Scrum Master Project Manager

Kenneth Brooks Certified Professional: RTE, CSM, CSPO, CST, SAFe SPC 4,5, &6 PM/PO. ad5sn7@r.postjobfree.com or 732-***-****.

Summary

Fifteen plus years of experience leading Agile initiatives with a proven background in software development lifecycle (SDLC). As a Senior Lean-Agile Coach who has a Hands-on practical approach with a commitment to achieving excellence in delivery, problem-solving, taking ownership, and delivering business outcomes. To stay ahead in software engineering, you must embrace an agile mindset is crucial. Agile methodologies, such as Scrum or Kanban, emphasize flexibility, continuous improvement, and rapid response to change. By incorporating these principles into your workflow, you can adapt more quickly to new requirements or user feedback. Regularly revisiting and refining your work ensures that the end product remains aligned with current needs, which can often shift during the development cycle. Experience functioning as an RTE, Scrum Master, Project Manager/Program Manager, and Product Manager with the ability to function in an organization that leverages multiple methodologies.

Technical Skills:

Jira, Jira Line, Rally, Clarity, MS Project, Excel, Confluence, SAFe, Program Consultant SPC 4,5 &6, ITIL (IT infrastructure library) V3 certified, Pivotal Tracker, Version-One, Trello

Certifications

Agility in Enterprise(ICP-ENT), Coaching Agile Transition ( ICP-CAT), SPC SAFe, 4,5,6 Certified Scrum Practitioner(CSP), Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Certified Product Owner (CSPO), PMI-Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), ICAgile Certified Professional for Agile Team Facilitator (ICP-ATF), ICAgile Certified, Software Testing Engineer (CSTE),

Professional in Agile Coaching (ICP-ACC) ITCPM- IT Certified Project Management (PMP) Project Management Leadership Group

Methodologies:

Scrum, Kanban, XP, TDD, PMBOK, Green & Black Belt, (OKR)-Objectives & Key Results, Dev-Ops, (KPI) Key Performance Indicator

Education and Credentials

MBA, Business Administration (Park University) 1985

BSEE, Electric Engineering (San Francisco State University) 1981

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenneth-brooks-0478018a/ www.brooksbasketballcamp.com

Fiserv Sr. Agile Transformation & Executive Coach Berkely Heights NJ. 9/4/2023 Present

As a senior Agile Coach, Coach executives on supporting organizational structures for agile transformations. Teach, lead, and mentor cross-functional business groups to build, sustain, and strengthen Agile values, scrum concepts, and practices, providing them the necessary tools and guidance to successfully implement across high-impact programs throughout the enterprise. Identify and coach Agile evangelists across the several divisions who can act as informal mentors/peers and continue increasing the maturity and mindset across the organization. Handling hybrid environments (Agile and non-Agile integrations and interactions) with the flexibility to adapt to new evolving environments. led initiatives using Scrum, Kanban, and efforts using Scrum at Scale, SAFe, or other scaling frameworks including Enterprise Architecture, DevOps (CI-CD, Test Driven Development, etc.). Led the organization's Agile transformation strategy, working closely with executive leadership to align with business objectives.

Develop and implement Agile frameworks, processes, and practices tailored to the organization's needs.

Provide coaching and mentorship to C-level executives and senior leaders, fostering an Agile mindset and promoting a culture of continuous improvement.

Support leaders in understanding and navigating the complexities of organizational change in an Agile context.

Coach Agile teams at all levels, from development teams to leadership, to enhance collaboration, communication, and efficiency. Foster a culture of self-organization, innovation, and accountability within Agile teams.

Design and deliver training programs on Agile principles, frameworks, and practices for various levels of the organization.

Create and facilitate workshops and interactive sessions to enhance Agile understanding and adoption.

Develop and execute change management strategies to ensure successful Agile transformations.

Collaborate with stakeholders to address resistance and build a supportive environment for change.

Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success and effectiveness of Agile initiatives.

Implement a feedback loop for continuous improvement based on metrics and stakeholder feedback.

Provide knowledge transfer with consistent Agile practices and strategy across the organization to enhance business value delivery and responsiveness to organization and marketplace opportunities.

The Private Sector Group /US Deloitte (VA) Veterans Affairs; Director of the Program Management, 11/21-8-23

As the Director of the Program Management team for (VA). Supervise a group of forty project managers with five direct reports. Overseeing (VA) product portfolio and roadmap planning, ongoing feature activation, and continued prioritization of the portfolio in alignment with the (VA) hospital strategy and goals. Act as the liaison between all (VA) Product Areas, the entire PMO, and the hospital executive team members to ensure a successful and timely execution of the product roadmap. Work with the Product team to gather inputs from stakeholders, facilitate the prioritization process, and collaborate with the PMO team to continuously advance the planning process. Cultivate key relationships within (VA) and entrain the organization to shepherd a new, dynamic way of working that provides alignment across (VA) and cuts down the time to market for new features. Multi-tasking using (KPI) performance indicators to evaluate and measure the success against plan/prioritizing a changing workload within a fast-paced environment while dealing with a wide range of stakeholders.

