Abel Talaveron - BAU Delivery Manager

Q: Where is Abel based?

Abel is based in Sitges, United Kingdom and prefers 100% remote projects.

Q: What languages does Abel speak?

Abel speaks the following languages: English (Native), Spanish (Native) .

Q: How many years of experience does Abel have?

Abel has at least 22 years of experience. During this time, Abel has worked in at least 11 different roles and for 8 different companies . The average length of individual experience is 2 years . Note that Abel may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

Q: What is Abel's latest experience?

Abel's most recent position is BAU Delivery Manager – Pega at Virgin Media O2 UK – Merkle .

Q: What companies has Abel worked for in recent years?

In recent years, Abel has worked for Virgin Media O2 UK – Merkle and Verizon Wireless USA – Merkle .

Q: Which industries is Abel most experienced in?

Abel is most experienced in industries like Information Technology (IT) , Telecommunication , and Professional Services . Abel also has some experience in Media, Entertainment and Publishing , Pharmaceutical , and Food and Beverage .

Q: Which business areas is Abel most experienced in?

Abel is most experienced in business areas like Quality Assurance (QA) , Information Technology (IT) , and Project Management . Abel also has some experience in Customer Service , Sales , and Operations .

Q: Which industries has Abel worked in recently?

Abel has recently worked in industries like Telecommunication and Information Technology (IT) .

Q: Which business areas has Abel worked in recently?

Abel has recently worked in business areas like Information Technology (IT) , Quality Assurance (QA) , and Project Management .

Recommended expert

Sitges, United Kingdom

Experience

Aug 2024 - Present

1 year 7 months

United Kingdom

BAU Delivery Manager – Pega

Virgin Media O2 UK – Merkle

Responsible for the delivery of Pega BAU Marketing releases.
Releases are set as 2 weeks sprints, where the whole Software Development Lifecycle is performed.
Working with a team of 3 Product Owners, 2 Dev Leads from a team of 20 developers and 2 Test Leads from a team of 10 Test Analysts.
Once solutions were delivered, the team also managed Change Requests as part of the Operations workstream.
Continuous Improvement activities are key like retrospectives, knowledge sharing sessions, peer reviews, lessons learned, etc.

Mar 2024 - Present

2 years

United Kingdom

Test Manager – Braze

Virgin Media O2 UK – Merkle

Migration of the Decisioning platform from Pega to Braze engine.
As the Braze Test Manager, my goal is to ensure a smooth transition where marketing campaigns stop working in Pega and start happening in Braze without any customer impact.
Mainly responsible for requirements analysis and support to the Product Owners, as well as ensuring that the 2 Test Analysts in the team have the tools they need to design and execute the required testing activities.
Engaged in the Early Live Support phase where data is reconciled in reports that confirm that the overall goal is met and migration and transition activities are complete.

Jun 2020 - Present

5 years 9 months

United Kingdom

Test Manager – Pega

Virgin Media O2 UK – Merkle

Pega Marketing implementation of an inbound and outbound omnichannel solution for a 1:1 customer personalisation covering 6 inbound and 10+ outbound channels. The program goal is to migrate from the as-is solution with Chordiant and Unica to a centralised Pega solution.
As the Pega Test Manager, responsible for Unit Test and System Test of the solution being delivered.
Supporting the client on SIT, UAT, e2e and Operations activities.
Also managing Performance Test of the platform.
Review and assess User Stories that drive the acceptance criteria of the solution to be deployed to Production.
Send weekly reports of test project status to the program directors.
Leading a team of 8 Test Engineers, based in Europe and India, and working remotely from home.
Running daily scrums to manage progress of the team towards deadlines and milestones.
Environment: Agile, Jira Agile Process Management, Pega Marketing 8.5, English.

Jun 2017 - Aug 2018

1 year 3 months

SAP Project Manager

Bacardi – Edelway

When the 2 projects in which I was the Test Manager went Live, I was responsible for the support phase as Change Manager. Right after that, Bacardi was happy with my management skills and re-purposed me as Project Manager.
Project Manager assigned to all 7 international projects within a new programme. Programme goal is to meet the legal requirements from different countries with different scope, timelines and resources. Some are delivered in-house, whilst some others are outsourced with different vendors.
Responsible for delivering on time and meeting the business needs whilst ensuring project budget is not exceeded.
Engaged at the very beginning of the projects, so from analysis phase all the way through design, build, test, Go Live and support.
Present bi-weekly status reports to Directors and PMOs.
Environment: SAP FI, SD, PO, Microsoft Project, HP ALM, English.

Oct 2016 - May 2017

8 months

SAP Test Manager

Bacardi – Edelway

Test Manager assigned to 2 international projects. First project’s goal is to optimize the financial tax duty for all the purchases and sales worldwide. Second project is a migration from SAP PI interfaces to SAP PO.
Responsible for SIT and coordinator of UAT, with the use of HP ALM, impacting 20+ countries and 80+ users.
Regression testing managed in the pre-production environment and executed automatically in HP UFT integrated with HP ALM.
Environment: SAP FI, SD, PI, PO, HP ALM, HP UFT, English.

