Scrum Master Software Development

Sai Kiran Surugu

***.*********@*****.*** +1-919-***-****

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY:

A certified Scrum Master with about 11 years of experience in understanding and building complex systems, focusing relentlessly on removing impediments from teams and delivering customer- centric products and features

Served as a Scrum Master for software development teams, playing a crucial role in ensuring that the software development process is efficient, collaborative, and focused on delivering value to both the organization and end users

Led and worked closely with multiple scrum teams across technology, business and design. Has expertise in communicating effectively with all levels of stakeholders, clients, customer and leadership teams

Acted as a coach for multiple agile scrum teams, ensuring effective use and practice of agile framework which improved the team’s velocity in accomplishing the deliverables

Managed core agile ceremonies in team environments like Sprint Planning, Daily stand ups, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospectives. Also participated in PI planning sessions, grooming sessions to help team understand the backlog list

Coordinated and collaborated with product owners to maintain the product backlogs and grooming the requirements

Ensured risks, impediments and blockers were identified, communicated and resolved

Conducted System ART Demo’s for the product developed by teams and also kept track of simultaneous project milestones using tactical approaches, established practices and strategic plans focused on production, schedule and budget objectives

Created and tracked the status of the tasks on Jira to maintain transparency

Effectively used the Retrospective sessions to help team showcase the best practices and lessons learnt to implement them in upcoming PI’s

Implemented an agile metrics program to measure and improve team performance by using the dashboard facility on Azure with Burn down charts, Teams velocity chart, Planned Vs Disruptive work etc

Created and shared weekly and monthly reports with business stakeholders on the progress of user stories, best opportunities identified, solution approaches and decision making

Generated standard and custom reports in Power BI summarizing business and financial data, and provided technical support for existing reports, dashboards or other tools

Experienced in Systems Testing, Integration Testing, User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and Training, Documentation and implementation in a business environment

Strong knowledge of Scrum practices such as Sprint planning, Backlog grooming, Daily scrum, Sprint review, Sprint Retrospective, Velocity, Estimation

Familiarity with the use of Rally, JIRA and other Agile tools

Experience in working with end users and the QA team for developing test cases and test plans

Assist Product Owner in writing user stories, prioritize Product Backlog Items (PBI)

Facilitate meeting between Scrum team, product Owner

Support team by removing impediments, identify scrum best practices and tools needed

Support product owner by addressing issues, and as well protecting the team from external influence

Act as a servant leader to ensure team is functioning

SKILL SET AND TOOLS:

Agile Frameworks

SAFe, Scrum, Kanban

Tools

Azure, JIRA, APPTIO, Service Now, MS Office(Outlook, Visio, Excel, PPT, Word and OneNote), PowerBI, SQL

Certifications

Professional Scrum Master II, Six Sigma – White Belt

Competencies

Agile Ceremonies like Daily Stand ups, Sprint Planning, Sprint review, Sprint retrospective; Definition of Done, Acceptance Criteria, User Acceptance Testing; Product and Sprint Backlog; PI Planning, Project Management, Change Management, Stakeholder Management, SDLC, Self-Starter, Business Requirements, Team building

Domains

Banking, Insurance and Investment Management; Telecommunications; and Retail

Research Tools

Factiva, Gartner, Forrester, D&B Hoovers, Thomson One, EMIS, IBIS World, EIU, Computer Economics

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

MetLife, Cary, NC Jan 2022 – Till Date

Scrum Master

Responsibilities:

Working in SAFe curriculum and served as a Scrum master for 4 software development teams consisting of 20 members, led core agile ceremonies like Daily stand-ups, Sprint planning, Sprint review and Sprint retrospectives’

Ensure 100% scrum activities were tracked, kept up-to-date and reported

Facilitate discussion, decision making and conflict resolution across 4 cross-functional software development teams

Assist the scrum teams to see an increase of 20% in their velocity by working on the impediments that hamper the progress

Coach 30+ resources on Agile methodologies and mentored them to improve and enhance the deliveries

Foster collaboration among cross-functional members of the software development team, including software developers, testers, UI/UX designers, and product owners

Manage and report team metrics like Velocity, Burn Down, reliability etc. with 12 stakeholders to review and enhance the performance on Sprint basis

Oversee and participate in testing activities, ensuring that the software product is thoroughly tested for functionality, security, and performance

Work with the development team to identify and address technical debt, ensuring that the software product remains maintainable and scalable over time

Promote a culture of continuous improvement within the development team by facilitating Sprint Retrospectives, where the team reflects on their work and identifies areas for enhancement leading to an 15% increase in their productivity and 10% reduction in project risks