Manage the roadmap planning and activations project management team, consisting of project managers supporting each (VA) Product area (Design, Customer Experience, Platform, MarTech, Omni)

Drive standardization across all Product areas as it relates to PMO deliverables and drive process definition and implementation.

Define the strategic goals of the team based on the needs of the business and incorporate them into the processes.

Onboard new hires by educating them on the (VA) project management and roadmap management processes, and roles and responsibilities related to their position.

Provide direct line management to department project managers by setting performance objectives and providing guidance and coaching to ensure set objectives are met.

Review work products across the team to ensure all project risks are raised and accurate project status is communicated and represented in the project documentation.

Closely work with the entire PMO team to define, implement, and continuously improve the roadmap planning process across all (VA) hospital Product areas and ensure consistency.

Facilitate the regular roadmap planning and prioritization process and ensure all submissions adhere to the highest quality standards.

Build strong relationships with all (VA) Product leads and partner with them to understand inefficiencies in the planning process, eliminate any roadblocks, and drive improvement of any roadmap-related processes.

Support in the regular prioritization of the portfolio to ensure it remains aligned with strategic objectives.

Develop a regular project and portfolio status reporting cadence and process for (VA) in alignment with PMO.

Monitoring and actively managing project deviations to resolve issues and bring at-risk projects back on track.

Create and deliver senior stakeholder presentations, summarizing the (VA) Product roadmap including strategic initiatives and key focus areas. Oversee and drive a robust change control process to enable risk mitigation and transparent communication when significant impact is expected managing complex change portfolios.

Senior Agility Enterprise Coach. Prudential Consulting Assignment 5/20-11/21

As a senior-level coach and servant leader optimize the delivery of features and functionality. Improving the capability of all teams working on agile. leading in crafting the strategy and driving the implementation of several products, integrations, and automation using agile best practices. Setting standards for our scrum teams to define and measure delivery success. Manage, mentor, and assist Scrum masters to create a strong delivery function within the enterprise. Mentoring organizational leaders and their teams to instill a scaled, successful enterprise-wide adoption of Agile methodologies and practices including Scrum, Kanban, and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). Worked with software engineering practices (e.g., XP, BDD, DevOps, Test Driven Development, Automated Testing). Including creating tools and leading training sessions to demonstrate how leaders and associates will apply the Agile mindsets and principles in their day-to-day work. Transitioning and driving the adoption of Agile principles and practices. Promote a culture of innovation by implementing Agile principles and frameworks to increase collaboration, predictability, and transparency, across the enterprise.

Developed and oversaw transformation management processes, proactively aligning transformation efforts from the start of the initiative.

Identify impacted stakeholders and craft communication strategies for all parties throughout the transformation process.

Oversaw the adoption of Agile methodologies and ensured alignment with our digital transformation goals.

Assess transformation readiness, conduct impact analyses after changes have been implemented, and track and report issues during and after the transformation process.

Ensure accountability to business cases, track, and report progress on operational and financial KPIs, and enable stage-gated decision-making.

Drive alignment on operational model choices, facilitate technical deep dives, and gather input on key decisions to drive adherence to choices and identify technical interdependencies.

Worked with the senior leadership team and digital leadership to evolve priorities, sequencing, and the roadmap.

Drive resourcing reviews, including dependencies and constraints (budget, talent, timing, etc.).

Simplify the digital interaction model for leadership, regions/markets, brands, and functions, and drive cross-functional engagement on existing and future digital priorities.

Sr. Operating Officer of PMO. NYC, Office of Technology, and Innovation. Consulting Assignment 6/18 - 5/20

As the Senior Operating Officer of the Office of Technology and Innovation (DoITT). Transitioning the five boroughs within New York City is the technology core of (NYC) government and communication. With a staff of 35 worked with over 100 City agencies. End-to-end projects concurrently with multiple cross-functional and cross-discipline projects in support of New York City strategic and tactical initiatives. Worked with project sponsors and stakeholders to establish budgets, and define goals, objectives, and scope. To ensure that corporate and vendor resources are focused and aligned, and appropriate change management practices are implemented. And entities to deliver the technology they need to serve and empower New Yorkers. Establishing IT strategic direction, security policies, and standards procure. Citywide IT services, and evaluates emerging technologies services maintain NYC.gov, Geographic Information Systems (GIS); operates the City’s state-of-the-art data center, the Citywide Radio Network (CRN), NYPD, the wired network (City Net), the Citywide Service Desk and various telecommunications systems; The new franchise contracts providing fiber, cable television, and mobile telecom equipment installed on city property and streets. This citywide IT infrastructure consolidation program; supports the Emergency Communications Transformation Program and the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. That fosters public-private partnerships to improve IT service delivery.