Oct 2014 - Oct 2021

7 years 1 month

United States

Business Test Lead / Test Manager

Verizon Wireless USA – Merkle

As Business Test Lead, responsible for Program Test Process Improvement focused on the business side.
UAT Business Testing Advisor to facilitate the understanding of the UAT testing approach and scope.
Encourage high quality Unit and SIT phases to enable a smooth UAT leveraging business confidence on the final product.
Agile Testing Methodology used.
Guidance to the business stakeholders to ensure that the user stories are defined in the right manner.
Integration between HP ALM and Jira Agile Process Management to track new requirements in the form of user stories and Operations activities in the form of HP ALM defects and/or impacted user stories.
As Test Manager, responsible for the whole test lifecycle of a new project started in December 2017.
Environment: Agile, HP ALM, Jira Agile Process Management, qTest, Fitnesse, Pega NBAA, English.

Sep 2014 - Oct 2016

2 years 2 months

Associate Product Manager

Grifols / Cinfa / Kern – Serial Testers

HP ALM 11.52 – Application Lifecycle Management adapted to the Pharma industry. Implementation and workflow customization by using project templates and HP ALM APIs like OTA and REST. Adapt to FDA and ISO 13485 standards.
HP QC 10.0 to HP ALM 11.52 migration process definition both for existing projects data and for new projects workflow functionality.
Customer trainings to be conducted.
Environment: HP Quality Center 10.0, HP ALM 11.52, Jira.

Jan 2014 - Jul 2014

7 months

Customer Solutions Test Manager

Colt Technology Services

As a Test Manager across different projects: ensure that IT, Networking and Communications solutions provided to the customer are meeting their expectations.
Accountable for Test Estimation, definition of Test Strategy and Test Plan, Resource management, Test Project Management, Risk Based Management with the use of ITIL Framework.
Responsible for Test Reports and meetings with the stakeholders and the customer to assure a smooth transition from solution delivery to operations management.
Diversified and complex solutions with a mix of virtualized environments (VMware vSphere, vCloud, vCenter…), Disaster Recovery backups, VoIP solutions, communications…
Environment: HP ALM Quality Center, HP LoadRunner, Service Now, Siebel, English.

Aug 2010 - Jan 2014

3 years 6 months

Test Team Lead / Test Manager

Comet Global Consulting

For Verizon Wireless (US): as a Test Manager for different projects: define overall Master Test Plan including Unit Testing, SIT, UAT, Performance and Early Live testing, work together with both the client and the test team to make sure business expectations are met, test process management, test procedure approach and strategy definition.
For BSkyB: as a Test Team Lead: estimate effort, allocate and mitigate risks, analyse business requirements.
Defect management.
Status reports.
Leading conferences.
Resource management.
Environment: HP Quality Center, Fitnesse, Chordiant CRM, Oracle Database, Batch testing, Data testing, Pega PRPC NBAA CRM, English.

Nov 2006 - Aug 2010

3 years 10 months

Test Lead / SQA Specialist

Sogeti (Group Capgemini)

Functional testing: web and SOA webservices testing. Clients: Telefonica, Aigües de Barcelona, Panda.
Automation testing: design automation scripts. Environments: HP QuickTest Pro, Borland SilkTest, VBScript.
Performance testing: run project e2e. Understand business needs, define strategy and scenarios, set up environment, execute performance tests, analyse results and elaborate and present final report with recommendations. Environments: HP LoadRunner, Borland SilkPerformer, Oracle Load Testing, JMeter.
SAP testing: gather company key business processes, elaborate test scripts and manage their execution. Drive encountered issues to resolution. Clients: Diputació de Barcelona, Iberdrola, Cadbury. Modules: MM, SD, PP, PS, FICO, HR…
Study, proof of concept and decision of a Test Management Tool. Client: Grifols. Environment: HP Quality Center, Borland SilkCentral Test Manager, IBM Quality Manager.
HP Quality Center implementation. Installation, customization and training. Client: Grifols. Environment: Windows 2003 Server, SAP, Oracle DB, VBScript.
Study, proof of concept and decision of an automation tool. Environment: Borland SilkTest, HP QuickTest Pro, IBM Functional Tester, CompuWare TestPartner.
Design and customization of a defect management tool. Environment: Linux, Mantis Bugtracker, Apache, MySQL.
Technical proposal for a suitable Static Code Analysis tool. Environment: CAST Application Intelligence Platform, ParaSoft JTest + .Test, OptiMyth checKing, PMD, .NET, Visual Basic.

Apr 2004 - Nov 2006

2 years 8 months

Analyst – Security appliance implementation

OpenWired

Working in the security department. Development of IT servers, configuration and administration (HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, POP3, SMTP, Webmail, DNS, DHCP, SAMBA, NFS, Proxies and shared agenda) in a UNIX environment.
Development using Open Source security tools (OSS), Bash, PHP, JavaScript, MySQL and Java.
In addition to the developer role, involved in training courses, dealing with customers, pre-sales, device installation, and post-sales support.

