Stuart Ward

Email: abpj4o@r.postjobfree.com

Address: *** ********* ******

City: Simsbury

State: CT

Zip: 06070

Country: USA

Phone: 908-***-****

Skill Level: Experienced

Salary Range: $124,000

Primary Skills/Experience:

See Resume

Educational Background:

See Resume

Job History / Details:

Stuart Ward

951 Hopmeadow Street, Simsbury, CT

Cell: 908-***-****

Email: abpj4o@r.postjobfree.com

"The English Teacher who knows Software development and IT"

Senior Project Manager with eleven years experience leading medium and large software development and IT infrastructure projects. Expertise in Scrum/Agile methodologies. Exceptional communication, facilitation, collaboration, and training skills honed by ten prior years teaching English and coaching sports.

* Certified Project Management Professional (PMP)

* Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Trained by Jeff Sutherland, co-founder of Scrum

* Certified in IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Foundations

* Diploma with honors in Web Programming from the Chubb Institute

* MA in English, Middlebury College

* Graduate work, Lincoln College, Oxford University

EXPERIENCE:

ESPN, Bristol, CT

December, 2011 - Present

Senior Project Manager

ScrumMaster for the "Rate Card" project ($3.7m), responsibilities for which include:

* Managing two eight-person cross-functional teams.

* Using velocity-based forecasting to manage scope and schedule to budget.

* Removing impediments.

* Defining and educating team members and stakeholders in Scrum/Agile principles(not just what and how, but why it works).

* Leading Daily Scrums, Sprint Planning meetings, Sprint Reviews, and Sprint Retrospectives.

* Facilitating backlog grooming, story estimating, and story design sessions.

* Creating and maintaining sprint backlogs, taskboards, storyboards, burndown/burnup charts (using Serena Agile), and communicating status to upper management and stakeholders.

* Providing direction and coaching to the Product Owner and BA's in user story creation, sizing, and prioritization, and high-level estimating and release planning.

TicketNetwork, South Windsor, CT

July, 2009 - November, 2011

Project Manager/ScrumMaster

* ScrumMaster for a total of seven products/projects, activities for which included:

- Scheduling and running daily scrums, sprint planning meetings, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospectives.

- Creating and maintaining sprint backlogs and burndown charts.

- Achieving maximum efficiency by removing impediments and acting as a buffer between team and product owner to intercept noise and distractions.

- Maximizing productivity and job satisfaction by empowering team members, fostering collaboration, and cultivating win-win thinking.

* Developed curriculum for and taught company-wide courses on Agile/Scrum, PMBOK, the business-within-a-business paradigm, and business writing.

* Completed Certified ScrumMaster training taught by Jeff Sutherland, co-founder of Scrum.

* Managed five month initiative to improve consistency, reliability, transparency, and customer focus of IT department, seven person team supporting 270 stakeholders company-wide. Interviewed stakeholders, analyzed root causes, and applied industry best practices to reorganize structure, improve culture/methods/tools, and institute metrics. Project success led to similar service initiatives being implemented throughout all company departments.

* Led six month project to create and launch Application Security department. Responsible for the development of code review processes and standards in accordance with OWASP; the selection, installation, and administration of Fortify suite of SCA tools and Burp penetration testing tool; and for meeting the requirements in the PCI-DSS. Upon launch, acted as AppSec Manager, with one direct security auditor report and indirect reports from the QA and Development departments. Designed and implemented web-based security awareness training for all employees.

Cigna, Bloomfield, CT

February, 2009 - April, 2009

Project Control Officer

* Managed and coordinated projects plans, taking initiative to identify conflicts and risks.

* Created, updated, and maintained project schedules with new and changed tasks.

* Developed Clarity internal user guide.

* Set up and maintained project library in SharePoint for deliverables and related documents.

* Developed standard templates for project management deliverables.

* Logged and controlled change requests and change logs.

Comfit Learning, Westport, CT

November, 2008 - February, 2009

Business Analyst

* Analyzed, documented, and re-engineered cRM processes.

* Analyzed and restructuredwebsite architecture to improve usability.

HCL America

Avon Old Farms School, Avon, CT

May, 2007 - August, 2008

English Teach

Taught Engish to seniors

Coached soccer, squash, and lacrosse

Novartis Pharmaceuticals, East Hanover, NJ

February 2003 - May 2007

Project Manager/Project QA Analyst/Senior Production Support Specialist

* Initiated and led cross-functional backup request process improvement project, with team of eight, supporting 300 stakeholders, and sponsored by the directors of the Storage Management, DBA, Technical Services, and Production Services departments. Re-engineered and documented the processes, workflows, and procedures for requesting and implementing server and application backups. Managed the elicitation of requirements and the establishment of goals, objectives, milestones, and ensured all requirements, goals, objectives, and milestones were met on schedule and to the expectations of the sponsor. Success of project led to the approval and initiation of a server provisioning process improvement project.

* Led a server provisioning process improvement project, with team of six, supporting 300 stakeholders, and sponsored by the directors of the Storage Management, DBA, Technical Services, and Production Services departments. The project re-engineered and documented the processes, workflows, and procedures for provisioning production UNIX and NT servers. The requirements, goals, objectives, and milestones were met on schedule and to the expectations of the sponsor.

* Reviewed, approved, and coached PM's in the defining of project plans and deliverables.

* Trained PMs in PMBOK.

* Helped designed the PM Cookbook an online, dynamic workflow tool.

* Developed a project management Lessons Learned database.

* Lead administrator for TrueChange change management application.

* Selected for Transformation Leadership Team to improve customer care by spearheading changes and managing communication between depts.

Verizon Wireless, Warren, NJ

October 2001 - January 2003

PeopleSoft Analyst/Programmer

* Led PSoft 8.4 Process Scheduler/Control-M Enterprise Job Scheduling Integration and Implementation Project.

* Facilitated PeopleSoft 8.4 Upgrade project meetings.

* Received fourteen weeks of intensive, full-time training in PeoplesSoft 8.4.

* Developed SQRs and Application Engines for PeopleSoft 8.4 upgrade.

Chubb Institute of Technology, Parsippany, NJ

November, 2000 - July, 2001

Student in web programming and business applications

* Curriculum: Java, VB, Oracle, HTML, DHTML, and XML.

* Designed an interactive website, including submission forms, data queries, and validation, using HTML, XML, JavaScript, Java, and Servlets.

Syncsort Incorporated, Woodcliff Lake, NJ

May, 1999 - August, 2000

Account Executive

* Managed Fortune 500 corporate accounts, including: Cisco Systems, ExxonMobil, Bank of America, Fidelity, and CBOE.

* Provided customer support for flagship software applications.

The Montclair Kimberley Academy, Montclair, NJ

December, 1990 - May, 1997

English Teacher/Coach/Adviser

* Taught English Literature and Writing to Grades 9, 11, and 12.

* Head Coach Boys Varsity Soccer and Lacrosse.

EDUCATION:

Chubb Institute of Technology, Parsippany, NJ

Diploma with Honors in Web Development and Business Programming, 2001, GPA= 3.92

Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT

Master of Arts in English, 1995, GPA= 3.77

Colgate University, Hamilton, NY

Bachelor of Arts in English,1985, Deans List; Captain Men's Squash Team; Varsity Lacrosse

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