Managed product/solution evaluations, vendor selection, and contracts.

Managed the requirements gathering, scope planning, design/development/execution of deliverables, testing, and completion signoff. Leads business initiatives with cross-functional and technical teams to improve service quality, service delivery, and financial results.

Demonstrated the value of corporate business initiatives by 95% that helps New York employees/users/stakeholders understand the change. Worked across all levels of the NYC/organization to identify and recommend improvements to achieve operational effectiveness.

Worked closely with functional owners to ensure that requirements were clear and that there was business value, user involvement, ownership, and ongoing support.

Evaluated, and deployment of tools and methods to improve business performance by 90%. Worked with business partners to facilitate agreement on new roles and responsibilities that may be required with a new functionality; that required establishing process ownership.

Served as a mentor for project team members. Leads and manages the global project portfolio, project approval, and prioritization. Acted as a business advisor and consultant to senior executives on business challenges.

Federal Reserve New York & Washington DC Agile Team Coach Consulting Assignment 6/2017— 6/2018

A seasonal Senior Agile Transformation Coach, overseeing the New York and Washington DC Federal Reserve, with several coaches of Agile Center of Excellence (Agile CoE). Providing hands-on services prioritization of continuous improvements to key stakeholders. With a focus on empowering teams and contributing to a collaborative culture. Meeting the teams and organization where they are in the process and guiding them in their maturity, with a primary focus on team-level improvements. Enable greater transparency into delivery progress and contribute to and evolve a culture of continuous improvement. Identify and eliminate waste, improve quality, and increase delivery flow and value generated by teams. Worked with new Dev-Ops teams and stakeholders throughout the New York and Washington DC Federal Reserve at various levels to influence change, solicit and achieve buy-in, and effectively communicate the value of agility.

Coaching and developing people and teams, influencing behavior change, and establishing sustainability through cultural change. Worked closely with senior leaders and executives to drive agile transformation initiatives and create a culture of agility within the organization.

Encourage and promote a culture of continuous improvement by facilitating retrospectives and providing feedback to teams and individuals.

Responsible for ensuring Scrum is understood and the team adheres to Scrum theory, practice, and guidelines.

Coach teams on how to conduct agile ceremonies such as daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, retrospectives, and backlog refinement sessions.

Guide teams on developing and maintaining a backlog, estimating work, by using scrum poker, planning sprints, and tracking progress using agile practices.

Ensure Agile project metrics are being tracked and monitored for indications of potential problem areas and assist teams in identifying and implementing solutions to address the problems.

Lead and oversee the coaching and planning of multiple existing operational teams and support new operational teams in Scrum, Scrum ban, or Kanban.

U.S. Census Bureau & IRS Washington, DC Consulting Assignment 8/5/16 - 5/30/17

Principal Agile Enterprise Team Coach

Senior Agile Coach in the Digital Transformation programs for the U.S. Census Bureau in adopting new agile practices. Worked with several teams to transition new ways of working. Establish organizational and program-level agile engineering and management principles. Support the Corporate Digital Transformation Office (DTO) and Digital Transformation team. Responsible for developing, maintaining, and continuously improving Agile methodologies, policies, procedures, and standards; developing training materials and conducting training classes on Agile methodologies; directly supporting teams as they build, deploy, and support/sustain digital capabilities throughout U.S. Census Bureau Systems. Created Lean-Agile Centre of Excellence (LACE) as it defines objectives, strategies, and governance for a new way of working. Supporting members of the Agile Community of Practice by providing input into plans and providing status on coaching and training as requested. Leads the development of Agile engineering and management best practices, metrics, governance, and organizational change management practices.

Oversaw the coaching and planning of multiple high-performing Agile development teams and journeys Teach, led, and mentored cross-functional business groups to build, sustain, and strengthen Agile values, scrum concepts, and practices, providing them the necessary tools and guidance to implement across high impact programs throughout the enterprise successfully.

Drive consistent and marketplace opportunities.

Grow trust by monitoring the health of the collective team, checking that our commitments, pace, and quality are on track with organizational standards.

Conduct training for executives, managers, and leaders, (as well as agile teams and other positions like Product Owner, Product Manager, Scrum Master, and Release Train Engineers) on the use of Agile frameworks, processes, and practices to deliver desired business outcomes.

Worked with teams of agile coaches, release train engineers, and scrum masters to define consistent practices to transform the organization into new agile ways of working.

