Graduates' Profiles

Kathryn Curphey

Business Technology Consultant

Degree Business Information Technology BSc Hons (Sandwich course)
University Bournemouth
Date joined May 2006
Scheme Technology
 

I became involved in one of the world’s largest IT initiatives almost as soon as I joined the Technology Consulting programme. We had to change the way information at General Motors (GM) is passed between the dealers and the central system. The aim was to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

While Capgemini was the System Integrator for the project, other partners developed the software, managed security and supported the back-end applications for GM. This meant that I was involved in a great deal of interaction with a variety of partners located throughout the world.

The development and testing team were located in India, the other teams were based in Germany and the US, and GM, the customer, was here in the UK – which meant we had to find an effective way of really working together. So each morning, we’d begin the working day with a conference call involving all parties, and in the evening, we’d finish with another call involving everyone except the customer.

As well as trying to keep the testing on track, I had to get approval by talking people through the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) plan over the phone. And I had to write test cases before the plan could go ahead. All of these tasks had to be managed to timescales, and I had to stay on top of everyday problems that became apparent through testing, defect logging, and daily reporting.
 

Since the work at Capgemini is very dynamic, I was usually shattered by the evening but I’d always start right by going to the gym, which helped me to feel positive and ready for the day ahead.
 

Watch Kathryn Curphey - Technology Consulting