Scrum Master Project Manager

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Festus T. Aka

Ludowici GA ***** 240-***-****

adt0hv@r.postjobfree.com linkedin.com/in/festus-t-271413250/ Summary Project Manager Scrum Master

I am a Certified Project Manager and Scrum Master with experience in initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, and closing projects. I have been in the field of Project Management for over 20 years. However, 5 years ago, I started investing talent and transitioning from the traditional waterfall methodology towards a mindset change and adapting Agile practices. I implement Agile methodologies to achieve frequent on-time valuable product delivery. Combine high servant- leadership and relationship-building skills to engage team members, management, and other stakeholders to enhance data-driven decision-making. Transitioning from traditional to agile methodology has helped sharpen my skills. To attain high efficiency and excellence levels, I quickly identify areas of improvement, as well as conflicts and impediments at an early stage, and use different techniques to resolve or prevent them.

Core Competencies/Skills

Waterfall Methodology Agile Scrum Methodologies Servant-leadership Cross-functional collaboration Team Building Coaching Conflict navigation SDLC Active listener Excellent communicator Time management SharePoint Agile Frameworks – SAFe, Scrum, Kanban JIRA Azure DevOps MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook Zoom Teams Skype Webex Respondus Certifications

Professional Scrum Master I (PSMI) Scrum.Org

Project Manager AccreditedTM (PMA) International Organization for Project ManagementTM Scrum Master AccreditedTM (SMA) International Scrum Institute Project Management Professional (PMP) in progress Project Management Institute Education

Project Management Course Completion Certificate University of Colorado Boulder, USA Leadership for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Course Completion Certificate Uni. of Michigan, USA General Cybersecurity Training Course Completion Certificate CCBC Baltimore County, MD, USA PhD Earth Science University of Okayama, Japan

MSc Earth Science University of Leeds, England

BSc Earth Science University of Yaoundé-I, Cameroon Professional Experience

Scrum Master - SciNote: Jun. 2021 – Present

Coach employees and stakeholders to understand and implement agile principles and practices and the importance of adopting Scrum.

Coach development team on improving and maximizing scrum practices within the framework.

Establish, track, and communicate agile metrics (team velocity and sprint progress/burndown chart) to the team, management, and impacted stakeholders. 2

Identify, remove and/or escalate risks, roadblocks and cross-team dependencies that are unresolvable by the team and interfere with the team's ability to deliver commitments.

Organize and facilitate sprint planning, standups, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospectives for co-located, distributed, and offshore teams.

Exercise servant leadership to ensure teams are provided with optimal working environment and are protected from external pressures so that product development is maximized.

Foster collaboration among team members thus strengthening the team in achieving the product goal during each sprint while maintaining cross-functionality and accountability.

Ensure that Scrum ceremonies are positive, productive, and kept within the timebox.

Liaise between the team and management, making sure there is information flow and that the product acceptance criteria are understood, and the product goal remains the focus.

Communicate organizational hurdles to leadership, clear impediments for the team, track cross-teams dependencies, and escalate them when necessary.

Guide teams on how to write good user stories using INVEST, to ensure they are written in a comprehensive manner and include the necessary data points to move forward.

Assist the Product Owner with product backlog refinement and prioritization, proposing effective backlog management techniques.

Scrum Master - M&T Bank: Aug. 2020 – May 2021

Established multiple collaborative relationships with business and technology partners at various levels within the organization.

Helped teams align with the project roadmap and to make appropriate commitments. Encouraging them to pull just enough work that can be completed within the sprint to avoid overcommitting or under committing.

Coached and supported the Product Owner in their efforts to manage the backlog, educating them on grooming and maintaining the product backlog and closing stories as needed.

Fostered a good relationship between the Scrum team, and others outside the team with emphasis on Scrum values.

Coached team members on agile values and principles such as collaboration, self-organization, cross-functionality, prioritization, team accountability and transparency, ensuring a good understanding of the spirit of Scrum.

Built trust and worked collaboratively with staff, business stakeholders, and senior executives of the organization.

Helped the team to focus on the delivery of high-quality stories on a predictable, sustainable cadence.

As Project Manager, I have supported several projects worth ca $25 million, including Views from the Frontline (VFL-2019) at GEADIRR and SATREPS. I implemented the Waterfall project management process groups and knowledge areas to successfully execute and deliver projects on scope, budget, schedule, and quality.

Project Manager – GEADIRR: March 2018 – July 2020

Developed the project Charter defined by project justification, objectives and deliverables, requirements and constraints, stakeholders and resources, budget, and schedule.

Created a project Management Plan comprising the scope, schedule, cost, and performance baselines.

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Gathered project requirements (functional, non-functional, business, stakeholder, and quality) using brainstorming, interviews, questionnaires, Delphi, and Context diagram technics.

Developed a project communication plan that answered the “who needs what, when and how?” questions. This was done using the Work, Resource and Organization Breakdown Structures (WBS, RBS, OBS).

Identified, classified, and prioritized stakeholders using power-interest metrics.

Developed a resource management plan with details of the nature, quantity, where-from, cost, and roles/attributes (Responsibility Assignment Matric - RAM) of identified resources.

Created a project schedule management plan that used WBS and work packages to define activity sequences, activity attributes, and project milestones.

Employed network diagrams to determine the critical path and potential project delays or opportunities in the project schedule.

Developed and graphically displayed project baseline on Gannt chart showing start and finish dates, duration, and project milestones.

Estimated project budget using budget at completion (BAC) and cost of management reserves.

Measured project performance indices using variances and Earned Value Analysis (EVA).

Created a Project Quality Management Plan (PQMP) using requirements of project deliverables.

Project Manager - SATREPS: 2013 – 2018

Supervised the designing and equipment of a geochemical laboratory funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Collaborated with 25 international and local researchers and managed the project through delivery of complex and highly defined goals.

Employed servant-leadership skills to create, develop, motivate, and appraise the project team.

Determined the effects of scope, schedule, and cost on project quality using the triple constraint model.

Identified stakeholders and their communication preferences, ensuring effective stakeholder communication using analytical, intuitive, functional, and personal communication models.

Established a Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS): capital resources (e.g., equipment, land, buildings, funding, office space), technological resources (e.g., software, hardware, digital storage) and human resources (e.g., people).

Used project Statement of Work (SOW) and Terms of Reference (ToR) to create a Request for Proposal (RP), evaluate submitted quotes, negotiate with vendors, and sign fixed-price procurement contracts.

Employed qualitative risk analysis to develop the project risk register containing project probability impact matrix and risk management plan. Festus T. Aka

Ludowici, Tues29Nov2022

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