Certified Scrum Master/ Agile Coach

CONNIE B. STEPHENS, CSM Telephone: 770-***-**** Email: *******@*******.***

SUMMARY

Product Owner

Scrum/Agile Coach

Scrum Master

Accomplished Scrum Master and Product Owner offering 14 years of experience, including 8 years of progressive roles in the Agile/Scrum SDLC; rare blend of analytical skill, sales success, and management capabilities. Innate talent for leveraging technology and automation to eliminate inefficiencies and optimize use of available information. Superior skill in translating complex and abstract ideas into sound, easily understood technical directions. Excellent team leader skilled in managing people and processes while developing motivated, high performing staff eager to take on challenges and work collaboratively to contribute to the organization’s growth plan. Areas of Expertise

Product Owner

Agile Business Analysis

Release Planning

User Acceptance Testing

SaaS Sales

Scrum Coach

SDLC

Project Management

Retail Banking

Writing User Stories

Certified Scrum Master

Sprint Planning

Business Process Modeling

Business Requirements Writing

Compliance

Change Management

Product Backlog

Backlog Grooming

Sales Training

EDUCATION

Majors: Finance & Marketing

University of Georgia, Athens, GA

CERTIFICATION

Certified Scrum Master

TRAININGS

Kate Kingston Telephone Sales Training

Hiring the Right People

Customer Enrichment Program

How to Sell to Anyone

Systems Development Methodology

Achieving Communication Excellence

TECHNICAL SKILLS

MICROSOFT OFFICE: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Project, Rally, Jira, Version One, Salesforce, SharePoint, Lotus Notes OTHER: Oracle, Java, MAC & Microsoft Windows OS

CONNIE B. STEPHENS, CSM Page 2 of 3

EXPERIENCE

Divine Training Concepts, LLC, Atlanta, GA 2015 – Present Scrum Master

Recruiter: American Cybersystems Client: AT&T

Scrum Master/Project Manager for 3 different simultaneous projects. Managed team members, project timelines in Rally, and budgets. Coordinated with over 106 applications to implement a project which impacted AT&T clients in all 50 states. Authored an AT&T Agile Quick Reference guide. Completed all projects on time and under budget. Scrum Master/Agile Coach

Recruiter: JDC Group Clients: Verizon Telematics

Served as Scrum Master on a Proof of Concept project for Verizon Telematics’ client Daimler/Mercedes Benz. VTI successfully completed the POC and bid on the opportunity to become Mercedes single source provider of telematics in Europe. This project possessed tight timelines and the Scrum Master led development team delivered the project on time and under budget. Assisted the PMO office of Verizon Telematics in the revamping of their SDLC process to define the Agile methodology for all of the company’s future projects. This includes authoring the SDLC manual, tools and artifacts for Scrum; evaluating projects for their Agile potential; and working with new and existing projects as Agile coach to test the improved methodology. The Warren Osborne Group LLC, Atlanta, GA 2008 - 2015 Product Owner/Scrum Master/Agile Coach

Clients: AT&T via IBM, Capital One, UHS Pruitt, Bank of America, Pulte Homes Acted as the client’s visionary when in the Product Owner role. Responsible for the right product being delivered on or before time and under budget. Maintained ROI and other business use requirements, as dictated by clients, stakeholders, and management. Create, maintain, prioritize, and groom the Product Backlog. Write User Stories. Define Release and Sprint Goals. Communicate continuously with the Scrum Team and Stakeholders realistic and attainable expectations for the Product Release. As a servant leader in the Scrum Master role, consultant managed the Scrum Process and ensured the team adhered to good Agile development principles. Well versed in the Agile Manifesto. Helped the Scrum Team by removing impediments and external distractions. Facilitates meetings (sprint planning, retrospective, review, daily stand-up). Ensures a collaborative culture exists in the team. Assists the Product Owner and Team on improving the Agile development process over time. As Agile Coach assists all members of the Scrum Development Team, Company Stakeholders, and Clients in understanding and adhering to the best practices of the Agile Methodology.

Scrum Master for IBM’s government billing contract with AT&T. This project consisted of the integration of all client billing into one centralized process. Also, the Scrum team was coached by the Scrum Master on Agile Development principles, as the team was converting from the Waterfall development method. In this Scrum of Scrum, the Scrum Master worked with the team tasked to incorporate existing billing codes solely used for government and institutional clients into the larger network of personal customer billing. This Scrum utilized Rally, AT&T Connect, SharePoint, Lotus Notes, Sametime, and Skype to link a team of 10 remote located developers. Team members were disbursed throughout the US, Brazil, and India. As Scrum Master; time management, meeting coordination, and culturally diverse communication skills were essential in ensuring the Sprints were completed on time and produced a unit of shippable product. The Scrum used TDD (Test Driven Development) practices along with Agile development principles to complete this project in 5 months and 1 week as opposed to the requisite 8 month time frame originally outlined by the Stakeholders. This saved the Scrum of Scrum definitive time and an as yet immeasurable amount of money.