Industries Experience

See where this freelancer has spent most of their professional time. Longer bars indicate deeper hands-on experience, while shorter ones reflect targeted or project-based work.

Experienced in Information Technology (18 years), Telecommunication (15.5 years), Professional Services (4 years), Media and Entertainment (3.5 years), Food and Beverage (2 years), and Pharmaceutical (2 years).

Information Technology

Telecommunication

Professional Services

Media and Entertainment

Food and Beverage

Pharmaceutical

Business Areas Experience

The graph below provides a cumulative view of the freelancer's experience across multiple business areas, calculated from completed and active engagements. It highlights the areas where the freelancer has most frequently contributed to planning, execution, and delivery of business outcomes.

Experienced in Quality Assurance (19 years), Information Technology (18.5 years), Project Management (11 years), Customer Service (2.5 years), Sales (2.5 years), and Operations (1.5 years).

Quality Assurance

Information Technology

Project Management

Customer Service

Sales

Operations

Summary

Test and QA expert. My goal is to satisfy the IT needs by delivering the best value to the business. A very business oriented consultant with many years of technical background, which facilitates the ability to smoothly deliver value to the client.

Managing teams, both for test and delivery, is what I do on a daily basis. My goal is to get the best from every team member while making sure project tasks are properly planned, implemented, tested and delivered.

Experienced in defining and implementing testing processes, writing business reports, technical proposals, risk analysis, effort estimation, leading teams, requirements analysis, defect management and QA tools evaluation and implementation.

Reporting to Director level within the organisation.

Certified in TMap methodology and used to work in a structural manner.

Skills

Database Platforms: Oracle, Sql Server, My Sql
Programming Languages: Vbscript, C, Java, Assembler, Html, Xml, Php, Javascript, Perl, Ksh
Operating Systems: Windows, Ms Dos, Unix: Linux & Bsd
Qa Tools: Hp Quality Center / Alm, Hp Quicktest Pro / Uft, Hp Loadrunner, Hp Qainspect, Hp Webinspect, Borland Silktest, Borland Silkperformer, Borland Silkcentral Test Management, Ibm Rational Functional Tester, Ibm Rational Performance Tester, Ibm Quality Manager, Ibm Rational Appscan, Oracle Functional Testing, Oracle Openscript, Oracle Load Test, Oracle Test Manager, Oracle Real Application Testing, Oracle Real User Experience Insight, Oracle Data Masking, Microsoft Visual Studio Test Management, Compuware Testpartner, Mantis Bugtracker, Trac, Glpi, Salome Tmf, Testlink, Jira
Office: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Project And Visio

Languages

English

Native

Spanish

Native

Education

Bachelor Telecom Degree · Telecom

Certifications & licenses

ITILv3 Foundation Certified (IT Service Management)

EXIN

TMap Certified (Testing Methodology)

EXIN

Profile

Created

December 2024

Last Update

December 2025

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Frequently asked questions

Do you have questions? Here you can find further information.

Where is Abel based?

Abel is based in Sitges, United Kingdom and prefers 100% remote projects.

What languages does Abel speak?

Abel speaks the following languages: English (Native), Spanish (Native).

How many years of experience does Abel have?

Abel has at least 22 years of experience. During this time, Abel has worked in at least 11 different roles and for 8 different companies. The average length of individual experience is 2 years. Note that Abel may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

What roles would Abel be best suited for?

Based on recent experience, Abel would be well-suited for roles such as: BAU Delivery Manager – Pega, Test Manager – Braze, Test Manager – Pega.

What is Abel's latest experience?

Abel's most recent position is BAU Delivery Manager – Pega at Virgin Media O2 UK – Merkle.

What companies has Abel worked for in recent years?

In recent years, Abel has worked for Virgin Media O2 UK – Merkle and Verizon Wireless USA – Merkle.

Which industries is Abel most experienced in?

Abel is most experienced in industries like Information Technology (IT), Telecommunication, and Professional Services. Abel also has some experience in Media, Entertainment and Publishing, Pharmaceutical, and Food and Beverage.

Which business areas is Abel most experienced in?

Abel is most experienced in business areas like Quality Assurance (QA), Information Technology (IT), and Project Management. Abel also has some experience in Customer Service, Sales, and Operations.

Which industries has Abel worked in recently?

Abel has recently worked in industries like Telecommunication and Information Technology (IT).

Which business areas has Abel worked in recently?

Abel has recently worked in business areas like Information Technology (IT), Quality Assurance (QA), and Project Management.

What is Abel's education?

Abel holds a Bachelor in Telecom.

Does Abel have any certificates?

Abel has 2 certificates. These include: ITILv3 Foundation Certified (IT Service Management) and TMap Certified (Testing Methodology).

What is the availability of Abel?

Abel is immediately available for suitable projects.

What is the rate of Abel?

Abel's rate depends on the specific project requirements. Please use the Meet button on the profile to schedule a meeting and discuss the details.