Robert Wood Johnson & Barnabas Health Sr. Admin Project Manager Consulting Assignment 5/2015 - 8/2016

Consolidated financial statements and financial analyses. Supported all aspects of the institution's and department's missions by providing administrative leadership in the development of efficient and effective financial processes, procedures, and policies. Collaborated with other department divisions to improve financial effectiveness to achieve financial targets. Review all medical regulatory remediation programs including Finance, Treasury, Capital Management, Credit Risk, Market Risk, and Technology and Data. Performed complex statistical, cost, and financial analysis of financial reports and data, and prepared subsequent narrative analysis for management. Provide strategic and operational leadership for the continued growth and development of sub-specialty multidisciplinary programs in response to customer (patient, payer, and physician) needs. Include strategic planning and relations between academic departments and hospitals. Medical staff relations, and customer satisfaction.

Work with the leadership team, chairs/departments, program directors, service line medical directors, aligned physicians, nursing leaders, and medical groups to drive quality and service line initiatives across acute and ambulatory settings in the system according to lean principles.

Worked with physicians and staff members by participating in planning, negotiating, and purchasing new capital equipment and negotiating with vendors and suppliers of existing products and equipment to achieve favorable pricing.

Serve as the primary contact to marketing and physician relations liaisons to plan new initiatives for the growth and exposure of programs to customers and potential customers.

Montefiore Medical Centre PMO Director NYC (Employee) 9/2009 - 5/2015

PMO Director for Enterprise Technology Center, setting up a new Project Management Office (PMO) that will provide full-service solutions covering planning, design and specifications development, project management, implementation, and operational support and leading the strategic design, and development of new integrated systems across 1,450 departments for improvement. With regulatory/compliance constraints to meet medical center business needs while ensuring integration for global platforms. Worked closely with the business teams to drive technology strategy across all aspects of the hospital. The goal was to improve overall project management efforts by increasing collaboration, and innovation, and introducing techniques that promote adaptability and flexibility in the face of unpredictable circumstances. Transitioning the project management of all cross-functional IT initiatives and new business to lean agile methodologies. That will support over 3,500 physicians and nurses with $10M annual operating expense, $5M including all 3 Health Science schools). This includes the overall implementation and performance of MMCETC’s IT Agile transformation vision and strategic plan.

Drive the agile adoption and implementation of project and program management methodologies (Traditional, Agile, Kanban)

Administer new project tracking systems, software, templates, and tools to manage reports to highlight project issues and progress.

Responsible for higher-level strategic agile transformation planning and line of business consulting to establish disciplined, effective agile ways of working that drive continuous improvement.

As an influential leader, I’m seen as an expert in scaled agile execution that requires confident, simplistic, and kind communication in all modes.

Drive design, creation, and standup of enterprise LACE (Lean Agile Center of Excellence)

Lead and/or facilitate SAFe training, workshops, OKR sessions, group coaching, and 1:1 coaching both virtually and in-person (when necessary)

Meet with colleagues where they are for sustaining portfolio-wide adoption of Lean-Agile principles, practices, and scaled patterns, with a particular focus on Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)

State of New Jersey Sr. State Deputy PMO / Agile Coach Consulting Assignment 4/ 2007 – 9/ 2009 Senior Deputy for the State of New Jersey project called NJ KIDS. Develop and direct multi-year plans for portfolio execution considering key dependencies for the state of NJ. Set PMO standards, policies, processes, and procedures. Working with a compliance office that interfaces with State and Federal agencies supporting large-scale network migration with the court systems. Prosecutors, law enforcement, DYFS, and Social Services, and foster relationships with over 100 key stakeholders, executives, and consultants to ensure appropriate participation throughout the engagement. I set a level of expectations standard for all managers’ peer-level client relationships (expectations, communications, negotiations, escalation, risk factors, feedback, etc.) with all team members. With a hands-on approach implemented the scrum framework while embedded with teams and provided all required coaching support to drive team maturity.

Responsible for active stakeholder engagement by ensuring close collaboration with key stakeholders across municipalities and working closely with subject matter experts on relevant regulatory remediation programs.

Collaboration in the production of status reports including executive presentations to program sponsors and senior management, ensuring reliable reporting of delivery progress.

Trusted to review and challenge program deliveries, dependencies, risks, and issues to produce value on portfolio and workstream health for various stakeholders' groups and partners.

Ensuring alignment with Group change management policies and standards

Supported all program office activities including assistance with ad-hoc governance forum material production, PMO process documentation, budget, and resource tracking, and PMO process design and improvement.

Cendant Mortgage Director of Business Services NJ. *Employee 3/2004 - 1/2007

Credit Suisse, NYC. Sr. Vice President of Information Technology; *Employee 9/1998 to 2/2004

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