Scrum Master/Product Owner/Agile Business Analyst for 5 Secondary Market Commercial Lenders and REITs, (a total of $19mm in overall project investments) where the projects consisted of software development for the automation of file QA review for audits based on new government regulations. These projects required a conversion from the Waterfall methodology to the Agile/Scrum SDLC. The consultant worked extensively with Vendors and the CIO’s to upgrade and or replace existing software, while using the Scrum Team to customize the software to fit the Customer and Stakeholder requirements. The SaaS software suite offered by the firm to its clients for property, client, and asset management was revamped to adhere to more stringent privacy, leverage, and OSHA protocols. And said software changes resulted in the Designing & Implementation of a new Scrum Sales Process based upon product changes due to new regulations. These Scrums utilized Rally, Jira, Version One, Skype, Sharepoint, MS Project and Excel for tracking, communication and reporting tools.

As Agile Business Analyst for Bank of America, performs annual end user UAT for their $3mm Retail Sales Software integration with HR Scheduling Software.

As Product Owner, worked closely with the CIO and VP of Client Administration to double the client book in 2013 for UHS Pruitt by implementing Scrum Sales Process, this correlated into a 37% increase in revenues, while decreasing Operating Expenses by 12%. Implemented a customized version of Salesforce.com to track clients and prospects while complying with new stricter HIPAA, Medicaid and Medicare governance.

In 2012, Product Owner for 2 Retail start-ups and 1 existing small commercial business. Scrum Coach for a total of 23 sales professionals, who have increased revenue for the business owners by an average of 52% utilizing a Scrum Sales Process. Scrum Master for the implementation of Salesforce.com as the CRM. These Scrums utilized Rally, Version One, Skype, and Excel for tracking, communication and reporting tools.

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Product Owner for Askox Capital Management & Pioneer Capital Advisors to prepare for their 2012 Commercial & Mortgage Investment Audit. Management of a $4.4mm 13 month project to replace their client management system, asset management system, and investment/trading platform. This projects original budget was $7.5mm and was slated for 18+ months until completion, therefore Product Owner was able to reduce the budget by 41% and cut the release time by 5+ months. ACM managed institutional clients and provided a web based SaaS subscription for all of said clients’ needs. PCA is an advisory firm to high net worth individuals and trusts, which ACM managed. ACM utilized Wells Fargo, Bank of New York and HSBC as clearinghouses for its trading system. The Product Owner worked with the CEO’s and CIO’s of Askox, Pioneer, and its clients & vendors to reduce the original 5 software suites and 2 middle-wares down to 2 software suites, resulting in a 26% reduction in their annual IT budget, increased speed of client acquisition and communication between financial institutions, centralized reporting simplified external audit tracking, and allowed the firm to add day trading to its product offering because of increased & accelerated computing capacity. This reduction in software also allowed for added storage on the client’s mainframes, therefore eliminating the need for Cloud storage; thereby mitigating the risk of privacy regulation violations. This project utilized Version One, Skype, and Excel for tracking, communication and reporting tools.

Scrum Master for Pulte Homes implementation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM for their 1000+ member home sales team. Main Street Bank/BB&T, Atlanta, GA 2005 - 2008

Product Owner

Managed a $171MM loan portfolio with <7% late payments and/or defaults.

Sales Mentor for BB&T University Graduates in Atlanta

Trainer for New C&I Lenders on Moody’s Credit Analysis

Exceeded client profitability goals by 53%, with an average ROE per client of 23%

Portfolio possessed 100% concentration of 5+ services per client households.

Product Owner (Agile/Scrum) for data Integration of commercial and multifamily loan portfolio ($800MM) during the Main Street Bank/BB&T Merger. Product Owner worked with a team of 8 SME’s who coordinated with the CIO of BB&T and VP of IT at Main Street bank to ensure the client data housed on the more advanced Jack Henry Silverlake System transferred in whole to the client files on BB&T’s somewhat antiquated web-based client management software. Main Street utilized one centralized software for all client needs, while BB&T has three software systems to manage client financials, customer data, and loan processing. The normal data conversion methods were unable to parse the data accurately, which resulted in incomplete data files on each three systems. The Product Owner eliminated the need for manually updating of 13k+ client files, by working with the Vendors and IT teams at each bank to develop/customize a temporary middleware to transfer the client data from Main Street’s system, in whole, to each of the 3 BB&T systems. This only required the additional acquisition of server memory for each system, but eliminated the extending time delays and costs manual information transfer would have added to the already tenuous process of the bank acquisition.

Guardian Savings Bank/Encore Bank/Flag Bank, Atlanta, GA 2001 - 2005 Agile Project Manager

Product Owner (Agile/Scrum) data migration of commercial and residential loan portfolio during the Encore Bank/Flag Bank Acquisition. Oversaw the transition of the client loan portfolio from Encore Bank to Flag Bank. This project required the purchase and implementation of a temporary middle ware to allow the banks systems to communicate while still doing business and ensure the proper posting of payments and calculation of interest during the 90 day merger process.

Increased the Atlanta Region’s Business Portfolio from $0 to $180mm loans and deposits.

Agile Business Analyst/Subject Matter Expert for new platform software development. Flag Bank purchased and developed a new client management system, which eliminated 2 predecessors. The system was a Jack Henry Silverlake system, which the BA worked with previously, therefore becoming the in-house SME for the product and performed UAT testing and all end user training.

Recruited, Trained and Managed a team of Account Managers. (Team of 15+)

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