; ENOC; Oil & Energy industry)

2004 — 2005 (1 year )

Responsible for creating QA effort, including but not limited to:
o Creating team requirements and hiring new QA staff
o Finding and implementing Defect Tracking system
o Creating and implementing test plans
o Creating test cases and test case database using php and mysql
o Reporting test results
o Redesigning UI look and feel for entire application suite
o Writing product requirements and creating UI mockups.
QA

GTECH Corporation

(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; GTK; Information Technology and Services industry)

2003 — 2004 (1 year )

Lead new Product QA effort during initial productization phase of GTECH's current Java/J2EE Lottery offering. With the development team using RUP, designed QA process to review steps in the development process, including but not limited to:
o Created Quality Plan during Inception phase to define all QA processes, procedures and artifacts.
o Created test case matrices to ensure proper coverage beyond the written use case documents during the Elaboration phase.
o Worked with Mercury Test Director, designed Test Case, Test Run and Reporting methodologies to be shared across all products during the Construction phase that are reviewed and audited throughout the development lifecycle.
o Trained staff made up of Contractors and Full time staff on RUP process and methodologies that the team would be using.
o Organized and managed all QA documentation for 17 product releases in Documentum.
QA Lead/Manager

Context Media

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)

2002 — 2003 (1 year )

Organized QA effort for release of:
o Unix/J2EE/Weblogic 7.0 based content management system
o Windows based portal to Unix based content management system.
o Java Swing data management client.By creating test case repository, acquiring bug tracking software, tracking feature requests and UI issues. Created over 3000 test cases for the content management software package and automated reporting process.
o Managed release process using branching in CVS on a Solaris based system.- Organized outside testing staff to run through over 3000 test cases.
o Creating scaling and prioritization methodolgies for the company, organized bug tracking and monitored developer's code.
o Managed development group while search for permanent manager was ongoing.
QA Director

Student Advantage

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; STAD; Marketing and Advertising industry)

2000 — 2001 (1 year )

Recruited to coordinate, establish, and assemble Quality Assurance department supporting firm’s first Linux and Java web development efforts. Created testing and quality assurance procedures, as well as workflow scheduling and development release processes.
Key Achievements:
o Identified value, presented argument, and successfully awarded opportunity to develop and manage QA department.
o Successfully implemented prioritization and bug tracking systems and processes, testing metrics, tracking database, and testing lab environment.
o Directed release and maintenance of site resulting in significantly improved functionality and usability compared to releases prior to formal QA procedures.
o Provided extensive planning, analysis, and project management services to ensure timely product launch and productive, motivated development workforce.
o Worked directly with multi-functional teams to determine requirements, assess project scope, and develop QA budget.
QA Manager

iCAST

(Internet industry)

1999 — 2000 (1 year )

Directed QA processes and established key Product Management initiatives to streamline development and workflow. Created and managed QA resources for iCASTer Messaging and Media development, training and maintaining staff resources, and reporting project status to upper management.
Key Achievements:
o Assisted CEO and PR executives with research for legal issues concerning AOL proprietary messaging system.
o Managed all stages of Land Your Band project, maintaining project budget of $2 million.
o Restructured project management efforts, consolidating and restructuring open projects to improve response and development.
o Participated in training CEO of parent company in corporate product offerings for use in national presentations and conventions.
o Completely restructured QA departments and procedures to include thorough planning, documentation, testing, and review to ensure timely and fully-functional products
QA Manager

CMGi

(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; CMGI; Internet industry)

1999 — 2000 (1 year )

Employed at iCAST, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMGI
QA Manager

ZineZone

(Internet industry)

1999 — 2000 (1 year )

ZineZone was renamed and migrated into the company iCAST.
QA Manager

EnvoyWorldWide

(Internet industry)

1998 — 1999 (1 year )
QA Manager

MessageBlaster

(Internet industry)

1998 — 1999 (1 year )
Senior QA Engineer

Cisco WebEx

(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; webx; Computer Software industry)

December 1997 — April 1999 (1 year 5 months)

Intranetics became Intranets.com and then Cisco WebexOne - see Intranetics work for information.
Senior QA Engineer

Intranetics

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

1997 — 1999 (2 years )

Led company-wide initiative to implement automated testing system, working directly with Automation Lead to create architecture, test case database, and formal testing for all projects.

Key Achievements:
o Automated over 200 test cases, automating over 20% of manual processes.
o Directed company’s first online training videos, supervising third-party production firm in development, while managing schedule and producing final video release.
o Test case database improved tracking of employee testing procedures
QA Lead - Needham, MA office

AOL

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; TWX; Internet industry)

September 1996 — January 1998 (1 year 5 months)

Participated in QA activities for AOL Instant Messenger 1.0 and 1.5 for Macintosh and Windows, creating test plans, orchestrating test plan automation, and prioritizing bug corrections. Coordinated engineering responses to bug reports and feature requests. Served on AOL 3.0 and 4.0 browser teams, authoring HTML test plans, executing test passes, and coordinating tasks with management and developers, including UI, JavaScript, and security teams.

Key Achievements:
o Served lead role on Macintosh AIM 1.0-1.5 QA team, previewing project four months ahead of schedule, with limited programming and QA resources.
o Gained thorough understanding of QA fundamentals and processes.
o Authored and implemented over 1000 test cases in numerous capacities.
o Initiated use of existing Access test case database for production.
o Created and implemented firm’s first security test plan for AOL embedded web browser.
QA Engineer

America Online

(Public Company; Internet industry)

1996 — 1998 (2 years )
QA Engineer

ChildPlus

(Internet industry)

1994 — 1996 (2 years )

Established firm’s first QA system, based on internal FoxPro bug tracking database. Created beta launch schedule, and verified and supported current software builds before beta releases.

Key Achievements:
o Implemented technical support call center operations, including call tracking, queue timing, and staffing, decreasing response time from up to four days to within two to three hours.
o Served as corporate representative at state and regional conventions and trade shows.
o Provided cross-country training to management and parents on use of products.
o Released Macintosh port of software offering in record development time.
Communications Engineer

United Cerebral Palsy

(Internet industry)

1992 — 1994 (2 years )

Additional Information

Kari Ziegler’s Groups:

ASQ

AOLAlumni
Women 2.0
280 Group: Product Management & Product Marketing
Student Advantage Alumni Network
Taylor University Alum
Winefellow
Red Sox Nation
Wines & Spirits (Number 1 W&S group on Linked)
ThoseinMedia
QA Engineer Community
----- The Startups & Societal Ventures Network ----- Innovating more effectively
Wine Business Network
Software Testing & Quality Assurance
San Luis Obispo EVC
Women & Wine
Business Process Improvement
QA/Testing
User Experience
Quality Assurance Discussion Group
SQAforums
AOL CONNECTIONS
Web Standards Design + Development
Sustainable Brands
QA & Testing Group
Wine2.0
brandhackers
CMGi Alumni
Intranets.com Alumni
GrapeRadio (Wine Talk) Listeners Group
Wine Connections
Web Leaders Mastermind
QAGuild Network
Idealab etc.
GTECH Alumni
iCast Alumni
TransUnion Alumni