Contribute in the development and implementation of comprehensive communication and training resources and plans

Work on Azure Dashboard for user story creation, tracking work, reporting, retrospective

Work closely with cross-functional software development teams to help understand the backlog list, create user stories for priority features and track them on Azure Dashboard

Represent the team at the Scrum of Scrums (SoS) meeting to report progress, and discuss about dependencies flagged and reach the targets for committed stories with their support

Assist the Scrum teams in finalizing Sprint backlog items during the planning, and communicate the same with Release Train Engineer or Senior Management and other stakeholders for upcoming Sprint

Help maintain customer satisfaction and productivity metrics

Use ServiceNow tool for operational work and integration of release management activity for any deployments

Deloitte, New York, NY Sep 2016 – Jan 2022

Scrum Master & Product Owner

Responsibilities:

Supported 7cross functional scrum teams by facilitating the daily stand up’s and removing impediments, and coordinated with Product Owners and stakeholders on backlog list prioritization

Facilitated Sprint planning and Sprint review sessions to help team understand the backlog list, create user stories, story pointing and reach the committed objective

Identified and removed obstacles or impediments that hinder the progress of the development team. Collaborate with relevant stakeholders to address issues effectively

Created and tracked the status of the tasks on Jira to maintain transparency

Tracked and maintained the velocity metrics, burn down charts, Planned Vs Disruptive work data etc.

Conducted System ART Demo’s for the product developed by teams and also kept track of simultaneous project milestones using tactical approaches, established practices and strategic plans focused on production, schedule and budget objectives

Ensured that appropriate documentation, including user stories, technical specifications, and design documents, is maintained to support development efforts

Participated in PI planning and Backlog grooming sessions

Managed projects and served as primary liaison between client and multiple internal groups to clarify goals, and meet standards and deadlines

Guided the development team by defining the vision, value and context of “why” behind product capabilities/features and help to plan “how” to best deliver them; and coordinated with product manager on roadmap management and release planning

Worked with the product manager and business SMEs to assemble detailed requirements, support functional feature discovery efforts, analyze business processes and define integrated solution requirements

Created user stories and acceptance criteria, and prioritized stories with focus on maximizing the business value and that align with product strategy

Developed and maintained platform-specific documentation comprising of operations manuals, engagement model and training material or collateral etc.

Identified and analyzed user requirements, procedures and processes to develop optimization strategies and collaborated with stakeholders to define features, integrations and partnerships

Created dashboards on Power BI to track key performance indicators and monitor progress against the goals

Worked Identified, assessed, and managed risks associated with proposed changes, and collaborated in the development of risk mitigation plans to minimize potential disruptions

Analyzed key aspects of business to evaluate factors driving results and summarized into presentations

Monitored competitive landscape to develop knowledge of prevailing trends, financials and operating drive across multiple industry segments

Cigniti Technologies, Hyderabad, India Dec 2012 – Aug 2016

Business Analyst

Responsibilities:

Played an important role in bridging the gap between business needs and technical solutions within the organization, by understanding business processes, identifying opportunities for improvement, and defining requirements for software systems or process changes

Collaborated with stakeholders, including business users, clients, and project teams, to gather and document requirements and objectives by conducting interviews, workshops and surveys

Created and maintained comprehensive documentation of business requirements, including use cases, process flows, data dictionaries, and functional specifications

Facilitated communication between business stakeholders and technical teams in an effort to ensure all parties have a shared understanding of project goals and requirements

Worked Identified, assessed, and managed risks associated with proposed changes, and collaborated in the development of risk mitigation plans to minimize potential disruptions

Developed diverse reporting packages to meet the individual needs of product management, leadership and marketing teams

Collaborated with UX designers to ensure that user interfaces and experiences meet user expectations and are aligned with business requirements

Defined acceptance criteria and conducted acceptance testing to ensure that the final solution met specified requirements and is of high quality

Monitored the performance of processes and systems, and gather feedback for future enhancements to support continuous improvement initiatives

Created visual representations of current and future business processes using techniques like process maps, workflow diagrams, and swimlane diagrams

Conducted the costs and benefits analysis associated with proposed solutions and provided inputs for decision-making

Collaborated with project managers to support project planning, scheduling, resource allocation, and overall project management activities

Developed and maintained a deep understanding of the industry or domain in which the organization operates (e.g., finance, healthcare, e-commerce) to provide relevant insights

EDUCATION:

Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (Equivalent to MBA) in Marketing & Operations

Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering

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